ASG Industry Day and other ramblings

Creating stand alone flowers.

Lots to catch up on ... firstly the Industry Day yesterday at Niagara Park ... First speaker was Sally Sommer from ZIG ZAG sewing. She spoke about stabilisers for Machine Embroidery. WOW - what a minefield of possibilities!! Sort of glad I'm not into that,  though the work is quite amazing and there are lots of creative possibilities.

Embroidery on jeans.

AMAZING - embroidery on a plastic umbrella.

More stand alone work - started on water soluble stabiliser.

Making little boxes from machine embroidery.

Then a little fabric shopping - Rosemary from Chic Fabrique was there with a lovely selection of fabrics - I went all lacey with blacks and creams ... she really does have the most fabulous fabrics at fantastic prices - if you haven't been there yet ...... what are you waiting for????

Inspired by some lacey pics from our recent Sunday papers .....

Then we heard from Christine who makes bags and purses in an upcycling method - she uses old zips and old everything to create some really sweet looking bags - she sells at markets and on Facebook.

Our last speaker was Nola Sterling from Victoria - this lady was amazing, she must eat, sleep and drink at the sewing machine - she's into machine embroidery, machine felting, making fabric, and a million other things.

Machine Felted but constructed by HAND!

Now, back to some of my sewing. At TAFE we constructed a Magyar knit block pattern from our direct measurements, they gave us the fabric to sew it up.

We also made up this Size 10 Sleeveless Top - fabric from TAFE - or quite possibly from Corporate wear donations ....

Anyway, I thought I'd make it up at home also. I chose this brown cheesecloth with pink embroidered flowers - from The Fabric Store - and if my memory is correct it's a Lisa Ho fabric .... we did a neat way of finishing the armhole edges with bias binding. So, the darts have been sewn, the neck facing has been attached, and before you sew the side seams ...

Take a pice of bias binding and PRESS one folded edge open to form or mould the shape of the armhole edge.

Stitch on to the RS of the fabric - 6mm seam allowance.

Then sew and overlock the side seams together (or apart if you want).

Trim the bulky corner.

Turn the binding to the wrong side and stitch down - I think I should have understitched before this step - we basically understitch everything!!! Anyway, it's a neat an easy way to get those raw edges tucked in!

I also like the way they drafted the back facing to be quite deep at the CB - this allows for the label to be prominently positioned and it looks really neat on the coat hanger - I guess from a retail point of view that's a good consideration - but also good to wear a facing a little deeper. That's the white interfacing you can see.

Anyway, after all that - it didn't fit!!! That fabric stretched and stretched - hmmm.......

So I made another one in a much better fabric - and this behaved beautifully, although it was a leftover from another project, so I couldn't make it any longer - but that's OK. It's a stretch cotton sateen. Worn here with my Clovers from Colette Patterns - yet to blog about them - this was my 2nd attempt - and these are Size 8. Hope to make up another longer pair and yes, hope to blog about them.

Lastly, this little pink number is a toile for a Pattern Modification - adding a yoke and a front inverted pleat, moving and eliminating some darts, drafting the waistband ...... phew ..... learning is exhausting!