Brrrrr

It's too cold in Melbourne. It's nearly December and it hailed yesterday. Booooooo

Sew Cool!

More bad puns - but also part of a name of a book I saw today in Lincraft.

It is also what I think of my now finished practice dress!

3/4 view

The aim of the practice dress was to teach myself how to sew using bad material and an easy pattern, so I wouldn't be worrying about making mistakes and wasting money in true tightass fashion. This painfully slow exercise has taught me how to do the following:

1. Sew a zipper (badly)

2. Hem a skirt (I cheated)

3. Follow paper patterns

4. Sew pleats

5. Make darts - and randomly (stupid pattern didn't mark them down)

6. Change the foot of a sewing machine

7. Wind, fix and thread a bobbin

8. Make gathers

9. Understand the terms stay-stitch, baste and selvedge

I am sure there is some other random stuff that I battled with - and the end result is nothing near perfection - but then I must say I am pleased that it looks like a dress and I can totally see where I made mistakes and how to avoid them for the real thing.

Front view

Yes I cheated and made things up, but if you saw this 'easy' pattern I used, you would understand that sewing from these instructions with no prior experience is not an easy task. I would liken the confusion to chemistry class back in high school, where you get told to mix chemicals using a bunsen burner but then you have to figure out how to light the burner yourself without blowing up the classroom. You get to the end result usually after several unsuccessful attempts that involve personal pain (burning in chemistry, getting stabbed with pins in sewing), general mistakes (mixing wrong chemicals vs cutting/stitching wrong bits) and then making up for the mistakes (stealing more chemicals out of the lab/unpicking every stupid stitch you slaved over).

Sew yes, I think the result is sew sew cool - and I don't care if that sounds daggy :)

Missing a Shred

I missed day 3 of the Shred. I blame it on my *cough* *cough* busy schedule. I am now trying to work out if missing day 3 means I do 9 days of level 1 instead or I tack on another day to make it 10 (over the course of 11 days).

I am sure no one really cares. I wonder sometimes how much I care seeing as I sit there watching America's Next Top Model Cycle 11 (Lauren Brie was so good looking in pics I thought) while eating Milo from the tin.

Bad. But YUM :D

Sew Easy...?

Like the pun?

I have decided to learn how to sew and have now purchased a pattern and some cheap cotton to test out. I hope sewing doesn't go the same way as a lot of my other hobbies - exciting for a week and then dumped into a corner to gather dust. I figure I am unemployed, I have access to a machine, and sewing should be a good break from my internet addiction - plus clothes where I am living seem to be super expensive these days - what up with that?? - so if I am somewhat successful, I will have gained a skill and eventually saved some cash on clothes.

Wish me luck.

The Shred

Today after lying in bed feeling somewhat sorry for myself and incredibly bored, I decided it was time to do something and up my endorphin levels. So enter the "30 Day Shred" DVD by Jillian from the Biggest Loser. From what I gather, there are 3 levels that you can do, and the aim is to do Level 1 for the 1st 10 days, Level 2 for the 2nd 10 days, and then (surprise surprise) Level 3 for the final 10 days.

So. Today I had a go at Level 1. Now I knew I was unfit, but boy am I unfit! Still, its all about perseverance and I have heard that after about 7 days on Level 1, it gets really easy to do.

For those of you who know me, perseverance is not my strong point. I get easily distracted, especially by bright shiny objects. Or food. *YUM*

So I am hoping by posting this up online, it is proof to the 3 people who read my blog (if at all) that I am going to try my hardest to keep it up. After all, its not like I have anything else to do right now :P

The only issue is how I am going to use the tv in the lounge room for exercise without anyone sitting there and watching me (we have visitors for the next week or so). I'd hate to subject them to the sight of me woefully attempting crunches. Hmmmz....

ZZZZZzzzzz

Seeing as I am unemployed and still in limbo (see previous post) I am reverting back to my standard sleeping patterns of catching zzzs at about 3-4am and emerging from my bed at 11am the earliest. Seeing as none of my friends/family in the country I am in actually keep to these sleeping patterns, I wonder why it is that I seem to end up doing this. The result of this is tha most of the time I wake up too late to go and have lunch with my employed friends, and then am up bright and chipper when they want to leave me and jump into bed.

I wonder if there is someone/thing to blame for this. Nature or nurture.. what say you?

(btw my parents would kill me if I said it was nurture!)