keelysews... sometimes

Another weekend and no time or energy to sew apart from hemming two pairs of moleskin jeans for my DSis. Instead we got the house waterblasted and sprayed with the masonry waterproof sealant. We cleaned the paths, swept up alot of debris, cleaned the gutters, started weeding and shifting dirt and went across town to collect (and cut and split) 2 loads of firewood. Phew. No wonder I'm tired. And it was HOT all weekend. Too hot to think about or do anything. (28 deg in our house at 9pm Sunday! Ugh!)

The new Ottobre Woman preview is up here . (The all designs pdf is here ). I'm desperately trying to look past the fabrics at the designs. I have to admit that if I wasn't subscribed I probably wouldn't have bothered buying this issue. There's not as much here for my body shape. Having said that, one or two designs could be promising. #8 looks like it could be good. Perhaps I could take #1 and morph the neckline details to my TNT Ott tee. #5 might have potential, otherwise most of the pants are too wide in the leg for me. My legs are the slimmest part of me, no need to mask that too much! I like #10, but I don't know how that gathering would go over the girls. Hmmm, I will reserve final judgement until I have looked at the magazine in person. Sometimes it's hard to be wowed on the net.

The last few days I've been sidetracked with other things so I haven't got any sewing in. This morning I came home determined to get something, anything done. I pulled out the calico pieces for my jacket. And I do mean literally pulled them out - I'd left them on the table and hubby had kindly put other things on top. Grr. I marked all the darts (all 10! of them) and machine basted the back darts, centre back seam and the shoulders. Then I pinned the side seams and front/bust darts in case they needed adjusting. It looks to be a pretty good fit. I think. I mean, there's sure to be some more tweaking that could be done but the calico itself is way better than RTW so it's already a winner. The sleeve looks to be ok. Lets be honest - I'm still learning this fitting stuff so my sole guideline is "It's better than RTW" which isn't hard. Still, baby steps eh? I am also prone to Analysis Paralysis. And that is what has struck I've realised. By lu...

Well, I've braved the queues and I am now officially a uni student and I have the unflattering ID photo to prove it. It'd be nice if we were allowed to provide a photo we liked..... then again, I need that ID this year. I have a few more days before classes start up so I might even get that Ottobre jacket started and even possibly, finished. I've found a stretch denim I like and want to use and coward sensible sewer that I am, I've pulled out some calico to doublecheck the fit before I cut into it. Maybe tomorrow. Also on the plan this week - scraping and washing the exterior of the bedroom window frames and replacing the window putty (is it called sash putty?). The plan is to spend Easter painting the new extensions and the South wall so it's all weatherproofed before winter hits. (You can stop those rain dances now, Belinda ;-) ) Oh, and the garden really needs some attention. Sigh. I wonder what apartment living is like.

Tonight I was amusing myself surfing online shopping sites. I could have been sewing. Perhaps I should have been sewing, but I was feeling mojo-less and decided to get some inspiration. In my web travels I came across these - "Emerge Stretch Satin Pants Style Number: 37856Polyester/elastane. In-leg 84cm. Centre back invisible zip. $59.95" Now I'd never wear these anyway. They just wouldn't be a good look on my body but , if they look this bad on the skinny model, what are they going to look like on someone who's eaten in the past year? Surprisingly they have stock still available, go figure. Anyways.... Back to my sewing and fitting issues. The weather has turned and I need jackets for those autumn days. Sure, the Metservice has promised fine weather for the week, but we all know how reliable they are, don't we? Time to turn my attention to something other than tee-shirts. I had jacket #17 traced from Ottobre Woman 02-2006 and I had used easy-trace from Spo...

I found this on the Fabric Fast thread over on Patternreview and loved it. It explains so much. :-) A recent study indicated that fabric gives off certain Pheromones that actually hypnotize women and cause them to purchase unreasonable amounts. When stored in large quantities in enclosed spaces, the Pheromones (in the fabric) cause memory loss and induce the nesting syndrome (similar to the one squirrels have before the onset of winter i.e. storing food), therefore perpetuating their species, and not having a population loss due to their kind being cut into pieces and mixed with others. Sound tests have also revealed that these fabrics emit a very high-pitched sound, heard only by a select few, a breed of women known as "quilters". When played backwards on an LP, the sounds are heard as chants, "buy me, cut me, and sew me". In order to overcome the so called "feeding frenzy effect" that these fabrics cause, one must wear a face mask when entering a stora...

Here's one of the two new Ottobre tees. This was a printed Valencia from Spotlight. It's lovely and soft to wear and breathes well. I was initially uncertain about this colour. It's paler and pinker than I normally wear but the fabric is so soft that I figured I could always use it as a pj top (blatantly stealing that idea from Debbie. ) Hubby didn't help with his comment that the fabric looked like an old ladies nightie, hah! although now it's made he reckons he does like it. Men! Now I've seen it on, I've decided I do like the colour. I've even worn it twice already. So, no pj top yet. The other tee is waiting to be hemmed. I was disappointed with the result even though the fit was better than the above tee. I used white cotton lycra Seaspray from Spotlight. Unlike the Seaplay I've used before, this is thinner and doesn't seem as good quality. :( Consequently it's a bit less opaque than I'd like. I'll wear it - but under a jacket. ...