Where did 2011 go?

They say time flies when you're having fun, and I've obviously had a lot of fun this year as 2011 has absolutely rocketed by.

I know I sew a lot, but I do feel that I don't complete a lot of items, therefore I find it interesting to see what I have achieved at the end of each year, and it was:

7 x Tops
2 x Pants
2 x Skirts
2 x UFO's
1 x Cardigan
1 x Jeans
1 x Hand knitted garment
5 x Jewellery pieces
3 x Craft

Patterns used:

BWOF - 2
Simplicity - 3
Vogue - 2
Jalie - 1
Marfy - 1
Kwik.Sew - 2
Self Drafted - 2

Favourite Garment

Even though they have only just been finished, I have to say it is the Jalie Jeans. The fact that I have got such a great fit is the reason I sew and I'm so glad that I do.

The other is Kwik.Sew 3740, this is such a great fitting pattern for me, even though I only made 2 tops this year from this pattern they have been worn constantly and I plan on making some short sleeve/no sleeve versions for summer with this pattern.

Highlights

• Attending the Sewing & Stitchery Expo in Puyallup, USA with my two sewing buddies Alison and Maria.
• Spending a weekend with my Mum and Sister sewing at Bribie Island.
• Another sewing weekend with my sewing buddies at North Ryde.
  
• Organising the Pattern Review get together here in Sydney and meeting a group of wonderful ladies.

2011 Sewing Goals - How did I go?

• Complete 1 garment a month - I'm still working on this, with all the sewing days I have it is a mystery to me why this doesn't happen.  However with a total of 24 pieces I must have had some very productive months :)
  
• Complete at least one competition either at Stitchers Guild or Pattern Review - This just didn't happen.

2012 Sewing Goals

• Complete 1 garment a month, I would really like to start/finish a garment a month.
• Complete at least one competition either at Stitchers Guild or Pattern Review.
• Play with the binders for my Coverstitch machine and get comfortable using them.

And finally, a collage of the pieces I made in 2011.

There are a couple more UFO's to complete and hopefully I will be able to share them with you soon.

Happy New Year and thank you for stopping by.

Twas the week before Christmas

and I decided to make some Christmas presents.

Luckily they were all very quick to make and I had some great tutorials to follow to achieve this.

We have 5 nieces and nephews between us that we give gift vouchers to each year and after seeing this great Gift Card Holder Tutorial by Shabby Art Boutique I thought I would use it this year.

My first problem is there are 3 young men amongst the above and I don't imagine they would be too thrilled with the very pretty holders that are shown in the tutorial. Luckily Kerryanne emailed me and suggested checking out the op shop for some "manly" options, where I found these very appropriate board shorts. for $3.

Once home I proceeded to cut them up for the men, as well as rummaging through my bag of scraps to find the more colourful pieces to use for the ladies, I found the cute Christmas figures at Spotlight for $2. I am very pleased with the end result.

Next up was 2 sets of 12 Christmas Tree Napkins that Kathryn made back in 2010 for my Mum and Sister-In-Law as we spend Christmas day with both of them (1/2 hour apart) each year.

Finally a necklace for my Mum using the colours of the fabric she purchased whilst in Bowral this year, and my Sister volunteered to make it into a skirt for Mum.

Now back to some sewing for me.

Minoru Jacket

I'm starting to notice that January seems to be the month that Sew-Along's commence and yes I have signed up for another one.

This time I am going to point the finger at Tessuti because when they reviewed Julia and Minoru on their blog, I just had to have this jacket pattern (and so did 2 of my real life sewing buddies), as I really like the shape because most jackets make me look like a box and with the wet weather we have been having a lighter jacket than the gortex one I wear when walking Roscoe will be a nice change.

Tasia the creator of the Minoru Jacket is having a Sew-Along commencing on 16 January and finishing around 20 February 2012.  You can find out more about the Sew-Along by clicking on the badge on the side bar.

The pattern was ordered and it has arrived.

I have traced off the pattern and plan on making a toile, as these patterns are drafted for the "pear" figure.

I have some navy ripstop in the stash intending to make a jacket so I just need to find some lining.  I also fell in love with Julia's metal zippers so I have been checking out ZipperStop as I need a 71cm separating zip and 45cm closed-end zip for this jacket and of course they have to be navy and have metal teeth.  Fingers crossed the order arrives before we get up to that stage with the Sew-Along. 

I'm estatic ...

I've got jeans that fit, no back gaposis, YES!!

After being worn all day

 I have joined the ever increasing number of ladies who are loving the Jalie Stretch Jeans pattern 2908.

Over at PatternReview.com they had an online course back in August "Blue Prints to Blue Jeans" by Jennifer Stern, J. Stern Designs, this is just what I needed to get me organised to make up the Jalie Jeans pattern that has been in my stash for a while. 

The amount of information that Jennifer has available for the course is amazing and her knowledge and willingness to assist with fitting issue to the course attendees on line was incredible.

One of my sewing buddies from Alexandria Achievers was also doing the course and as I was away she offered to find some "toile" denim for us both and found these amazing remnants of white stretch denim from the Remnant Warehouse for both of us.

I had these cut out in Size R when we had our "fitting session" with Angie Zimmerman back in August, so I took along my coverstitch machine and used the chain stitch to whip these up so Angie could fine tune them for me.

The adjustments that Angie made were minor:
-  take 1.5cm from the top of the back yoke back to the original pattern at the centre back notch (with the pattern pieces pinned together on the stitching lines)
- deepen the back crotch curve

 and then the back waistband looks like this

I also took 1cm off the width from the hem to the knee on both sides of the front and back patterns.

Note:  I used 1.5cm seam allowances as I didn't' read the instructions !!

It then took me to November to stitch these up when I packed them up to attend the ASG Bribie Island Sewing Retreat with my DM for my DS's special birthday (how perfect time with family and sewing).

They didn't get finished at the weekend but at the ASG meeting at Rhodes a week later they were all but finished.  Hems done and dropped them into Mick's for the buttonhole and rivets and here they are at the end of a days wear.

Here is the pocket design which I copied the idea from the review that susiestitcher has on PatternReview.com















You will definitely be seeing more of the Jalie 2908 Jeans in the future, as well as the rascal below!!

Dressmaking with Stitches - Volume 19

I've finally caught up, here is the Index for Volume 19 for Dressmaking with Stitches (formerly Australian Stitches), please take a copy if you want.

I have also sent a copy to Lynn Cook, Editor of Dressmaking with Stitches.

Enjoy

At last they are finished ...

Finally, the reveal from our sewing weekend that I hinted at back here. Hemming is one of those jobs that I just can't get motivated to do.

The top is Kwik.Sew 3740 without the cowl in the chartreuse/grey/ink navy knit fabric. I am really liking this pattern as a basic T-Shirt and the only adjustment I made to this pattern was to raise the neck edge by 5cm (2") and take it back to the original shoulder seam.

You have already seen this top worn during Self Stitched September here and here.

The pants are V7881 in a navy wool crepe which are fully lined and I finally finished the hems last night as today was forecast for 19 C (66 F) for the 5th day of summer, this is still a bit cool for light summer skirts so I thought I would see how I like the pants.

Pattern adjustments

Front:
- Add 0.5cm to side seam from end of curve back to nothing
- 1cm wedge in centre front taking back to nothing at side seams.
- raised the centre front crotch by 0.5cm

Back:
- reduce the back side leg by 1.5cm
- Deepen the crotch curve
- 0.5cm off inseam to below the notch on the pattern.

These adjustments were made in calico and I felt confident enough to cut out the wool crepe that I had to see how they would make up, also realising that they are very different fabrics which could give me very different results.

Here are the results. As you can see there is a lot of fabric in the front crotch area.

and the back isn't too bad, they fit very nicely for my sway back and besides that pleat of fabric I think the leg width is too wide for my frame.

I'm still working on the frustrating journey of pants fitting, do I try and get the excess out of these or go back to the drawing board, decisions, decisions.

Now Jeans are another matter .....