Halloween Costume.

It's been so long since my last post, for a while was feeling creatively blocked.  My son also took over my sewing room for his HSC studies.  He did his last exam on Monday, no longer have any school children in this house.  He sent his first job application today.  He's thinking of deferring University for a year, wants to get some savings behind him first.

Halloween today, it's becoming more popular in Australia and for the second year I've been to a Halloween event and was able to dress up.  Always wanted to go to a dress up party when I was a kid. 

As usual I left my costume to the last moment, drove home after Circle last night thinking about what I was going to wear.  I had a black dress I almost got rid of and had thought of going as a witch by adding a black cape.  Was going to rush out this morning to find black fabric but while laying in bed this morning remembered some purple crushed Panne Velvet that's been in my stash for a few years.  I found a fantastic Hooded Cape at Fleece Fun.     So easy to run up - even in pretentious velvet :), much too hot for fleece here.pretentious velvet :), much too hot for fleece here.   Almost had to rush out to buy thread because all of my purple threads looked blue against the fabric, finally found a maroonish one that looked ok.  Even had a cheap brooch in with my collection of things to put into Christmas Crackers, I'll get around to that one day. 

The hood is a long one, a bit hard to see in this shot but the gold tassel is at the end of the hood.  

I didn't bother hemming the edges of the cape, just did the edge of the hood as the fabric rolled annoyingly.

Was very happy with the final result, only took around an hour to make.   I was helping out as a time keeper for psychic readings,, scared a couple of people as they came upstairs to find me at the top in the dark.  

It's not the first pattern I've made from Fleece Fun,  Made the  Long Cape  last winter to wear on a cold, wet Ghosthunt with friends, made it in a scrummingly warm grey Coral Fleece.  Scared the crap out of one of my friends as she noticed a hooded figure walking around the back of a Church graveyard before she realised it was me.

Saved from the dump.

One man's trash is another's treasure.

Called into to my parent's place today, found Dad in the process of cleaning out his garage and was tossing out an old light fitting.  It used to be in the front entry for as long as I could remember.  It was old even before they put it, probably got for free from somewhere at a time they couldn't afford much, Dad couldn't remember where.
Told him he couldn't just throw it out that someone would pounce on it if they tried to sell it, he thought it was just junk and told me to take it if I wanted it.  So I did.

A very dirty light fitting
 I remembered it as being blue but no blue showed through the grime

A quick wash revealed the colour

both now clean

 

 Detail of the crackled glass

  

 The before and after result after giving the fitting a quick wash down.   Has some age pitting, could do with a good scrub but is pretty much usable. 

 Have always loved it and hope to one day have it up in my dream house.  Am thinking it has an Art Deco look to it, Dad built his house in the 60's and it wasn't new then.  Have to wait til Mum gets home, she'll remember. 

Edit -  I spoke to Mum she said that while they were building their house they were living with my Grandparents in Auburn.  The light fitting came from an elderly neighbor who thought they might like it for the new house, she thought it was 20 - 30 years old then.  Wish I knew something more about it. 

It's been age since I posted, am afraid that Summer took it out of me.  I am so glad that Autumn is here.  Perhaps if we lived closer to the beach or had a pool I'd be able to take it better.  If it wasn't the heat it was the rain.  The grass is so overgrown but each time we plan to mow it rains.  I've got parts of the yard dug up but haven't been able to get back out there. 

Have had a cold the last few days, am trying to get over it.  Decided to up the nutrition and go with some vegetable smoothies,  started early this morning around 4am when I couldn't sleep and came down with hunger pangs.  Put Apples and carrot through the juicer, then into the rocket blender with a chopped apple and some of the carrot fibre.  Taste wasn't too bad but texture not so great.  This morning I went with an unappetising blend of tomatoes, apple, capsicum and a little garlic in the food processor.  Nope not great, texture was horrible I ended up straining it and have only been able to force down half a glass. 

Think I'll just stick with juicing in future. 

I haven't completely given up on the fur sewing, I actually got the pieces sewn together but need to add the base and zip. 

Sewing with Fur - Part 1 Cutting out.

 I've had a piece of fur sitting in my stash for about 3 years, it was a remnant and never knew what to do with it. Was going through my pattern stash recently, found a pattern with Yoga accessories.  Simplicity 3583 which I think is now discontinued.  Thought I'd make a Zafu, a meditation cushion. 

 First I glued the pattern pieces to card, used Manilla folders, needed to trace around the pattern on the back of the fur fabric.  I knew I wanted to make more of these so wanted the pattern to last.  Used a glue stick, put a stripe of glue onto the card, then smoothed the pattern onto it, More glue stripes and smoothing until the entire pattern is glued.  The first one I did, glued the whole thing and the pattern didn't smooth out as much as I liked.    The pattern pieces will no longer fit in envelope, but I laid out the top and bottom pattern pieces so that they encorporated the fold of the folder.  They will fit into an A4 envelope for storing.

 Used a fine Sharpie to trace around the edges of the pattern piece.  Don't forget to transfer markings.  I did mine using a different colour texta, not shown, the black design on the fabric made it hard looking for black markings. 

 When ready to cut out, use small, pointy, sharp scissors.  I used the bigger ones in the pic.  Do not just cut, what is needed is tiny cuts, mere millimetres long.  Only want to cut the backing and not the fur.

With the point of the scissors under pile of the fur, take tiny snips, no longer than 5 mm, shorter if possible.  It takes a while but it can be done.  Can even use a blade to cut the backing, I tried with a box cutter but the blade wasn't sharp enough.  The scissors were quicker.  

With the seam cut, pull apart the fabric, should not haave any cut fur.  In the picture the pile is running downwards, when cut correctly there will be a fringe of fur beyond the cut edge.  On the top edge of the pattern the fur runs away from the cut, leaving no fringe.  

Even with correct cutting there will be loose fur, you and your surroundings will be covered with fur.  You will be asked if you've been cuddling a cat.  Don't try to shake it off, it just spreads and in my case straight into my mouth. Pitoohey.

Coming soon will be the actual sewing, first time have sewn such thick fur.  Could be interesting and perhaps entertaining, though I envisage lots of this @#$# being uttered. 

It's been so long since I've posted here, Christmas come and gone, a whole new year.  Christmas wasn't fantastic for me, was sick with a bug  over it.  At least was well for New Year, as boring as it was.

Have never really liked the week between Christmas and New Year, but then January kicks in and is horrible too.  So glad it's over, hot horrible January, hottest on record or was it hottest since the 1930's?  I can be grateful though that the terrible bushfires and floodings that so many endured have not affected my family.

Not much crafting has been done, I did make some gift bags for work colleagues.

Did finally finish the knitting part of a cardigan, took me weeks and weeks to do.  Now I have to find one of the fronts so I can stitch it together.


Gone back to crocheting, so much qucker to do.  A pattern from a magazine, 100% Bamboo yarn and the wrong size hook, I think I'm doing well.  No idea if or who the finally product will fit, the pattern only has 2 sizes, decided simply by the hook size.  3.5 or 4 mm, I picked up the 4.5 by accident and when I noticed after a few rows was not going to undo it.  Don't even know if I have the right amount of yarn, this has been in my stash for about 3 years. 

So glad it's February, happy February.  4 more weeks of Summer then the lovely cool weather will be back

I shouldn't dislike January so much, it's my birthday month. 

Also bought a new fridge, our old fridge has been barely hanging on for the past couple of years, there's been times we thought it was dead but it struggled back to life.  Had to put up with freezing stuff that shouldn't be frozen, defrosting stuff that should be.  The last couple of weeks it's incontinence became an issue, there was always a towel on the kitchen floor soaking up leaked water.

Anyway the new one arrived yesterday and in true January style was the wrong one, right model, wrong colour.  I don't like stainless steel, we ordered white.  Stainless steel arrived, I assumed that Dh had got that colour because it was the only one available, seeing as we got it from a Seconds wharehouse.  He called the store, they have offered to get it returned if we aren't happy.  It wasn't their fault, because the manufacturer had labelled the box as white.  We just need to confirm tomorrow.  I was hoping it would grow on me, nope still don't like stainless steel.   I am happy with it's performance, it's so quiet and things cool and freeze where they should. 

Today was spent trying to get this place sorted.

Piles of books were moved, they were dumped in the living room last week when our old entertainment unit was moved into my craftroom.  Was hoping to sort them but I wanted it done quickly so just packed them back into the cupboards.

Watched/listened to ARiver Somewhere DVD, not much of a fishing person but I love Tom and Rob's humor plus the scenery of the places they visit.  At one stage I got tired so pulled up a pile of books as a pillow and just watched the show for a while. 

I finished tidying the sewing room, ok I just stacked most of it in one corner but there is now floor in there and the sewing machine is accessable for the Christmas sewing I probably will wait til the last moment to do.

 I also started on Christmas decorating,

Dining room dresser

Kitchen dresser

Haven't gotten the rest of the decorations out of the ceiling yet, will probably wait until Monday for that.  Am working tomorrow, not happy it's supposed to my weekend off, but the boss has a wedding this weekend.  Had planned on starting my gingerbread making tomorrow, my niece is coming over on Sunday to decorate a house to take to school on Monday.  I'll just make a batch of dough tomorrow night and we can bake them on Sunday morning.  Probably even make 3 batches and freeze the dough ready for baking a few days before Christmas. 

A home coming of sorts.

When my daughter was in year 5 or 6, her class went on an excursion to Canberra and the snow.  Silly me didn't read the note properly and thought we needed to provide appropiate clothing for the snow.  So decided to make her a snow outfit.

At the time I worked in Spotlight and we just happened to have duck fabric that they were selling out of, I t bought a purple and a black fabric.  Used a thermo graded wadding and used a fleecy fabric as lining.  The pattern came out of a magazine, now sadly discontinued, called TOPKIDS.  The only change I made was to add a full length zipper, one that opened from top and bottom.  The original pattern was for a pullover top, with the zip only down to the chest, I wanted her to be able to get in and out of the jacket easily.  Made the pants as per the pattern. 

Well the school hired snow gear for them, but my daughter was able to wear the jacket whilst in Canberra.  She loved it and was so warm in it. She did get a little more wear out of it here, but our winter isn't as cold.   She never wore the pants.  So they sat in her wardrobe for years,

A few years back was talking with a friend who mentioned that her eldest daughter had outgrown her winter jacket and was about to go to the snow.  She didn't know how she was going to be able to afford one, with my heart in my mouth I made the offer of my daughter's coat.  She was so happy, her daughter loved it and I remember her running to me and thanking me for it.  I was sad to let it go, almost regretting that I offered, but I didn't want it just gathering dust in the wardrobe.

So last weekend, I saw this freind, we don't see each other so much these days, not since I left the girls group we helped out in.  She mentioned the coat and told me how it's been passed on to 2 others since her eldest grew out of it - a niece and then her younger daughter, each has grown out of it.  I asked if she had anymore use for it as I was thinking it would be good for my niece.  She said she would give it to my mum on Tuesday.

So there I was expecting to get a 10 year outfit back, you know, one showing it's age.  I was amazed because the coat and pants still pretty much looks brand new.  I remember being so particular when I made, everything was padded so I tacked everything in place, hems pockets, I never tack. 

Am so pleased that this lady looked after it so well, she said her daughters loved the pants.