End of Volume 4: Fugitives

I'm not sure how many of you out there are fans of Heroes, but I love it! When I watch a new episode, I end up experiencing a mixture of satisfaction (due to the great storylines, characters, superhero powers) and impatience (I wanna know what happens next!)


Admittedly there are some episodes that ignite other emotions in me - for instance, in 'Five Years Gone' (Season 1, Episode 20) when we got a peek at all the characters battling it out in the future, all I could think of was 'This is AMAZING!!'

Actually I lie. I also thought of a bunch of other things - 'I wish I could fly'... 'I wonder what colour the sparks would be if I could blast someone with superhero electricity from my palms'... 'The things I could do if I could stop time'... 'I wonder if I would end up looking older than my friends if I stopped time too often'...

Anyhoo, my point is that I am generally very happy with the show and the twists and turns of each story arc.

Then I watched the 'An Invisible Thread', the season finale for Season 3, and the final chapter of Volume 4: Fugitives. I'm all for a grand season finale, and even puttinjg up with a cliffhanger is, I think, acceptable. Annoying, but acceptable (how else will they keep viewers interested in an episode that airs half a year later?). Still. I don't know if it was just me, but all I am going to say is I really didn't like what happened to Nathan. I won't expand on this as you may either not care, or not have seen the episode yet, but if you're interested you can check out the recap.

An interesting TV Guide article has given me a little insight as to what the actors have to say about the finale and future plans for Volume 5: Redemption, but I think I am going to remain slightly disgruntled for awhile. Maybe until I get to see the next episode of Gossip Girl.

Another distraction - the Stylish Dress Book

I was soooo excited to get this package in the mail! After seeing several blogs such as Japan Craft Journal and Domesticali mentioning this Japanese pattern book and after always admiring the simplicity and clean lines of some Japanese clothing, I knew I had to get my grubby little hands on one of these.



After a bit of research, I decided I would buy the book from a seller on Etsy. Landmark moment - my first Etsy purchase - and I was happy I picked well since the book arrived in speedily from Japan, and in pristine condition, so thanks very much to ichigonopantsu!

Even though I can't read Japanese, the illustrations in the book seem clear enough, so hopefully when the time comes for me to have a go at one of these patterns (ideally after everything on my to-do list has been completed!), I won't be too confused.



There are a couple of patterns I am really liking, but am refraining from getting carried away until I have proper time to sit down and plan what I want to make. In the meantime, check out some of the designs below.



Thoughts?

Back!!

Finally back to blogging after several weeks of blog neglect. Lots has happened but unfortunately no craftiness (the good kind!) on my part. I have been busy busy busy with a bunch of things, most importantly that one of my dearest friends just got married! I was lucky enough to be asked to be a bridesmaid - I felt SO honoured - and so was busy with the other bridesmaids planning the hen's weekend and working with the bridal party to make the day as great as we could.



The big day took place on Saturday - the bride looked stunning, the weather held up and a good time was had by all so I think mission accomplished and credit to everyone involved!

Now that I am settling back down to normalcy (my feet still hurt from wearing those stupid shoes for almost 24 hours) I am slightly aghast at how little I have done with regards to my to-do list! Some might say that the whole point of making the list is to ignore it, but I have to disagree in this instance since I am so far behinds schedule!

I have reproduced the list below:

1. Putting in an elastic waist on a pair of PJ pants
2. Hemming up some baby PJ pants
3. Enlarging another pair of PJ pants I made (I didn't have the person's measurements so I guessed - and guessed very wrongly!)
4. Hemming up a pleated wool skirt for a friend (my first alteration on fine wool - so will need to be very careful with it)
5. Making a nappy bag (Butterick B4560)
6. Finishing up the blue silk dress/top once I decide what I want to do with it.
7. Re-pleating my yellow polka-dot top
8. Pulling apart and remeasuring my summer maxi dress (which most likely won't be worn for months as it is getting nearer to winter now)
9. Making a dress for my friend Charlie's birthday - we picked the Butterick B5176 pattern after a lot of umm-ing and ahh-ing.

As a look through it it is pretty obvious that it's the big things that I have done nothing about *sob* so I think it is time to get moving again. On the upside, I haven't had time to go shopping for fabric to add to my ever growing stash *hurrah*

In terms of priority - item number 9 has a deadline in a few days so I may have to beg for a bit of an extension - hopefully there won't be any disappointment with the final result. Wish me luck!

Etsy inspiration

I was just browsing through Etsy today and thought I would share a few of the amazing things I saw. I am continually impressed by the creativity of the crafters and artisans who sell their wares on this site.


1. Mini fabric sew on buttons by mwenda
2. Gold branch earrings by roundabout
3. Amigurumi by Melissa Sue
4. TANYA half apron for little girls by BloomWoosie
5. Sock Monkeys by muffintopdesigns
6. The Metro Wallet with elephants on green by jenniferladd
7. Small Coin Purse Sheep Pink by fieldofroses
8. Purple Raining painting Acrylic on Canvas by rockythezombie
9. Truffle in forest green by morelle

Do you have any Etsy favourites to share?

Results and plans

The results are in - a whopping 79% voted for the pleated option for the top I blogged about in my last post, so that is going to be added to my sewing to-do list!

Thanks everyone who voted and commented :)

Speaking of to-do lists - mine is really building up and I think I need to get organised. Since I get easily distracted and work in spurts, I have a few things that have been pushed to the side the excitement of starting a new project and they tend to get forgotten about - so I've decided to make a list to refer to and keep a record of what I have completed here on the off-chance that I will feel a bit more accountable for finishing what I have started!
Sewing To-Do List (in no particular order)
1. Putting in an elastic waist on a pair of PJ pants
2. Hemming up some baby PJ pants
3. Enlarging another pair of PJ pants I made (I didn't have the person's measurements so I guessed - and guessed very wrongly!)
4. Hemming up a pleated wool skirt for a friend (my first alteration on fine wool - so will need to be very careful with it)
5. Making a nappy bag (Butterick B4560)
6. Finishing up the blue silk dress/top once I decide what I want to do with it.
7. Re-pleating my yellow polka-dot top
8. Pulling apart and remeasuring my summer maxi dress (which most likely won't be worn for months as it is getting nearer to winter now)
9. Making a dress for my friend Charlie's birthday - we picked the Butterick B5176 pattern after a lot of umm-ing and ahh-ing.

As you can see it is a bit of a list with some items a lot bigger than others. Hopefully ticking off each item on the list as I go will be satisfying enough to keep me going!

My first pleating experience (Vogue V2975)

Based on feedback from my previous blog post (OK just the one - thanks RavenRant) and also non-blog feedback from others, I decided I would try my hand at the top from the Vogue V2975 pattern.

I've been keen to try my hand at pleats for quite awhile now so I was pretty excited to get started. Notes from the process:

Material
100% quilting cotton purchased in a sale. I liked the colours and patterns of the fabric and so did mum so we ended up buying 6 metres of it to share. Quilting cotton is great to work with - strong and soft.

Pattern (Vogue V2975 : View B)
Pattern was straightforward and ended up looking exactly like as shown in the technical drawing. There was a note stating that the zip for the back may need to be shortened - I glanced at it briefly, but decided that I'd forgo the zip entirely and put in a button or clasp instead as the top looked quite roomy. Turns out none of the fasteners were necessary at all so I was pleased about that.

Beginners take note that there aren't explicit instructions to clip and notch the fabric seams when you turn the facings outward, so as a novice myself, I was a little concerned at what seemed to be a lot of ugly pulling that ironing couldn't fix. I finally worked it out when I read the notes that preceded the step-by-step instructions. I'm still learning so doing this hasn't become second nature for me yet.
(Apologies about the quality of the 'back' picture. Also note that the top hasn't been hemmed yet.)

As you can see, the back fits well. I am not very happy with the front unfortunately. As I mentioned earlier, the top looks exactly like the pattern, but is meant to fit someone with a wider body perhaps? The pleated area sags as there is just too much material there. I think if there was one pleat panel left, it would look perfect, however that messes up the symmetry of the pleating.

Would I do it again?
Yes, once I work out the best (and preferably easiest) way to alter the pattern so that it sits well.

As the top is overall very wearable, I'm keen to try to alter the front somehow. Does anyone have any tips to share? I had a couple of options in mind but I don't know how well they will work out - the pics are a rough indication of what they could look like courtesy of my hands and a couple of bobby pins:

I'm going to take my first poll on this - please vote on which option you think I should attempt!

poll by twiigs.com

Piggy Bank

Apparently 'suboo' means “piggybank” in Myanmar!

Amusing.

Fabric covered buttons

I recently bought a great trench coat from Jigsaw at a bargain price - I got around 90% off due to faulty buttons! The original buttons were covered with thick threads that were fraying and looking all sorts of ugly, so I decided to replace the buttons with brand new ones. Unfortunately I couldn't find any nice replacements that were the right size, so I decided to cover the buttons with some black fabric following this great tutorial from CraftPudding.

The pictures aren't too clear but I think they serve the purpose. I blame the bad lighting, and crazy flash on my camera in combination with the black material has made the black fabric blend with itself so it looks a little... black.


As you can see, the result of this little project are buttons that look fine from the front, so I am quite happy with the result. The only part I'm not too keen on is the red stitching you can see around when you lift the buttons up. This is due to the fact that I used some red embroidery thread to secure the fabric to the button around the shank - I didn't realise it would be quite as visible as it is.


I am pretty sure I can live with it - especially since it would mean that I would have to re-stitch the buttons to the coat again, and I really don't enjoy hand sewing anything!

More and more

I can't stop buying fabric!


24 metres all up. Waiting for the sun to shine so I can give them all a wash.

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