Spring time in the gardens!

It's spring time - or at least its meant to be! Today was pretty cold and damp, but at least the Cherry Blossoms still know it is in fact spring time.

The tulips looked like they were struggling a bit - but were making a good effort to appear.

Also there was a windmill - because the tulip festival was on today, but as we usually wake up early we arrived before the festival had started.

We finished up our walk with a stop at the always warm Lady Norsewood Begonia House.

Also the gardens seemed like the perfect spot for a very quick outfit photo - I finished up this simple dress last night. Made with my favourite vintage pattern with some fabric I picked up on the Wellington Craft Crawl.

Hope you folks are all having a wonderful weekend - I think I hear my sewing machine calling my name right now xox

Lux Festival of Lights 2014

This is going to be a photo heavy post guys! If you are like me and love pretty pictures that will make you kind of happy right?

After all these years living in Wellington, I'm still surprised at how much is happening in this small city. Even though Wellington is the capital of New Zealand we have less than 400,000 people living here, so its kind of tiny.

Despite its size, its all action (most) of the time and there are a lot of fun annual events. An event thats started happening over the past few years is "Lux" which is a festival of lights throughout some of the alleyways and the waterfront of the city.

Like I said - this is going to be a photo heavy post! Rich and I went to Lux last month and I took a whole bunch of photos and it was a blast (even if it was cold). Want to see them? Well here you go!

The Great WSBN Sewing Room Tour

As I mentioned in my last post, today I'm going to share my sewing space with you as I'm taking part in the great Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network (WSBN) sewing room tour.

Thanks to the lovely Gemma for organising this tour, I feel like it would have actually been a fairly significant effort to get us all on board to do this thing - she is a star.

So far on the tour there have been all  kinds of sewing rooms - with lots of space and beautiful views! I don't have much space, or a view, but I like where I work in the corner of our living room.

So it's not the biggest or prettiest space - but what it does have a lot of character! Mostly because I love random things.

This is my little sewing machine - its really nothing fancy. I hope to get a better one some time in the future now that I have determined the sewing is a bit more than another phase I am going through.

This collection of stuff always sits next to me when I am sewing, the skull pin cushion was  made by my friend Vany and can be worn on the wrist. The other white guy is a tofu pin cushion and is the only thing I will ever knit in my life - this took a million years to make and filled me with rage. I also have my little tape measure on hand and my quick unpick for obvious reasons.

This collection of "bits" always sits next to my machine, a couple of op shopped bowls with all my thread. The little zipper pouch at the back made with ice cream fabric was my first attempt at putting in a zipper.

The other tin contains all kinds of notions and bits, including a map of Taipei which I have had since we lived in Taipei. For some reason I just can't bring myself to throw the map away so it just keeps living with my notions.

This board did originally start out as an "inspiration board" of some sort. Turns out I'm less interested in having an inspiration board and more interested in having a place to sick pictures and cards from my friends. I do also keep a few buttons here and lately it has become the best place for me to put my zippers as well. 

So  many random treasures......

Unfortunately for some reason this photo turned out a little blurry - annoying. However, moving past the blurry photo, here is my collection of sewing books. It seems that when I start getting into any kind of hobby I start obsessively buying books. 

On top of the book case I have some buttons and my Easter card from Ria - I also have other essentials including a softie strawberry, mummy lego figure and in case you're wondering that cage at the back is a zombie softie bird. I need a zombie bird in a cage for reasons that should be obvious to everyone. 

 So next to the bookcase is some of the fabric I have - that pile on the left is the much feared "mending" pile.

Also these are are all my patterns - new, vintage and indie. I officially have enough patterns and in fact may have some kind of problem.

My other storage space is this poor bookcase that is overloaded to the extreme! So many things. 

Some of the items on top of the bookcase - as you guys know, I am a mature adult who makes sensible adult choices when it comes to decorating my space. It's the little things that make it special. 

As well as a general tour of our sewing spaces/rooms there were a few questions that each person taking part in the blog tour could answer if they wanted to. 

What I'm working on:

I usually have a whole lot of projects on the go at once as I have a really short attention span. 

However, I do have two main projects, the first being this ALMOST complete dress. I just need to shorten it a bit and hem it and then its good to go. 

The other project I'm currently working on is the McKenzie Cardigan that I'm making in one of the Dreamstress' classes. I don't have much to show yet - but its going to be awesome and make all of my cardi dreams come true.

Next project in line:

I do have a lot of things in the pipeline - but I am hoping to make up this Pussy Bow Dress next - the fabric has both anchors and hearts!

Show off your stash:

So compared to a lot of the WSBN my stash is actually pretty small - but still to show it ALL off is a bit too much. I'm just going to show you a few pieces I'm hoping to sew up soon.

I have about three metres of this fantastic fabric - I bought it at the Auckland  Vintage Textiles Fair and its amazing. It's some kind of knit from the early 1970s. At this stage I have no idea what I will make with it, but I do know one thing, whatever I  made will be awesome.

This is my second fabric - its a cotton covered in lollies (or sweeties or candy depending where you are from). Fun fact about me - I have never smoked, I don't drink and I could easily pass up deep fried food for the rest of my life and wouldn't care too much. However, I love sugar and lollies are my number one weakness! I bought this delicious fabric from Made on Marion.

Finally this super cute fruit fabric, its a cotton that I bought from Arthur Toye before it shut down. I have three metres of this and I'm currently wondering if I should use it to make a frock with for my mum's 60th birthday party next month.

Favourite thing I've made:

So are you guys still with me? This post has become ridiculously LONG!!

For my favourite thing - I have actually chosen THREE things! First up is my ONLY costume so far.

Remember that time Ria and I went to Armageddon as Princess Bubblegum and Fiona? That was a good time.

Next up is my Easter Dress - this dress is super simple and it cost me pretty much nothing to make as I used fabric I got from a WSBN swap.

However, every time I  wear it I get a bunch of compliments, and I was one even told it was so "on trend". I am  basically never, ever on trend - I think this dress is just so great it doesn't need any trends!

Finally is my Vix Dress which is named after a very inspirational lady. It's also cost me next to nothing as it was made from an old maxi skirt and its already visited three countries (NZ, Malaysia and  Indonesia). It's super easy to wear and I feel happy whenever I put it on.

Well that's my sewing room tour done - if you made it to the very end, nice work! If you want to see the other sewists in our group, then check out Leimomi's post and you can work your way back to Gemma's original post.

As for who's next? It's the amazing Joy - I can tell you from  personal experience Joy's space is incredible and is NOT just a corner in an inner city apartment! Hope you guys enjoyed this wee tour of my space and one final thing....my sewing chair includes a (handmade) domo cushion.  Just thought you'd like to know.