Fabric-A-Brac - October 2015

I've done many posts in the past about Fabric-a-brac, its a twice a year fundraiser we have here in Wellington where people sell all kinds of fabric, patterns,notions and other sewing bits and pieces.

I usually help out in the cafe, but I decided to take a break from volunteering this time and just hung out with friends (I'm sure I will be volunteering again next time fabric-a-brac rolls around).

I always love checking out all of the patterns at the event, you really never know what you might find!

Then there's all the fabric, lace, buttons and everything inbetween! I was very tempted to buy that sparkly velvet.

Although I didn't work in the cafe I did visit it obviously, they had the most delicious brownie.

What treasures did I find at fabric-a-brac this time around? First up the patterns - I was pretty restrained this time round.

This pattern is a size too small for me, but I hope I can size it up as its so cute!

Although there's not much call for tropical dresses like this in Wellington, I think I can make a dress from this for my next overseas trip.

A modern pattern? Say what? I loved the lines of the red dress - I have a lot of crazy prints that this dress would work with.

Next up is the fabrics - again I didn't go too crazy. I bought a metre each of these cute Halloween fabrics from the same stall.

There was something about this green cotton that just screamed "buy me!" - I have a total of three metres. Also this photo doesn't really capture the colour of the fabric, its more emerald green.

Finally this check fabric, I never used to be a fan of orange, but its grown on me lately. Also look at that adorable embroidery!

Finally I bought this ric rac - its yellow AND sparkly, how could I leave this behind? Also how cute is that packaging.

I also noticed this sign when I was up in the cafe when I  was having tea - I'm thinking of entering. Any suggestions as to what I should make with my fabric-a-brac finds?

Space Dress part II and fabric-a-brac finds

I've been taking it easy this weekend as I'm starting a new job tomorrow (eek!) and I've had a busy few weeks.

However as you guys know, I find it almost impossible to sit still, so even though I had a fairly quiet weekend I did STILL do some sewing. This project is a refashion, well, it is sort of a refashion.

Some of you guys may remember a while back I made a dress from space fabric - I was just crazy for the fabric, but the dress ultimately didn't end up being as great as I thought it would be, I actually didn't like it at all.

 When I don't like a project, it usually gets sent straight to recycle boutique, because why keep something that makes you feel unhappy? Especially if there is someone else out there that is just perfect for the dress you're not crazy about. But for some reason I COULDN'T get rid of this damn space dress - I don't know why! I loved the fabric and I had actually spent a fair bit on it (which to be honest is pretty unusual). So instead of being sent to recycle boutique it just hung out in my mending pile for months.

Then enter my current phase - my obsession with knits, as you know I've gone nuts for the Moneta and have already made two versions, here and here.I decided that I could use my Moneta pattern to rejig my space dress to make it into something I would actually wear and MUCH to my surprise, it actually worked out! Behold Space dress version 2.0.

I chopped off the top part of the dress just below the original bust darts and kept that part of the dress for the skirt on this one, so its an A-line rather than a gathered skirt. I used the Moneta bodice, but due to the leftovers that I had from the original version of the dress the bodice has a seam running through the front and the back as I had to stitch together a few pieces to make it work - but I think it actually looks ok (I thought perhaps it would look super weird).

Overall I'm pretty stoked with this dress - Rich even said I should make more dressed like this! I think I will, the  fabric is what I think is called scuba? It really does remind me of a wet suit, or at least it did when I was sewing it, but its as comfortable to wear as any of my other wonderful knit dresses (knits forever!)

Just a new dress selfie - I bought the necklace a few weeks back at a market Rich, Ria and I went to and yes they are teeth. I find teeth equal parts gross and fascinating - so I was pretty stoked with this!

I also went to a fabric-a-brac at the Dowse Gallery - this was a special fabric-a-brac event that's part of a new exhibition they have at the gallery right now "The Age of Aquarius". I didn't go to the exhibition as I'm waiting to go with Ria when she comes back from Australia (so I'm sure you will see photos of that sometime - just not today). I did find some great stuff thought, including four Maudella patters!

There were also some fabric finds - the brown fabric is so lovely, but I only have a small amount, I'm hopefully it's going to be enough for a top. I love the green lurex (obviously) and the other fabric really speaks for itself! I am hoping I will be able to make something from this fabric to attend the exhibition - it just seems like the right thing to do!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend - wish me luck for my first day tomorrow!

Happy Saturday!

I have to admit that I have been down quite a bit lately - there has been a lot going on and the weather has been extremely cold and miserable. This is the first winter since we moved into our apartment where it has actually felt cold inside (our central heating just can't keep up).

However, this last weekend the weather was cold, but the sun was shining and I got to catch up with Ria for the first time in a long time (she has been busy working on a big show) and I had a genuinely awesome weekend.

So what did I get up to? Well I met Ria on Saturday and we went to the international food court that recently opened pretty much right next door to our apartment.

It's a really pretty food market and given its "sort of" open air it has been doing amazingly well in a Wellington winter. They have so much delicious food - Chinese dumplings, Korean street food, Malaysian, Filipino barbeque, Indian, roti wraps and that's just a handful of the businesses. If you are in Wellington you should really go and visit. On Sunday Ria and I choose to get some chili chicken noodles from the Vietnamese place and they were amazing.

There is also  a general market as part of the food market - at the moment its mostly vintage and a few other small businesses. I don't think the general market is doing as well as the food part, but I do hope that it becomes more popular. Maybe it will become Wellingtons first vintage market! Although I'm not sure having a vintage market and a market selling delicious food next to my house would be great for my wallet. I only managed to snap a couple of pictures at the market, nothing really grabbed our attention (although those buttons were super fun) so we headed up to Cuba Street.

After checking out a few shops we decided to stop off for what I consider to be the best chai in Wellington! It's worth buying chai tea here to make sure that you can see this fun caravan around the city. Once I was chatting to the owner of the caravan and he told me he was taught how to make chai when he was in India - so this masala chai is the real deal!

We continued along Cuba Street and eventually ended up at Recycle Boutique - where many clothes were tried on and some were eventually bought. Also I  had to share this knitwear with you guys - I mean seriously!

I did end up buying a couple of frocks - I had seen the green one at recycle boutique before but I didn't try it on. Turns out it fits perfect and looks awesome - it was meant to be!

We also paid a visit to Minerva which is a wonderful bookstore that sells loads of craft and sewing books. The books they sell are new, but they also have a small selection of vintage patterns and I was able to pick up this cute wee pattern.

To finish our day we decided to see if the Fabric Store was open, but we were too late. I thought I would share this mural with you all though. It's kind of fun right?

Finally we finished up our day out with a chai latte at Expressoholic - one of our usual hang outs.

I have to admit after this fun day out I was feeling  so much better. I also went to an amazing exhibition with Rich on Sunday (will share photos soon) and now I am also feeling so much better about everything. Plus I have Lux Festival of lights to look forward to, as well as a craft crawl and a trip to Auckland to see Conor and Sue and I will also get to catch up with Emi. It's going to be rad. I'm so happy I'm feeling more positive about basically everything again xoxo

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!).