keelysews... sometimes

No sewing, no hobbies, nada. Except for a looming deadline this week, a growing collection of empty coke bottles, and one furry helper who seems to feel ignored. I'll know I've been a bad mom when the the ten year old tries this. But Friday, Friday.... I'm free for a week! (anyone else got that irritating song in their head now?)

My plans to do a bit of sewing may have fallen by the wayside , but I have been reading about sewing. My mother had a clear-out of her sewing books and I liberated this one: I can't find any indication of the age apart from the illustrations, which I think indicate 1950's (one google result did suggest 1940). The book is in 3 parts dealing with patternmaking, sewing processes and techniques, and garment making. I've been leafing through this enough to know I want to sit down and read it fully. There seem to be copies available secondhand, but with the power of Google I did find it's also available as an e-book. Adding to the interest was this pattern tucked inside the cover. It's a supplement pattern from the May 2, 1962 Australian Women's Weekly magazine. I can usually take or leave vintage patterns, but it's quite interesting to try to imagine the woman who once pulled this pattern out to make. I wonder if she ever did? Or did she decide that adding 1/2...

My DSis recently gave me a large desk which had been left behind in the house they bought. I love the size - perfect for studying with everything spread out and, if I cleared it off, a good size and height for pattern tracing and cutting. However, the height was uncomfortable when studying, even with my office chair as high as it could go and my feet dangling in the air. After ending up with sore shoulders after just one evening something had to be done. The desk was flipped over and I realised that at some point somebody had added extra to the base. They'd attached it well too with what seemed the longest screws ever invented which had of course, rusted and stuck themselves in there forever. Annoyingly, my drill couldn't reach because the screws had been sunk so far into the wood. What to do? Fetch the hammer and saw of course. :) I cut my way down to those accursed screws, disposed of the wood and got those screws out. Well apart from the one that refused to budge which I, ah...

Wow, so it's been 5 months since I posted! This is also an indication that it's been 5 months since I did any real sewing, cos hemming trousers and repairs don't count IMO! Life has pretty much run me over with a steamroller this year. Who'd have thought that a fuller than fulltime post-grad study year, and a family of kids requiring a taxi-driver would be a lot to handle? Well, ok, everyone but me obviously. I seem to have an entirely unfounded sense of optimism of what I can achieve at times. Still, reality always has a way of making itself known. I'm pretty sure I've managed to become acquainted every flu and cold virus circulating this year! I've discovered this year that stress can make people do funny things - like wearing skirts regularly when they've always been a jeans-type; wearing make-up and even painting my nails!!! Athough that one has a reasonable explanation in that it stops me chewing my nails. Oh, and then there's the crying on my s...

Hi to anyone who's still reading.... yep, I'm still here! Where does the time go? And with no sewing for me. :( Although I have spent some time at the sewing machine. Wow, those things can really gather dust when you don't use them. First up, I scared the machines one evening when, in a fit of enthusiasm, I finally pulled the living room curtains down and replaced the rufflette tape. Is that what you call it? You know, the stuff you put the hooks in that stretches all out if the ready-mades have cheap tape on them and then the curtains hang droopily and ugly. Well, my curtains now hang all prettily again, and it has only taken 3 years to get them done. Then on Sunday my sister turned up with 4 pairs of jeans for me to hem. Sigh. Not exactly inspiring stuff. And I want to sew! Which is not unexpected when I'm busy, lol. My kids have learnt to procrastinate from a master. My mojo positively ran amok the other day trying to tempt me and I had to walk away. I did however...

Help! I read one measly reference to Immanuel Kant and now I can't get the Philosopher's Song out of my head. (Warning - some language may offend) " “Scientists call songs that get stuck in your head “earworms,” after the German Ohrwurm. " ( The Situationist ). Really? They couldn't come up with a better name than that?

Recently my DD1 bought Dolly magazine, despite, or perhaps because of, my insistence that it was a total waste of money. (Amusingly, 2 weeks later she agrees, lol.) As she was leafing through it on the sofa, one page jumped out at me. The details are hard to see from the scanned image, but apparently the "quirky accessories" now involve pins. Snigger. And you can't see it here, but they didn't even bother putting the pin on the RHS on the back of the fabric. What gets me is that they picked this as the best photo and let it go to print?

You may have noticed changes in the look of my blog over the last couple of days. I decided I was bored with my old blog colour scheme. After spending an evening playing with almost all the Blogger templates, plus having a look online to see what was available, this is what I came up with. What do you think? Any suggestions? Is the type easy enough to read? While I'm picking brains, any idea on how to change the colour of the little arrow markers that still show in green? :) TIA for any suggestions!

What is up with these?! I came across a post about these on a blog I've just found - Fat Girls Like Nice Clothes Too How the models walked in these is beyond me. (Video here .) The pink glittery pair about half-way through just look too cloven-hoofed, devil-goat to me! Given the pain normal style heels give me, I think I'll give these a miss. :)

We've had a glorious summer here. Yes, I know I'm rubbing it in for those with snow. :) Of course, sunny, hot days demand a trip to the beach, so last week we packed the kids up and headed south to Curio Bay . This isn't a swimming beach as such, although there's great swimming in the next bay. Instead, this was a leisurely sightseeing trip (in an air-conditioned car! Very nice in the 30+ degree temperatures). On the way, we stopped at the Tunnel Hill walk - an abandoned railway tunnel, 246m long and pitch black. And we didn't have a torch. The minute we stepped in, all I could think of was the movie, Cloverfield, lol. DH and the kids went all the way through guided by cellphone screen light, while I kept my nephew company in the first half of the tunnel. Amazing to think the whole thing was dug out and built by hand. We also stopped at Purakanui Falls. The photo doesn't do it justice. Very pretty. Except for the toilets. Note to the authorities - calling it a ...

I finally got around to making a quilt block for the PR Friendship Quilt . Thank goodness Deepika extended the deadline to the 19th. I'll pop it in the post tomorrow morning but I've no idea how long it will take to wing halfway across the world. It never seems to take too long coming this way. (As an aside: I am so impressed with Sewingpatterns.com - I ordered on Saturday Jan 3rd NZ time, which was Jan 2nd US time, and received them the following Saturday! Wow! Needless to say I'll be using this service again as the local Spotlight never seems to receive new stock. Not the staff's fault.) I used Kiwiana fabrics (except for the multicoloured border). The boots in the top block are decorated gumboots which just appealed to me. I'm not even going to bother counting this little bit off stash, lol. As I suspected, I found this small dabble into the quilting world quite addictive. I'm doing my best to ignore it though - the last thing I need is another stash to house...

I'm kinda embarrassed to admit it but who could have thought that a mere 48 hours without a computer would be so hard? Luckily it's back and we now have a gruntier machine for the 'net. Of course we also have to get used to all the new bits and the fact that all the buttons etc are in the 'wrong' places, lol. I am a creature of habit I guess. One of those habits showed up in the stash stats for 2008. Despite my not working at a fabric store all year, I still managed to add 14.85 m to the stash totals. That's despite over 76 metres going out! If I was going to have a New Years resolution, it should be to reduce that stash. :) On the sewing desk at the moment - curtains for DD's room - but it's just too hot to be handling that much fabric!

Recently I came across this on another blog that I read occasionally. It comes from McSweeney's Open Letters to People or Entities Who Are Unlikely to Respond . AN OPEN LETTER TO THE TOTALLY IMPRACTICAL SIZE CHART FOR WOMEN'S CLOTHING. May 26, 2005 Dear Totally Impractical Size Chart for Women's Clothing, I've been dealing with you for nearly 12 years, since that summer in junior high when I skyrocketed to atmospheric heights, head and shoulders above my classmates, and the clothing in the kids' section of the department store no longer fit my long legs and gangly arms. My mother took me to your side of the store, and, for a moment, I felt mature, womanly, the kind of mystical feminine that one only sees in movies. I was one step closer to being an adult. I was happy. And then I tried on your clothes. Everything I tried on I had to try on in threes. For years, I've been carting trilogies of skirts and pants into the dressing room, armfuls at a time, because I...

The sewing hasn't gone as fast as I would have liked the last week fortnight. Where has the time gone? It seemed as fast as I made plans for a day, children or fate stepped in and intervened. However, - I've managed to catch up with Judy and the twins a few times and spent an entire day playing (and fulfilling any clucky needs, lol) with babies last week. We also managed to squeeze in a 'girly' day, which is good because we were at risk of needing name badges soon! (Ja, we'll have to do a Friday soon! If we wear a red carnation we should recognise each other...) I spent a morning weedspraying around the property. This included the quick dash (in spraying clothes and gumboots) to the hardware shop a few kilometres down the road for more weedspray. These are the times I'm really glad our community is quite casual. :) This weekend we hope to get them all pulled out. The weeds that is. I've got my vege garden all dug in and planted. It took me 4 hours and despi...

Sometimes life throws you a curveball or two - and if you're my DD, you forget to duck and get hit in the head - again. (Or, you walk into a wall. ) After yet another visit to the ED with DD2 (this time she got an ambulance from school ) I'm threatening to buy her one of these.... or wrap her in a big roll of bubblewrap - it even comes in pink Somehow we have to stop her "bonking her boko" as my Nanna would say. Needless to say, no sewing, or schoolwork, has been done. (No housework either, but that I'm less worried about.) The closest I've come to anything sewing related is tracing off a pyjama pant pattern for a teacher at school for costumes. Even then, I'm afraid I did a quick ducking out of sewing the things. I don't feel too guilty about it. After all it's not my child's class and there are other mothers who sew at school, and I've sewn about 80% of the costumes over the last 10 years......... Ah well, at least it'll be easy to a...

I managed to get to Spotlight this week and picked up a few patterns to add to my (mumble mumble) 500+ stash. Vogues were on sale so I picked up a couple I've had my eye on - Vogue 1034 Because one day I will make a pair of jeans for myself Vogue 1036 I like the details on this jacket. Vogue 2967 I'm not sure about this in a woven but I like the details for a knit top/t-shirt. Plus I picked up Simplicity 3514 for my two daughters for summer. I won't get to making any of these for a couple of months. This weekend's plans involve overlocking the edges of a bundle of hug rugs for school, a nightie for me and hopefully I'll get a start on a jacket. This will all be around looking after my youngest daughter who ended up in the Emergency Dept last night. Friday night is not a time you want to have to go to ED unless you're prepared for a looonng wait. But if you do, a child with blood all over her face who goes really whoozy gets you through faster..... only to...

It has now been raining for 13 days. Sigh. I'm beginning to feel the need for one of those SAD lamps Chief Celia used in Men in Trees. I had to cross over the Leith Stream this afternoon. The normally quiet little stream... (photo from Wikipedia ) had turned into this... The first photo has been taken downstream from where I was, but is pretty much how it looks normally from the bridge I was on. The walls are around 4m high so the water had risen a wee bit and somewhere under there is the mid-channel divider. A few days ago I sadly packed away my sewing machines for a few weeks while I catch up on assignments. :( I can't see myself getting any sewing time until mid-term break at the end of August, so I decided I might as well use my desk upstairs in the warm lounge when I was home alone. I do have to hem some trousers for my BIL next week, but that doesn't count as sewing. I dreamt I was sewing a few nights ago. LOL, if dreams became reality, I'd have a great wardrobe!

No Not much sewing this week. The pace of life has been hectic with uni started and kids on school hols. Thank goodness they go back tomorrow and we can get back to a normal routine. Friday, DD1 and I snuck in a girly afternoon with some op-shopping and lunch. It was a nice break and something we don't get to do often enough. However, I think I've created a monster, lol. In one hour (and only one shop), DD1 found 3 tops, 2 jackets and 2 pairs of jeans and is now very keen to go back again. I have to say I'm impressed by how fast an 11 1/2yo can shop those racks and gather a mountain of clothes to try on. ( But, Whew! That's one less child with a clothes crisis) Thank you to everyone who commented on the twist cardy. It was 4 votes for a higher twist, 3 votes for where it is and 1 for either. This really illustrates how different fabrics behave because I hadn't changed the pattern at all. The fabric just grew in the teal knit. Stabilizing the front edges would have...

First off - I'm ok. Let's just say that at 9.30 am the back of my van got ahead of the front of my van for a brief time. :( I don't know who was more scared, me, or the guy on the other side of the road. Luckily he pulled right over as I slid down the hill because I was using the center of the road! I hadn't even touched the brakes. It was simply a huge sheet of black ice which the council hadn't gritted because it was a late freeze (the ice actually got worse when the temp dropped at 9am!). I had to pull over and calm down before I could finish the very slow drive home and it took me about an hour to calm down fully. Much more of this and I'm coming to visit Sherril for the summer!

Another milestone birthday came and went. It was a lovely relaxing weekend. I slept in and got breakfast in bed. The kids got me chocolates. I love my kids. :) Hubby bought me fabric (!) and a gift voucher for more fabric (on his head be it!) and this was after we'd moved my sewing desk to the other side of the lounge and found all the, ahem, Spotlight bags that had 'accidentally' fallen behind my desk. He didn't say a word as we moved it all. My desk is now beside the window so I have a lovely view. Better still, it's out of the traffic path so I'm not getting in the kids way and they don't get in mine when they're running in and out of the lounge. Most amazingly, it was my DH idea - the man who hates moving furniture who suggested it and helped move it all! (I'll be looking for the pod later, lol). We had thought of 'letting' the 2 girls share a room but after much discussion we decided it wasn't worth our sanity, so no sewing room...