Eco filling Australia

I received a sample pack of environmentally friendly fibres, filling and stuffing for the hobby craft, homewares and sewing community from Melissa at Eco Filling Australia.

What a great idea!

Little Things

With the new school year in full swing .... my sewing energies have been directed elsewhere ... so just a few little things to show.

I have made the zippered cases previously ... this is for our Year 9 students at school, their first little project to hold their sewing equipment. I've done a Step by Step guide to making these, if you'd like a copy just let me know.

Then, an oven mit for a housewarming gift for a friend - also made these before- using IKEA fabric and insulated batting.

Finally .... curtains - metres and metres of straight sewing - oh yes - what fun!!! I know these windows look much better without the curtains, but privacy is required.

It may be some time before my sewing momentum returns .... all good things .......

The final bits of 2012 .....

 Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years .... Here are a couple of things that rounded off 2012 at Handmade Sewing Studio ....

One of my students, Alison, made a trio of gifts .... super cute boxer shorts and she also appliquéd a matching motif on some purchased tank tops - I'm sure they were gratefully received.

There were some new babies popping up around here, well not right here, but in the general vicinity .... and they required some of these ...... embroidery done at work on the Janome embroidery machine ....

And finally, I made this dress for the Christmas festivities, I've had this fabric for quite a while..... it was an odd sized piece, and it took quite some playing around to get that large motif in the right place - self drafted pattern, elastic casing for the waist - really easy.

So, are you all busily sewing .... or ..... daydreaming like I am? Hope to get back into it all soon! Happy 2013!

Bittersweet

Well, my Cert IV in Applied Fashion Design and Technology is complete ... well, almost, we have our Fashion Parade next Wednesday night ... details to follow. The last 7 weeks or so have been a non stop strive to the finish line. I presented my final Studio design work just yesterday. The Studio work involved us aligning ourselves with an Australian designer to make an outfit that would complement their range. We had to prepare and sew not only the design, but a swathe of "other stuff" Inspiration Board, Garment Boards, Multiple Specification Sheets, Designer Research, Fabrication Samples, Patterns, Toiles, Evaluation and an oral presentation ...... the amount of work required was quite unbelievable really... and remember this was JUST A CERT IV !

Overall, I really enjoyed my year at TAFE learning about patternmaking, sewing, the fashion industry, doing work placement etc. But what really surprised me was how much I learned to enjoy the visual presentation side of things , ie. Adobe Illustrator. At first this program is dreadful, weird, hard to understand, but with continued practise and a good teacher, it all came together.

So, I aligned myself with Alice McCall. I had some great lace that I had purchased a year ago from Rosemary at Chic Fabrique, so I set about finding an Australian designer whose clothing had a distinct use of lace, and whose design lines I liked ... and believe me, this was not an easy task. I trawled through many many websites, and was happy to find the very cool designs of Alice McCall.

I'll cut out all the boring in between stuff (multiple toiles and pattern making adjustments) and present to you my final design ...... The Lovestruck Dress and Lovestruck Top as designed by Chinchen Street (my label - which will be explained later)...  and a huge, huge thanks to my wonderful model ....

The dress is a simple sleeveless, round neck, fitted bodice with panel lines with a full circle skirt attached. The dress is made from polyester / viscose satin also from Chic Fabrique - for a synthetic fabric - this stuff is beautiful, drapes well, sews well and presses well. The Guipure cotton lace top has a scalloped border, and I had a very "odd" shape of fabric remnant to work with, so it took quite a few trials to get the pattern right, so that I could use the scalloped border for all the hem areas.
Here is the top without the dress ...

 And here is one garment board that I did on Illustrator ... (the fabric samples and notions are not on this)

Here are some pics of my materials all set up for the presentation:

For my presentation to the teachers, I made a short video about my design inspiration and branding .... OK, I know I'm an amateur, but try to bear it ...

So, it was all about the journey, my 2012 journey to TAFE .... my journey to Chinchen Street ... and the great tree in the TAFE carpark ..... and all about really great fabrics .... ahhhh ... so deep and meaningful!!!

Anyway, yes, Bittersweet .... sweet to finish something that was quite demanding and totally time consuming, yet, it was great to be challenged and great to learn new stuff! Will I do more? Who knows ..... Next Wednesday evening is our Fashion Parade at City Hall in Newcastle, 7pm and tickets $10 at the door .... come and have a look!

Butterick 5415

Introducing .... one of my lovely students, Anne wearing her recently completed B5415.

She was a tad reluctant to be photographed, but peer group pressure gave her some encouragement. We had quite a few fitting issues with this little dress .... Anne has narrow shoulders so we did some gape darts around the neckline and also tightened the shoulder seam. The fabric is a knit, and we decided to omit the back zipper, and placed the Back pattern on the fold, but it still required further adjustments so we had to put in a centre back seam. All in all, teamed with the perfect green contrasting trim - the result is ..... SMASHING! Great work Anne! and thanks for being brave for Blogland!

High Tea with a Citrus Flavour

Today I submitted my dress for the TAFE course I have been studying this year. The brief was "High Tea with a Citrus Flavour" ....

The dress is fully lined. Black and white fabric leftover from another dress I made - but originally from Frou Frou in Melbourne, Lime Linen from Chic Fabrique.

Pattern made by me! It was a huge project, not just the pattern making and sewing side, but ALL of the OTHER STUFF they require!! It has certainly been a fantastic learning experience ...... one more project to go!!! Thanks once again to my lovely House Model!!

Belle of the Boredroom

A fun task for TAFE this year .... UPCYCLING existing garments. Friends donated their unwanted business shirts and away I went! Big thanks to my lovely model!

I'd like to invite you to LIKE my Facebook page .... I know the mere word "Facebook" turns some people right off ... and that's fine ... but if you are on FB you'll receive my Blog Posts networked to my page, plus other interesting bits of textiles and fashion related links, plus info about upcoming classes at my studio.

Cheers!