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

final 2016 make and first of 2017. 2016 in review and 2017 vision.

2016 finished on a high and 2017 started with a fail!

For 2017 I want to make my first full size quilt.  It will be for my double bed and as daffodils are my favourite flower it will be embroidered with daffodils.  After much debate I found this wonderful Nancy Zieman tutorial for a camouflaged 9 patch.  She shows how to make it and in such an easy way.  Rather than cutting out lots of individual squares, it is cleverly pieced.
I have bought white fabric and a blue batik, similar to the one in Nancy's video.  In the white squares will be machine embroidered a daffodil pattern, with quilting around the sides.  In the blue squares will be a floral redwork pattern, done in white.

Before starting I wanted to test the design so made up a couple of blocks. I used fabric on hand and made a fox winter wreath from Embroidery Library with quilting around the sides and on the smaller squares, and stippling, a free design from Kreative Kiwi on the large blue squares.  The winter fox wreath was offered as part of the Happy Hour.  If you make a purchase from Embroidery Library, the following month you get an email invitation to Happy hour, where there are designs on special.  This fox was part of a design pattern that was free if you made a Happy Hour purchase and is not available on their website.  The design pack is really pretty and I am blown away that they would only offer this as a one-off freebie and not sell it.  So generous!  It certainly encourages me to buy more from them - probably part of their master plan!

 After making the blocks I wondered what to do with them.  They were too pretty to waste.  So I decided another tote bag would work.  Here it is.

Front with winter fox wreath

Inside has 2 inside pockets, one ordrinary, the other has card slots.

The bag closes with an inset zipper.

back of bag, stippled.

2017 didn't start so well though.  I have had my eye on this t-shirt from Burdastyle 2/2016 for months, even knew exactly what fabric I wanted.

Unfortunately my version didn't turn out as nicely.

The front is WAY too low, hence me wearing it over a dress.  The photo is shot from below so not so obvious, but you can see my bra above the pink front,

The side sleeves are set way too low, again showing my bra.

Back view, until I saw this photo I hadn't realised how badly that is dragging.

Very disappointed.  The one saving grace is that it has a front separating zipper, so I can wear it as a casual summer jacket.  Oh well, the fabric was from the Hospice shop and was left over from a previous top, so hasn't cost me anything other than time.

So what happened in 2016?  

My dressmaking consisted of 51 items.  This was 24 tops (5 of these were for my mother), 7 dresses, 6 jackets or sweatshirts, 11 pants/culottes/shorts, and 3 skirts.  The majority of these were Burdastyle (34 items). Other designers were 2 Colette Sorbetto tops, 6 KwikSew patterns, 1 New Look and 6 pairs of Style Arc's Barb pants.  1 designed by me(!) was a kimono top.  I'm surprised how few skirts I made and how many pants were made.  I think I need to start looking at more skirt patterns.

Other:  I made 3 bags and learnt machine embroidery.  I've yet to show all these as a lot were made for Xmas gifts which haven't been handed out yet.  Others I've just forgotten to take photos of!

So what lies ahead for 2017?

As mentioned earlier,  I want to make a quilt this year.  This means there will be less time for dressmaking, but I'm still hoping to make around 3 items a month.  

I have again joined the Burda Challenge for 2017 run on Pattern Review.  You set your own challenge.  For me this it to make 12 garments from magazines that haven't previously had any items made.  To the end of 2016 magazines I own, but haven't made anything from are 2/2015 and April, August, September and October 2016.  Of course there will be all the 2017 issues to come.  I also need to keep in mind to keep my wardrobe casual, now I am not working there is very little need for a dressy wardrobe.  I also want to only buy fabric when I have something specific to make with it and use up some of my stash.  Of course sales and hospice bargains will derail this plan!

I want to continue my machine embroidery growth and try new things.  There is so much to try - exciting times.

Festival of quilts

I've had an enjoyable day today visiting the Festival of Quilts.  What made it extra enjoyable is that I ordered a new sewing/embroidery machine.  I've had my eye on the Brother NV950D for quite some time and have been watching the Sewing Machine World website for a few months hoping for a sale.  It is a sewing and embroidery machine.  I was wanting to upgrade my sewing machine and discovered this one in my price range, which also has embroidery capability.

 Imagine my delight when I arrived at the quilt show to find the shop had their own stand.  It was the first place I visited.  They didn't have the machine at the shop, but there is a show special of $150 discount.  I've ordered the machine.  It has to come from Tauranga so will be in their Onehunga shop on Monday.  Can't wait.

In the meantime I looked around the other stands and bought some specialty scissors - applique and specially shaped scissors for trimming machine embroidery threads.  I enjoyed looking at all the beautiful quilts, but of course my main focus was on those that incorporated machine embroidery.  There weren't that many, so I snapped photos of those - inspiration!

These flower blocks were probably my favourite - just cause it looks like it might be something I might be able to do with my embroidery machine.

This was probably the one I liked most, but it also looks the most complicated.

Not too keen on the appearance of this one, but have included as an example of simple coloured thread on a black background.

Redwork.  I like this as well.

Not embroidery, but this yellow challenge wall of lots of wall hangings was so bright and cheerful I had to have a photo.

Loved this bird.  The stippling looks like a Maori design.

And some flower wallhangings

that's all for now.  Hopefully I'll post next week with a photo of my new sewing machine,however I may be too busy trying to learn how to use it to post!

BurdaStyle shirt, testing Northumberland Star block quilt

My mother has been having trouble finding the style of shirt in shops that she likes.  She likes ones similar to my New Look Shirt that I blogged about here.  She takes a larger size than I do and the New Look pattern isn't large enough for her, so I scoured my BurdaStyle magazines to find a pattern I could use for her.  I found #129 in the 11/2015 edition that I thought I would be able to adapt to her tastes.  This is the magazine photo:


There were a few changes I needed to make.  I didn't want long sleeves and instead of straight hems I wanted a curved hem.  I used my New Look pattern to redraft the bottom of the shirt and to change the sleeves.  Here is the completed shirt:

This shirt was fabric from Smart Dress Fabrics and cost $11 for 2.2m x 150cm

I have some more material to make her another shirt.  She has tried it on and it has turned out well, though next time I will make a narrow shoulder adjustment.

In my last post I mentioned I was interested in making a quilt using the Northumberland Star pattern. I've made up a couple of practice blocks to see how they turned out and to make sure I can do a decent job of it.  The one on the left was my first block and some of the joins are a bit out.  For the second one I followed a tip to use a scant 1/4 inch seam instead of a full 1/4 inch and it turned out much better.  I think I'll do another couple of blocks and turn these into a table runner.  If I'm still happy then a shopping trip will be needed to get fabric for a bed quilt. My favourite flowers are daffodils and I have a daffodil Maling plate on display on my dresser, so I'd love to find some daffodil fabric for the centre blocks.

StyleArc Barb pants and cross stitch Spirit of Winter framed, visit to quilt show

One clothing finish this week.  A pair of Style Arc Barb pants.  These are made from bengaline, the colour is called petrol and is a greeny blue.  Fabric was from Spotlight, unfortunately I forgot to record how much this was and how much fabric I had. I think around $20.

I got Spirit of Winter back from the framers this week.

 I've moved my cross stitch pictures around in my living room. I'm not so keen on some of the older pieces now.  The more recent ones I've done are so much more like paintings I really prefer these so want them to have pride of place.  This is the main wall behind my couch.

I also visited a quilters show put on by the Western Quilters circle.  There were some beautiful quilts there.

I'm quite keen on trying to make a quilt for my bed.  I've discovered a design called the Northumberland Star.  Being originally from the North East of England this seems an obvious choice for me to try.   I've found this tutorial here at Quilters Cache.
I'm practicing first by doing 3 blocks which I'll make into a table runner for my dining table.  If I'm any good at it and if I think I'll enjoy it, then I'll get some fabric to make a quilt.  I've pieced 2 blocks so far but no photos yet.