ASG Convention 2012

I really like looking at people's travel wardrobes, it gives me ideas and after reading Carolyn's travel wardrobe and the interest that was shown in the comments about looking at other people's travel wardrobes, I thought I would share what I took with me to Adelaide for the ASG Convention.

Time away:
7 days

Where to:
Adelaide

Season:
Spring one month in and looking at the weather forecasts it was still going to be cool with 24c being the warmest during the day.  The weather really turned it on for us, some nights as low as 6c and most of the days ended up being around 18c except for Wednesday and Thursday when temperatures reached 26c.


Activities:
Attending the Australian Sewing Guild Annual Convention, so there is a lot of walking to/from accommodation, classrooms, dining hall as well as a lot of stationery activity during the workshops.

On Wednesday we either had a tour of the fabric shops in Adelaide or a tour of the Adelaide Hills.

Colour scheme:
black, pale brown, chartreuse, grey and navy.

What I packed:  (each garment is linked to its original construction post - left to right; top to bottom)

brown/grey/black top;
Minoru jacket; worn every day
cream boat neck top;
chartreuse/grey/ink navy knit top
Shona vest;
black jeans;
salt and pepper skirt;
navy jeans;
grey cardigan;
black loafers;
taupe flats;
brown/green/cream abstract print top

Verdict

This wardrobe worked very well, I didn't feel as if I was in the same outfit as everything got worn at least two days each, except for the jeans they were worn for a total of 3 days each and the skirt for 2 days.

I mixed and matched the four tops with the jeans and skirt and the Shona vest went with both green mixed tops as well as the cream boat neck top and the grey cardigan went with all the tops and was a very handy layer under the Minoru jacket for the cold mornings and evenings. I also had a collection of jewellery that changed the look of the tops.  I'm glad I took two pairs of shoes as this let my feet wear a different pair/style each day.

I decided to go on the Fabric Tour to check out some of the fabric shops in the suburbs of Adelaide, however only one piece followed me home for a cardigan and two pieces of quilting cotton for another version of this bag for a very close friend who requested one for Christmas (who luckily doesn't read my blog).

Blue, caramel, cream, rust, brown sweater knit

Floral print for the exterior, dots for the interior - Spice of Life bag

Now to find time to take a photo of the finished Fractured Knit Cardi.

Leather Workshop - Convention 2012

Well I'm home again and what a fantastic week I had at the ASG Convention in Adelaide.

In my previous post I did tell you about the Fractured Knit Cardi workshop I was going to be doing, however I didn't mention the Luscious Leather Handbag 2 day workshop with Yvonne Twining.

My kit for this workshop was $48 for the small bag and that was for the leather and pigskin for the lining.

The class started with us choosing 3 or 4 types/colours of leather and Yvonne had so much gorgeous leather to choose from and what colour pigskin lining we wanted to use.  This is my leather choice, safe but perfect for me to use every day.

This is during construction showing the 3 leathers

By the end of the first day we had cut out the leather pieces, pigskin lining and had completed the sewing of the pigskin lining.

2 side zip pockets and an iPhone pocket

At the end of the 2nd day, all 9 of the workshop attendees had a finished bag and here is mine:

The 3 leathers on the front and the back is the plain leather

Not sure how I'm going to fix that wayward stitch :(

Internal view

I am thrilled with my new bag and it was an excellent learning experience for working with leather.

The Fractured Knit Cardi just needs a few more finishing touches.

Cardigan - BWOF 04-2010-117

This was supposed to a quick project and I have evidence of it its initial construction back in September 2011, not so quick!

My stumbling block came about when I tried to use my Coverstitch to stitch down the very thick seam allowance along the band edge due to the thicker cotton knit and interfacing I used, I ended up with a very thick seam here.  After spending quite a few hours trying to get the tension to work, it was then left for time out on my sewing table.

So the other weekend it was packed with this top and taken to my guild meeting.

When I was in the USA last year, I purchased a number of different sewing machine needles and I thought I would have a play with the Schmetz Drilling needle to see how it would work on this band.

I used two matching thread colours and a olive colour for the 3 threads and I am very happy with the way it has turned out.

I then used my Coverstitch with the triple needles to sew the hems.  Unfortunately the stitches disappeared into the fabric as it isn't interfaced, but you can still seem them just.

Last weekend was the first time I have been able to add the Snap Source Espresso size 16 Open Prong Ring Snap Fasteners.

For some reason I didn't do my usual adjustments to this pattern, and the only change I can see that I did do was to try and reduce the sleeve cap height.

This was a toile and after seeing these photos I can see I need to do more pattern adjustments e.g. reduce the shoulder length, do a better job of the sleeve cap height, add some width to the sleeves, they very snug with a long sleeve top underneath, and those pull lines?

I'm heading to the ASG Convention in Adelaide at the end of the month and have booked myself into the Fractured Knits Cardi workshop and I plan on using the Jalie 2566 cardigan, so it will be interesting to see the differences between the two cardigans.

I love cardigans but have found it difficult over the last few years to get them at the length and colour that I want them to be, so this is a pattern style that I really want to have as a TNT.

Cosmetic Bags

On Friday night I realised that I needed something to take to my ASG meeting the next morning and seeing I have so many garment ideas running around my head I have ended up with some paralysis as to what to cut out next.  This is when I spied this project that had been sitting on my sewing desk since earlier this year.

I purchased a kit for a Laminate Cotton sew-along thinking it would give me some practice for sewing my rain coat trench that is one of the garments on my sewing list.

I chose the Orchid Fiona Panel by Riley Blake Designs.  The kit was packed up so nicely with samples of the different cotton laminates, a Wonder Clip as well as the fusible Pellon, zips, cord and cord holder to make the 2 cosmetic bags and a sunglasses case.  I cut out all the pieces on Friday night and fused the Pellon to the cotton laminate - on the ironing board I had the Pellon face up, the laminate cotton on top and a muslin press cloth on top, iron on cotton and no steam and it worked perfectly.

I used a size 14 needle and a Teflon foot for my sewing machine and normal Gutterman thread for the construction.  All pressing was done with a dry iron on cotton setting and my muslin pressing cloth.

Here is the completed set:

The larger cosmetic bag showing the interior:

The smaller case showing the interior:

This was a good quick project and I am surprised at how well my travel sized bottles fit in them!

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There were a couple of questions on my last post about KS 3740.

shams - the neckline is the cowl from this pattern, it falls very softly in this fabric so is hard to see it in any detail.

mary - I do a round shoulder adjustment which moves the shoulder seam 1.5cm forward and when I lined up the sleeve head with this point the cap height of the sleeve is not in the correct place causing my sleeve to twist.  I normally place the sleeve cap notch 1.5cm behind the shoulder seam then the sleeve cap height is in the correct position and my sleeve doesn't twist.   I hope that makes sense.

At last ...

I managed to spend some quality time with my sewing machines on Saturday at my ASG Group, working on 2 UFO's that have been staring at me for a while now.

The first is another version of KS 3740, I love this pattern and when I purchased this fabric this was the pattern I had in mind for it.

This top was cut out and sewn back in May, but when I tried it on to find the hem length, I noticed the sleeves were twisted, so it has been languishing on my sewing table waiting for me to unpick the 4-thread overlocking I had used to sew the sleeves in.

So on Saturday the sleeves were re-sewn, and the hems levelled and coverstitched in place.

Now to add the finishing touches to my cardigan, back soon!

More Spice of Life

Over at PatternReview they have just held a 2 week contest challenge to make a handbag between 1 and 15 August.

Now when I showed Mum my version of this bag, I had a request for a black and white one for Christmas, but seeing it is Mum's birthday this month the opportunity to make her bag earlier was perfect timing.

Thankfully I had been on the lookout for black and white fabric ever since Mum had said she would like this bag and had purchased 2 fat quarters at the Craft and Quilt Fair at Darling Harbour in June.  I already had the Ghee's Tubular Frame from a joint order that I placed with Maria.

My main challenge was then to source some black fabric for the contrast for the bag and then remembered I had some black denim left over from the jeans I made.

This bag uses Matilda's Own Bag Batting which makes the bag quite stable by itself, however one of the requirements of the competition was that interfacing had to be used.

So I fused interfacing to the Sun Silky that I wanted to use for the lining to make it more durable,

As you can see I don't like a dark interior in bags, you just can't find anything.

This bag pattern goes together really well and surprisingly quickly.

I did use a Jeans 110 needle for all the denim sewing and it all went very smoothly as when you sew on the tubes for the frame you are sewing through some very thick layers.

This is the finished bag,

The zippered pocket with my label on it,

and for the other pocket I divided this for Mum's phone and a space for her to carry a  pen.

The bag was wrapped and posted to Mum last Wednesday and I was very surprised when I got a phone call on Thursday night from a very excited Mum to say that my parcel had arrived and she was absolutely thrilled with her bag.

I have entered this bag in the PatternReview challenge and my review is here for those interested.

My HotPatterns have arrived!!

I'm pretty sure that in all the excitement of Winning this years Stitcher's Guild 2012 SWAP I forgot to mention that the first prize was $100 worth of HotPatterns.

It did take me a while to select these and I have just received them (well after 3 weeks holiday) and here they are:

• Denim Diva Biker Babe Jacket
• Artful Dodger Virtue Dress
• Weekender Chilled-Out Sweat Suit
• Weekend It's a Wrap Top and Dress

• HP 1033 Plain & Simple Fitted T Redux
• Classix Nouveau Sportive Skirt Suit
• HP 1137 Riveria Summer Breeze Sleeveless Tops

This pattern line is completely new to me so I will be interested to see what changes I need to do for the fit I like.

With all the Spring/Summer fashions that are appearing at present, what will I make first the:

• Weekend It's A Wrap Dress, or
• Riveria Summer Breeze Sleeve Top with the tie front?

But first I need to finish up a couple of UFO's