Phew!

It's been a busy couple of weeks for me. First of all, there was my birthday. Now I won't mention the number but it ends with a 0 and I'm not particularly happy about it. I figured if I ignored it, it would go away. Well it didn't. Anyway...I went out to lunch with my friends and they got me this.

It's a drop-dead gorgeous Spencer & Rutherford bag which I took to the ASG Convention & also New Zealand. Yes, that's one of my girls in the background. I also had lunch with Sharon & Velosewer on the actual day and they gave me a gift voucher for The Fabric Store. Oh yummy! Thanks girls.

Anyway, onto the Convention. The three of us packed up Velo's car nice & tight (& let me tell you, there was no room left for anything!) and travelled down to Ballarat arriving just before dinner. Just in time for a pre-dinner drink in fact. Always good timing. :) I was quite tired and we had an early night after lugging our bags up stairs and settling in. I don't have a pic of my room which I have only just thought of. Poo.

First day for me was a class with Maree Pigdon, sewing a Rosie bag. I had it all cut out and ready to go beforehand (thank goodness) so managed to finish it on the day. It's quite big and I'm not sure I'd use it for travel but it would be good for ASG Industry Days where you need to pack a bit into your bag. LOL.

The fabric is 100% poly from Martin & Savage. I originally made a tunic top to wear at the Convention but it turned into a wadder. Since I had so much fabric left, I used it for the bag and also another class which you'll see in a minute.

This is a pic of the lining...it's a bit dark as it's rainy here today & hard to get a decent pic but you can see the 2 pockets inside. One is for a phone and the other a lippy.

Tuesday saw me out of my comfort zone, doing an arty farty class with Nola Sterling. It was called 3 Flaps on a Skirt but that's a bit confusing cos there's only 2 as far as I can see!  The idea was to use a skirt pattern with a yoke (Simp 9825 came in handy here) and one flap is attached at the waist and the other is attached below with hidden hooks & eyes. The detachable flap is embellished on one side and has fabric on the other. You'll never guess what fabric I used.

It's a bit hard to tell from the photo but the skirt isn't actually finished yet and the flaps are just pinned. I purchased a ball of wool on a whim and it turned out to be the best thing I got. We used a BabyLock embellishment machine and I loved it. I so want one of those! But they're a little out of my price range. Anyway, I embellished the heck out of my flap as you can see.

This is a view of the plain back of the flap.

There was a contest during the week too where you could embellish your room name tag. So I took the chance & used the embellisher. Love it. Oh & I won a prize for it. :)

Wednesday I wagged morning class and we went fabric shopping in Melbourne. Unfortunately I didn't buy any fabric but did score some fabulous hooks & eyes on tape from Jimmy's Buttons along with some bag hardware. Love a good bit of habby.

Thursday was a pants drafting class with Ronda Braybrook. This went well until we discovered that, after drafting the pattern using my knee measurement, that my calf is bigger than my knee and I couldn't get them on. Cr@p! A bit of adjustment is still required on these and I'm not sure if it's worth the effort. Although I may use my sloper next time I'm attempting to adjust a pants pattern for the crotch length etc.

Friday morning I did another class with Ronda. It was drawing your croquis using a digital pic of yourself. Well, it wasn't pretty. I'm not sure I learnt much in that class except that nothing suited me and I've lost my waist.

My last class was Anything Goes with Sue Neall. I fitted this pattern and have just this minute cut it out. I also discovered that I've lost the front facing piece so had to make a new one. Luckily I have the same pattern in the smaller sizes.

So after all that, I headed off to New Zealand to visit a friend. She took me to various shops and I discovered clothes shopping is much better and cheaper in NZ than Australia. However, I also found a fabric shop in her little town and bought this fabric for NZ$15 p/m which works out to be around $12 Australian. It's perfect for my next wardrobe of aqua and purple plus it's got a little red in it too. So you can see why it had to come home with me. They had quite a few lovely pieces in this little store so if you're ever in Waipukurau, I can recommend a stop. Oh & I spotted a fabric shop in Napier on the way to the airport in Thackeray St but we didn't have time to stop. :(