Gah! Machine Failure!

My sewing machine died today.

It sews 2 stitches, then the threads get caught around the bobin, and it gets all tangled and angry. I have tried rethreading it, I have tried putting a different needle in, i took the plate off and got rid of all the little bits of fluff, I tried tightening and loosening the tension on the bobin, I tried both of sides of the tension plates for the needle thread, I tried different stitches, and I held the threads tightly, so that they weren't getting sucked into the first few stitches. Nothing worked. I came to the conclusion that the needle thread isn't being released properly by the bobin casing each stitch. So I end up with many of them, all wrapped around the bobin, which is bad and my machine makes a scary sound and generally, it just isn't good.

Now, normally this wouldn't cause me a great problem. I'd just take the machine in to be serviced (which I really should have done months ago, because the last service was seriously a decade ago. Scary to think that I've had the machine long enough to have a service a decade ago - and that was after having the machine for at least 5 years. (It's and Optima 190 - they were made in the mid eighties, so the machine is about the same age as I am.)  But, now, the fact that I will be sewing machine less is freaking me out - I have exactly one weeks worth of clothing that I can wear to my new office, real, adult job! I was planning to sew another 2 or 3 outfits this week. But now, I can't.

Totally increasing my stress levels.

Hope all your machines are working well!

Me-Made-March 2011

I somehow didn't publish this post, even though I actually participated in Me-Made-March,a nd gave you a quick wrap up of it. So here, very very late, is my Me-Made-March pledge:

I, fyrefairee from http://sewingsoffyrefairee.blogspot.com, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-March '11. I endeavour to wear as much hand made clothing as possible, with the exception of undergarments, tights, and possibly cardigans, each day for the duration of March 2011. I also endeavour to make and wear at least one accessory (bag, brooch, hair clip) each day, and to build myself a working corporate/ work wardrobe.

Last Friday, I excitingly and frighteningly started a new job as an executive assistant. Which means that almost all of my current wardrobe is not work appropriate. I spent too many hours on Saturday walking from shop to shop to shop (something that I haven't done since before taking the Wardrobe Refashion pledge), despairing more and more because nothing fitted, nothing suited, and the few things that were even vaguely reasonable were so overpriced it made me want to cry a little. Unless the cardigan is made of silk, there is nothing to warrant it being $80. Nothing. There isn't enough fabric, or labour in it to warrant that price tag.

So, I came to the conclusion that I would have to make most of my work attire. So, this challenge comes at a perfect time for me: by March I should have enough clothing to actually be able to wear self-stitched creations all months.

And, because I was already planning to create as much of my own wardrobe as possible, I decided to stretch and challenge myself by also wearing one accessory - a hair clip, a brooch, a bag, whatever - each day.

Me-Made-March is being hosted by Zo, from So, Zo... What do you know? and you can sign up here.

Excited? I know I am!

Some Aprons

I made two aprons for Christmas presents - one for my father, and one for my grandfather. Guys are really hard to hand make for, so aprons seemed like a great option. Living in Australia, many of the interwoobs suggestions about hand made Christmas presents for guys just don’t work - scarves and blankets are totally the wrong time of year, wrong weather. This Christmas was relatively cold, and we got a bit of rain, but it was still up around 20 〫C. So, not really scarf or blanket weather. Hence, the decision to make aprons.

These were sewed the night before Christmas Eve, at about 1am. I was sick (I managed to get sick four days before Christmas - worst timing ever), so taking photos was really the last thing on my mind. I managed a few photos of the process, well, the cutting out really, and then I gave up.

I even forgot to get after shots of one of them - it was the same green Christmas fabric as the napkins, with bias binding (made by me) of the red napkin fabric. I gave that one to my grandfather, as part of a matching ‘set’ with my grandmother’s present of a set of eight Christmas Tree napkins.

The other apron I sewed was for my father. I made it out of a navy drill, added a pocket, and used a blue and red spotty stripy on white bias binding to finish the edges and the top of the pocket.

To start with, I took an existing apron, and used it as a template, by lying it on top of my fabric.

Then, I cut around the existing shape - I made it a bit longer, but otherwise maintined the original apron shape. If I had more time, I probably would have made a paper pattern to use, but at 1am, using the original as a pattern seems like a much better idea.

Because I was using a full apron as my template, it was a little uneven or asymmetrical, so I folded it in half, cut the curved bits so they were even, and laid it flat again. 

Next, I cut a rectangle of fabric for the pocket. I bound one edge, and folded the other three under. I placed it in roughly the middle of the apron (I was eyeballing it, so it might be slightly off centre), and pinned it down. Then, I sewed about 1mm from the edge of the folds, and the apron had a pocket. I also gave up taking photos at this point.

Next, I bound all of the straight edges of the apron - so, the sides, bottom and top. I sort of did the thing with the corners that means they are all neat. For the life of me, I can’t remember what it is called though. I used a top stitch only, rather than sewing the binding down and then top stitching it.

Lastly, I bound the curved sections. I decided roughly how long the neck loop should be, and made that the middle of my bias binding strip. I then pinned everything in place, with a decent overhang for the ties. Again, I only used a top stitch.

And, with that, I had 2 aprons. And it was only 230am or so...

The Christmas Aprons went down really well, and my aunt put in an order for an apron for her birthday, which is in early February. I asked if there was anything she specifically wanted in an apron, and she said that she wanted a pocket.


My aunt really likes red - in fact, most of my mother's side of the family does. So, I went looking for red fabric - and ended up with a blue, white, beige and red striped fabric. I also had some red fabric left over from sewing the Christmas aprons, so I decided to use the red as a contrast fabric.

I follow a ton of sewing blogs (I really do, there's heaps of them. They are awesome, and really inspirational. I probably spend an hour or so each day reading sewing blogs, getting inspiration. I've recently taken to saving pdf files of any post I think is awesome, because bookmarks don't really work for me.) In my blog-surfing, I came across this awesome tutorial for a fun, gathered apron. I decided that was what I was going to base my aunt's apron on.

I made a few changes - the main one being I added a pocket and didn't put the ruffle on the bottom. I also made the apron fully reversible.

Side One - Mum thought that the excess  from the strap looked like it needed something hanging from it. So, given the buttons are a tea cup and tea pot, I thought a tea diffuser would be perfect.

Side One

Side One

Side Two

Side Two

Side Two

And, lastly, I added a pair of buttons, because the neck strap was too long.

Cute, huh?

Trying to be more organised

I still have a few more posts about my hand made Christmas to do, but I just need to get this off my chest.

I’m not an organised person. I still have a paper diary that I rely on to tell me exactly what I am doing each day - even recurring things like my dance classes and music lessons. My bedroom is often a bomb site - I typically have a few feet sized holes to stand in to get from the door to the bed to the wardrobe and back. My desk hasn’t been seen in over a year. I hate tidying. I rarely put clean clothes away. 

I think you probably get the point.

But, this year, I am going to try for a little organisation.

Baby steps. I am going to try to spend 

• 30 minutes each week tidying my bedroom
• To put away clothing as soon as it comes off the line
• Vacuum once a week

Also, my hand made Christmas went really well. I was thoroughly pleased with it. So, I'm doing it again next year.

So, I am going to try to be a bit more proactive, and not start my gifts in November.

To do this, I am setting up a nice poster on the back of my door to keep track of all my people - and also of their birthdays. 

These are the baby steps I want to take this year. Lets see how I go.

The Strawberry Fields outfit

For Christmas, I gave my friend Kiwi what I named the ‘Strawberry Fields’ outfit.

Kiwi has commented several times about how she loves some of my outfits, especially the number of skirt I wear. My clothing is not overly ‘out there,’ but she has also commented that I wear things and combinations that she would never think of putting together. 

So, for Christmas, I made her an outfit that is something I would wear. 

The inspiration for this outfit was a old nightgown I found at an op shop, which had a cute strawberry motif. It was one of those full length, long sleeve numbers that in my opinion is totally hideous. (And, for anyone who sleeps as violently as me, pointless. They end up with most of the fabric bunched uncomfortably around my waist by the time I wake up.)

But, the pattern of the fabric was really cute.

So, I took the night gown apart, and used a pattern I based on this skirt:

It’s really simple. You have a three pattern pieces: a waistband, a triangle, and a rectangle that is slightly wider at the bottom than the top (a trapeze, I guess). You cut one of the waist bands (like my roll top hem skirts), and eight each of the rectangle and triangles.

Once everything is cut, you simply sew a rectangle and triangle together, matching the bottom seam. 

Then, you sew these pieces together, again matching bottom seams.

Lastly, attach the skirt to the waistband. The skirt should be slightly wider than the waistband (wide enough to fit over your hips), so you need to stretch the waistband slightly as you sew in order to make the two fit each other.

And, you’re done :)

The waist band I used was the lower half of a long sleeved top the same colour of the strawberries. It was one of those ones that had lace detailing and buttons to about the bust line. So, I carefully used a rolled hem stitch to finish the edge of, shortened the sleeves slightly to a 3/4 ish length, and I had a cardigan.

Lastly, I found an olive tank top at an op shop. I had diamantes on it already, and inspired by the packet of diamantes I had bought, and the super glue in front of me, I decided to add a strawberry to the top.

  

I placed the diamantes in the shape I wanted, and set about gluing them down. I soon learned the easiest way to do this was to get two wooden skewers. Using one to move the diamantes, I would move one out of the way, and then use the second skewer to put a dab of super glue in its place. I would then move the diamante back into place, and press it into the dab of super glue using the blunt end of the skewer.

Put together, we have the ‘Strawberry Fields’ outfit.

Christmas Napkins

Every year, my family has a large Christmas dinner on Christmas eve. It's part of my dad's Polish heritage, and it always means Christmas to me.

As a result, we have at least 14 (usually more) friends and family to dinner. This year, we had sixteen. We cook huge amounts of food, and eat far too much. There is wine, and conversation, and it's always been one of my favourite nights of the year. It's as much about family as it is anything else. The celebration is traditionally a dinner that keeps vigil before midnight mass, but that isn't part of the tradition that we have ever followed.

This year, as part of our celebrations, I made napkins.

I got inspired by this post and  instructional pdf by craft sanity, which I originally found via craftgossip.

So, I worked out how much fabric I would need (and massively over estimated it, but hey, next year I have fabric ready to go, right?), found the fabric, and purchased it.

And then it sat in a bag in my room for months. And months.

Then, maybe a month before Christmas, I decided that in fact, I needed to start them, because that was a whole lot of little snips to make to have them sit flat.

I mostly followed the awesome tutorial, but I used a dinner plate for my circle shape. Placing right sides together, I cut both fabrics at the same time. I used a pen to trace around the plate, and then put like 3 pins in to hold the two fabrics in place, before cutting around the circle, about 1.5cm from the line I'd drawn. I then used the line as my stitch guide, and I actually got perfect circles that way.

In the end, I made 44 napkins - I gave 4 to my sister, 8 to my grandmother (with a matching apron for my grandfather), and that left 32 for my family.

You know what?

I didn't even take a photo of them, and now they're all packed up and put away with the rest of the Christmas linens, so I can't even give you a pretty photo of my work.

What I've been up to lately

I feel really guilty for not posting here so often. For a while, I was doing well, and then Christmas happened. Which meant that, as I had decided part way through October that I was doing a handmade Christmas, most of my creative efforts were spent on Christmas and holiday related things.

This covered most of November and December. 

Pelicans on a sand bar in the tidal river near where I holidayed this year.

Sitting on a park bench near at the lookout on holidays.

Overlooking the surf beach on holidays

The amazingly green sweeping fields by the road near Ballina.

Then Christmas came and went (and all my gifts, thankfully, were very well received), and, on December 27, I went on holidays for a bit over 2 weeks. Up the New South Wales coast further than I have ever been before. The town I, and eight of my friends, stayed at was gorgeous, and the surrounding country side was oh, so, very picturesque. The beach, although a surf beach and far rougher than I like, was awesome because of just how warm the water is. It was relaxing, and rejuvenating, and just a great holiday.

Maybe a week before Christmas, I had finally come up with an answer to a question that has been plaguing me for months. You see, I graduated from university in June 2010. I have a Bachelor of Arts (honours), and after I do my last exam in January, I will also have a Bachelor of Science (Psychology). So, education is all done. But, throughout my life, education has been the goal. While I was in college (high school for any North American readers), the goal was to get marks to get into university. Which I did. I took a gap year, working and travelling (I lived in England for the first time as part of my gap year). Then I went to university, and decided I wanted to do an exchange year as part of my degree. So, I worked full time and studied full time, and went on exchange (this was the second time I lived in England). I then took 6 months off to travel Europe, and visit friends in North America. During which time, I decided that I wanted to do honours. Luckily, the marks I needed to do my exchange year meant that I also had marks high enough to be admitted into the Honours program for my major, which is Gender, Sexuality and Culture Studies. So, I finished (almost) my psych degree, and started honours. I then finished honours, graduating with a mark I am pleased with that means that if, in the future I want to do further study, I can probably get into a decent program. That was last June.  Over the last few months, I have been doing the last subject I need to finish my science degree. Which I now have one exam to do. 

Over the last few months, because I was still technically studying, I didn't get myself a 'real' job. But, I have been plagued with the question 'What am I going to do with my life?' This question seems to be a favourite of almost everyone I meet, and it irks me. I hate the question, because until maybe a week before Christmas, I didn't have an answer. Even a vague kinda, 'Oh, maybe I'll do X, Y, Z with my life." Nothing.

So, when I came up with an answer to the question, you can probably understand that it was quite an awesome feeling. I have decided that rather than using my degree in any way, I'm going to try and make money from my creative side.

So, plans. I am going to start selling stuff on etsy, while working part time. To begin with, I'm going to concentrate on upcycled clothing - mainly singlets, tank tops and shirts, but maybe skirts and other things as well. 

Having made my decision, I started working on it

As part of my holiday, I have begun to make things that I would sell on etsy. I know, I know, I'm was on holidays, why should I be 'working,' but honestly, it wasn't work. I had forgotten just how relaxing I find sewing, especially sewing my hand. Over the two weeks, I managed to complete eight garments that I can sell. So, I figure I'm on my way to being able to actually be an etsy seller :)

Describing sewing techniques to Squirrel

More technique description. I *may* have a stitch unpicker in my mouth.

Creatively, I also helped on of the other girls here, Squirrel from my sewing group, to start and complete her first ever dress. She seems to have a real fear of ever completing a project, and it took days to talk her into actually hemming the dress. Which, by the way, looks really cute. A few things that possibly could be a touch neater (but, as this was the first dress she has ever really sewn amazingly neat) that come with practice. Otherwise, though, this dress is totally wearable. After helping her, and Kiwi (who, sadly has moved away to Perth) complete dresses, I realise just what an asset I have been giving with my knowledge and sewing skills. Things that seem so basic to me, because I have been doing them forever, are clearly not so easy to beginner sewists. It makes me incredibly grateful that I not only learned to sew when I was much younger (I was ten, maybe, and making dolls clothes. Which, are actually really fiddly and difficult because they are so small. Clothing for real sized people is actually much easier), but also that I had the ability to further my skills as part of my college years. I still have things that I want to learn - pattern drafting, anyone? - but, for the most part, I could get away with never needing to buy clothing again. (I won’t because I don’t have the patience for jeans, bras and underwear, but you get the point.)

Anyway, back to my decision, etsy and a part time job. The part time job (probably with the government, because they are the major employer in the city I live in), will give me some breathing space, and allow me to see how successful I can be at selling things. It will basically let me know if I can make enough to live and so on, or if it is just pocket money. Because, right now, I'm not sure.

Having made the decision, I feel quite liberated. I have decided that I want to keep this blog and etsy distinct - I started this blog so that I could share my experiences, and techniques, not as a selling tool. And, I want to keep it that way. In the future, I may add a buttony, linky thing to my etsy store, but right now, they will be unique entities.

Which means, my creative efforts, and therefore my posting, may diminish. I have tentatively set myself a goal of one post per week here, but I don't know how realistic that is. 

So, my readers (and, just quietly, I have followers! People I've never met!), please bear with me. This year may be... interesting... for me.