Ginger is 98%..................

A BOY!!

After a false start (the ultrasound place changed our appointment time without telling us!), we now have confirmation that we have a little boy on the way!

It was a little bit of a shock to me as I was convinced I was having a little girl, I now have warmed up to the idea of a curly red headed little boy, like Ben, who will wear courtesy of me, little overalls and check shirts, and cute, cute outfits.

Last night I bought the book sewing for boys, has anyone used it?

Now that we have found out Ginger's sex, I am going to start organizing my ideas in regards to the nursery. As I said in my previous post, I plan on basing the room around Sara Jane's Out to Sea theme if it was a boy. The colour pallet at this will be cream, blues, red and white.

I honestly can't wait to make or have a quilt out of the fabrics Sarah Jane has available. Has anyone seen any nice quilts in a nautical theme so I can get ideas.

Etsy and pin interest are two great place to get inspiration and ideas. I plan to make curtains, bunting, some cushions, bibs, a cover seat for my toy chest I had as a child and maybe a quilt, if I can't make the quilt, I'm going to commission it. Looking at you Rachel!

If you have any opinions on what I need or don't for the nursery I would be grateful as I don't have a clue, apart from a comfortable chair, cot, change table, wardrobe and pram of course!

Thanks for reading. 

Kat x

Count me in!

To do the Hollyburn skirt with the ever lovely Rachel from My Messings.

The sew along starts around the 21st of January. Check out Rachel's blog for more information!
I have some lovely wool from Darn Cheap and the Cloth shop, that would be great for post pregnancy in winter, I'll need to guess the waist size, but I have plenty of fabric for both to re cut the correct size later on.

I hope you sew along too!

The Maternity Plan.

Ladies, thank you so much for your well wishes, I was really touched by all the lovely comments.

I'm sorry I haven't reply to all of them, I have been frantically busy at work. Weekends seem to be as bad, I just want to drop relax, but with Christmas fast approaching I can't find the time. Thankfully I have sometime off from the 24th, this is the first year that I won't have to work over the holiday period.

This is the Christmas and onwards sewing plan, slightly ambitious given my lack of energy these days, but I hope to make the staples of my maternity wardrobe rather than buying majority of it.

 

 

I'm excited to be making the ruched maternity shirt, I have some cute pineapple yellow summer weight ponti and black and cream striped fabric purchased from Clegs, that will be perfect for this pattern.

I am wondering if an FBA will be needed. What are your thoughts, FBA yay or nay?







 

I've traced the parfait pattern, and made some maternity adjustments, I plan to make a top for a wearable toile and if it wears well I'll make the dress, which will be handy when nursing.

The simplicity pattern I have already made in blue polka dot woven fabric (view D), it was very cute, however when I went to wear it last Saturday, I found it didn't fit. I did some quick measuring to find out my bust had increased by another inch onto the 3 inches since I've been pregnant! Dear me, how far can you push bust adjustments? More than 5cm?

The burda maternity ruche skirt is a winner for me, this is completely work related, I think it will compliment the ruched shirt nicely. I'm yet to find fabric that will be suitable, but I think the navy will be perfect for work.

I bought this pattern off Sew Squirrel, I did have plans to make it, however this is now on the bottom of my list, I loved it when I bought it but not so much, why you ask? I have no idea.

I'm attending a wedding and an swanky engagement party in late January, I've decided I'll only be making one dress for both events, but I can't think of a pattern I want to make, I'm thinking a dressy maxi, as a long dress requires less beauty work (again limited time and energy to look nice. lol) Any advice on a easy maternity pattern or non maternity that I can alter?

I really love this leona edmiston dress, although its not a maternity style, I think it would flatter my bump. I don't think there is a chance of finding a similar style in a pattern that can be modified, so its not on the list.

Anyways, thats the plan, come what may.  Once again, thank you for all your well wishes!

The ultimate work in progress.

I've been a slow seamstress the last couple of months and its not all related to gardening and house projects. I have some works in progress, 3 dresses and a skirt, they just seem to be taking forever as I have no energy theses days. What I currently working on is my most important work in progress to date.

Meet Ginger!

I'm 17 weeks with Ginger as we affectionately call "her" (total speculation on our part).

The last few months have been rough with spectacular morning sickness, and chronic tiredness which seems never ending and pimples galore. I'm hoping that I'm on the back end of the nausea, as I've manage to lose 5.6kgs since I've been pregnant, lucky me eh? I've come to conclude that pregnancy is much like going through puberty.

It's not all bad news, Ginger is staying strong and I can feel her moving around now, which is really lovely. I'm hoping that I start enjoying my pregnancy once the morning sickness finishes up, hopefully by 18 weeks my doctor assures me. We find out the sex of Ginger in 3 weeks, I'm totally excited to find out. We plan to start working on the nursery in late December, the nursery will be themed, most likely with Sarah Jane fabric and I'm hoping to make a quilt out of the same fabrics.

As for maternity wear, I do plan to make a few items but the pattern I have found don't appeal to me. Any helpful suggestions?

A few ideas.

I had the pleasure to meet some wonderful ladies that sew via Rachel's Melbourne meet up and the other Rachel Social Sewing days. While I was at the last Social Sewing day, the matter of floral frocks and high tea event came up. I believe this was Melanie of Poppykettle's idea that she had been thinking of for sometime. I'm very keen to do these sorts of activities with like minded people, as I'm sure you are too.

I was hoping to see if there would be any interest in an event cross between Julia Bobbin's Mad Men Challenge and Oona's Promaballoona that would involve a night of fancy frocks, fun, cocktails and maybe a meal? I'm happy to organise this for next year as the silly season is almost upon us, if there is any interest of course. Please let me know if your interested, and any interstate-rs we could always arrange dates around you!

Also I'd like to organise a fabric shopping trip day. My sewing teacher has organised a few and I've been to two so far, they are very interesting days, but exhausting. Again, let me know who's interested, and will schedule it for 2013.

Spring time

Blink and September is gone, spring is finally here in Victoria and whilst we have some perfectly lovely weather we have had some horrible days like last Friday.

For the most part, I have taken advantage of every weekend to get my front garden and some parts of house in order.

The day after the meet up, we had a working bee in our yard. We didn't think we would get much done and boy were we wrong! Since then I have been using every sunny day of the weekend to my advantage, and I have to say the front yard is coming along nicely.

During September, I have planted camellia, hydrangeas, 7 David Austin, fox gloves, plenty of lavender, daisy and 12 other plants that I have no recollection of their names, I would like a cottage garden/ country look to our front yard.
The main colour  of the front garden is Apricot, all the roses are hues of Apricot, I've used existing shades of purple, white with touches of blue and red, I'll admit I'm not a fan of red but I refuse to rip out mature plants based on colour.

We have progress so much that we are now at the stage of ripping up the old brick/pebble path to lay new bricks, my father in law knew we were after old red's for paving and found just under 400 red bricks for $40 off eBay and he picked them up for us. What a good man.

We also plan to add to our steps up to the veranda, currently the steps are only good for one person to go up or down and don't have rails, so we plan to double the width and add rails on at least one side.
Ben is very keen on putting balustrades around the veranda and I couldn't think of anything worse! He has some time off in November to do house stuff, so I might come home one day to find balustrades, I have threatened divorce over the issue but he still resisting!

So that means little is going on, on the sewing front. On Saturday I went to the sewing social, I cut out Vogue 1247, I made a mistake by cutting my usual size rather than going down two sizes as recommended, so I'm hoping a bit of altering will work on this top. I'm making a muslin out of rayon from spotlight before I cut into my nice fabric, so if its a wadder, I don't mind.

It was a really nice day to sit and chat at the sewing social, I went for the chatting rather than the sewing, I'm definitely going again! It was a great idea of Rachel's, so well done on organising it Rachel!

I'm going to organise a give away soon, I still have more items that I don't need, and since I'm suppose to be decluttering our house, its a good excuse to be generous to others, and it allows for more room for fabric!!

Thanks for reading,

Kat

Swimmer, choice ahoy!

I've signed up for a swim wear class in November with the CAE.

I'm really looking forward to it, as we are renting a beach house with my sister and brother in law over New Years, I plan to swim as much as possible, hence the need for new swimmer.

I've always wanted to make some bathers as I find the fit on my lower half so hard, last time we had a beach holiday, I planned on spending big bucks on good quality swimmers, I tried 4 different shops, all different types of  bathers but nothing made me feel comfortable, which to me is more important than looking good.

As I want to use my class time wisely, I'm thinking about making a one piece, as the fitting might be easier? I'm very drawn to the Mrs Depew pattern (last image), as I think the grading won't be so much of an issue on my pear shaped figure. The one thing I'm wary about is I haven't seen any made up, there are thousands of sewing blogs out there and if no one has made one and blogged it, well in my experience its not good thing.

I have the first three patterns at home, but I'm willing to go another direction if I can find the right pattern.

Do you have any suggestions of good swim wear patterns with a vintage feel? Any advice or tips, would be greatly appreciated.

Kat

The blog list.

I'm sorry my post was so short yesterday, we had a working bee in our front garden and I had little time to post as were we doing some serious gardening, and paving etc. I am so sore today, surprisingly only on the left side, very weird. Even though I'm tired, I have to say it was a fantastic weekend and meeting you all was very rewarding.

I took a few minutes to look around at the meeting when we were at Time Out, and what struck me the most was all the smiling, the laughing, chatting and the wine in some people's cases. You know who you are. :)

I'm so glad that Rachel took the opportunity to organise the meet up. I had a fabulous time and I hope you did to! I'm also glad that Kirsty, Christy and Rachel came all the way to the meet up, what dedication! I'm toying with the idea of going to Sydney, but we'll see what happens...

One more thing ladies, regarding the bill well done! We almost had exact change, it goes to show, sewers are honest people, except for telling our partners how much the fabric costs.

Here is the list for the people who want it, feel free to share and blog. I've included hyperlinks on the blog name but just in case it doesn't work, I've listed the address too.
Kat (me) All the whimsical things http://sewingwithpatience.blogspot.com.au/
Robyn: Sew love red  http://sewredrobyn.blogspot.com.au/
Rachel: Boo dog and me http://boodogg.blogspot.com.au/
Rachel: My messings http://mymessings.blogspot.com.au/
Kirsty: Rocket Sews http://rocketsews.otheredge.com.au/
Leith: Sew Brunswick http://sewbrunswick.blogspot.com.au/
Lara: Thornberry thornberry.wordpress.com/
Melanie: PoppyKettle http://poppykettle.blogspot.com.au/
Helen: Funkbunnys kitchen garden http://funkbunnysgarden.blogspot.com.au/
Christy Little Betty http://littlebettydesigns.blogspot.com.au/
Rachel: The two windmills http://thetwowindmills.wordpress.com/
Sarah: Sewsquirrell http://www.sewsquirrel.com.au/
Kirsty: Rocketsews http://rocketsews.otheredge.com.au/
Tj: The perfect nose http://theperfectnose.wordpress.com/
Belle: Bella's Collectanea of Sewing http://www.bellacollectanea.com

Fabulous ladies who are blog-less.
Anna
Catherine
Heather
Sue A

Please let me know if I've left anyone out.

Also if anyone wants to meet up sooner rather than later, I'm happy to meet in any areas of Melbourne, feel free to drop me a line at Allegravintage@gmail.com

Thanks for reading.

Kat

Melbourne sewist catch up!

What a friendly bunch of people you all are!

I had a delightful time, I got to the city at about 12, wandered down to Clegs picked up some need supplies, then went straight to the Nicholson building, and then on to Tessuti's. It was surreal to see Rachel by the remnant table talking to the bloggers I knew! I knew some bloggers by the clothes they were wearing and others were new to me. Here are some of the photos I snapped at various times through the day. I hope you like them.



Kirsty, Tj and Melanie

Sue, Robyn and Lara

Melaine, Kirsty and Tj again!

Lara, Sue A and Robyn

Christy, Rachel, Leith and Catherine

Sarah, you crack me up lady.

Sarah, Rachel and Belle

Me, Heather and Sue.

Belle and I

My engagement ring and Belle's engagement ring.

I can't wait till the next catch up, I can just imagine it will be bigger and better.

If you would like a copy of the photos, a list of all the blogs, a chat or anything else, please email me at allegravintage@gmail.com
Please remember to link back to my blog if you plan on using the photos on yours.

(Hearts on fire) Ava top

This little pretty is my new Ava top.

This time around I decided to make the top version with the cute little cap sleeves.

I made a few minor changes, I increased the FBA, and use bias binding for hem to give it a bit of a flounce, the biggest change I made to this version was to put a zip in the center back above the peplum, and for the upper back section I folded each side over twice and stitched the sides down (I forget the technical term for it), I made a little loop and added a button to the other side for easy access to get my head through.

It came together quite quickly, although again I had trouble with the sweetheart V, it took a few tries to get it right. In this photo, the sweethearts neckline it looks like it has folds, and looks rumply which isn't the case IRL.

Train sewing, a great way to pass the time.

The cap sleeves are super cute and as you can see from the photos, the upper bust section is dotted Swiss as well as the cap sleeves,I bought it from the Clegs remnant sale, one metre for $4, which is a bargain. The on the edge of the sleeves the dotted balls hang down slightly which makes for an interesting feature. The main fabric is satin back crepe I believe, purchased from Alannah Hill outlet.


I love this top and the style, but I have really struggled to find the appropriate bottom to go with the top, which my hold me back from wearing this more often, and from making about 10 more. If you have any suggestions, I greatly welcome them.

I'll post more photos when I get the chance as the last two was taken in my work's bathroom. I washed my hands, promise. Ewww. :)

I have plans to make the short dress version with liberty lawn and ecru lace but still trying to find the lace......then I think I'm done with this pattern, maybe I'll try one the new Victory patterns.

Where will you be this Saturday?

Christmas cross stitch.

I know where I'll be.........at Rachel's Melbourne Sewist meet up!

Just in case you didn't know about the meet up already, the lovely Rachel from Boo Dog and Me blog is organising a sewist meet up for all those people who love to sew and craft in the Melbourne Area.

We'll be meeting at Tessuti's at 1.30pm this Saturday the 18th and then going for coffees and cake at Time Out Cafe at 3pm. (Click on the Tessuti's link for the store address if you need it.)

I have plans to go to the Nicholas building before the meet up to see what new stock l'uccello and Button Mania have available, then walk my way up Little Collins to Tessuti's, I hoping to get there around noon, so if your early, come for a wander.

Just in case you don't know what I look like, I'll be the girl in the bright yellow dress!

Hope to see you there!!!

Thanks for reading,

Kat

A complaint

I love sale time, I admit I'd much rather buy something on sale than part with more money than I have too, reasoning I can spend the same amount yet get twice as much. Any one who sews will understand about being in love with $34+ per meter fabrics but not being able to justify 4 metres of it to be added to the stash. I'm on many fabric stores mailing list, which is bad for my bank balance and my stash.

On the 16th of June, I received an email from the Melbourne fabric store, advising of the start of their sale, the mailing list (VIP) members received 40% off store wide if you went in before Friday the 20th. After that the sale would be 30% off store wide.

Understandably, I wasn't interested in going as at that stage as couldn't get into the store with working full time.

I forgot about the sale until I received another email on Saturday morning 21/7 advising most wool was now 50% off, great I thought, thinking of the McCall's Coat pattern I recently
purchased. I was hoping for a red, pink or plum wool suitable for the coat.
I went in that day when we were in the area looking for furniture, darling Ben waited very patiently almost until the end. :)

It was quiet in there store, the ladies there were friendly, offering their assistance and taking bolts of fabric to the counter for me. I had a pleasant hour wandering around and then purchasing my fabric, I didn't get any wool as they didn't have the colours I wanted.

To the complaint part; today I received an email from the fabric store advising of that all* fabrics were now 50% off for the last 5 days till August the 12th!

I thought of the $100+ I spent (I'm not telling exactly how much :)), and I started to get annoyed, this seemed to happen to me on a regular basis with their sales.

I question the marketing strategy of the fabric store, they want customers to come in early and buy up, yet they will reward the customers that come in last with a bigger discount!

I don't flatter myself that I'm the only one that this is happened to, but this is the third time I have gone to one of the Melbourne Fabric stores sales and days later the sale is a percentage lower, so I thought I'd voice my opinion and frustrations.

I understand what running a business is like, in all businesses, even the big ones you have to watch the P&L, the margins, inventory etc, but at the same time you have to keep your customers happy, as without them you'll be won't be in business.

I'm not saying that I'll be won't be shopping there again, but I won't be going out of my way either which what I have done in the past, and since I live in an hour and 20 minutes away, I don't see how often I'll go there now.

Saying all that I have to say: I have receive good service at the Brunswick st. store, the ladies are friendly without being pushing, and they will help during sale time.

I got some lovely fabric from store (in the photo its the Karen Walker cotton stripe, Blue cotton silk animal print, raspberry silk seersucker, and pink and blue Milly fabric) I don't regret the purchasing the fabric as they are just lovely, but as I could of save over $50 it kinda hurts.

If you haven't been yet I would advise going before the sale ends. Get a bargain, cause I didn't.

Thanks for reading.

Kat

WIP

Simplicity 2444

Simplicity 2444 is more than half way done, need some front skirt alterations.

I had Monday off due to an unfortunate car incident, luckily we've been really quiet at work, so it didn't cause any problems.

I cut out New Look 6130, the colour is a blend of teal and mint green fabric is from Darn Cheap in Heidelberg when we had our sewing class shopping day. I have enough left over to squeeze a Sorbetto top without the fold, it will be the original length which for me is to short, but it will be a good top to wear with skirts. The fabric has a cute woven Circe pattern running through it.

No photos to show but I'm so close to finishing my knit dress made of Ponte from the Clegs remnant sale, I'm calling it my $12 dress. I'll get some photos tonight.

What are you working on?