auckland fabric-a-brac november 2013

 

remember how for the last couple of years I've been de-stashing at the Auckland Fabric-a-brac events? Well I did ok earlier this year at the March event. Yet I still find myself swamped with fabric. So I've booked a table and will be at the November event, again shamelessly selling off the stash of fabrics and other sewing & craft related goodies. Come by, say hi, I'd love to meet you...

auckland fabric-a-brac 2013

back in July 2012 I wrote about my brilliant plan to do a major de-stash. Well I did achieve it - now I'm moving on to the "harder-to-part-with" fabrics that I just couldn't part with last time. So I'll be at the Auckland Fabric-a-brac event in Freemans Bay on March 9, again shamelessly selling off this part of my stash of fabrics and other sewing & craft related goodies. Come by, say hi, I'd love to meet you...

flamingos

Pink flamingos on grey background - polysilk

Closeup - 20cm tall flamingos

Last weekend I took a trip to Spotlight to buy a metal zipper for the dresses that I blogged about last week. They didn't have any in stock. It would have been a wasted trip if I hadn't seen this really quirky flamingo print polysilk. I have no idea what I was thinking when I bought it. It's completely outside my comfort zone in terms of print size and colour. The flamingos are 20cm tall and stand close together. Anyway I bought 2 metres thinking that it would make a great tunic using Simplicity 7070 (which has been out of print for a few years now). I'm making view C (the sleeveless version) and of course shortening the pattern to tunic length. If I have enough left over, I'll make a self tie belt to suit.

fabric-a-brac auckland almost here

this Saturday morning, I'll be at the Auckland Fabric-a-brac event in Freemans Bay shamelessly selling off my huge stash of patterns, fabrics and other sewing & craft related goodies. Here's a peek at some of the things going to market. Come by and say hi, I'd love to meet you...

travel organiser part 1

When our family travel overseas I'm always the one who plans and organises the whole trip. I'm also the one who holds onto all our passports and travel documents. To make my job a lot easier with our upcoming Sydney trip in the spring, a travel organiser is exactly what I need to keep all the travel stuff together and easy to find. I've had a look around on the internet but haven't seen anything that suits, so I thought I'd have a go making my own.

The materials I've chosen are: 60cm remnant of 120cm wide printed drill, 1 metre of red striped bias binding, 1 metre of green striped bias binding, pellon stabiliser, 50cm of 15mm black elastic.

While I work on a pattern for this, there's a list of things that I want to include in the design:

*pockets for 5 passports

*pen holder

*credit card pocket

*arrival/departure forms

*boarding passes

*accommodation vouchers

*car rental documents

I've purposely excluded a zippered pocket as I won't be keeping money in this organiser.

fabric, fabric & more fabric

The last time I did a major de-stash was back in March 2009. This week I've been sorting through the mountain of fabric which I sheepishly refer to as my 'stash' (I mean seriously, as I checked shelves and opened drawers, I kept discovering fabric, fabric & more fabric). Some of it I don't even remember buying. It's all got to be measured, priced & packed into enormous stripey carry bags ready for next months Fabric-a-brac here in Auckland. Whatever is left over will be donated to the Panmure Hospice shop.

At the end of this process, I'll be able to say hooray (again) the stash is rationalised again!!!!!!

tattoo inked girl

I'm a fan of Alexander Henry's tattoo inspired fabrics and the Tattoo Inked Girl (pictured above) is my favourite. I bought 3 yards of this fabric a while back and I don't have a clue what to make with it. I checked out etsy for inspiration and most crafters are making bags with it. Not sure if that's what I want to do. Any ideas?

no 'betty' dress yet

Dark paisley

 


Fruit

 
last month I posted about making a 'betty dress'. Since that post, apart from deciding to make 2 'betty' dresses ( I couldn't decide between the dark paisley and the fruit fabrics above) I haven't started sewing as the pattern still hasn't arrived in the post. I'm hoping that it will arrive in the next day or so, as I'm keen to get these dresses done and ready to wear.

Have a great weekend dear readers!

retro inspired goodness




Flower power

 
 


Home decor

  



Real groovy

 
a few weeks back Spotlight in Syliva Park had an exclusive members 1 day sale with 60% off their 'retro inspiration' fabric range. As soon as I'd finished the school morning drop off, I made an effort to get to the store with my membership card and discount voucher in hand. I got to the store expecting a huge turnout of people and was pleasantly surprised to find that I was the only customer in the fabric department. And that's how I managed to get this great selection of retro inspired goodness. Of course as soon as I was at the counter buying my fabric, lots more customers arrived.

designer fabrics galore

after posting my ornaments for the kiwi christmas swap last week, I couldn't resist popping into the Designer Fabrics shop next to the post office for a quick look. Much to my delight, I had timed my visit perfectly. Pete had just got in some gorgeous printed cotton voiles, which I bought to make up into summer dresses. As new stock comes in fortnightly, it looks like I'll be visiting Designer Fabrics more often.

designer fabrics

a designer fabrics shop has just opened up nearby and this morning I popped in for the first time to have a look around. With bolts of fabric all over the place, it was like going on a treasure hunt to find these retro inspired prints plus the large floral chiffon print. All these fabrics are destined to be sewn up for me, me, ME!

colourful

in the middle of a drab wet winter when everyone is wearing dark sombre colours, it's a welcome escape to be sewing for a tropical holiday. There's nothing quite like a splash of colour to brighten a cold, wintery day of sewing.

All these gorgeous fabrics have one thing in common... lots and lots of colour. Spotlight had a massive sale on their summer weight cottons (with a little added stretch for comfort), all at $5.00 a metre, down from $16.99 per metre! and so I came home with a huge pile of colourful inspiration.

ugly fabric dress

at last a decision! the 'ugly fabric' demands to be made into a 1950s inspired dress, with a fitted bodice and very full skirt. The fabric has kept it's crispness even though it's been washed. That will probably save me having to make a crinoline petticoat to go underneath. I'm drafting the pattern from Enid Gilchrist's 'Women and Teenagers' pattern book. Miss 12 has kindly agreed to be the new owner of the dress. Lucky her!

ugly fabric contest

I think this fabric is so awful that it deserves to be entered in the 'ugly fabric' contest over at Pattern Review. It's a lightweight, very crispy poly-cotton with the strangest colour and pattern combinations. I can't remember why or when I bought it. It must have been a while back as it was lurking at the very back of the hallway closet.

What would it suit? a vintage styled sunfrock? retro tunic? still undecided at the moment...

more play dresses

Miss 2's first play dress that I blogged about the other day has been so successful that I'm compelled to make her more. So here's a hint of the other fabric colour combinations that I've chosen for Miss 2's other play dresses. Again I'll be using the 'economical dress' pattern. This time I'll make it with a round neckline although I think I'll leave the skirt fullness as it is. There's also a smock dress pattern by Enid Gilchrist that I'd like to make up in the red spot/black & white floral.

Most of the fabrics came from the Spotlight remnant bag, which has proved to be well worth the $5 price. I had to buy a 1/2 metre of the yellow gingham and the red & white spot as I didn't have anything in my stash that would match/compliment the prints.

Just realised today that I really love to fill my sewing world with colour!

scrap fabric doll quilts

The simple doll quilt that I blogged about last week is finished. It looks really great on the doll bed even though its a little small for this bed. I also made a little pillow to go with the quilt. I found the instructions from this really great
tutorial very useful when doing the binding. I think I did a pretty good job. Even the mitred corners look good. I'll need to practice stippling a lot more before even trying it on a quilt as my earlier attempts were awful.


I've started a second doll quilt with my leftover fabric scraps. This one is more of a challenge as I'm working with a very limited colour palette. Guess that's just what happens when it comes to making something out of scraps. However, I think that I can 'make it work!'

sewing and fat quarters

While at Sewing Machine World, I saw a perfect sewing machine for Miss 12. She's doing quite a lot of sewing and is finding that her little retro Singer Genie machine can't keep up. This is a Janome MS5027LE (it's one of the Breast Cancer support sewing machines). It was from their 2008 'old stock' and was priced to sell. I know Miss 12 will be over the moon.


They also had lots and lots of gorgeous fat quarters on sale, perfect for all those smaller crafting projects. So Miss 12 will have plenty to inspire her sewing.


Now I wonder if I ask nicely, whether she might even let me use her machine lol!

the scrap fabric stash

yes it's finally time to take a hard look at the scrap fabric stash and give it a good sort out. I don't like waste and try to do all that I can to reduce my environmental footprint with my crafting as well. So all the scrap fabric is put aside to use in one way or another. Apart from the fabric balls and my crazy patchwork dorothy bag (both still 'work in progress'), I've been on the lookout for some other small projects to use up my scraps. My pattern stash yielded this Kwik sew pattern for pin cushions, which could be great.


I discovered these liberty fabric scraps hiding at the very bottom of the pile. They were a $1 op shop find. These could make up a pretty doll quilt using Sew Mama Sew's doll quilt tutorials and there's enough scraps to make 2 doll quilt panels.

If you have any little project suggestions, I'd love to hear from you.

rationalise the stash

Yesterday I filled the whole bottom half of the shelving with fabric... lots and lots of fabric. This morning at 6.30am, I got onto the job of rationalising the stash. There was a sea of fabric around my feet and I'd no idea what to keep and what to part with. Working methodically, I've been able to part with quite a bit of fabric (now all bagged) ready to deliver to the hospice shop tomorrow. Yikes, the photo is a little blurry, sorry.

The stash is rationalised at last!

tidy up time

today was the day for tidying up. The craft/sewing room has been a mess for days with stuff now being piled up on the floor. So this morning with children in tow, I went shopping and bought some second hand shelving. It took 2 trips and the help of Miss 12 and Mr 10 to get the shelves into place. Then it was sorting through all the fabric. I didn't realise until today that I had so much fabric stashed away. I'm even embarassed to admit that there's lots of material that I couldn't even remember buying (sigh!)

Anyway, it looks like the weekend might be swallowed up by my 'attempt' to rationalise this rather large fabric collection.

As for my other stuff, Miss 2's dress is finished and ready to wear, the cushions are cut but not sewn and the curtains are hemmed and ready to be hung. I'm waiting for dear hubby to put up the new curtain rails. Miss 10's sewing requests are on hold, as she can't decide about her tops or her dress for the school social. And the A+O pants, I haven't even touched them this week.