Cake, Sweets and Owls!

In the last few days I have eaten soooooo much dessert. Soooo much sugar. I feel desperately guilty and I really need to go for a jog. I have come to the point where I think I could be satisfied not eating another sweet treat for a long long time, and this for me is quite surprising seeing though I love chocolate.

For Daniel's birthday we had a dessert night and everyone brought something to share. I made a banana cake, some muffins and a Mississippi mud cake. It was delicious, but by the time we sang happy birthday to Daniel everyone was so stuffed with food that hardly any of it was eaten. I will take the left over half to school where everyone else can eat it.

Daniel and his cake

We also got to taste this wonderful ice-cream cake this evening in honour of a friends birthday. It not only looked great but it tasted even better. I want an ice-cream cake for my birthday next year please.


To celebrate my friends birthday this year, I decided to make her an owl pin-cushion because I know that she does a bit of sewing and cute pin-cushions always make sewing a little more fun. I have never made a pin-cushion before, but decided it wouldn't be too hard considering I had made a few owls before. It didn't take too long to make, and for my first pin-cushion ever I am pretty happy with the outcome. Maybe next time I would make the owl a bit rounder in the would-be stomach area and I would blanket-stitch the bottom so you couldn't see it. I might also put some kind of flat weight in the bottom of it to stop it from falling over, as I can imagine that could become annoying when taking pins out of it regularly.

Here is the owl posing in different places around its owners house :)

Birthdays

For Daniel's birthday this year, his parents gave him a DSLR camera. It is an older model, but so far Daniel loves it. He is continually pointing the lens at me, trying out different settings and playing around with it. This is problematic because I have never really enjoyed having my photo taken, and more often than not when Daniel points the camera at me I pull an annoying face.

Since receiving the camera on Tuesday, Daniel has already taken numerous photos and I am starting to learn how to ignore him when he points the camera at my face. I am very grateful though for all the time he spent taking photos of jars with buttons in them for this blog and for his expertise in all things technology :)

After a bit of discussion on how Daniel can practice his photography skills, we came up with the idea that after I finish making an item of clothing he could take photos of me and we could post them online. I am excited about this, as this is a project we can undertake together and have a bit of fun with. I am going to have to get over my fear of having my photo taken though.

This is a dress I made late last year for my parents 30th wedding anniversary. I made it from an old dress pattern that my Mum had been given by a friend. I really like finding great old patterns and then making them up.

This is the first photo shoot we have attempted (on our little digital camera). It was just a bit of fun after the party. Hopefully it shows the dress ok.

Kate's Wedding

Kate's wedding day finally arrived on Saturday. It was a lovely day, even if a little cold by the end of it, and by cold I mean it was 0.7 degrees C. in the evening after the wedding up at my parents place. We were all very thankful for the inside fire and the fire barrel outside.

Kate looked absolutely wonderful yesterday. I don't think she stopped smiling the entire day.

Here is a photo of her and Nathan after being pronounced man and wife.

After signing the register (Mum made all the dresses).

This is a photo of the family, and me wearing my finished dress.



Of Kate and Nathan's wedding cake. My mum made all the cakes while my sister decorated them all. It looked amazing and tasted great :). They both did a great job.





And to end with, here is a photo of the partial lunar eclipse which also occurred last night (as taken by Gerhard Schoning as viewed through Dan's telescope).

Busy Busy Busy

Things in the last few weeks have been busy, busy, busy, which is why I haven't really been online to post anything. So for this post today, I am going to post a few photos of things I have made in past.

I made this top for my unborn nephew in the Christmas of 2008.



Ryan looks very cute in this top and I am very happy with how it turned out. This photo was taken at the beach in January this year, when we got to babysit our favourite little nephew.

Dipping his toes in the sea.

I also had a go at making pot holders as presents for people. I have only really made clothes, not really accessories like this before, it was very enjoyable.



And lastly, here is another owl I made.

Almost Done!

With uni and assignments taking over my life at the moment, finding time to blog has been difficult. But the dress, thankfully, is almost done, and if I do say so myself, it has turned out quite nicely. The last few sewing classes I have forgotten to take the camera and so photos of the developing project are few. All I really have to do now is finish the bow and the hem.

Skirt and lining

Overlocking the lining

The skirt

The front

The back

A few things I like about the dress:
1.) All the lines match up. If you look closely where the zip is, everything is matching.
2.) I think it looks really good on.
3.) I really like the colour.
4.) It is going to be fun to wear a dress I have made myself to my sister's wedding!

Things I have learnt:
1.) How to use an invisible zip.
2.) How to use lining - I found the lining difficult to sew actually. Its slipperiness makes it a little annoying and time consuming.
3.) That it is possible to sew lining to an invisible zip after it is in. This was a great realisation, as it is MUCH faster than hand sewing, as long as no unpicking is necessary afterward.

I showed my sister (the one getting married) the dress this afternoon and got two thumbs up. So the dress is definitely a goer for the wedding. Yay :) All I have to do now is find a nice shirt to wear under it! And after the wedding I will post a picture of myself in the dress.

So far so good!

So far the dress is coming along nicely. I have cut out all the pattern pieces. I have made the bodice, sewn the darts on the main material and am now up to drawing and sewing the darts onto the lining. After that the piecing together will begin!

So far the dress has not been as challenging as I thought it was going to be. I'm hoping this will change as this week I get to use an invisible zip in for the first time :)

Here are some photos to show my progress. I apologise for my lack of photography skills!

tracing the pattern

preparing to cut

the bodice - lined and all

the many darts

So far in my short sewing career I have also not had the opportunity of sewing something with lining. I am lining this whole dress, even though it only requires the top to be lined. I am doing this because the wedding is in winter and I figure the lining will make it warmer to wear on a cold day, plus it will help it sit better.

The Dress!

Before attending my Monday night sewing class this week, I thought I had a pretty normal body type, however relative clothing sizes are these days. I usually wear size 10 tops and am somewhere between size 10 and 12 when it comes to pants. I am always wishing that more shops made size 11 pants, because so often the 10 is just a bit small and the 12 is starting to fall off. This is one reason I like sewing. I can make clothes that fit my body size, and that also suit me. Because of this disparity in clothing sizes I often tend to shy away from shopping. It is also because I rarely find anything I really like.

Last year, for instance, Daniel and I attended a 'formal' wedding. I wanted a dress that was not too short, did not show too much skin, had a unique style and nice fabric. I dragged Daniel around every dress shop I could think of in Hobart and eventually found a dress that I liked that filled most of the above criteria. And $170 later I had a dress. At the time I purchased the dress I thought I was going to be able to wear it a few times. However, thus far I have only worn it twice. Such a waste!

Due to this unproductive experience, I decided that for my sister's wedding, which is in June, I would make a dress. I had a few reasons for this. Firstly, I did not want to go into every dress shop in Hobart again and come out disappointed. Secondly, if I made my own dress it would be made to my size, with my choice of material, plus it would be A LOT cheaper. The third reason, came from a desire to wear a dress that no-one else would have.

I chose a dress that is a little more formal than I usually wear but I really like the style and the shape of the dress (Simplicity 3673, blue one on the right). I was also, to my surprise, able to find some lovely material (very much like that in the picture). At $27 a metre the material was a little more expensive than usual, but add the zip, the lining and the cotton, I think the whole dress is costing me about $70-$80, which I think is quite reasonable.



So on Monday night I set out to make this dress. After many measurements and referrals to the 'final measurements' chart, I was surprised and maybe a little worried when I was told that I need to make the bottom part of the dress out of size 14 pattern pieces. I did not realise I had such huge hips. However, it is not really my hips, it is my thighs. When measuring around the hip area, it is important to take the largest measure, which for me happens to be around my bottom and thighs. So size 14 dress here I come! I am still excited about making the dress, and at least I can take solace in knowing that I will be able to walk in it :).

My first ever blog!

First off, if you are reading this, I would like to say welcome to my 'creative corner'. In this little corner of the interwebs I am going to keep a record of some of the things I enjoy doing: from making clothes, household items and toys, to my attempts at gardening, making chutneys, jams, cordials and other wonderful things.

I have been crafting for a little while now. Ever since my sisters and I were little, my Mum has been encouraging us to do crafty things. I remember making cards for birthdays and gum nuts with eyes on them :) My Mum is very talented herself when it comes to being creative. She taught herself how to sew, and since we were children she has been making us clothes. From cute frilly dresses when we were kids to wedding and bridesmaids dresses now that we are adults.

Actually, now that I think about it, a lot of people in my family are very creative and talented when it comes to sewing and other creative pursuits. This means two things. First, it means that there is always someone around to answer my questions and to find inspiration from. Secondly, it means that I never quite feel like I'm very good at what I do because there is always someone better than me :). But this is not such a bad thing, because there is always more to learn.

I really enjoy sewing and have been learning for a few years now. I have started sewing a bit more independently of late, especially now that I can sew a lapped zip without any assistance :) This year I am going to attempt to make my first quilt, and curtains for our house. I am also making a dress for my youngest sister's wedding in June and hopefully some more stuffed animals :)