Mirroring Suzy Bee Sews - Life So Strange It Should Be Fiction

  This jumper makes me so happy! I found this fleece fabric in Spotlight on a day trip to Warrnambool , its been sitting on my sewing desk for a few weeks now while I've been thinking about it. I had ideas of a hoodie or a peacoat but seeing Bobbin and Baste's top helped me simplify and make a basic jumper. I've made the Renfrew top before but I wanted a lot more ease in this top so its a sz16 at the shoulders and graded out to approximately a 22-24 from the armholes down, plus added an extra 1" to upper arm width and did a 1" FBA which I eased into the side seam. I made a muslin out of stash fleece and wore it around yesterday and then also added 2" to the length, forward shoulder of 1", lowered the neckline by 1" and dropped the armhole down by 1". The pocket is a patch pocket traced from a hoodie I have. I twin-needled the neck band and wristbands. Insides are all overlocked. The hem band could be a little tighter, I haven't worked with...

... is it only just little old me Down Under having issues with the Dashboard on Blogger at the moment?!? All I can see on the Dashboard page is one blog post at a time ... When I click on 'View more' to see what's happening out in our big sewing world ... well ... nothing! So I can only see the one latest post on blogs I follow.  Is anyone else having this problem ... I have worked through the Feedback section, but haven't heard back from them yet ... only bonus is it is freeing up a lot of my time sitting at the computer, so a little sewing is getting seen to ... J

Replace all these rooms with "Sewing Room"   EDIT:  I HAVE MOVED AND EVERYTHING IS GONE Sorry for the long silence, which will continue a bit longer because...I just got back from my closing and I'm moving!  Next week!  Just 5 blocks, but it takes the same amount of work as moving 1200 miles (as I did when I moved from Texas to DC).  I have been in my condo 10 years.  Ten.years. worth of accumulation.  Before that I had moved every year or 1.5 years after moving out of the house for college.  So I was somewhat lean--but even only somewhat lean then.  In the intervening 10 years my worldly possessions have grown to become what could politely be described as "portly." Obviously, the sewing room, along with everything else, is going through a serious culling.  I always thought my sewing room in my condo was small.  Well, I didn't know from small compared to the sewing room in the new place.  But at least there is a sewing room. Th...

I've made this pattern a few times now (bengaline version here , and a few unblogged about pairs in Ponte). I love the ponte versions, they are my go to work pants but the cheaper ponte does seem to pill up really fast. This ponte is from Rathdowne Fabrics , it has a light diagonal stripe through it and is soft as butter while still being medium weight. It will be interesting to see how it wears. As much as I love a pull-on pant I do miss pockets so this pair has a zippered pocket in the front. I put the zipper in facing the opposite way that I wanted but it doesn't worry me as much as I thought when wearing them. To make the zipper pocket I made a window using interfacing (place right sides together of fabric and interfacing, stitch the window, slit and pull the interfacing through and then iron the interfacing into place), topstitched in the zipper and then topstitched the actual pocket which means there is only a single layer of material for the pocket instead of the usual t...

My version: I reprinted out the pattern (properly this time!) and can now tell you that these are a sz XL with 2cm added to the inner leg seam and 2cm taken from the front side seams. I also took a wedge out of the side of these to get rid of some excess fabric that was pooling there and it also helped straighten up the legs. Not sure whats going on with my face in these, chalk it up to teenage daughter induced stress! Fabric is a black matt knit (same as last pair) and a digital print ponte from Spotlight. I changed the waistband on these to a folded over one, I personally find it a lot more comfortable than an elastic one. Ambers version: Hers are a sz S graded out to a M at the waist with 1.5cm added to the inner leg seam only at the top (like Sunni talks about here ). I lengthened these to a full length pair for her and basted them together for a fitting, she has extra width at the calf but are very close fitting at the ankle. The side seams do twist around a bit, next version ...

The boyfriend went to India for work(!!!) a couple of years ago, and brought me back a beautiful silk sari.  I had been sitting on the fabric for about 2 years, waiting for the perfect pattern.  The fabric is excellent quality but lightweight, so I didn't want anything that would put too much strain on the seams--but I can't wear shapeless so it had to have some waist definition.  A tall order!  I made my knit version of Vogue 8631 as a test of the pattern for my special fabric and it passed the test. I am hoping that the kimono look is one that never goes out of style.  Here is a Carolina Herrera ($799 on Gilt Group) version. Other than making it in a woven, adding a zipper, and using the long sleeve, I didn't change a whole lot from the last version of this dress I made .  I had already adjusted the crossover not to gape on my small bust and everything else fit pretty well.  The only real change I made was to add some length to the bodice.  I ...

... to the Dark Side, during my blogging absence of late, to the side of .... wait for it .... knitting!  It's not that I live in a cold climate and need woollies to wear ~ Brisbane is far from being considered an icy city at any time of the year. But knitting does tend to keep me busy during the nights when I can't sleep, and the family did complain about the sewing machine running at 2am in the morning (go figure that one!) So knitting needles it was to be, click clacking away under the blanket of darkness and making a cardi was a simple choice. With not having clicked the old needles for a few years I found a simple pattern, no buttons or buttonholes and a plainish style to wake my old fingers up with. My hands seemed to have some memory of what to do and it felt like old times very quickly. This is the pattern that I 'planned' to follow ... Creative Knitting Spring 2103 How lovely does that simple cabled front band look, worked in reverse stocking stitch ~ classi...