Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Liebster Award - Oh my!



I've been very lucky recently to receive 3 Liebster awards!! Whoo hoo! 

Yes I know this is one of those things that go round and round the web to no end, but hey its nice to be considered!

Liebster is a German word that means dearest, and this award is given to up and coming bloggers with less than 200 followers who you think deserves more recognition!

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Pattie Suit issues (and music!)

So after all of that fun making jammies and jumping on the bed, I'm now feeling worse for wear. The gloomy wet weather has finally taken its toll and handed me a cold. On top of that my Pattie suit is not going as well as I'd like. (see the original post here)

Considering I normally make dresses and easily whip them up in 2 or 3 sessions, making something with more of a challenge sometimes leaves you feeling a bit silly and hopeless.

All that supposed expertise flies out the window

Does this happen to you sometimes? Doing something harder than normal which leaves you feeling like a dunce?

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Pyjama Party Sew Along!

Time to show off my Jim jams for Did you make that’s Pyjama party!


No not that Jim Jam

These Jim Jams!

 How close is my head to the roof?

Friday, June 21, 2013

Tutorial: Setting in sleeves

So as per Fabees request, I have prepared a post on setting in sleeves!

There are two typical sets of sleeves that you will see on most garments.
A set sleeve and a puffed or gathered sleeve. There are other kinds but we will leave them for now.

While both were fashionable in the 60s the one we are going to focus on today is the clean tailored finish of a set in sleeve.

When you look at a sleeve pattern and try to piece it together, you will notice that there is always excess fabric. This is great for puffy sleeves, but for set sleeves we need to use a technique called easing.

Ease (as a verb) means to move or shift with great care. And so this is the principle of set in sleeves. Going slowly, taking you time and being careful will result in a well sewn shoulder seam.

With practice you may get quicker but for now be careful and take your time.

Monday, June 17, 2013

Giveaway Winner!

Okay so I'm a bit later than 7pm - what with real life happening an all (aka work) 

There was 4 entries into this wee little contest - The odds have never been better! 

So a big congratulations to Fabee CrazeeGirl

Surprise!
Fabee CrazeeGirl mentioned that she wanted to learn more about setting in sleeves properly, so I will be prepping up a little report/tutorial on that soon! 

Fabee CrazeeGirl please email me and let me know your postage details! 

Thank you also to the other entrants - Midnight and Dawn who wanted to learn more about interfacing, and Melanie who wanted to learn about sewing shirts, trouser fly's and fitting! 

Wow such great topics! I will take all your suggestions on board and try to come up with some tutorials for each of these. 

And a special mention to Lucy in the Sky who mentioned that she would like to learn the piano (again) as she was once quite apt, but without practice has forgotten some of the notes! So sad! 
Don't worry Lucy I'm sure you'll pick it up again one day!

Thank you ladies for participating in this giveaway - hopefully l'll have something  more substantial to give away in the future! 

Thanks again! 

Cat xo


Sunday, June 16, 2013

Psst! Did you know I'm doing a giveaway?

Yes a giveaway! Just a little one over here



This nifty little zine if perfect if you don't know a needle from a pin or if you'd like learn some basic techniques on repairing clothing - perfect for all those vintage items that need a little love.

To win all you have to do is tell me something you would like to learn. It doesn't have to be sewing related (but that would be good so I can set up some tutorials!)

I will pick a winner tomorrow at 7pm AEST (in 24 hours) and have it sent out to you wherever you are in the world!

Good luck! xo

Friday, June 14, 2013

Shift!

Back at the start of Autumn I spied this image of Celia Birtwell and Cathy McGowan in simple plain coloured shifts. No bishop sleeves, dropped waists, smocking or psychedelic patterns. Just simple and casual.



So chic!

And then I noticed more....



Clock wise from top left - Jean Shrimpton, France Gall, Julie Christie, Model 

Thursday, June 13, 2013

June 13th is Sewing Machine day!

Today, June 13th is sewing machine day! (Whoooo!)




The sewing machine has existed in many forms since 1755 (258 years!) and many variations were invented and patented over time eventually leading to a "patent war" in the 1850s between Isaac Singer and Elias Howe.


Singer won but had to pay out Howe with some of his earnings as Howe owned the original patent. Even though it was 20 years old at the time. 

Sunday, June 9, 2013

The Bliss of Mrs Blossom

I picked up this fabric from Fabric-a-brac (blogged here) and I knew it had to become a dress! The fabric is good enough that I could have even made a jacket – but alas there was only 2 meters!

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Blog Society + Giveaway!

Yesterday I attended the launch of Blog Society  and their workshop ‘Learning the art of digital story telling”. It was hosted by Jaclyn Carlson from Little Paper Trees and also included Jen Bishop from InteriorsAddict  and Vivian Mansour from Ish and Chi 

We then broke off into groups to learn a few new skills on styling and photography. I don’t often get to do nicely styled vignettes on this blog, but it was still useful and there are ways I know I can adapt them into sewing life. My group was hosted by Jessica Bellef – Stylist for Temple and Webster  Photographers Milton Gan and Emma Scamell

We learnt about using scale, texture, colour, harmony and shape. Here are some of my attempts…




It was a really useful day and I meant lots of amazing people from all different genres. I was so great to meet my fellow Sydney bloggers;

Noah and Willow (Events planning)
Mscritique (Beauty, Style, Food, Travel)
Lipstick and Cake (food, beauty, lifestyle)
Annette Wilson (Photography)
Antipodean Diaries (Beauty, Style, Food, Home)
The Urchin Collective (Life, style & Curiosities)
The Style Project (Interior Design)
Potty Mouth Mama (life, beauty, fashion and everything else)
Eat Read Love (gorgeous styling, food and photography)
Amanda Fuller of Kaleidoscope (Interior & Graphic design)
Amanda May  (Fashion and Styling)
Dom Morris of Crafted  (crafty tutorials and more)

There was so many wonderful people there I didn’t get to meet everyone (If you were there, let me know and ill add you to my shout out list above!)

After such a great day of networking and learning, I popped down to the book store and picked up some new sewing books – including this nifty zine Fix your Clothes by Raileigh Briggs 

It’s a cute little book which has some very handy hits for repairing your clothes like sewing on buttons, mending seams, darning holes, and caring for certain fabrics.
Pretty basic stuff – but I have met people who didn't know how to sew a button and this zine would have been great to pass on!




As a sewer (and now blogger) I can never stop learning. There are so many techniques out there that I’d love to know and become an expert at. Reading other blogs, going to workshops and meeting other people all help with us learning more and more about our craft or life in general.

To win this book all you have to do is tell me something you would really like to learn. It doesn't have to be sewing related (but that would be good so I can set up some tutorials!)
I will pick a winner and have it sent out to you wherever you are in the world!

If you’re a pretty good sewer and you’re not keen for the zine (rhymes!) let me know in you comment

Cat xo 

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

The Fairest Of the Seasons



Nico - The Fairest Of the Seasons


It's getting mighty cold now that winter has arrived in Sydney. While everyone in the North is enjoying the first days of summer, we're settling in for the long and boring winter.

Boring because our winter has none of the festive benefits of a northern winter;

No Christmas
No Snow
No outdoor ice skating
No public holidays unless you count the Queen’s Birthday Public holiday this coming Monday and after that there's nothing till October!

Very boring and cold and DRY! And the daylight hours are of course shorter making it hard to take decent outfit photos for you all.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

The Pattie Suit - Progress report

I received my fabric in the mail last Friday for the jacket/skirt combination that I was talking about here.

Before I started, I attempted to read through the instructions, which were the biggest load of gobbledygook, so I threw them in the bin and took out my favourite sewing book - The Readers digest complete guide to sewing.
It has an entire section on tailoring a jacket and recommends techniques that make way more sense and the pictures are clearer.

I also decided to name this the Pattie Suit, because it’s shorter than "jacket skirt combination" and because I'm currently reading Pattie Boyd's biography - Wonderful life. So my sewing will be embedded with quotes and stories from Pattie's life.

So far I have finished the body of the jacket and will move on to the collar, and facings next.

This is what's happened so far