Little zig zag dress

A few weekends ago, my lovely friend Joy was kind enough to feed my obsession with knit fabric and take me out to Te Rauparaha Area in Porirua to feed my stretch fabric addiction.

Levana was having a fabric sale and I wanted to get my hands on some pretties.

I usually leave these kinds of things with a rainbow of colours - but this time it was mostly black, grey and green. I do often think "I need more plain stuff to balance out the crazy" but I hardly ever actually BUY the plain stuff to balance out the crazy.

I did buy a lot of stretch fabric and the good folks at Levana were very generous with the length of fabric they were cutting! I'm sure you guys will see loads of stuff from the fabric I bought on this wee morning out.

Let's start with my first outfit - a zig zag Moneta dress. I know - ANOTHER Moneta dress, but when you find something that works for you I think you should just run with it!

I remember fabric like this being really popular in the ninties - but I never had any of it! Now I can make my dreams come true. Here's a close up of the fabric - just ignore the tights, they picked up all kinds of fluff from sitting on the floor.

The nice thing about a grey dress is that I finally have something to wear this little green cardigan with - its pretty cute.

Especially the applique on the back - who doesn't love foxes!

I wore this outfit to the Wellington Sewing Bloggers Christmas get together which included a Christmas decoration swap!

My partner was Zara - I was kind of having a mental block as to what I should make her, then inspiration struck on the day before the swap! A sewing themed Christmas wreath.

She looked so happy when she opened it - Laura looks pretty impressed in this photo too!

My secret santa was Allison - I have only met Allison a couple of times, but she already knows me pretty well! This is what she made me - super adorable.

I was pretty excited to get a perfect Hello Kitty from my secret santa! That's Nicola wearing a perfect handmade Christmas dress in the background.

We don't have a "real" tree in our apartment - but I put Hello Kitty next to our "mini" tree.

Hope you guys have all had a good start to your Christmas week! Also thanks to Sandra for the photos from the WSBN Christmas party.

High Tea, slime green and the zoo!

Last Sunday was a particularly busy and sunny day - with all kinds of fun things happening. First up was the Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network second birthday!

To be honest, I can't believe that the WSBN is ONLY two years old - I feel like I've known these ladies for the longest time, and I mean that in the best way possible.

To celebrate the WSBN second birthday the decision was made to got to Martha's Pantry for high tea, this was a pretty great decision as high tea is delicious. Also everything at Martha's Pantry is super adorable - look at this bird, and the spoon and the sugar bowl!

When you visit Martha's Pantry you get fans - like this particularly striking pink feather one. Fancy!

They had their Christmas tree up and it was full of super cute birds!

There was a lovely selection of teas available, which for a tea lover like me makes this place pretty much perfect.

Also at Martha's Pantry they use all kind of old vintage tea spoons - mine was from the Euro Tunnel! They are usually have more of a local flavour though.

After eating all kinds of delicious treats, we decided to head outside to have some photos taken. Including this group one - this isn't everyone in the WSBN though - I think at the moment we have 32 members!

Back Row - Mel, Me, Alison, Wendy, Gillian, Gemma, Zara and Sandra
Front Row - Nina, Nikki, Jenna, Kat and wee baby Amos!

I decided I needed something new to wear to the event, but as always I waited to the last minute (obviously). On Saturday afternoon I quickly sewed up a simple shift dress from slime green lurex - lurex is my power fabric.

Thanks to Mel for taking these photos! This dress is actually a little bit on the big side, I think it could be taken in a bit - but its made from lurex and that's all that really matters.

Oh and in case you were wondering if "windy Wellington" lives up to its name - here's the evidence that it really does.

The rest of the WSBN headed off to Made on Marion after the high tea for crafting - it is after all our spiritual home. I couldn't join them, but that's ok because I was heading off to the zoo which is also awesome!

We were going to the zoo to see our friends choir perform - they sun a whole bunch of fun animal themed songs, including "Eye of the Tiger". It was a pretty great performance.

This weekend I'm off to the art gallery (fancy) and also to do some crafting with some friends - also I want to sew, sew and sew some more. Have a super weekend, whatever you are up to!

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.