photos from the ASG sewing retreat

I thought I'd best share some photos of the weekend before I completely forgot to. Here's the outside of our sewing space.

and turning 180 degrees around the view was this, that sign you can barely see warns that the edge of a high cliff is close.

Here's the room where the 30 of us were set up, I placed my overlocker & sewing machine back to back and walked around the set up to use the overlocker - easier than moving the machines and their foot pedals.

 

The 2 winter skirts that I finished - am so disappointed that my PCOS belly has swollen up like this. I feel like I look pregnant, when I'm not! The accommodation is in the wings that surround this garden - the large "sewing" room is in a corner of the square. Decades of Style #3004, a favourite skirt pattern.

And this was taken almost a week later, in another park. (again sighing over my puku ngārara). This is a favourite Burda WoF pattern from December 2004, and a completed UFO.  I'd foolishly cut it out forgetting to add the seam allowances to my traced Burda pattern. So I had to cut another panel and insert it in the right side seam.  I over compensated and ignored my inner voice telling me to take half of it out. So part of the Sunday morning was spent unpicking 75% of the waistband, unpicking 1 of the 2 panel seams, narrowing the panel by half at the top & swooping it out again in the bottom quarter to mimic the shaping on the other side. Then overlocking the raw edge (I never overlock together), reseaming, and reattaching the waistband. I should never have ignored my inner voice.

Lastly, my pirate pants (KwikSew2529 with a longer leg).

I used up my remnant of pirate cotton knit, before I even made the yoga pants that I bought the fabric for (to wear around home). Hmm, I'm guessing that they're a missing UFO.

a productive, stashbusting weekend with an ASG group

My original Australian Sewing Guild group organised a weekend sewing retreat at The Tops at Stanwell Park, an hour south of Sydney and it was fabulous to spend an entire weekend sewing - setting up on Friday night & starting to sew then, sewing from before 9am to 11pm on Saturday taking meal breaks, and sewing til 2.30pm on Sunday when I had a natural stop with my project and packing up was at 3pm anyway. (By original I mean the first group I started attending, at Rhodes. I now bounce between 3 different Saturday groups in a month as I get more done away from housework & distractions, and have found a group for the other Saturday if I need it).

I'll post pics later tonight, and I got 5m sewn from stash including the khaki wool Decades of Style skirt that I'm wearing today, and also finished my brown wool UFO skirt from last year. I almost have the paisley blouse UFO complete. It's self drafted, and I made a drafting booboo. The front facing is 4cm too short! Because I was away from home I didn't have any suitable lawn or voile scraps to patch the end that last little bit. But the rest of the blouse is assembled now, and it only needs the facing fixed, the hem stitched and the buttons/buttonholes done. I'm going to fossick the scrap stash tonight. May have the original fabric but I suspect I tossed it as it wasn't in the UFO project bag with the rest of it.

A weekend of sewing was invigorating, and I came home and mopped my kitchen floor, and started to sprink clean it. At home I sew in my tiny kitchen and I've been avoiding the room because I haven't kept it up to scratch since my cleaner retired at the end of last year. So a kitchen spring clean is needed to help me want to be in the room and sew 20-30 minutes every day. Time to declutter a little so that i don't have to leave anything but a kettle & toaster on my tiny 40x50cm bench!

I also gave a 2metre piece of brown wool knit (probably merino) from my stash to Sharon who did all the organising - 30 of us were there! I bought it from Tessuti way back when they only had a Chatswood store. So possibly 20 years ago. At the time I wasn't familiar with sewing knit fabrics so it intimidated me and I didn't want to ruin it. These days with the inflammatory disorder I overheat in a rayon knit long sleeve top (only want 3/4 length) so wool would be crazy. She loves brown, and I knew she'd been trying to find a brown merino wool knit so it was an obvious thank you gift.

I really enjoy going to the sewing guild groups, there's a mix of personalities, skill levels and I'd love to encourage younger members to attend. I've always had much older friends (also much younger friends now) as well as my age group, so meeting a group with a slightly older average age didn't put me off. Finding a group that shares an enthusiasm for sewing is a good thing, and we don't need to have much else in common - I've never found age to be a barrier if you have a common interest and personalities. You can attend one or two meetings before becoming a member - if you want to see if you'd find it worthwhile. I go to 2 different groups in Alexandria and Rhodes depending on my diary, and am thinking of joining the Top Ryde 2nd Saturday of the month.

planning for a sewing retreat

I've got a weekend sewing retreat later this month, and I need to make sure I have a plan for my sewing time. I'm going to take more than I can physically sew - after all I do this for each Sewing Guild day. The smart thing is to also take things already cut out, so that it's all jam on the toast.

I thought I might as well start with some UFOs that I can use now.
- brown wool Burda WOF skirt, partly sewn
- aqua knit top - cut out
- 2 cotton shirts cut out.

I'm also going to cut out the khaki twill in my fave decades of style skirt pattern #3004, and the olive green in Butterick Retro 6257. I'm thinking of cutting out another knit top, to see if the SBCC T is a good fit for me - short & plus size sounds like me!

I may also take a corset with me - Sydney Supanova approaches and I'd like to make a new costume for it, but that requires an functional undergarment version of the 1890s, page 71 one from Corsets

bloomer steampunk is a winner

Yesterday I was able to go to the ASG 'industry day' thanks to the kindness of one of the other members, who's blog is Petite and Sewing. There was trackwork on the line to Wollongong, and I could never ever have sat on a railbus - physically incapable until my knee improves.

In the morning, there were a couple of  program parts by people, a couple of textile and other medium artists, and a woman who'd written a how to draft bodices (24 I think) from a basic shell that fits.  And in the arvo the parade with some of the stashbusting entrants.  There were some fabulous entries, and I was approx 60 metres short of standing a chance to win.

The winner had made 90-something metres and only 15cm ie 6" more yardage than the 2nd place winner.

I got to give a few words explaining steampunk, and spruik costuming & the ACG. yayyy.

To my huge suprise I won the judges choice of 'most unusual' for my bloomer steampunk :D  I got to pick from a table with some books and fabric - 1 from each.   This was my choice - I nearly said no to more fabric.  If I can't think of something good to use this as, I'll give it away. it's 2.5m of 150cm wide.  I also picked the DVD instead of the books. It covers stuff I already know but will be interesting to see and to loan to newer costumers.

If I've got this right, the stashbusting comp was started when a local member died suddenly early this year, and to quote the presenter "she won" ie who dies with the most fabric wins.  So I'm not sure if these came from her stash - they've been selling it off for some time.  It was originally a local group comp but became a statewide one.

oooh, I have sewed more than I thought since May

Last Sunday I tallied up my stash sewing entry for the Australian Sewing Guild stashbusting competition, and put my hand up for the parade at the ASG day this Saturday.

I never seemed to get the full rules so had to do a quick revision once I saw them on Kristy's blog lower your presser foot. They are: the projects had to be wearable, made since January 1 2013; from fabric that was in the stash prior to March 2013.  So, my revised total is 37.05m, and if I'd been able to include my curtains (finished in April) it would be 44.85m.

 That's a decent enough number especially when you consider that due to my evol and now former gallbladder, all this 37.05m stash sewing was sewn between early May to 3rd August!

Imagine if I'd been able to sew the whole year :D Also ineligible other than my curtains (7.8m), I also sewed another 7m with the hobbit apron & Catelyn gown. These weren't bought before March.
And if I'd got the buttonholes/buttons done on that 4 year ufo blouse, i could have counted that too. Eh, I still did well.
What I like about this parade is that I'm not going to be demanded to perform like a seal when the entry requirements *don't* require it. I can simply hobble around in my outfit. I don't even need to enter the parade, but I figure that I might as well showcase costume sewing.

All my sewing this year - other than the curtains - have been costumes! No wonder my work clothing is sadly diminishing. here's a teaser pic of the fabric I found in my stash for my next summer lawn blouse. Though I need to dye some linen/rayon herringbone a burgundy or plum colour.

And I'll re-use my self drafted pattern. I found it a couple of days ago {happy dance}