Wardrobe Workings

I have been preparing to return to work outside the home. During the last year when I haven't been working outside home I haven't be wearing my 'work clothes'. Previously my work clothes were the majority of my wardrobe, during the last year they have sat unworn and I have acquired addition non-work clothes. Now as I am preparing to return to work it is time to sort through all my clothes as it feels like I stand in front of a full robe of nothing to wear.

This is how the first part of my robe looked when I was staring at it in dread anticipation.

I went through every item and evaluated each one, trying most of them on. If it didn't fit but was likely to get worn if when it fit, it went to one side. Eventually all these sad rags went into another robe.

Admittedly there were already some clothes in here but I did more than double it. (Every thing to the left of the white blouse was newly added)

If there was some reason that I didn't wear an item (even if fit wasn't an issue), I put it into one of several five piles: alter, refashion, trade-in, charity, dump. I didn't take a photo of my various piles of clothes. I did, however, take a photo of all the now empty hangers.

And I think that really illustrates the story very well.

If it fit AND I will wear it, it went back into my wardrobe.

Significantly less clothes in there. The good great news s that I know that I can pull out any item and put it on with confidence! That really feels good.

Fun Panels to Increase the Size of My Fabric Stash

My mum has been exploring the world of machine embroidery over the last year or so. She had been interested for a while, but after she had retired and moved she made a new friend - her neighbour Marlene. Marlene does lots of machine embroidery and makes beautiful quilts and items with her embroidered pieces.

When Marlene was thinking about upgrading her embroidery machine she asked my mum if she was interested in buying her current machine. Of course mum happily bought it and has been learning and having fun with it ever since... and if she gets into trouble, help is just a hop, skip and a holler away. (Mum doesn't jump these days but has been known to still skip and I'm sure she would hop if there was the occasion.)

When I was visiting mum recently, Marlene came over to see what mum and I had been up to in the craft room. She brought a pile of extras from her embroidery machine as she had seen what I had done previously with some of mum's practice pieces (and here too).

Here's what Marlene gave me:

 Above are left over pieces from three baby quilts

 Below are left over pieces after she changed her mind twice on another baby quilt.

My girls are all mad for Winne the Pooh themed items, even though they are all grown up. I am certain they will quickly 'dibs' some of the panels, only I have trouble remember which characters are which daughter's favourites.

I am thinking that some of these panels will become zip top pouches and some will be hot/cold packs. Any other ideas of what I could use these fun panels to make?

I am afraid my stash does increase at a faster rate that I am capable of making it decrease - but you won't find me complaining about that. ;)

I'll leave you with close ups of the panels.

 

What's In A Name?

Recently I was reading The Nester's Blog post and she was introducing herself. The Nester has been blogging for Five years but has been blogging 'anonymously' up until now.  A little earlier I was reading Ros Russel's Sew Delicious blog post where she explains her thoughts on blogging.

Each of these posts come hot on the heels of my own thinking of late.

Ros likes to read a blog and get to know the author, I agree totally. She discussed privacy and how tricky it can be and sensitively raised the matter of how impersonal it feels when bloggers choose not to reveal anything about themselves and that often she tends to skip such blogs, again I agree.  Ros commented that she chose to use her real name and her children's names instead of pet names or initials, but that she mostly sticks to her experiences with sewing.  Although Ros discussed many blogging related matters, many of those who commented wanted to discuss privacy and the use or not of names and identity when blogging.

I blog using my nickname, Dee. It is what most people call me and works for me. On my blog, I used to call my daughters by teen 1,2 and 3, that got complicated when the eldest was no longer a teenage. Then I started using their nicknames and/or initials. If you have noticed lately I have been referring to my girls more by names/nick names.

In the past I have been very careful about protecting my identity and privacy, and that's not just on my blog; checking the phone before I answer it every time and wondering when the next stalking event would occur. Since the sudden death of my father late last year I have been gradually exploring my growing freedom.  It feels strange after so long of being cautious and looking over my shoulder. As part of this I had been wondering about blogging and identity of myself and my family.  It felt weird at first but is slowly growing and I am feeling ok about using my name more and loosening identity protocols.

A few months ago if you googled my name, you wouldn't find me - at all. Believe me, I checked regularly. I could not be found on a facebook search either. Now I can be found on FB and a google search will reveal me four times on the first page alone. I exist now. (well I did exist previously; I just didn't have an online profile.)

I will still use my nickname. There are several reasons -

1. I like it. Dee, it suits me and is happy.

2. No one mis-spells it - there are multiple ways to spell my name and it is rare for someone to spell my name correctly.

3. No one mis-pronounces it - this is a pet peeve of mine.

4. It spares me lengthy explanations about my name and it origins and meaning. (terrible meaning anyway)

All my life people have commented on my name. "It's so unusual." "Never heard of that name." "Where is it from?" "what does it mean?" etc

The above reasons are why The Nester didn't use her name: Myquillan. When I read her article, not only did I read her name and pronounce it corruptly, I laughed so hard through most of it as I related to much of what she said. I am funny about name pronunciations and work very hard at saying a name correctly - often to the surprise of the owner who may comment that it is rare for his or her name to be pronounced properly. Sadly it doesn't guarantee that I will remember said name at a later date.

My name is Deidre.

Almost NO ONE pronounces it right, especially anyone who THINKS they know how to pronounce my name.  I bet most folks who read that would have said "Dear-Dree" or "De-ahr-Dree" or "Dear-dry" or "Dear-Dra" or "Die-Dree" or...  To save myself the trouble and to spare my back teeth, I usually just use the shortened version and at least that way the first part of my name is pronounced correctly; Dee.

There are a few women (all older than me) named "Deirdre" which really is pronounced "Dear-dree". (And BBC sitcoms have done me no favours either.) There are even people who just assume that I don't know how to pronounce my own name and they are going to correct me - for reals!!

Oh and if I had a dollar for every time someone pointed out "i before e except after c"...
Folks usually look a bit funny when I remind them of the other primary school rhyme, "when two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking". Most folks frown, think about it for a bit and mumble something along the lines of, "I had forgotten that one."

I have tried to help people to pronounce my name correctly by saying, "I am not dear and neither is my name". I must be too cryptic 'cause most people don't seem to get it and keep calling me de-ahr-dree. (frowny face)

For some reason my mum named me Dee-dree and it is spelled Dei-dre which is waaaaay too close to the better known Deir-dre. I thought of changing the spelling of my name to Deedree but it looks funny... or even Deedre but I would stll be questioned about how come there is a double ee in the first part and only a single one in the second part...

Really it's much easier all round if you just call me Dee. ;-)

and just because I have done an entire picture-free post, I will reward you with some piccys.

 My current favourite photo of Theo-dorable

 smiling up at his daddy at 5 weeks

Beads

I was given some cool European style beads at Christmas. A couple of weeks ago a friend was visiting (she originally gave me the beads) and her necklace broke. I pulled my beads and beading tools out to fix the broken necklace. It was the first time this year that my beads had come out.

While the beads were out I was inspired to do something with these beads. I stopped in at my local bead store and bought the ear ring hangers, pate knife and key fob. A short while of playing with the beads and I now have three new items to enjoy.

I haven't decided what to do with the key fob. Ra has been admiring it - no surprises due to its colour.

I am very happy to add the pate knife to my small set of such items.

I was initially concerned that these ear rings would be too heavy. They are fine, but I certainly couldn't add any other beads to it.

My friend fixed her necklace in only a few minutes. While the beads were out she was fiddling around and threading some beads on the head pins. I got to wind them and add some hooks and just like that I had some new earrings.

Purple Bag Ready For Gifting

I have been thinking and planning ahead for Christmas again. When we have our extended family gatherings we each contribute a gift which cost no more than $10.  Over the last few years some of us have being trying to come up with creative ways to get as much value as possible for our $10 outlay. I made some of my gifts the last few years and am planning to see if I can improve on that even further this year by making all of them. Technically I only need to come up with two gifts this year (one each for Al and myself as the girls are all independent now).

I planned to make a bag and found some co-ordinating purple fabrics as my starting point. I like bags with lots of pockets and I figured that other ladies may also like them.

This is the bag that I made... with my phone popping out of the middle pocket.

I used a six pocket tote bag which I had pinned for future reference as my starting point.

The bag in the tutorial was meant to measure 8" x 10" x 4" completed which I thought was a little small and the materials required were not accurate. I was able to scale the bag up to 10" x 12" x 4" using a lot less fabric than listed in the tutorial.

If you would like to make one for yourself at the same size that I did you can get the body and lining out of two x 50cm (about 20") pieces and a 20-22cm (1/4 yard) strip for the straps.


I added 5cm (2") to the panel measurements and lengthened the straps as the recommended length is way too short.

I made a generous internal pocket out of some of the left over outer fabric which includes 2 pen pockets and a pocket for a phone or ipod. I added a loop for hooking keys onto.

On the other side I added an elastic strap to hold an iPad or books/notebook. I didn't calcultate the quantity well and need to shorten it a bit.

It turned out really well, so good that it may be a bit difficult to give it away... I may need to make another one.

I Have Curves

Women are meant to be curvy, so why oh why do ready-to-wear manufacturers make larger size clothing as if we were only curved like a beach ball?

I bought a new-to-me blouse this week at a second-hand boutique. Everything is $5 or 3 items for $10. My blouse cost $3.33. Whilst it fit at the hip, that was the only place where it fit. Leaning forward just couldn't be done.  At that price I was prepared to do some work to make the top work for me.

It's almost hard to believe that it is the same top by how much better it sits. I could have done further adjustments but for the amount of time it would take and the amount of additional improvement I decided to leave it as it is now.

For this kind of alteration I find that I need a friend to assist as I can't accurately pin it on myself I have done it in the past and it just isn't fun with on and off and adjust and on and off and... Of course one of those accurate mannequins would do the job... yep I am a dreamer. I started out by putting the blouse on inside out and getting Ra to assist by pinning the sides in for me.

As you can see, quite a lot needed to be removed from the waist area and slightly less from the bust.  I measured the amount that came out of the waist when I had finished and was surprised to discover that it was just a smidge under 30cm (12"). No wonder it looked like a sack!

Once it has been pinned I take the blouse off and mark it with my wash out pen.
When I stitch these adjustments I use a basting stitch as I frequently need to make additional adjustments to get the fit right. I also need to check it right side out as I am not completely symmetrical and when wearing the blouse inside out it swaps the left and right around.

Once I am happy with the amount and placement of the adjustment, I stitch it on my overlocker - there is no going back from that point.  This blouse had princess seams with ruffles down the front. Happily those seams sat in the right place (or I wouldn't have bought the top) so I only needed to take it in from the sides. Some blouses look better by adding front and back darts.

I could have further improved the fit by removing the sleeves and reshaping the armholes.  Thankfully this adjustment did enough that I was able to spare myself that extra work. (A noise outside caught my attention just as my daughter snapped this pic.)

My blouse looks heaps better and is still a nice loose fit, only now it has some shape and doesn't gape when I bend forward.

Sewing Machine Cover Completed and One Less UFO

A few weeks ago I made a cover for my overlocker repurposing an unfinished object (UFO).  I still needed to make a cover for my sewing machine and thought that I would see what other UFOs were in my stash which may be suitable for a repurpose. I found the perfect UFO to use to make my sewing machine cover.

 

I completed this embroidery some years ago when teaching embroidery. I created the pattern based on a photo in an old English Women's Weekly and then taught the women how to stitch it. The size is quite large (27cm x 24cm actually embroidery) and I didn't really want to frame it but at the same time didn't want to abandon it either.  I had asked for ideas way back and a bag was the general consensus.

After searching my stash for suitable fabric and finding none, I had to go to the fabric store ( 'cause there was nothing in the stash for the job ;-)  hehehe). Armed with the perfect coordinating fabric I could set to work on making a cover for my sewing machine.

When I originally stitched this piece I drew the entire pattern on the fabric with wash-out pen (the blue one). Prior to making the cover I needed to wash out all the blue pen. When I wet it, the hand-dyed red thread ran leaving a pink stain over much of the cream fabric. Bummer. I wonder if that happened to all the ones stitched by the students?

Of course I couldn't get it to show up well in a photo.

My cover does make me smile, despite the extra pink tinge

The completion of this project crosses two items off my list - sewing machine cover and finding a suitable purpose for the crinoline lady embroidery.

Oh and when I was buying the fabric I didn't know how much I would need so asked for one metre... when the assistant measured it out she told me there was 1.3m left on the bolt and would I like the 30cm at half price? I couldn't leave it all sad and lonely could I? After making my cover I now have about 50-60cm left and it has gone into the stash.