Lisette Sew A Long

There was Tweeting about a Lisette dress the other day, and Cam got her wiggle on really quickly and organised a Sew A Long!

I'm already a fan of the Lisette patterns, and definitely the Oliver & S patterns! So I raced around getting the pattern and the fabric I've been eyeing off....

This is one of the easiest patterns I've ever made! 4 pieces (5 if you count the tie); no facings, no zips, a real beginners pattern, which is great for instant gratification!

The first thing (for my fellow 'sew a longers') is it's VERY roomy around the bust. Measurments showed I need to cut an 18 for my usual size 14 body. I sewed the armhole facings before a try on myself ( my dummy not as accurate as I thought!) When my sister came over yesterday and I tried it one, she suggested taking it in under the arms, and bingo, a much better fit!

A tip for the gathering- I used sewing elastic in my bobbin, and set the set length to maximum- you get an even gather, unlike if you do 2 rows of cotton and pull them to get the gather. A bit like shirring!

I still like the looseness around the middle and bottom.

Also, I didn't alter the length and this is wear it came to. If you want it below the knee, you'll need to add some length through the body.

I'm pretty impressed with my straight seams haha

How you doing?

Blogtoberfest Day 2

Oops, nearly missed Day 2!

Had an exhausting day at the Royal Melbourne Show today,a bit of slow craft and chocolate eating this evening and haven't even uploaded pics yet!

So here's one from rainy day Saturday (yesterday)

A new colour- gone back to dark from the bright red, which is still pretty noticeable though.

 So I'll call it a dark auburn!

I'm loving it!

What I got up to.

Well, as Twitteres and Facebooker's would now I had the WHOLE long weekend to myself, in fact, Little Miss is due to be picked up by me in an hour! Wow, for me, that's huge. I knew I'd be sadder about it than her though teehee. She went off camping with her Aunty and Uncle (my sis), real camping with tents and drop toilets, ugh! Not my cup of tea, but kids, they love it!

Anyway, back to me- what did I do with myself? well, I spent the last of my money this weekend to get my hair done- so I can at least smile when I look in the mirror haha

As I had no funds to go anywhere, and was recovering from a lurgy I couldn't take to
Ms Curly's house, I decided to tackle some big projects- firstly

this room. My horrible bedroom. It nearly always looks

 like this, something had to be done....

99.9% of the clothes on the floor were clean, and just had made it to the next step (putting themselves away in the cupboard haha). You get pretty lazy living on your own!

So the ironing was killed....

and a rearranging, it's like a different room! I have to put nik naks back etc, but

for now I like it clean....

There was a bit of couching going on, with 2 knitting projects on the hop. Thess are

going to be little baby pants,

and I made a newborn gown to go with them.

I finally got to make this too- I saw a tutorial ages ago, and forgot to save it. Then in Target one day I saw one for sale. I thought for weeks where I had seen it, and I finally stumbled across this, which led me to here! Yay for finding it!

I only chose grey because I didn't have enough blue, but now I think the grey should stay! With the pink print form the stash. I cheated a bit though- I hand stitched the petals, too freaky to do my machine, though it would have been quicker! I interfaced the back, so the weight of the petals doesn't collapse the cushion (I don't know if that would happen, I'm just interfacing mad), I also had a mix of acrylic and wool felt in grey, and I can tell! So next one with wool only. I thought the back looked pretty cute....

Hope you had a relaxing weekend wherever you are!

Back again

Yay, I'm back. A long couple of days, lucky I was busy and didn't notice it too much (yeah, sure, I kid myself too).

The kid's dance concert is all over, Sat was a big one with heading over to see HB and have Mr HB dust my computer (all it seemed to need to fix it!!), then a late night watching all styles of dance. Took me a few days to recover, Little Miss snapped right back!

SO have been trying to tidy up a bit, make things a bit more streamlined....I cleaned out the computer 'corner' and pushed back the couches...

much more room! And slightly more co-ordinating than before (must dye my other doily tablecloth red!)

and last night...Little Miss decided someone else's 'bob' haircut looked good, and 24 hrs later-

done! I didn't give her anytime to change her mind haha. God, she looks so grown up now! And she LOVES it! (Don't you wish as adults we could be that decisive and easy to please?)