BurdaStyle Meetup

On Saturday I went to my very first sewing/blogger meet up. Originally we had planned to have a meet up in celebration of Burdastyle Day with fellow Sydney sewists, but sadly I wasn't able to attend. Luckily, the girls arranged a second meeting, to which I happily went along.

Holly, Passiona and I had a grand old time discussing sewing projects, sewing blogs and all things fun and creative at the aptly named Stitch Bar.

I had never been there before, but I have a feeling I may be about to become a regular. This dimly lit basement bar is decked out in vintage haberdashery - from the old singer machine tables, to the walls papered in pattern layouts and notion definitions - it was the perfect setting.

Even the entrance is designed to look like a sewing studio - clever!



As this was my first time meeting another sewing blogger, I unleashed a million and one questions at poor Passiona, who very patiently answered them and gave me much to think about in regards this blogs format. Is that a blog Re-Vamp I smell in the air?

As promised, I also have a sewing update for you. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have started taking a sewing course at my local community college. Its for 3 Sundays in a row, and we had to take a project that we would like to work on.

I was really excited and I chose an original 40's Du Barry pattern that I had been dying to make for some time.

I knew it was going to be a challenge, but that's certainly not something I usually shy away from.

Mid way through the first lesson I started to get the impression that my teacher wasn't too thrilled with my pattern choice! It seemed that while the rest of the class were all working on their first patterns and had chosen simple A-Line skirts, I had chosen a 3 piece skirt suit with tailored jacket, from an unmarked pattern, oh, and did I mention it was about 3 sizes too small?? oops.

My poor teacher had to show me how to grade my pattern as well as re-size the proportion etc. etc. The poor woman, I bet she didn't know what she was in for when she saw me coming.

Later that day I mentioned that I might like to take her pattern making class - she just about fell over!

Ah well! maybe another time...

Anyway, I am really really pleased with my progress. I made THREE muslin's for my jacket, but now the fit is perfect!

This is the last muslin I made in green corduroy. Please excuse the quick snaps, I took them before I ran out the door to work.

I'm nearly finished the shell of the jacket in its final fabric, a lovely red wool and then all I have to do is line it (all) something I have never done before - Wish me luck!

Hope your all having a lovely afternoon!

The Bee's Knees and Cake Pop Tree's

Its official, I LOVE cake pops! Although mine didn't turn out quite as pretty as I had imagined them, or as perfect as bakarellas, I like to think they had a little quirky charm of their own (a cross between a bumble bee and pikachu from pokemon?) and they tasted simply delicious!

I opted to dip them in candy melts rather than melted white chocolate, as I had read that it would result in a smoother finish and would be easier to dip, and I'm really glad I took that advice. I had no idea what to expect in a candy melt, and as they are not readily available in my area, I had to buy them online at Baking pleasures (Bakers Heaven!) and was really surprised to find that they are very much like white chocolate, and tasting similarly of caramel buttons. They also come pre-coloured, so you don't get that bitter food colouring taste when trying to achieve vibrant colours.

I used white chocolate melts (cut up in quartres) for the wings and black squeeze icing for the stripes and face.

They were fiddly to decorate though, and I even had to buy cone shaped Styrofoam to dry them! perhaps next time I will just dip them in coloured melts and then role them in fun, colourful sprinkles.

My cake pop drying tree's!

Fiddly as they were to make, there was nothing fiddly about eating them, I can tell you! They practically flew into my mouth....

Unfortunately, and maybe somewhat due to their "quirky charm", I didn't win the bake off. There was some steep competition though, and my colleague and ballet/fencing buddy was awarded the most delightful, for her very delightful rainbow layer cake! Well done Karlie!

If I was feeling at all bitter about this, I was very quickly sweetened up with a tasting plate of all the baked goodies.

Not bad for a weekday, is it?

I'll be back tomorrow with an update on my sewing classes and quick snap of my first muslin.

Bye for now!

The Bee's Knees

Aren't these cake pops just the cutest things you've ever seen?! But before you go getting any idea's, No, I didn't make them (Bakerella, queen of cake pops did) - But I plan on it.

Next Friday at work we are having a Bake-Off for Australia's Biggest Morning Tea. I haven't been with the company long enough to have experienced one of these bake offs yet, but apparently they mean serious business!

There are 4 awards: Most Decorative, Most delicious, Most delightful (taste & presentation) and the Encouragement Award.

Of course I'm aiming for the Most Delightful award, But seeing as this will be my first attempt at making cake pops there is a chance that instead they may look a little less like Bakerellas delightful bumble bee's, and a little more like these guys -

Sorry to whoever's cake pops these are (winner of the Encouragement award I'm sure), I admire your attempt!

The cake pop is a relatively new idea to me, and judging by the blank faces that look back at me when I talk about them, they seem to be a relatively new idea to Australia! Or am a living in a cake pop-less bubble world?
A quick google search will tell you that the rest of the world is onto this trend, and for good reasons. For those who, like me a week ago, don't know what a cake pop is, its a small bite of moist cake goodness on a stick. You take a cake, crumble it up, mix it with some frosting (YUM!), roll it into balls, stick it on a stick and dip it in either melted chocolate or candy melts.

How have I missed out on this so far? Have you ever made/eaten a cake pop? Is it difficult?

I have broken down the cake pop creation session into three parts. Wednesday night I plan on baking, crumbling, mixing, rolling and refrigerating. I assume the pops will be easier to dip if they are as solid as possible? Thursday night I plan on dipping and decorating. Friday I plan on transporting the pops to work..... (mental picture of me squishing my delightful pops on the bus, HORROR!)... I think I will take a cab.

In other news, I start my dressmaking class this Sunday and I am SUPER excited! The last sewing class I took was in high school and that was nearly 6 years ago. I enrolled in a five week intermediate class at Sydney Community College, with a focus on fit. We've been asked to bring in a pattern for something we would like to sew and the material and we will be shown how to correctly fit the pattern to ourselves etc.

I wanted to work on something that was entirely new to me to make sure I get as much out of these classes as possible. So I plan on making Option I, from this 1940's Dubarry Pattern -

Isn't it to die for!? and I'm going to make it in just those colours too. I have the perfect soft wool for the jacket in a lush red that I've been saving for such an occasion.

I've noticed that the pattern says Easily Made on the front, but I've never make a jacket, or lined anything, So I'm not convinced!

None the less I am very excited to start on it and I will keep you up to date with its progress and any amazing tips and tricks I learn along the way.

That's all from me today - Have a lovely weekend, and for those in Australia, have a lovely long weekend, yippee!

1948: P is for Peplum

Introducing the second installment of my Sewing Through The Decades Challenge - The 1948 Simplicity 2590 dress - Otherwise know as my P is for Peplum dress.

Today has been an interesting day. I awoke tired (Big surprise, it is a Monday after all!) and it was pouring with rain. The kind of rain that screams "Stay indoors!" But I went to work anyway, because, well, I suppose I didn't really have much of a choice. At about 2 o'clock, it started raining indoors also, and the ceilings almost fell through! It was all such a drama! I had to put on a hard hat (thankfully it matched my outfit) and evacuate everyone, and in the end I got to go home also.

I'm very happy for the early mark, but I feel dreadful for those colleagues who had to stay back and deal with the ankle deep water that filled our building, and those who's work stations and garment racks where destroyed. The fact that I'm happily sitting in my robe, sipping tea by the heater (and Oh so happy!) is slightly weighing on conscience.

But because of these dramatic events, I finally have the chance to share my latest (and quite possibly my favourite) creation with you!

I've had some serious sewing dramas lately, and although this dress took me a good couple of weeks to complete it wasn't particularly difficult. If I had of been a little more diligent, I probably could have finished it in a day or two. Part of me thinks that the boring fabric is to blame, It was very uninspiring when sitting in a heap on my desk, that's for certain!

Although the pattern was straightforward, there were a lot of techniques and steps that I had never used before - It was my first time working with crepe, my first teeny tiny roll hem, my first sleeves! my first time using my new overlocker, and my first peplum! phew, that's a lot of firsts!

There was a huge amount of room for me to screw this dress up, yet somehow I didn't! and I'm just thrilled with the end result!

But, do you want to know my favourite park about the dress? the peplum is detachable! I'm contemplating making one in black with an array of different coloured beautiful peplums to attach to it as I please!

Since its completion I have managed to wear it 3 times already! Sadly the weather is getting a lot colder, and it doesn't look great with a cardigan, so I want to wear it as much as I can, before its too cold.

Natasha, my dear friend and handy photography woman took photographs for me again. We went to the main campus of Sydney University and took the pictures in the quadrangle by the great hall. Its so beautiful there!

Don't you think it looks like Hogwarts?! Perhaps that's just my imagination/ wishful thinking!

Check out the rest of the Photographs here.

A Skirt of a Curious Nature

In my last post I told you about a skirt that had found its way into my possession, via a colleague at work and my plan to spice it up a little.

After some deliberation, I decided I needed to loose the fur at the hemline (Yet, I daresay you will see its return on a future project). But without the fur it was a little lack lustre. So, what's the best way to brighten up a lack lustre project? Rick Rack of course!

And voila!

I added one row of jumbo black rick rack to the bottom, and then a second row of mustard above that.

Its just a simple addition, but I love the effect! Well, honestly, I just love rick rack!

It just so happened that the night I finished the skirt, I also made a trip to IKEA! We ate Swedish meatballs, played make believe in the kitchens, accidentally smashed a drinking glass (Eeeek!!) and got lost. It was fun!

Though generally speaking, I tend to like a little more privacy when using the facilities.

I'm very pleased with the skirt, and I foresee it getting a lot more wear than before. Every time I put it on, I feel like doing this!

Have you brightened up any of your wardrobe pieces lately?

Browsing the Blogosphere...

Oh, Hello there! Remember me? Yes, thats right, I'm that sewing blogist that seems to have forgotten about her blog!
I know I have been really slack on the posting front, but boy have I got a lot in store for you!

Although I have been slacking on my posts, I have been busy busy busy on the sewing side of things. I have been working like crazy on a TOP SECRET project for the last month, and it seems to have almost taken over my life in the last week and a half. I'm itching to spill the beans, but alas, that will have to wait another week or two - But a GIVEAWAY will be involved, and lets be frank here, who doesn't love a giveway?

In the midst of all my top secret sewing I also found time to finish up this lovely 1940's dress I've been working on,

It will be my early 1940's installment of the Sewing Through the Decades Challenge. Unfortuantly I don't have any photographs of it just yet, But, providing that the sun makes an appearance tomorrow afternoon, I shall get some then - and I promise to share!

I also have in my possesion a skirt of a curious nature. It was given to me by a colleague at work, and I instantly saw its potential!

In its current state I feel that its a little too JLO meets Miss L Fire for me, but I'm a sucker for full circle skirts and have a few ideas in store for its "Vamp Up" so check back soon to see what becomes of it.

And just so you don't leave visually unsatisfied, here's some eye candy I've found whilst perusing the blogosphere:
- "The Needle Diary" and no this is not a junkies diary, as the somewhat questionable blog name may suggest, its actually a sewing, lifestyle blog thats entirely adroable! Its a recent blog discovery of mine and I became an instant follower.
- I'm in love with Debi's 1940's hooded dress, so cute!
- I wish it was Summer, I wish I lived in England and I wish was doing this! Doesn't fleur just have the life!?
And last but not least,
- Check out Karlee's quick army pant re-do over at Gatsby and Me, Simple and effective.

Thats all from me today, but I'll be back soon!

Adventures in Egg Making

This Easter I was determined to get crafty and make some sort of chocolate related gifts for my friends. I embarked on several days of research and was utterly inspired by all the pastel, spring coloured candies I found - But my only problem was, its not spring (in Australia anyway) I got so carried away with my ideas and imagination, that I forgot about that one important point! Once I put my (somewhat) sensible head back on I ran across these golden eggs posted on The Kitchn. What a fantastic idea! and the gold felt more Autumn appropriate to me.

So I ran with it! I made either a full or a half carton for my friends and tied them up with a ribbon, and a small tag that said " I found the Goose that lays the golden eggs.."

And this is how they turned out -

I must admit, when they were all complete and wrapped up, I was pretty thrilled with the end result. BUT, if I were asked to make them again, I would flat out refuse. And the likelihood of these being requested is little to none.

The idea of these eggs is fantastic, its dreamy and quirky and fun - On the flipside the execution is tedious and fiddly, and the consumption is far from enjoyable.

I started with about 3 dozen eggs. I had my apron on, soft jazz crooning and a whole day set aside for some easter fun. First I poked small holes in the eggs and blew out the insides (my check and neck muscles actually hurt the next day, what a weakling!) they then needed to be rinsed out, then boiled, then dried, then painted, then dried..... and all this before I could even get to the chocolate part!

This is the Martha stewart inspired contraption I made for all that egg drying -

I covered two styrafoam cubes (that I got in MY NEW OVERLOCKER box..... but that merits a whole post of its own that is soon to come!!) in paper towel and stuck in rows of flat head pins for the eggs to sit on. The eggs took about 2 hours to dry, and I had three bacthes going! and then there was the edible lustre paint that never actually dried! I gave up waiting in the end and just went ahead and filled them with chocolate.

I read several articles about these eggs, the majority of which instructed " pipe in the melted chocolate and roll it around to coat the inside" - there was no coating going on here, and I can't help but wonder if this ever actually worked for anyone else. In the end the eggs were half full... but in this instance, I feel I can say that they were half empty.

 

When the time came to actually peel and consume them it was was just a mess! and I actually felt sorry for those that who felt obliged to eat them. Their hands were covered in gold glitter and paint (at least it was edible) chocolate stuck under their nails, crunching on stray bits of egg shell - I must admit it wasn't the presttiest of pictures, but at least it was good for a few laughs!

Did you have any easter disasters?