SIT Canberra 2012 – the first bit

Posts about Sew It Together 2012 are starting to pop up everywhere.  I thought that I had better do one too.

I flew to Sydney on last Thursday afternoon.  Me and the family had just arrived home only 24hrs earlier after spending 12 days in New Zealand.  It was all go go go.

Once I got to Sydney and to Sheridans house – she got me crafting straight away.  She had all of the supplies ready for me to do my centre block for the handstitched class.  I am so very grateful as I now have it done and won’t fall behind.

We drove to Canberra that night and stayed at the lovely Kellie’s house.

The next day we checked into the Crowne Plaza  and the rest of the troops arrived.   The only thing on the agenda that afternoon was the shopping trip.  We all piled on a bus and the first stop was to Addicted to Fabric.  I have to say that I was pretty impressed by this shop.  They had a very good selection of dress and quilting fabrics.  I fell in love with lots of (the same) fabric for jackets, this quilt

and this fabric. BTW do you know what it is?

I bought none of it but am still coveting it all.

The next stop was Bison.  Their stoneware ceramics were just gorgeous.  And the colour palate they have is divine.

I bought a two milk jugs and a dish.  Really just for when Susie pops over for tea. (The bigger blue milk jug is for me – I like my tea strong and  milky!)  They go with the tea mugs that Sheridan bought me last year.

Bronwyn looked like she was mothering some eggs with her milk jugs.

The last stop was shop handmade.  We had a few macaroons (only 3!) and a few glasses of bubbly.

We spent some cash and did a lot of chatting.  It was a fantastic little group and we had a lovely afternoon.  It was great to catch up with “old” friends that I read about online and chat to on Facebook!

Even one that lives down the road that I don’t get to see that often!

I bought a few things but my favourite purchase was some beautiful beads from six in a row.

So that was my first day of SIT Canberra 2012 ….. more to come soon!

Sorbetto x 2

The weather has finally turned cool – not cold (remember this is Queensland!) But is now officially jeans weather.  It is cool enough to wear a pair of jeans all day but still warm enough to wear a short sleeve shirt.

My wardrobe was distinctly lacking any nice cotton short sleeve shirts.  I did a quick search through the virtual fabric bolts at Fresh Fabrics Australia (etsy) and came up with 2 fabrics.  These Joel and Denyse prints both had some yellow which would go nicely with my new favourite mix yellow cardi that I got at Coles.

I ordered 1.5m of each and within a day of them arriving they were sorbettos.

Love them.

I hate changing the cotton on my machine

I have had a stack of little things that I wanted to make, fix or do. The main reason that I put these things off is that I hate changing the cotton colour in my sewing machine. Even worse is changing the cotton in my overlocker.

I have come up with a strategy for the overlocker now. I tie a knot from the base of the old cotton (on the spool) to the new colour. Then I pull the new colour through the machine. This works fine until I get to the eyes of the needles.

So last week I changed the thread from white to black to white on the overlocker and got these projects done.

I made the little girl two new nighties. She loves these. Well the pink floral one not so much because it doesn’t touch the floor.

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Other little projects that I wanted to make we’re these earphone cases (tutorial by dog under my desk)

and these headbands that Susie showed me by Happy Together.

Other things that I got around to was modifying this shirt for a friend to a singlet.

I also played with some more lace and turned this mission maxi singlet that I made ages ago into a slip of sorts.

I got the idea from this extender slip (by icandy handmade) that I saw on pinterst.

It will be perfect to wear under this “lab” coat I made. (that is a whole other post)

So now that I have got all of that stuff done, hopefully the cotton on the overlocker and sewing machine can stay the same colour for a little while.

 

Maxi wrap – Butterick 5486

I got this pattern because I wanted to Make this Look.

If you haven’t come across Mena’s (from Sew Weekly) collection of Make this Look it is well worth a browse.

When the pattern arrived I saw that it had a maxi version with a wrap front.  I had a look at a few reviews of it on pattern review and thought it was worth a go.  It turned out really really well.

The plan was to do it in a nice drapey knit fabric.  But then I came across this crepe/chiffon stuff at spotlight on the bargain table for $2/m.

Because the fabric is see through I had to add a lining to the whole dress.  The pattern has just the top lined so it really wasn’t a stretch to add it to the skirt.

The wrap around top is not part of the foundation of the dress.  It is kind of just added on to the front.  But is is so very effective.  And because you know that the drapey bit is on top of the dress, there are no concerns of it slipping and being too revealing.

The only modification I made was to reduce the amount of fabric in the skirt by almost half.  I did this because I read a post on Styling You (about finding a Maxi dress that flatters) that said you should avoid dresses “billowing with meters of fabric”.  It turned out perfect.  Though to enable walking I needed to add a back slit to both the dress and the lining.

the goals for 2012

The next prompt from fitmumma was goals and aspirations.

(It is a bit messy, but it does look better IRL)

Mine are fairly straightforward.  Basically keep going and don’t fall off the wagon.

I have mentioned before that my goal is to complete 10 events this year.  I find that having an event like a race looming is a really great motivation for me.

I did the resolution run with Susie on Sunday.  It was 11km (2 laps city to southbank) and it was quite hot.  We run really well together. It was our best time and we finished strong.  The run for me was more about keeping up my running over the Christmas period than the actual race.

So that is one down! For the rest of them the majority will be 10km runs but not all events are offering that distance.

So far I have decided that I want to do

Jan – Resolution Run

24 Feb – Brisbane City Raid

18 Mar – Brisbane Twilight Run (10km)

6 May – Noosa Winter Festival (10km)

27 May – Hawaii Hibiscus Half Marathon (5 miler)

30 June – Gold Coast Marathon (10km)

15 July – Jetty to Jetty (10km)

5 Aug – Brisbane Marathon (10km)

Sept – Bridge to Brisbane

Nov – Inaugural Currumbin Classic (10km)

But there is also the City to Surf (12 Aug), Sydney marathon (16 Sep) and Melbourne Marathon (Oct) to consider if I can convince Hubby that we need a weekend away.

If I can’t get out of my shifts to do any of these events the plan is to substitute it with a city run with Susie.  We would probably try and do the Resolution Run course again to see if we can  improve our time.

busy days 5 and 6 in canberra

We have spent the last two days seeing some of the sights in Canberra. One of the reasons that we decided to head down this way was for the huge number of things that are here to do with the kids.

First thing, I got up nice and early and I went for a run in the morning around Lake Burleigh Griffen. 10km, yes!

When I came back we headed to the bus depot markets where I picked up a skein of some beautiful handspun yarn from spinnknit.

From there we went to Cockington Green and Gold Creek. The little girl loved the little houses of cokington green and the boys were fascinated by the trains.

We had lunch at gold creek and then to Adore Tea. I have been ordering my teas from here online. It was a real treat to see (taste and smell) all of the teas.

After lunch we went accross the road to the dinosaur museum.  It is quite small but the exhibits are quite good.  They gave the kids some work sheets that were laminated and a dry erase pen to write with.  Just the small tasks made them more interested in the displays.

Then today we went to the city for some pancakes and shopping. We got a few things for upcoming fathers day and I got to go to Shop Handmade.

I was totally overwhelmed by so many beautiful handmade things. I wish I could have stayed longer. Hubby did give me a bit of extra time by amusing the kids outside. I bought a hairclip ,a fabric covered notebook and some beautiful earings. (The earings didn’t have any more details on them than the monogram on the box.)

I was also taken by mainichi necklaces and fabric florist pins and brooches. Maybe if I get a chance I might head back to have another look (read buy them).

From the city we went up to black mountain

and then to the War Memorial.

Now it is time to sit back and have a little relax with a beautiful cup of tea.

Thanks for the quick response, I made a green one

Sheridan is more than capable of making her own green one.  I only had an 18″ square of the Lara Cameron rooftops fabric which I got from our visit to ink and spindle on SIT 2010 Melbourne.

It was one of those pieces of fabric that was to be saved for something special – but it is only special if it is being used.  This sleeve will be used daily.

I took my inspiration from The Cottage Home tutorial that uses fleece for the lining.  I had every intention of using quilt batting and those cotton lining fabrics – but couldn’t be stuffed.  An hours work and it was done.

Oh and I am also going to get one of those smart feather cases that Cass suggested. They look awesome.  And great for when my ipad is not in its sleeve.

 

Edited to add – sorry I was trying to be clever and use my mobile me gallery for the photos – it obviously didn’t work!!

 

 

 

 

Polly Pratt

At SIT I met Anna from Polly Pratt.  She is an awesome lady and overly generous.  She was selling her wares at extremely reasonable prices.

I bought one of her shirts (just before Karen had the chance – and yes Karen I did have to buy a new bra!).  I wore it to my sister’s 10th wedding anniversary party.

BTW my sister is the one on the left.

I was also lucky enough to get one of Anna’s dresses in the SIT prize draw.

I tell you what;  Anna is a legend, these dresses are amazing.  They are so comfortable and suit so many different sized women.  I have worn mine numerous times and I always seem to get a compliment from a stranger.

I have been looking at other dress patterns for something just as nice and simple, but a little retro/vintage.  I like the higher waist and fuller skirt.  Lottielulu blogged about a few retro/vintage inspired finds and I am very envious of the tea dress.

Mena from The Sew Weekly made this simple burdastyle dress in black and I think that it has a lot of potential too.

Craft Junk on craftumi

I have just set up a shop on Craftumi.  Craftumi is the craft supply side of Made it.

I have listed a few knitting needle and crochet hook sets with needle rolls.

I thought that they might make good Christmas gifts for a newbie.

I have also listed some sets of bamboo circular needles – dirt cheap ($25 for 17 circs).

While you are in the shopping mood, check out Zucchini Girl.  I work with Sue and she also crafts on the side to keep her sanity.  She makes the most amazing handbags and sells them on Made it.  She also has some gift bags, aprons, and makeup bags listed.

I know when she is at work because when I walk past the pigeon holes, I always spy an amazing creation of hers standing out from the drab handbags and back packs.

dining room decals

Another decorating post – back to the dining room.

I have always wanted to get some wall decals.  I had some in my kids rooms at the last house, but they were very big and clumsy looking.

I wanted something special for the dining room wall.  You can see this wall as soon as you walk down the back of the house and it is visible from the lounge room as well.

On esty their are lots of sellers and hundreds of decal options.  I debated about designs and ended up going with Chuck E Byrd Wall Art and some birdcages.

Cool hey?