Embroidered Colette Sorbetto top and Kreative Kiwi machine embroidery

I bought a lovely machine embroidery pattern that is in 2 different colours. From looking at pinterest I knew I wanted a white top with black at the bottom of the top, a black centre band and neck and black edged piped sleeves.   But couldn't find a pattern that was colour blocked the way I wanted it.  Well Colette have re-released their freebie Sorbetto design, and the email saying this arrived just at the right time.  I knew I could adapt their pattern to suit what I wanted, after I'd made their previous version about 4 times last year.  The pattern already has a centre front pleat and the neckline is finished with bias binding.
Here is my finished top.

The top is cotton poplin from Spotlight.

To create the colour block I made the following changes.

• Made a separate pattern piece for the bottom 5 inches for the front and back pieces
• For the front, instead of cutting on the fold I cut 2 separate pieces, cutting before the pleat line but adding in the seam allowance
• Cut the pleat separately in the black fabric, adding seam allowances.
• Left the sleeve length as per the pattern, then made a new pattern piece to create 3" cuffs, 
• Made my own piping for the sleeves, and bias binding for the neckline

For the sewing I then:

• Sewed the bottom front and back fabric to the top front and back
• Did the embroidery
• Sewed the front pieces to the pleat
• Created cuffs by sewing piping to the outer edge and to where it joins the sleeve
• Then sewed as per the pattern, ensuring the neck binding was folded to the outside, not the inside.

I'm loving doing machine embroidery.   This weekend has been busy making items from Kreative Kiwi.

This is their swirly placemat, it is their large version for 8x10 hoops, creating a 15" placemat.

And I made these coasters, which are freebies on their site.  An Easter bunny and 2 kiwis with koru.

BurdaStyle dress 4/16 108A and quilt show

I bought some very bright rayon fabric years ago when I first started sewing.  Back then I thought I needed to buy everything I saw that was on sale.  Lesson learnt, this has sat in my stash for years as I don't like the pattern and didn't know what to do with it.  I'm attempting to get my stash down, so decided I'd make a dress that I could wear around the house.  I wanted something comfortable and loose so I picked the kaftan type dress from the April 2016 issue.  It has a false button placket at the top which was a pain to put in and isn't as neat as I'd like.  It also has in-seam pockets.  I lengthened it by 5 inches as the dress in the magazine was more like a tunic in length.

The photos above show it worn with a belt and it isn't too bad with the belt to take it in.  However without a belt it is a sack.

Well I wanted loose and comfy and that is what I got.  I won't wear it outside the house but for lounging around in the evening it is fine.

Yesterday I went to the Western Circle Quilters show. From their stand where they can sell their excess I bought 3 large bags of mixed fabrics.  Very happy with that.  These days my focus is on machine embroidery so I snapped a few photos of quilts with machine embroidery.

And a close up of the above

And a close up of the above

New embroidery machine

Last week I got a new embroidery machine.  It is a Janome Memorycraft 500e.  It is embroidery only and has a much bigger embroidery field than my Brother Innovis 950, able to embroider up to 200x280mm or about 7"x11".

Here is the arrival and unpacking.

The machine was a lot bigger than I expected.  I had planned on putting it on my computer desk but it was too big so had to go on my sewing table.  As the computer desk isn't suitable to sit and sew at, this meant I had to get another sewing table, which arrived yesterday.  Here is my new set up, with a video taking a look around my sewing room.

And here are some of the things I've already created using my new machine.

Practicing stitch stacking

A heat pack, made for my mother.

Make up bag, that I'm actually keeping small sewing things in - bobbins, etc

Back of a sweatshirt.