Fabric haul from New Zealand

As promised, I'm back with pics of the fabric haul. I've finally had a minute to myself to unpack the carry-on & extra bag I had to buy so I quickly took these photos to share with you.

This first photo is all the fabrics together. Not a particularly good shot though!

This is a gorgeous mesh I bought while staying with my friend in small town NZ, Waipukurau. It was $25.50 pm but I had to have it.

Also from Waipukurau came this gorgeous necklace that I had to have. $24! There was another too that I liked but it was much more expensive so I took an illicit photo to copy it at a later date.

Onto fabric from the Convention fabric tour. This is my first purchase which is black merino. Of course the photo does nothing for it...you gotta feel it! It's the softest stuff I've ever felt and at $19 p/m, I got 5 metres. It's good for basic layering stuff. I got this at The Fabric Shop (not to be confused with the Fabric Store which used to be called Global Fabrics in Auckland).

Also at that shop was the wall of FOE. I nearly wet myself when I saw it. But because it was the first shop we went to on the fabric tour, I didn't buy any! In my experience, if you buy FOE without having fabric to match, it never does.

Our second stop (with a morning tea break at a cafe next door...cheese scone..yum!) was Centrepoint Fabrics in Newmarket. It was a little more expensive but had a fabulous range of stuff. I got this berry coloured merino for $24.95 p/m. The usual price was $48! My camera couldn't cope with the gorgeousness of the colour but it's a little darker than it looks here.

Next stop, The Fabric Store (aka Global Fabrics). Their merino was the same price as in Sydney however, not only did they have some on sale for $20 p/m but they were giving us a 30% discount on full priced stuff. So I got this teal merino for $26.60 p/m. I have no plans at this stage for any of this fabric.

Then I spotted this purple stuff. It's a DKNY Italian jersey 20% wool, 75% viscose, 5% lycra. Gorgeous. $20 p/m reduced from $32. Again my camera couldn't cope but it's purple and not as bright as it looks here.

There were other fabric shops on the Auckland tour but I didn't buy anything. I know..what was I thinking! However, when I stayed with my friend we visited Napier and a shop I saw when I was last there in 2010. I spotted it as we drove to the airport with no time to stop. So we took the opportunity to go back and I got this burgundy poly spandex that is so me. It was reduced to $13.90 p/m.

Then I got this boring old black & white stripe poly spandex knit. The reason I bought this is the stripe goes DOWN the grain. I thought it would be handy for Marcy Tilton type stuff. $25.90 p/m but I got my metre for the price of 90cm due to a crooked cut.

So that's it. I probably wouldn't have needed another bag if it weren't for the 5m of black merino. But it was no problem as Qantas now have a 30kg bag allowance and I discovered that it doesn't matter how many bags you have, as long as you don't go over the 30kg. Score!

Retreat sewing

Two weekends ago, I went on a three day sewing retreat with the Australian Sewing Guild Highlands to the Sea region at The Tops Conference Centre. It was fabulous. Three full days of sewing, eating, chatting, laughing & sleeping. The food was fabulous and so was the company. I even managed to finish some items. These are their stories.

The items I sewed were all for the ASG Convention in Auckland next month. I made 2 pairs of ponte pants - one black, one brown. I don't really need to show you photos of them, do I? I also made a brown top to match said brown ponte pants.

It's the top from Simplicity 2148. A pretty basic design with only 3 pieces (front, back & neckband). I did an FBA & rotated it into the centre front gathers, took about 2cm off the width of the neckband and changed the side seams to 1/4" as the sleeve was quite snug.

Simplicity 2148

Size 16 at neck, 24 at sides

Fabric from The Remnant Warehouse $8.95 per metre

I also made 2 cardigans but as only 1 is completely finished, that's all I can show you. This one is burgundy to match the burgundy outfit for Convention (excuse the brown pants & the windswept hair).   I added about 3" to the length after my last version was much too short.

Kwik Sew 2759

Fabric: Acrylic sweater knit from The Remnant Warehouse $10 p/m

Leather bag

Not to be outdone by Sharon, I thought I should post some photos of the gorgeous leather bag I made last week in Adelaide at the Australian Sewing Guild Convention. :)

This class was a 2 day one with Yvonne Twining. She is a great teacher - even managed to stop us all talking at times to get instructions. We were a very eager group! The leather she brought with her was magnificent and it was very hard to choose but I went with my signature red and black (duh) but later discovered that the patent croc leather I chose was actually brown. That's cool....it still works fine. My friends at coffee this morning were incredibly jealous and amazed that I could sew this. I am too.

Here is the inside with the pig-skin suede lining, 2 zip pockets & an iPhone pocket at the end (& my junk).

The back leather is really soft & lovely. Larger sizes had a zipper pocket here but the small one can't fit one on. The kit for this baby was $48 which included all the leather, the bits to make it, feet, zips & all the tutoring we could take. :)

Convention 2011 wrap up

I'm back from Launceston and almost fully recovered. This Convention malarky takes a lot out of you! I'm also on the Committee now so have to pull my weight in that regard. The Convention this year was held at Launceston Church Grammar School located in Mowbray, Launceston with a fabulous view of the Tamar River.

My room was situated in the boys dorm (I forgot to take a pic...again!) and it was heated which was a good thing as it was quite cold down there. The dorm rooms are furnished in various styles ranging from 1800s school house to modern on-site caravan so you can imagine. I was lucky in that I had the Vice Captain's room and got a mirror, power point & dressing table! Others were not so lucky.

The food was magnificent - hot brekkie every day, a selection of hot & cold stuff for lunch and a 2 course dinner. Morning & afternoon tea were also catered for, varying from cakes to scones & sausage rolls. Really good. I think I gained weight. :)

Anyway, onto the classes. I only did 2 cos I was needed elsewhere. The first one I did was Fabric Colouring for the Non-Artistic with Cindy Watkins. The kit for this was quite expensive at $60 but included 5 different colours of Genesis Liquid Radiance paint. What can I say about this class? It was FANTASTIC! Cindy showed us lots of different ways of using the paints. We had 12 pieces of white cotton fabric & basically just played all day. The epiphany for me was that I can now dye my own fabric & not have to worry about trying to find stuff in the colours I need. Yay!

We also dyed some socks using shaving cream. That was fun too. Don't mess with a woman waving a squeegy!

The other class I did was also with Cindy - making a quilted bag with fabric you've created. This time, we painted the fabric and dried it in the microwave & then made it into a bag. I decided to make a mega mug bag out of my absolutely gorgeous piece of fabric. Unfortunately, I didn't take a pic of the fabric before I cut it up. We also did free motion embroidery on this fabric. I did a little but then just used a stitch on the sewing machine for the rest. Very easy!

The following pics are the various sides of my bag. The colours are much more vibrant in real life.

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. :(

I thought I’d write a review (sort of!) of the Australian Sewing Guild 2009 convention. For those with no interest, you can look away now! LOL.

The ASG Convention is now held annually, usually in September/October. This year it was held in Perth, Western Australia. Next year is Ballarat, Vic and 2011 will be in Launceston, Tasmania. Nice cold locations! (note my comments re the weather cos if you’re going to either of these places, you will need to heed my advice!).

The location for this year’s convention was St Brigid’s School in Lesmurdie. It’s a boarding/day Catholic high school situated in the hills of Perth. A wonderful venue..the school has its own heated swimming pool and gym! The food was fantastic – we had a hot lunch on most days, breakfast alternated between hot and cold and dinner was 2 courses. Ergh…I ate too much! Grog is BYO except for Friday night and much embibing was happening. Classes were held on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday. Wednesday is a much needed day off where we had the option of a bus trip viewing the sights of the Swan Valley (ie wineries) or fabric shopping and Kings Park in the city which was my choice. Alternatively, you could stay at the school and sew or even (horrors) sleep which, in hindsight, might have been a good choice.

So…onto the nitty gritty. Day 1 – Monday I had a class with Elizabeth Morley called Rags of Light. Elizabeth is a fabulous teacher & I would recommend her classes to anyone. There was a requirements list we had been sent which involved much gnashing of teeth (as normal) in order to find just the right fabric etc. I used scraps of some of my convention outfits plus some special black/silver silk another black fabric I got at Pitt Trading. I ended up with this:

We started out with a piece of Romeo stabliser, then drew some lines on it, sewed a bit on fabric on & then just basically chucked on other bits. It was a little tricky to start with but then you got the hang of it. The bits are then free machine embroidered together and the romeo washed out. That’s a very basic overview of the class. There was much deliberating and agonizing over fabric choices but once everyone was settled in, it was great. Mind you, I was the only one in the class to finish her scarf & actually wash it out.

Day 2 Tuesday – I had another class with Elizabeth on the Tuesday. This time doing an evening bag. My colour scheme had been planned so both the scarf and the bag would match a couple of my outfits for the week. However, I had no plans to wear the scarf. Nor could I as it needs a bit more of a soak to get all the romeo out. Erk that stuff is disgusting..it looks and feels like mucus when you wash it.

Anyway, back to the bag. We started with a base fabric and made of sandwich with pellon & calico, then laid our main fabric over the top. This was all sewn together around the edges into the shape and size of the bag we wanted. The bag could be big or small, square rectangular or oval. Whatever we liked. I decided to go with a smallish rectangular evening bag. So over the top of the sandwich we placed our fabric pieces. I also had various pieces of braids (aqua & silver) which I literally threw on top and just let it sit wherever it wanted. Then over the top of all this, you place black bridal tulle. Sounds funny doesn’t it? Then you free machine embroider right over the top of the tulle. It was fantastic! The method is great cos the tulle holds everything down until you’ve sewn it and it doesn’t show as much as you’d think. You can also cut it back if you have a particular texture you want to show through like velvet or such. Once I had everything placed, Elizabeth suggested a focal point on the front so I ended up with a flower. I’m still not sure about that! LOL.

Here is a closeup of the abovementioned flower.

Back and inside of my bag.

Day 3 – Wednesday. As I mentioned before, Wednesday was a bus trip and I chose to go fabric shopping. I have no pics of fabric shopping. After all, how exciting could that be? Well it was but I still don’t have pics. So you’ll have to make do with a couple of pics of Perth from Kings Park. It was a glorious day & I actually got sunburnt!

Day 4 – Thursday. Usually by Thursday I am almost over convention so I chose a couple of non-thinking classes. Both classes were sample classes. The morning was with Cheryl Glew a local teacher. We did standard dressmaking techniques including mitred corners, slash openings, cuffs and faux sleeve vents. I actually learnt a bit in this class!

Thursday afternoon was with Patricia Clark from SA. I did Collars, Points & Corners with her and it took all afternoon for the class to make a revere collar with lapel and lining. We were supposed to make a one piece collar with front facing too but didn’t get time! So I have the sample and notes to do that at a later date. No pics though!

Day 5 – Friday. As I was well & truly over convention by Friday and knew I would be, I chose an arty-farty class for the Friday. It was a class using disperse dyes. None of us knew what we’d be doing and I figured if I didn’t like it, I could wag LOL. However, it turned out to be a fabulous class. We painted dye onto litho paper and then after it dried, ironed it onto fabric. Oh lordy. I could really get into this even though I can’t draw! We ended up with the most fantastic things.

Friday night was our gala dinner where I was presented with a Certificate of Appreciation for all my hard work for the Guild in a previous life. I knew I was getting it....it had been mentioned at least 18 months ago but had hopes of nothing happening this week but it wasn’t to be. How lucky I am that I have no photos of that. ☺

So the convention was a great success and the team that organised it should be very proud. I heard no complaints during the week…well…except for the cold. So now we come to that. Our bedrooms were in the boarding school and were unheated. I don’t usually feel the cold that much so had brought my usual PJs plus a thermal in case I got cool. OH MY GOD…it was freezing! I had on the thermal, a long sleeved Tshirt, a wool cardigan, my interlock dressing gown, 2 blankets and my polar fleece shawl and I was still cold! I don’t think the rooms ever warm up in the day as it was even cool in there in the daytime. It was warmer in the corridor so I have no idea how the boarders cope in the middle of winter. So here’s my tip for future conventions: Take lots of warm clothes you can wear to bed! Especially for Ballarat & Launceston. Assuming, of course, that the rooms aren’t heated. I wish someone would invent a half size doona. One that just goes over the top half of your body. That would’ve been perfect! Maybe I could make one? LOL.