Project 'Timely'

I have been working steadily away at my own sample quilt for many, many months. 
I started it about a year ago, and feel I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and have been working on it during my spare time, when I'm not too tired. 

I've really been trying to focus completely on this project, so no playing around with other things even though I am really keen to sew some more garments, (and have bought the patterns and fabrics!!) - it's so huge and is easy to loose sight of the end, but I really do feel like the end is close. 

The idea behind it was to incorporate all my favourite colours into one big cover. (It's actually going to be a quilted cover for a massive wool doona, as opposed to a single quilt) 

I had some inspiration from a favourite anime and it's gone from there. As this is my first ever quilted project I was originally just going to do it as a block quilt just throwing random blocks together. I did three panel's like this before I ran out of fabric! A trip to the fabric store and I had more colours in the same scheme - but I had also found the hexagon paper pieces... soo a few hours of cutting fabric I had started to stitch them together, I laid it out and didn't like it. It was to untidy for my liking. I pulled them all apart and decided to do squares. This was a major setback! I used up all the fabric I had bought, realised I needed more so another trip to the fabric store and found some fabulous new fabric and small hexagons as well!! Fantastic! I am using the little hexagons to use up all the scrap fabrics, and will probably create a border with them... I haven't decided yet! 

I know it sounds like I had no plan with this project, and in truth I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do but nothing concrete. I really wanted it to be my own creation, and didn't want to follow any plans. It sounds terrible with the many trips to the fabric store, but it's actually something I am really enjoying! I am creating this monster from a spark of an idea; and getting the supplies as I need them has helped me to be even more creative with the project. If I had just bought all the fabric in one hit, I would never have branched out into the hexagons and it is supposed to be a sample quilt so trying a number of things. I am even going to put a few embroidered panels in for good measure!! 
On that note, here are some teaser photos of the panels and everything to give you an idea.

 All the panels I have done so far, there are 3 of the long strips in the middle. You can see the colours I am using in this are purple, blue, green and pink. I am terrible at putting colours together but I think this is working :-)

 The strips up close... so pretty!

 hexagons before they go onto the squares...

 After I hand sew them onto the purple squares... I am cheating cost wise here, an old purple sheet I bought many years ago in the wrong size for our bed has become the handy backing fabric here.

And finally, a practice run at transferring an image onto fabric.... How did I do it?? I first tried printing onto specific transfer paper I bought a few years ago and never got around to trying out... It didn't work :-( I don't know if I did something wrong, honestly I was a bit dubious about this working anyway. So then I remembered I had seen a cheat to use kitchen baking paper. I didn't look it up, I just went for it - and it worked!!! I will post more about my process once I embroider my panel.


Thats all for today peeps!

See me next time!

Update, Kasia Skirt!

Hi Dudes!!!

Finally I get around to updating you all on the FINISHED 'Kasia Skirt'!

Yes, that's right, I finished it and I have photos!

I am pleased with how it turned out, although when I did the muck up of it, it seemed like it was going to be small which was o.k as I was making it in a very stretchy fabric. It turned out quiet large, I didn't add the zip in at the last minute as I was running out of time. So now the centre seam doesn't lie quiet right - I will probably re do it without the centre seam some day.

So without further ado, here are some photos!

 I sewed the buttons through all the layers, since I didn't need a zip or anything, but wanted to retain the pockets! (any garment that has pockets is a winner for me!)

 The fabric was heavy and awkward to work with, I cheaped out and didn't use any interfacing, which I should have, it would have stopped the rolling you can see.

Overall though, I love how it turned out, the black pockets make it look less garish in my opinion. I love buttons! I need to get some killer boots to work with this skirt, it comes just above the knee (I'm vertically challenged!) and thankfully doesn't make me look to short and tubby! Its a tricky one if you are not familiar with slightly more advanced construction, but took me about 5 afternoons to make, spending around an hour and a half each day. I wanted to take my time so I didn't muck it up. Also the buttons I cheated and eye balled them then used the ruler to make sure they were positioned well before sewing them on. I deliberately did the bigger gap between the top buttons and the lower 2, it just looked better that way.
I will definitely make this skirt again, I am thinking in a stretchy cotton fabric maybe without contrasting pockets.

Kasia skirt from Burdastyle

So as I promised, here is an update on the Kasia skirt from Burda style. It's a free pattern and not too tricky for those who have experience at pockets and zips and buttons. The instructions are a bit confusing so I have adjusted with my own knowledge some little tactics. Because the pattern was confusing I decided to do a very rough muslin to figure out what goes where and how. I only hand tacked everything together and didn't worry to much about measurements and so on. I know now if I was making the skirt out of material that had little stretch to it I would need to widen the sides a bit for my curvy figure. The waist is fine though. This is a common adjustment I need to make ! However as my skirt is being made out of a fub knit fabric and is nice and stretchy I don't need to worry about anything this time around! I have some pics of my muslin, I didn't bother finishing the top band off as I new what I was supposed to do, mission accomplished. Check the pics for my notes :-)

Back panel - when doing this on my final version i will be making sure the gathers are perfect as you can see here the yokes are on an angle to the skirt and don't line up neatly... 

Again the front pocket yokes are not neat and the pocket flap comes up to high as I am hiding the bottom of the pocket.

Pretty much done. The pocket is a bit crooked, but I was doing it rough! 

Now to start on the real thing! Stay tuned. Any questions please ask, :-)

Update!

I am back into the swing of things! I have even more projects on the go, and have a few I need to get done soon! A quick fix for me though, another prinatble pattern from burdastyle.com, called the 'kasia' skirt, here! I've had this material sitting around for years as I got it on sale, and have wanted to make a skirt with it - this pattern is free and looked pretty easy which means quick! So I have started it today! Will do a short tutorial on it when it is completed along with a review :-) for now here are some photos of my finished sewing room!

Cording... And sewing room

Found this bright red fabric on sale, and decided it would be perfect for cushions to chase away the winter blues! So I had a crack at doing this cushion with some yellow cording I fixed up myself out of some scrap yellow fabric I have from another project I'm working on. See, isn't it colourful!

In other news, working on my sewing room, or padded cell - it's coming along well, we have finsihed insulating and we are going to start plastering it this weekend too! Yay! Can't wait to have it done and furnished! 

First post ever!

Sew... It's cold, blustery and wet and in an attempt to get out of my own head I have been doing one of the things I love best... Sewing! ( and a little bit of procrastinating too !). I found some lovely blue fabric that reminds me of blue skies and for some reason also some of my favourite anime from the Studio Ghibli collections. Paired with grey marle jersey fabric I decided to make a sweet dress perfect for Sunday coffees. The dress structure was very easy to put together. I have never done arms before (up until now I have always had a pants and skirts obsession) so they didn't turn out as perfect as I would like. Because of the blue fabric being fairly stiff I have to redo the neckline... But that's ok :-). 

Other projects I am working on - my sewing room; a pair of pants with a tricky zipper; home furnishings such as a patchwork quilt cover for our supa large quilt... Always doing cushions and I have planned to do some lovely and safe pet beds and outdoor cushions; and I have many baby projects for friends and family that I am attempting as well! (Makes me sooo clucky!) As you can see I always have a zillion things I want to do and it can be hard to prioritise. I am going to try to do a little more each day - also to help handle better the going home and switching off issue I seem to have at the moment! 

The dress I made...