'Folksy Lady' Skirt

Recently I picked up a pretty great sewing book called "Sew Everything Workshop" at a second hand bookshop in town. The book came with patterns and I thought it could be a bit of a risk buying a book like this second hand - what if only half the patterns were there? Or if they were there, but had all been cut out in the wrong size? I decided to buy it anyway as it seemed to have a lot of great general sewing information. If the project patterns weren't all there I could deal with it.

It turns out that ALL THE PATTERNS were still with the book and un-cut! I decided to start with a patterns called the "Easy Breezy Wrap Skirt". It's a very simple little wrap skirt, but it does have a really lovely shape.

So the perspective of this photo is kind of messed up and my head looks freaking HUGE - maybe its just because its filled with so many brains.

I made the skirt with some fabric that Emi gave me - when I started out I was kind of like "what a great idea, I'll make a plain red skirt, because every thing I make is patterned - I need some basic me made pieces".

Then when I finished up I decided it was the most boring skirt I've ever owned and quickly dug out some trim I had (20 cents from the hospice shop in Levin) and sewed it around the bottom of the skirt.

Trim makes everything better......also I decided that I rather liked giving my creations names after the "put a bird on it dress" and I decided this trim was rather folksy, and therefore its my folksy lady dress.                                                                 

Obviously when you think of folk - you can't help but think of "the almost award-winning fourth-most-popular folk duo in New Zealand."

I hope you have all been having a great week!

Weekend Sewing Blogger Adventures - Fabric Fair in Island Bay

Last weekend I got up early (well early for me on a Saturday) to head out to Island Bay to check out a fabric fair at one of the local churches.

Island Bay is one of my favourite suburbs of Wellington (hello sea creatures!) and it turned out I was the only non-Island Bay person to go to the fair. I didn't realise so many WSBN people lived in Island Bay.

The church was located near the shops, which meant it was easy to find and by some kind of miracle I was actually the first person to arrive! That NEVER HAPPENS.....

The fair was very much a jumble sale, some things had prices and some did not so you had to find someone to price certain things for you. One of the church ladies told me she was happy to haggle the price over things with me - but if you know me at all, you will know I hate haggling! I just want to know the price already.

The market was kind of divided into two halves - one half being a stall for the church and the other half being the local arts and crafts society. However, there was no sign to tell us this! So things did get a little confusing.

Despite the general confusion, it was a great little fabric fair. It obviously wasn't as well organised or as coherent as something like fabric-a-brac, but it was a lot of fun and there were a lot of treasures to look through.

So what was the best part of the day (apart from hanging out with my WSBN friends of course) - it was the part of the day where I found this incredible 90s computer themed fabric for $5.

Seriously, how good is this fabric? The lady I bought it from said she had originally used it to make her son's bedspread with (she told me he's 26 now). I'm both excited and torn by this fabric - there's enough for a dress - but would that be too FULL ON even for me? Would a skirt be better? First world problems.

It's hard to believe, but I  also picked up some other pretty fantastic fabrics at the fair - I got around 2 metres each of these fabrics.

I also got around a metre of this really cute cat fabric, I think I will make a top from it. To be honest it cost more than I would normally pay for fabric at a fair/second hand. But it was just too cute to leave behind.

Even the selvedge is pretty adorable - tiny cats!

This little fair was a good place to pick up notions and all the other bits and pieces you always end up needing when your are sewing/crafting. Here's what I bought - embroidery floss, vintage look buttons, pins, some red thread and I actually think that little dude may be a coaster! I'm going to use him as a patch.

Finally a close up of that packet of pins - because its kind of incredible. I wonder how long they were sitting around unused in someones cupboard.

Me Made May 2014 - Week Two

It's time for Me Made May week two! I'm actually surprised at how many "me made" items I have in my wardrobe. I haven't worn the same item twice yet. 

However, I do now for sure pretty much all I seem to make are skirts and tops - I really need to make more tops and cardis. 

Here's what I wore for week two:

5 May

My usual photographer (Rich) was busy finishing up an assignment for university, so I didn't get a full length photo. But I did capture the part of the outfit I made myself - which is what counts!

Made by Me - A-line Skirt

Other stuff - tights from who knows where? and boots from Avon

6 May

Made by Me - "Put a bird on it!" Dress

Other stuff - tights from who knows where, belt from The Warehouse and boots from Avon

7 May

This appears to be the day of the extremely awkward pose.

Made by Me - Laurel Mask Dress

Other stuff - tights from who knows where, necklace from David White Gallery, Cardi used to belong to Rich and boots from Korea

8 May

The day we decided it was a good idea for me to pose with the guitar and look like some kind of  country singer songwriter. In case you're wondering, I can't play the guitar. Rich however has played guitar since he was a teenager and tired to teach me once about 10 years ago - but I lost interest in about five minutes.

Made by Me - Autumnal Dress

Other stuff - Cardi and tights from glassons, boots from avon and necklace from Korea

9 May

The day we decided I should pose like a total geek with Rich's football - you can see how awesome these shoes actually are!

Made by Me - Meg Dress

Other stuff - Cardi from Illicit Clothing Aotearoa, beads from op shop, belt from clothes swap, tights from I'm not sure and shoes from Avon.

10 May

Made by Me - Tropical Skirt

Other stuff - Scarf  and tights from Equip, Cardi used to belong to Rich, Brooch a gift from Rich and boots from Avon 

11 May

Made by Me - Laurel Dress

Other stuff - Cardi from glassons, necklace a gift from Rich, tights who knows and boots from Avon

I wore today's Me Made outfit to Te Papa as Rich I went to check out two exhibitions they currently have displayed about China - Throne of  Emperor and Shi Lu: A revolution in paint. 

If you are in Wellington you should totally go and check them out as they are both amazing. In celebration of the Chinese exhibitions Te Papa had some pretty Chinese Lanterns on display.

Also today was a stunning autumn day - instead of a miserably cold one!

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend xoxo

Sea Creatures Make Me Happy

I do love the zoo, but when it comes to creatures I love sea creatures best of all. Unfortunately, we don't have an aquarium in Wellington. If we did I would have a yearly pass and there would be a lot of sea creature related blog posts.

Even though we don't have an aquarium, we do have a marine centre in Island Bay which gives you a chance to get up close with some fishy friends. So when I was feeling  a bit down and out a couple of weeks back we decided to check out the marine centre.

The marine centre has creatures from our local coastline - which means no brightly coloured tropical fish, but there are plenty of rad sea creatures to check out.

It's always so hard to take a good photo of seahorses - but they are one of my favourites (even if they are kind of weird).

 I'm pretty sure there aren't any turtles living along our coastline - but they are pretty awesome (especially with their turtle jenga).

After visiting the marine centre, we decided to go for a walk along the coastline for a bit in Island Bay, I really love this part of Wellington. 

What do you guys like to do when you're feeling a bit down and out?

Levana 2.0 - WSBN Road trip!

If you've been following my blog for a while, you may remember the trip I took with the WSBN last year to Levin to go to the Levana factory store - only to find it was closed. We still had an awesome day, but didn't get to check out Levana.

I'm sure some people are wondering what exactly Levana is - well its a textiles factory that sells all  kinds of good stuff, including lots of merino for winter clothes.

Last weekend we tried to visit Levana again and guess what?  This time it was actually OPEN and they had a sale on remnants, hurrah!

 What was waiting for us when we arrived in the store? All kinds of pretties - perfect fabric for the cooler months ahead!

Don't let these photos fool you - the shop actually got INSANELY busy! There were only two staff members working running between the cutting tables and the till. 

We were all eventually able to buy what we wanted and were extremely happy - as can be seen in the photo below. 

From left to right - Me! (obviously), Juliet, Linda, Nikki, Sandra and Elizabeth. I'm looking so happy because I bough so much wonderful warm merino fabric. The two pieces of stripe fabric will become dresses/tunics, the red fabric a top and the black a cardi (although I may change my mind - you never know!)

The Hospice op shop in Levin was pretty awesome last time, so we decided to check it out again. This place had so many treasures!

Look at all of these amazing souvenir spoons for 50 cents each - I really had no reason to buy a spoon, but they were fun to look through. 

 Also there was SO MUCH FABRIC at the op shop - it was amazing! There we also heaps of other crafty goodies like buttons, trim, zippers and so much more.

What is a trip to an op shop without seeing a humorous pattern or two - this was my favourite.

I managed to pick up some slightly more useful pattens - a mens jumper/cardi pattern and a woman's raglan sleeve top. Turns out these Amvic patterns were made in Levin, I googled them and couldn't really find any further information about them - but they are pretty great.

Here's my op shop haul - all of this for $12! I'm hoping to use most of the fabric to make summery clothes for our holiday next month. The zippers, trim and other bits will all come in useful - you can never have too many zippers!

Obviously we had to finish up the day with a shared lunch - because that's what the WSBN does. So many delicious things!