Sew U x 2

I'm excited - I picked up my Xmas present from my mum today from Dymocks. Yes, a bit late for Xmas, but they had to be ordered in from whereever books are made so they arrived today. I must say I am quite impressed that they now send SMSs to notify customers to pick up their orders.

Anyhoos, I thought I would share my excitement since it has been quite awhile since I have been this interested or stuck to something for a long-ish period of time (i.e. more than a month).

I'm currently reading through the first of the 2 books by Wendy Mullin titled 'Sew U'. It's about sewing (*duh*) and her approach is to teach people the basics and then explain how you can change a plain item into something completely different by altering the design slightly or adding some embellishments.




The 2nd book, 'Sew U: Home Stretch', builds on the first book but deals with stretch materials, which are a whole different kettle of fish. A quick glance through it has made me think I need an overlocker but seeing as I am broke, and lacking space, I may not be working with stretch materials in the near future. I do however want to be able to make a hoodie, so watch this space.



For any blossoming seamspeople (is that a word?) out there, I highly recommend these books (especially Sew U) based on what I have seen so far.

Best bit about these books is that they each come with 3 basic sewing patterns. Meh you might be thinking, what's the big deal about that? Well let me tell you, all other books I have seen either provide patterns for things that are not to scale, or are rough drawings that you have to draft into patterns. The way I see it, what's the point? Nice pictures of finished items are great and all, but I don't really see them helping me along with developing my sewing skills.

If all goes well, you may see creations using the patterns from the book in my blog somewhere along the line *yay*

2009

Happy New Year peeps!

So 2009 is going to kick 2008's behind. Mainly coz 2008 was pretty crap but I think it is time to put all of that behind me and look forwards. So. Got a few resolutiony type things that I won't bore anyone with esp since I will most likely break them but I think, hopefully, I will stick to a few bits and pieces and achieve a couple of things before 2010 and have fun doing it as well!

Damn those lights...

So it was supposed to be a big-ish night. I actually thought it was maybe a boys night, so I wasn't going to go but then I was told that it was non gender discriminatory. It turns out it was a boys night but I was there - no biggie since it seems to happen often and for some reason a lot of my male friends seem to like to talk about girls bits and the sizes of those bits regardless of my presence, so I wasn't cramping anyone's style.

So off we went - we started at CQ bar where we managed 2 rounds of drinks before last call and lights got brighter. All before 11pm. Then we went to check out Charlie's Bar. Not a bad little place, and other than an omission of truth for the specials initially, we settled down into our booth quite comfortably. Pity the lights lit up again after 2 drinks. Then they got brighter. And brighter.

Next stop off was Golden Monkey, even though they had packed up their chairs outside. Still busy but by that time our designated drivers had decided to stop with the drinks, so after 1 round we left to find food at China Bar. For someone who ate 2 dinners, I sure managed to put the Hainanese Chicken Rice away.

Time to brush the layer of MSG off my tongue before beddybyes.

Guess it wasn't that big a night - too much to ask for a Tuesday before Xmas in Melbourne, but thanks to Stinky, P Dodge, and Binge Drinker for the good night out and the bad jokes that went along with it.

Look and feel

For those few people who visit my blog regularly (or at all even!) you may have noticed that I have once again changed the style of my page. Partly because I am trying out new things and partly because as a Gemini I am indecisive and slightly schitz, I have been adding and removing page elements depending on my mood and also playing around with very basic HTML in an effort to really ram home the fact that I work in IT. Or pretend to anyway.

So I have created a new header for the blog using a photo I took in Spain and Paint (yes you read correctly - Paint). It was slightly painful but I am happy I now have a custom header as opposed to the standard font title that used to be there. I've also played around with a few of the colours on the page and added links to some of my regularly visited websites.

Any thoughts/feedback/requests would be very welcome - still looking at bits and pieces to add to it - its very much a work in progress sort of thing seeing as I only do this when I can be bothered....

I see spots!

TA-DAH!

I made a bag :)

Bag on display

Quite proud of it actually - it is made with sturdy cotton and thread and didn't take too long to make (keep in mind this is subjective and I am still a beginner so anything less than a full day is pretty decent!)

Close up of the front pocket

I am quite pleased with the results and it has proved to be sturdy enough to be my sewing bag for now. The true test will be when I take it to the supermarket as an alternative to the green reusable bags sold by the supermarket. They are great bags but not very attractive so hopefully this ends up replacing our staple carriers.