Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Hello and goodbye October

Gah! I haven't blogged in so long! I should probably try to get one post in for the month of October...so here it is.

Life has been crazy busy. This time of year is nuts when you are a teacher- even more so when you teach instrumental music and are obliged to organise/play at/attend a multitude of end of year concerts. Additionally, I had a concert with the orchestra I play in, two gigs with my jazz/funk band over the space of two days, and a 5 day trip to Canberra for the Australian Flute Festival. I still have to write my school reports. Ugh. 

Anyway. I do love my job...so much. I'm really lucky that my passion also happens to be my job. It is just stressful in the last term of the year!

I have been doing lots of sewing. I have a big backlog of stuff to blog about, but haven't had a chance to take any decent photos. Here's the first project in the queue- my first dress of Spring.

I love it when winter comes to an end and I can start wearing bright, flowery dresses again. It just doesn't feel right wearing them in winter! This dress is one I've made a few times before, and I still haven't perfected the fit! I must have forgotten to take some width out of the centre front to account for my bony chest, as it gapes like crazy. Still, it's a very cute dress, and is dressy enough for work, but great as a casual dress too.



I bought this fabric to make a dress for one of Lizzie's friends, and loved it so much that I went back and got another few metres. It's quilting cotton, which I love to sew with. It's great for dresses with pleats in the skirt.

I made a couple of dresses to wear on my weekend in Canberra, but haven't photographed them yet. But here are my most recent makes. These are for my daughter's friend, whose birthday is on Saturday. Audrey is a really sweet girl, whose mum has impeccable taste. Audrey's bedroom looks like something from a magazine...it's all vintage fabrics and simplicity, not a complete jumble of crap like my kids' bedroom! Anyway, her mum is always going to handmade markets and buying dresses for Audrey as she doesn't sew. I know she is going to love this dress. I decided on the skirt at the last minute as a little extra.



I drafted the little Peter Pan collar myself and used a gorgeous vintage mother of pearl button at the back of the dress. I think this fabric is so pretty. It looks like linen, but is actually quilting cotton.

The skirt is just a super simple make- two cuts of the width of the fabric sewn together with an elastic casing. I probably could have just used one width of the fabric but this version is a lot more gathered and twirly.

In other news...I chopped my hair off. My hairdresser comes to my house, and the night before she was due to come, I decided all of a sudden to go for a big change. I showed her the style I had in mind, and said, "Do it before I change my mind!". I'm so glad I did it...I feel so different, and funky! Husband is not too keen on it, but it's not his hair, is it?