Karori Cemetary - Penguin Shipwreck Walk

This is a very photo heavy post my friend, a few weeks ago (well maybe longer than a few weeks...) I met up with some of my sewing blogger friends for a walk in Karori Cemetery. The plan was to do the Penguin Shipwreck Memorial Walk, we did the walk in a round about kind of way, but I'd love to do it again and spend more time (and also perhaps read the information in the brochure to get a better understanding).

Although we did not follow that path of the walk particularly closely, it was nice to spend the morning walking and spending time with friends.

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 Christmas Picnic

Yesterday was the Wellington Sewing Bloggers end of year meet up - I didn't get many photos of the event itself, but here a photo of the food! You can't say that we don't put on a good spread.

We also had a secret Santa - with a twist, its kind of complicated - but lets just say it was a "bad" secret Santa where you could "steal" others peoples secret Santa packaging.

After much present stealing - I finally ended up with this assortment of goodies. I really had my heart set on having THAT zip because of the cool zipper pull.

We also had a sewing swap - which we have pretty frequently. The swap looked a little like this....

Here's what I picked up from the swap - a whole bunch of awesome patterns. I love them all - which one to sew first?

Finally as it was a sewing bloggers meet up I thought I best make something new to wear - this dress is SUPER simple as I'm pretty low on energy right now. It's the "Staple Dress" by April Rhodes.This is actually a "$5 remnant dress" as I bought the fabric from the remnant table at The Fabric Store!

Rich took a few more up close photos of the dress when I got home from the picnic. I'm not 100% convinced I like it or not? I always over think everything I make though and think its not good enough!

Hope you all have a great week - nearly time for Christmas break - hurrah!

Fabric-a-brac: November 2013

A couple of weeks back I volunteered at Fabric-a-brac - If you have been following my blog for a while, you will know how much I LOVE fabric-a-brac! I'm even included in one of their blog posts here.

My friend Kat is one of the organisers of the event, when she did another shout out to see if any of the Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network girls would like to volunteer at the event this time around I put up my hand again. Last time I helped out on the Hospice stall and this time I was helping out in the cafe - serving up the treats and tea.

The cafe was very cute and homely - part of my job was to take cups of teas and treats out to people on a tray. I even wore an apron - I look almost domestic! I even wore a dress made from fabric that I bought from a previous fabric-a-brac.This photo is from the fabric-a-brac facebook page.

 This time around my main scores were sweet patterns from the 1960's - as you guys know, I'm all about the 1960s.

I also bought some fabric, my most recent laurel dress is from the purple fabric I bought at fabric-a-brac and I still have leftover fabric. What else should I make?

Finally how exciting is fabric-a-brac for sewing geeks? This photo really says it ALL! This is another photo from the fabric a brac facebook page - that's Kat on the left, me in the middle (DUH!) and Nikki on the right. All Wellington Sewing Blogger Network girls (of course!).