Me- Made -May-'13 Week One

I have decided to join the memademay'13 challenge this year as I am one of those sewers (probably one of many) who makes up all of these fab outfits and never wears them! Why is that I wonder? Most likely because I find some gorgeous fabric and gorgeous dress pattern, fantasise about how fantastic it is going to look (and how great I am going to look in it), sew it up and then realise I have no where to wear it. But why not wear them every day? Having a challenge like this is forcing me to be creative with the outfits I have sewn. Why not wear a gorgeous evening dress and make it a bit more "day like" with a denim jacket or knitted cardy. 

I have pledged to wear or sew something every day in May. I've decided that my kids can be involved too because I have sewn a lot of clothes for them.

I started a little late into May but have been adding pics to Nine Stitches on Instagram whenever I can. Here are a few shots from the past week at home (mostly in the kitchen)

From top left clockwise: Joni Bell Sleeve Top, Capelet (yet to blog about) free pattern coming soon!

Bat Boy Cape, a Beanie my mum made for me, Shift dress from Burdastyle

Modern Vintage sewing competition and finally Petal pushers.

Pictures can also be viewed at Nine Stitches on Instagram

Oliver's Big Heart

Ok, I know this is a blog about my sewing but I am so proud of my son at the moment that I just have to share with my fellow sewers.
My seven year old son Oliver raised money for the Childrens Cancer Center by having his hair shaved off.
He initiated the idea himself and raised over $600 for the charity.
Here is his own little blog about it.

http://oliverprysten.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/the-head-shave.html

Gridlock Tailored Jacket WIP and fabric giveaway...

Tessuti are currently running a sewing competition using their fabric called "Gridlock". You can sew anything you like using this fabric for your chance to win $1000! Sounds great, so of course I went online and ordered a couple of meters.

I was in the middle of sewing my Hot Summer Rose outfit when the comp started so didn't really get going on it until about a week ago. I had my mind set on sewing a tailored jacket for some reason. Perhaps because I have seen some great tailored jackets on the runway and RTW lately. I envisioned a pair of tailored shorts to go with it. The comp finishes tomorrow night (April 3rd) when I will be sailing the high seas to Tasmania with my boys. Unfortunately I am nowhere near finished, in fact I really have just started as far as tailored jackets go. It has taken me a week to cut all the many many pieces of muslin, lining, organza, lining, canvas etc etc. I have just started hand sewing the canvas to the front.

Love this look

Even though I won't be able to enter it in the comp, I am still eager to get it done. Here is my work in progress report so far.

I traced all the seams and notches onto the calico to create a muslin. I also thread marked all of the seam lines. I had thought about skipping this process as I had googled it and alot of people had thought it was a bit of a waste of time but I totally disagree. I think that it has saved me alot of heartache down the track. It makes lining up the seams really accurate.

I made a few adjustments to the muslin. 

Thread marked all of the seams. I went off a bit on a few...oops!

I tailored tacked all of the markings from the calico muslin onto the Gridlock fabric



Catchstitching the canvas to the darts

So this is as far as I got before leaving for Tassie. More to come...

I have 80cm of this Gridlock fabric from Tessuti to give away. Fabric is a double-sided Jacaranda blue/ivory 77% Poly 21% Cotton 2% Elastane jacquard. Width:125cm 

I think it would be the perfect amount for a cute little A line skirt or some funky shorts or maybe a vest? 

Check out these amazing creations made for the competition at Tessuti and congratulations to the winners. Just leave a comment below and sign up to follow me. I'll pick a random "winner" on April 30th.

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