February Monthly Stitch Challenge - UFO Showdown

This year I've decided to try and do more challenges from The Monthly Stitch, which if you're not familiar with it is a sewing community that has monthly challenges. It's run by some of my Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network friends so I thought it was time I joined in!

The challenge for February (which I am posting in March, but I promise I finished up in February) was UFO showdown!

For those of you who don't know, in sewing/general crafting terms a UFO is an UnFinished Object and I have a BUNCH of sewing UFOs.

There are a bunch of reasons for this, but one of the main ones is that for some reason I REALLY like cutting out pattern pieces. So often if I'm having a bad day I want to cut out new pattern pieces, but not actually sew them up. This means lots of bags of half finished garments in my sewing "cave".

I could have actually finished off a bunch of projects, but I chose just one for the "showdown" I  do have a few more UFOs that I should finish off before our trip as I began them with the intention of taking them on other trips to warmer climates.

The project I decided to finish up for the UFO showdown is made using a vintage Maudella pattern gifted to me my Vix. I've made this pattern multiple times including here, here and here.

So I cut out this dress like a million years ago and sewed up most of it, but I didn't add the sleeves and hem it because reasons. I actually made this version of the dress a lot longer than the previous versions and I'm not sure if I'm into that or not - time will tell (well how much it gets worn will tell).

I bough the fabric from Arthur Toye (RIP) and I loved it so much I was scared to cut into it - but no more! It's time to use the "good" fabric because there will always be more good fabric in the future!! By the way I'm standing by the lemon tree that was basically dead when we moved into our house a year a go (We have been homeowners for a YEAR now!) but now its going strong! My friend Emma did a bit of a pruning session when she visited last and its really  sprung into life. Also maybe it got better because I added the flamingo to it that Ria gave me a couple of Christmases ago to its pot - I mean, that HAD to have lifted the lemon trees mood right?

Here's a close up of the fabric and also the cute sewing themed necklace Rich's mum bought me for Christmas. I teally love it, too back the spool of thread is sideways in the picture as that's my favourite charm!

That's my first monthly stitch challenge for the year done (I totally missed January, I thought about doing it, but it turns out I thought about it too much and it never happened) next months theme is "Sew hot right now".

I'm going to be honest, as much as I like clothes I find fashion strange and confusing. I just wear things I like, sewing "on trend" will be a little hard for me! Then I guess that's why they call it a challenge. From my limited research (walking down Lambton Quay where there's a bunch of chain stores) it seems that both the nineties and the seventies are "in"  right now - that's when I think I'm heading with this challenge. Do any of you have any idea what's "sew hot right now"?

Squirrel Print Dress

Excuse the blurry photo please! This is the dress I was originally making for the Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network meet up at the zoo. However, my Mum and brother paid us a surprise visit and I never made it to to the zoo and I kind of lost my motivation to finish up the dress.

Which is a shame, because now I have actually finished it I love it so much and I am planning a second one with some of the Arthur Toye sale fabric I bought. The pattern is the Derby Dress by Christine Haynes, I have had this pattern sitting in my pile for some time but I have only just now gotten around to making a version of the dress.

So this photo is a little clearer! You can actually see me and the dress! I really do love this pattern, the design is cute and the directions are super simple to follow. I think I have mentioned on here before that I basically feel like Christine Haynes was one of the people that taught me how to sew - when I was starting out her book Chic and Simple Sewing was so useful. I have made so many projects from that book over and over again, if you're just learning to sew, I highly recommend it!

As for the fabric, its from the Arthur Toye sale too - but I got it at the start of the sale in January. The pattern is tiny squirrels and frogs. I was a little worried this dress might look like a nightie - but thankfully that's not the case at all.

Also this pattern sneakily taught me how to make my own bias binding - something I have been scared of doing for the longest time. Christine tricked my by treating the bias binding like any other pattern piece! Sneaky sneaky!

Close up of the frill, squirrel fabric (there are frogs too) and THAT bias bindings - guys I can TOTALLY make bias binding now. 

Notice anything different about my hair? I got extensions again! It's been a long time since I have had them and I'm really happy with them. This time I have actual "real" hair extensions - which is a little creepy, but I try not to think about it too much. In the past I have always had synthetic hair extensions, which really never blended with my hair, they were obviously not "my" hair. These "real" extensions look like I could have dyed part of my hair fire truck red.

Tomorrow is Waitangi Day, which is pretty much New Zealand's birthday so we get a day off work. Rich and I are heading off hiking which I'm really looking forward to (I'm crossing my fingers it won't rain). Hope you're enjoying your week - whatever you are getting up to!

Goodbye Arthur Toye

So Friday was a rather sad day for all of us sewing/crafty type people in Wellington as it was the FINAL DAY EVER for our beloved Arthur Toye Fabrics.

It seems that Arthur Toye Fabrics has been around for about a million years - I remember advertising for Arthur Toye being on TV when I was a kid.

When I first started sewing a couple of years ago I loved going to Arthur Toye and not just because it was ten minutes from my apartment. I just loved the selection of fabric they had, especially all the fun quilting cotton. I know some people say don't sew clothing from quilting cotton - whatever, if I like something I'm going to sew with it somehow. 

The other great thing about Arthur Toye was that the people that worked there were genuinely interested in fabric and sewing and I felt like I could ask them questions and they would be able to answer them with some level of knowledge.Unlike other "mega" craft/fabric stores - you all know what I'm talking about.

I also loved the fact that Arthur Toye was near not only my apartment, but also my office! So if I was having a rough day and needed to get get out of the office and do something I would often go to Arthur Toye. Sometimes I would buy things, but other times I would just look at all the lovely fabric - it just made me feel better about things. 

But now the dream is over and last Friday I went to Arthur Toye with some of the Wellington Sewing Bloggers, for the final time, to hunt out some final bargains and say bye bye to one of our favourite stores.

I think most of us wore something that we had made from Arthur Toye Fabrics - I wore my most recent make, my Laurel Mask Dress. Here's a group shot with our final purchases.

Then a shot of extreme sadness...

We are so not impressed! I know, you may be wondering what I bought, but there have been a number of purchases over the past month (if you follow me on instagram, you would have seen recent pattern hauls) which  I will share over time. To be honest, I feel like everything I make over the next six months will be from fabric or a pattern from Arthur Toye!

Thanks to Mel from The Curious Kiwi for these photos.

Wellington Sewing Bloggers Roadtrip!

Since I joined Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network there has been a trip planned to visit Levana in Levin. Levana is a factory store that's open the first Saturday of every month, the sewing bloggers had been planning this trip for a while and I was really excited to go along. So excited in fact I was prepared to catch the 7:03am train from Wellington to Johnsonville on a Saturday morning to meet up with some of my sewing blogger pals to head to Levin. I was the only person in my train carriage!

I met up with Mel  in Johnsonville and she was kind enough to drive me around for the day, along with Nikki and Jo we headed off to Levana.

However, when we finally arrived in Levin and headed to Levana - disaster struck! IT WAS SHUT!!

There was some issue with the electricity so it was SHUT on the first Saturday of July and open the second Saturday instead. We were sad - but resourceful and decided that we were still going to have a fabulous day. We decided to check out an op shop and then head onto Palmerston North as originally planned.

I didn't buy this fabulous men's "body shirt" pattern at the op shop - but I did buy a table cloth which will become clothing and some cute doilies.

When we arrived in Palmerston North we headed straight for Petite Fours where the lovely Juliet had booked a high tea for us all. It was amazing! You all know how I feel about high tea - the cafe was lovely, the food delicious and the company was just the best. I even learnt some New Zealand sign language at high tea.

After lunch we visited the Arthur Toye fabric shop in Palmerston North, its MUCH bigger than the Wellington. So much excitement - they even had a selection of Hello Kitty fabrics!

After spending much time and money at Arthur Toye it was time to check out another op shop, Juliet told us they had a lot of vintage patterns.

Look at ALL THESE PATTERNS!

They also had a "fabric room" where I managed to pick up some fabric cheaply to try and make a coat.

So what did I pick up during my adventures in Palmerston North? I was pretty restrained despite a half price sale at Arthur Toye. I bought some stretch blue velvet and blue Hello Kitty cotton. The velvet is much more of a royal blue that it looks in this photo.

At the Op Shop in Palmerston North I picked up some houndstooth fabric to try and make a make a coat with and also a whole bunch of patterns.

Despite initial disasters, I had the best day out with my sewing blogger friends and hopefully we can do it again when Levana is actually open!

To finish off, here's a tree that's been yarn bombed in Palmerston North that I thought was pretty rad (there was some kind of festival happening when we were there).

 Hope you've all been having a rad weekend xoxox