Events on the Horizon

The flower photos are from my bus stop... the roses continue to flower in this garden as these photos are from over 2 months! So nice to stop by on the way to work!

Yep, I have some events coming up, and I need new duds. It's getting close to CRUNCH time, but here's a few projects I've got on the go for March:

1. Dress for Haley's Wedding 10th March
2. 1 or 2 Sew Weekly Themes (I'd love to join in already this year!)
3. A pleated or gathered cropped dress x2 (for work)
4. A shirt for Husbie as a thank you for his photos last year
5. A Sew Along! YEP! I'll reveal more soon!
6. Outfit for Wedding Work x2 (practical outfits, that look nice & neat with flats, as we'll be working)
7. Finish Baby Quilt - Patchwork
8. Finish Baby Quilt - Crochet (might take longer than March)

That's enough for now! I'm going to also make these 'things' part of my '100 Things' but I need to make myself a happy logo before I can lock in these 'things'. Maybe this weekend?

Hope you're having a good week! xoxo

Have I made a quilt before?

 I don't think I have?

Using mostly left over fabrics, in shades of yellow and green, I've come up with this one... It's a little wonky, but I'm sure most n00bs quilties make wonky ones? RIGHT?

(I just looked in my archives, and I've started a patchwork quilt maybe last year... Please don't ask me where that is. It might be in a packing box somewhere that's yet to be unpacked)

After my massive crochet quilt, and how long it took I thought sewing bits of existing fabric could be easier. Much easier, right? It's time consuming (cutting and sewing) but is still coming together much quicker than a crochet blankie!

My iphone photos don't make it that pretty either, eep! I'll finish it (one day) and get better snaps!

How quickly the weeks are flying by! It feels like just yesterday I wrote my last post, but it was last Monday! YIKES. I've made another dress, and yet to photograph both that and my other blue dress. And this week, I've got a big list starting of things I have to make by March (and it's like March this week.) SHEEEEEET!



New Life Everywhere

I'm starting a lot of things and noticing new life everywhere. Gotta love New Beginnings and the positiveness it shares. 

We visited the country to meet with Doris Day the Dog, before we got her, and the 2 and a half hour car trip looked completely daunting without crochet in my hands. I'm starting a smaller project than the bedspread/couch cover (which took a year!), just a baby blankie for all the newborns over summer (there's at least 2 spesh kids I'd like to make things for!). 

The garden also decided to have some New Beginnings and the beans just grew themselves! I merely provided them an occasionally water (I'm an official Lazy Gardener - had to dig out the azalias because they died - EEP) and they grew these! Yum!

But Doris Day... another new life in ours. She's not allowed in the bedroom or the office (expensive computer gear of Husbie's does not need to be chewed!) so is very polite and just waits at the door. Too cute.

Meet Doris Day!

We have a new friend in the Darling Household! She's Doris Day the Dog! So much alliteration!

Doris is a Staffy cross, was found wandering without a microchip, tags or collar in a country town and was probably in the pound and the shelter for close to two months, where no one claimed her, called for her and it just breaks my heart because she was obviously well loved at some point... she has a really sweet temperament!

The dog shelter peeps and their vet pinned her at around 2 years old, and she does have a puppy floppiness to her at times... however they reckon she's fully grown and she's a small dog now! She's not as stocky as most Staffies and I reckon she's got Jack Russell heritage as well.

So far she's settled into our new home ok, and we'll just have to see what funny things she gets up to! Let's hope the puppy 'chewing my shoes' stage has passed! I've set up some house rules, and the bedroom (and the shoe closet) is off limits... our last dog was tooooo cute and slept in our bed... but new dog, new rules and luckily she's taken to the Charlie Brown Dog Bed and loves it!

Oh! And her name? She was named Doris by the lovely dog shelter peeps (because they didn't know her first name), and we thought about it... and couldn't change it. She's probably got an identity crisis as it is, so we just made her Doris Day as what a lovely animal loving woman she is!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend!

P.S. I'm going to start replying to your comments in the blog thread - I noticed Blogger finally set this up, that's why I changed back to the old template... so I'll tweak my blog settings a bit... but do you know if I reply to you in the comments, if you get a notification about it? Or do you have to come back here to see if I've written back! Wish I had a bit more time to update to my own domain name, I've just been so busy!

xoxo

Dog Bed for a New Friend

Last year, Husbie and I went through so many ups and downs, and the saddest part being when our darling dog passed away. We've been looking to the future, appreciating our time with her, and together... and setting up new beginnings for 2012. How lovely is twentytwelve already? New Beginnings indeed.

A lot of our doggie loving friends were so supportive and lovely, and many suggested we get a new dog straight away... not to replace her memory, but to be the dog people we are, and share our love with the animals. (I'm sounding completely hippy dippy here, SO SORRY, but you know what I mean!? Getting a new dog is all about that New Beginnings vibe)

SO! We looked around a bit, our friend with two dogs came close to leaving one with us. A shelter dog came around to visit. And I looked over some foster dog care websites. Husbie visited a really scared (and scarred) Staffy who didn't really respond to him... but it was my MUM reading the local paper who spotted our new friend.

Before she arrives, I got crafting!

The bed is made up of these scraps:

Do you find, because you sew, people give you a lot of their old clothing *just in case* you can do something with it? I get a bit here and there, plus I have clothing that I have made (like the orange flower dress above) that have torn or become worn... I cut up lots of large sections and sewed through these layers (for the base), and then made a long tube and stuffed it with heaps of leftover scraps (for the sides of the bed)...

Then I just made a big slip of this darling Charlie Brown bedsheet, and voila, a dog bed.

I love this saying:

And we're looking forward to welcoming our new friend to our gang. Bless!

Getting comfy in Jersey

This week I have been on the lookout for comfy, soft clothing, because I don't really wear casual clothing like jeans or tracksuits, but I love the stretch knit dresses from Built By Wendy's Sew U: Stretch Book. I got this fabric last week at the Clegs sale (I tried to get to the Fabric Store for their sale, but they close at 4pm on Saturdays, and we got there right on 4.01pm) in the city. Usually I don't buy new fabric (yep, you've heard it all before) but I really wanted grey soft jersey and this high quality fabric was only $9 a metre, and I forgot to look what it was originally, but I think at least $20. (Still in shock that something is over $10 a metre in price).

I had attempted to get to Tessuti to see you Nikki, but didn't finish work in time for your closing time. Clegs had to do.

Nevertheless, this trackie dackie dress was zipped up (with help of the overlocker) in 1 hour and 30 minutes, and now so comfy and baggy to wear when I feel like relaxing. It's slightly bigger around my neckline that I'd anticipated, but still wearable. I made the McCalls's 12 (with the 34 bust - as I still have some Christmas Pudding around there) but it's a little big in sizing. I forget that my shoulders are slightly smaller than normal patterns as well.

I've decide to keep some of my dresses a bit longer than usual (the blue stripey dress I made for Laneway was cut across my calves, and it's so lovely to wear) just for something different... I like having some extra fabric around in the hot weather, instead of my usual cropped for summer (and showing off my pins) look. A little more sophisticated perhaps?

Sophisticated in soft jersey? What a contradiction! Well, my Saturday trakkie dack outfit is sorted nonetheless!

And to get back to my FACTS ala Sew Weekly style:

The Facts

Fabric: Jersey, new! 1/3 used so ~$9
Pattern: McCall's 3057 (with Sew U Stretch Skirt pieces)
Year: 1987
Notions: Nil
Time to complete: 1.5 hours
First worn: February 2012
Wear again? Yes!

Total Cost: ~$9

Stop the press guys (LOL): things are exciting for us this week... we've got a special guest star arriving soon... we haven't really been on the lookout, but My Mum found a perfect pet for us to adopt, and I've been sewing madly to make a new .... DOG BED. More news tomorrow! xoxo

Yes, I made a new dress!

Wow! It's now February, and I haven't really shown you ANYTHING crafty on my blog this year! Last year The Sew Weekly was my motivator, my total schedule with sewing and blogging... and whilst I haven't been forgetting my wonderful sewing skillz (I've made 3 dresses, and started 1 granny square blanket), it's the photographing and blogging part that's been less of a priority.

Anyways, after yesterday's 'quick photo shoot', where Husbie took only TWO photos of my jungle dress, I really have to set up my tripod again and work out how to self shoot. Husbie is VERY busy and declared "I don't do Sew Weekly this year!" DAMN! Oh well, at least I got a good year of photographs outta him. (I'm sure I'll sneak some more good photos from him this year, when he's less busy).

BUT, the dress!

It's a Home Journal Pattern 8915, that has no other date details other than saying it's Australian Home Journal Co. Kent Street Sydney (so I'm sure if I googled up I'd find an era when the pattern manufacturers were in Sydney) and this dress is a bit of a toile/muslin because the pattern is bust 36.

The fabric is a doona cover, that's quite feisty but I saved the 'hidden' yellow tiger sections for the back pieces of the dress, as I'm going to a jungle themed event next week. If Husbie had more time I would have taken more photos without my cardigan. BUT OH WELL! You'll have to imagine the little tiger hidden in the jungle.

In my resizing of the bodice, I've turned the style a little baby doll, so the pockets are a bit high. I also gathered out the skirt (adding a section in the middle when I cut pattern on the fold...) because I didn't want a pencil skirt in this fabric (nor did I want to put the back flap in, oh so lazy!). I finished it yesterday morning ready to wear, because I got my dates mixed up and thought the event was last night, but it's next Monday.

OH WELL AGAIN!

I thought this toile/muslin would be great for some thicker velveteen fabric but now I'm not so sure. I really wanna sew a few warmer woolier dresses, as it'll be cold here before you know it! We still have a few hotter days expected this week, so I might be jumping the gun!

Hope you're having a great week, and aren't too flabbergasted that I actually am posting something I've made! WHOA!

xoxo

Summer of Music

There have been so many bands touring this summer, and I've barely seen a handful! Sometimes I get a little overwhelmed with seeing so many live shows, but other times I get addicted to being out and about. My fave band The Drums are still in Australia for the Laneway Festival (Adelaide and Perth this week), and I got my fix, catching up with them three times. Hanging out with them for work was SO fun, but their two live shows were also great. I could seriously gush about these boys for ten years, they can do no wrong in my books!

Look how excited I am:

Stoked. Of course, I also made this blue stripey dress especially for Laneway (one has to wear a brand new dress, handmade no less, to new events) but this is the only photo I got of me wearing it! Outfit photography is the furtherest thing from my mind when The Drums are playing at a festival!

If you haven't been to the Laneway Festival, it's a bit of a 'tastemaker' festival showcasing bands you may not have heard of yet, but bands you'll love in coming years, and generally one of the most relaxed musicals an inner city could hope for. I've been to the Sydney and Melbourne ones over the past few years, and both are great! It was such a lovely day, moving between the stages, eating really nice foods (from the Beat Box Kitchen chips are sooooo yum) and seeing friends.

One fash I noticed was the headdress of flowers, this girl was a bit shy (but ok with me taking a photo of her flowers) but wearing a great headpiece:

I love it! xoxo

A Sydney Wedding

In Sydney, we also went to our friends' wedding. It was really beautiful and unique! Husbie and I got married in Sydney, on the Harbour on a Boat, so it's a special place always for us. Surprisingly, I didn't take many photos, as I was enjoying being with lovely friends, meeting nice people and hanging out. Even though you can see Husbie above waiting for the bridal couple to arrive, he only took a few photos as well, he wasn't working as *the* official photographer on the day.

Our present to the couple will be several portrait photographs, and also a few bride portraits from the day before, which included a Mehndi Ceremony where all the women gather like a Hen's with an Indian tradition, as the groom has an Indian background. It was such a great cross cultural wedding as well, with Irish and Pagan influences as well.

Sydney has been so humid, but not really the perfect summer with loads of rain and clouds. Luckily for their wedding day the sun came out for the ceremony and then when we were safely on the ferry again, heading to the reception it cooled off with the clouds.

Hope you're enjoying your weekend! After a music festival yesterday, I'm relaxing at home today. Can't wait to just hang out!