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

Its been awhile since I did a sewing room update and I have a couple new finds to share! My Janome Décor Excel is nearly 15 years old now, the bobbin winder barely works plus the stitch selector doesn't show up properly either. I did upgrade to a Janome 6030 back in the middle of the year but was quite honestly underwhelmed and a bit disappointed. Its a nice basic machine but it just wasn't the workhorse that I wanted. So I bit the bullet and have had a Janome MC8900 on layby for months now and finally picked it up! Its a lovely machine, massive and strong. I bought from the local Janome dealer and got to trial it first and fell in love with it. It wasn't worth trading the 6030 in but I can use it as a travel/sewing bee machine. Other additions to the sewing room is the zipper stand and zippers and a pattern drawer I picked up at a deceased estate sale, I also got a proper clapper and a wooden sleeve board (so fancy after using a lump of timber for the last c...

... patterns and fabrics coming through my door, but no little packages of 'time' being delivered!  Don't you just hate having to work - it soooo interrupts sewing plans! Not to worry, only 4 more teaching days for this term and then 2 whole weeks up my sleeve to sew ... But, in the meantime, I have been jazzing up the old sewing room in readiness. First I started with the chairs - originally they where the unwanted study chairs. You know the type - plain, boring old grotty black chairs that had seen their day. But a fresh padding of foam, some lovely new fabric and I have 2 great chairs... These where followed by a revamp of the poor old sewing ironing board, with enough fabric left over to  cover the corkboard used for my inspirations ... I know, a blank board meaning I am not inspired at the moment :( Gotta love a sewing room when it starts to come together ... just need to drill in the holes for the cords in my new Ikea table tops and I will be all set ... And did any...

I get issues of Threads on my iPad (so much easier and cheaper than buying the paper copies) and the latest issue has about drafting a bodice block. I've been thinking about drafting one for a while ever since I got my pants block so I thought I'd give it a go. It was easier than I thought, I did originally get my husband to help measure but ended up doing most of the measurements myself (so even if you don't have a fitting buddy you can do it yourself). It worked like magic, the fit straight from the paper fit really well, I kind of feel like if you could draft a couple of hundred years ago you would have been burned as a witch (but only if you weighed as much as a duck *) I did do a 1" FBA and turned it into shoulder princess seams (the article showed how to) then on the actual muslin I did a sway back adjustment of 1" plus a sloping shoulder adjustment. A couple of tips if anyone wants to do one; Stay stitch around the neckline and armholes before fitting, I d...