Scenes from the sewing room

 

The rugged rhinos roam the rag-rug plains.

Model shots

It’s not easy being a supermodel.

You have to make everything look effortless

yet playful,

While gazing off into the middle distance

………….even in the swimsuit shots,

In bi-ped news, we headed off to the surgeon yesterday and Simon was hoping to be told to take off the cast and run free ! In fact what the surgeon said was .”ooh lets cut you open and fix this, maybe shattering your elbow in the process”. When we neglected to whoop and cheer with excitement he suggested a few more weeks immobile with regular X-rays to monitor the healing.

The patient is losing his patience

(no-one guessed the name but I’ll pick some random winners and let you know)

Because I also asked on Bookface

Does anyone want to guess this guys name? I think I have the perfect name but am open to suggestions

Yep, there will be prizes.

I am eating milo out of a tin

while I write this quick post. I can’t recall blogging about the new Creative Cards I have released. I sometimes get a bit lost between the blog and Bookface and land of Tweets.

These cards are like mini-patterns and I love them because it is a way for me to share some of that cute but useless stuff that pops into my brain.

These cards will retail for about $4.95 in Australia and I am not sure what price elsewhere.

These two are ready and already sold out in a few places. I know they are available at Ballarat Patchwork, Under the Mulberry Tree and Patterns Only if you want to grab them.

You know, if you want to get a hold of any of my patterns you just need to ask your local shopfront to contact me or Creative Abundance to place an order. There is no minimum, so they can just order the one pattern in for you, no hassle at all.

Of course you can check out my stockist page and ask any of the people there to grab what you want as well.

If you know anywhere else that stocks these patterns or any of my others, let me know and I’ll add them to the stockists page as well.

(If you get stuck just email me)

Sorry for the spruiking people but its still nurse-duty here , although things are waaaay better than this time last week.

I am hoping another season of Deadwood might just buy me a little trip into the sewing room by Friday, and the lack of sleep? Well , slightly deranged frantic bag lady looks good on me.

and the things you learn

 

This is the last photo in my camera. Not surprisingly, these two guys are still standing in exactly the same position almost a week later.

You know when the doctor first said Simon (Mr Ric rac ) would need four weeks off work and I would need those weeks to care for him, a little sneaky thought popped into my brain and I know that you all know what it was. Yep, more crafting time! Well the craft gods are mocking me now.

Apparently when someone can’t use their arms, you have to do a few things for them, and then you have to do them again , and then again and again…The next day you get another shot at it ! You can’t just wrap them plastic and pop them in the shower and tell them to rotate. Nor can you expect them to eat from a bowl like the pets do. Who knew ?

So I am here intermittently but not really crafting. I might rehash some old posts. I might not. I might talk about patterns and stockists for a bit or I might disappear for a week. Thanks for all your well-wishes and emails and poop jokes.

You guys are a crack up.

Yesterday it was all lemon butter and Anzac biscuits.

Which I blogged about but didn’t actually post.

This morning on his way to work Mr Ric Rac fell over. Just one of those stumbles that happen. Five hours later the very nice doctor at casualty confirmed that he had broken his elbow.

That sucks right?

My real life friends have all just gasped…..

About thirty odd years ago Mr Ric Rac had a motorcycle accident that left his left arm completely paralysed….

So now he has a completely paralysed left arm and a completely immobilised broken right arm.

A  double slung Tutankhamen kind of look

 

Feeding, dressing, you get the drill folks.

So, it’ll be a weirder than normal around here for a bit.

(I’m pretty sure you didn’t want a photo)

Stubborn

For a weird sleeveless floppy thing, this garment took me forever. I would love to be one of those people that can whip up a wearable garment in a flash, and I kind of feel like I should be able to do it but I am not finding my toy-making skills are all that transferable. This is unchartered territory folks.

Have you ever tried to do armhole binding with a knit fabric ? I invented at least ten new swear words attempting that and one is still thicker than the other.

I know its all about learning, I just wish I could learn faster, that weird little only-attached-at-the-top flippy floppy pocket took me three tries and hours of brain work.

 

I learnt that given enough fabric it is sometimes easier to recut a piece than to unpick.

Unpicking an over locked seam will drive you insane.

Knits roll and expand and contract in ways that continually surprise.(and not in a nice way)

Sometimes buying a sewing pattern really will make things easier

and I learnt that twitter is an invaluable sewing resource.

YES !

Yesterday I was at Millrose cottage in Ballan, teaching a beginners class with a difference.

Do I even need to talk about how beautiful this shop is?

I’ll admit to being a bit nervous about my first attempt at teaching kids – yes I work in a primary school but I am not a teacher. What if they got bored? or if the day was too long? What if someone died in a bizarre sewing machine related tragedy? (I do tend to melodrama when I'm anxious)

Pfft, These little rock stars showed me a thing or two I can tell you. They were totally focused. They cut, sewed, and even embroidered! I was so impressed. We had four Big Topics to cover and they probably got sick of the sound of my voice but I’m sure they can all tell you all about Right Sides Together, Back tacking, Basting and the Softie Sandwich.In fact, they probably had nightmares about it last night- I do tend to bang on.

Yes we had assistants (parent and grandparents) with us but the kids did everything , even the bits I was sure they would not want to do, like embroidering the mouth. They owned that dog! Obviously I lucked out with an awesome bunch of kids and a couple of them were already skilled up, but one new friend went from almost zero experience, to a completed dog. There was lots of laughter, there were a few “Uh-oh jodie, that bit went weird” and “I can’t sew through my eyeball mess” but it really was fun. Yes, we lagged a bit in the afternoon but once we got to stuffing that dog and the end was in sight everyone perked up and those ears were not even a challenge.

Do you remember my little rant when I first designed these beginner patterns ?

well dudes I rest my case.

He’s a bit odd

There was a conversation at breakfast that went something like this:

Me: I have so much to do, and papers everywhere, and freakin sticky notes. I keep forgetting things and losing things, do you know I lost that bloody green zip twice yesterday, I have to finish of that creative card, and then I better start that embroidery. I wonder if it will be too hot to wear boots tomorrow? cause I want to bind that skirt so I can wear it to Ballan. I guess I could wear it with leggings if its too hot for boots, but then I have to fudge around with my leggings and knickers all day…hmmm (pause to think about knicker fudging for a moment)

Mr Ric rac: It will be warmish tomorrow.

Me: Too warm for boots? What do you want for dinner? Are we going to dog park tonight ? I’d like to do that vege thingo with the besan flour but it might be tricky – Oh I was going to make lemon butter today too. I must pack all that class stuff tonight, I wonder when my felt order will come? ooh I got my badge stuff yesterday I thought I might make some badges for the kids for the class tomorrow or take the badge machine with me so they can do it themselves.. what do you think ?

Mr Ric rac: That’s a good idea.

Me : Man I have a lot to do, I think my brain might explode…maybe I just need to finish off a few things, there’s just so much stuff everywhere. I’ll might have to write a new list.

Mr Ric-Rac: Maybe you shouldn’t do so many things at once.

Okay……………………..Or maybe I should just buy some more containers.

I blog-finished a skirt

Things you need to know:

Simplicity pattern

Prints charming fabric

Fully lined with cotton voile

it fits !

 

Things you don’t need to know but I’ll tell you anyway:

I lost the invisible zipper twice ! (It was found in the garden at one point)

The inserted zipper is in fact, more like a hard to see zipper than actually invisible

The binding is just pinned on

The lining is not completely sewn in to the zip yet

None of the dots match up and I am choosing not to care

 

I do not appear to be the same size as my mannequin