SarahLizSewStyle

This week I was not sure what to make, so I decided to stashbust a piece of patterned voile, originally from Spotlight.   It has been stashed away for years because I only bought a tiny amount - from memory it was $24.95 and could not work out what to make from it.  I had just under 70 cms of 112 wide fabric with a nap. Enter Butterick 6214: I recently made this top in a nice drapey fabric (post here) , which I think is really needed for this sort of top.  As you can see in the picture of the model, even a softer top tends to box out.   I knew a voile top would not drape well, but this did not really bother me - in hot humid weather you just want something nice and light and cool.  I could use my pretty piece and then something else for sleeves and contrast bottom.   I rummaged in my pieces and found some lawn that was left over from something, and it went perfectly with the patterned piece.  Voila...the top will be made :) I have modified the pattern a bit

I have been meaning to take part in Jungle January for three years now and never quite get there. So this year I was determined to make something. I  had already stashed a piece of polyester panne velvet (from Spotlight) last year, and it kept growling at me everytime I passed, so this was picked up and turned into an infinity cowl scarf. Quick and simple to make.  In fact, it is so quick and simple to make, I thought I would tell you how I made it. It only took about half and hour, including stopping and taking photos to show you what I did. Firstly, I settled on the length and width needed.  I had purchased about 37cm of 150 wide fabric.  I cut the fabric in half, so I had two pieces of fabric 37 cm by 77 cm (approximately).  The scarf can be any width and length that you like - play around with the fabric and put it around your neck to see what works with the fabric and for you.  You can also make a scarf with a wider width of fabric so that you only have one seam down

This week two things happened (well, more than that, but I am only going to blog about two things here) - I made this little top, and our drains were relaid, Hooray.  The drains were laid on Thursday, Last week the plumbers could not find the drains, so on Monday they realised that they would have to call someone in from Hunter Water to find them. The Drain Diviner finally came with some high tech gadget and located them.   This still has me a little bemused - there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the placement of drains here - it just seemed to be up to the whim of the person who built at the time. Talk about lack of planning.  So, after a comedy of errors, all is well that ends well, and we have sanity and sanitation back at the SLSS household. Back to sewing, I decide to use the second piece of houndstooth rayon that I had stashed.  It just kept saying use me, because I think it is a rather dramatic piece of fabric and wants to be worn.  So I used it.  I settled on a

Sometimes sewing is a form of therapeutic distraction and so it was with this dress, Kwik Sew 3956.  I really needed something quick and simple to sew, because outside was the big mess: Yes, that is the entire half of the garden dug up and they still can't find the drain connection. It's also been raining  again...And we haven't even started looking for the drain connection that runs the other side of the house... So tomorrow I will run away and do some work at the Rooms - normally I hate paperwork, but it is the lesser of two evils. And I will leave DH to deal with this in the a.m.  I have to take over on Tuesday again.  Not happy.  We have to use buckets and toss water out at the moment, which is very tedious.  And I am handwashing lots of clothes, but this week I am going to call the laundry service for the big stuff and his business shirts. So, when this mess was being dug up, I had to do something.  I also wanted to hear what was going on, and re

2016 has certainly got itself off to a tedious start with problems on multiple fronts.  Amazing, I have managed to sew inbetween events of  this week.   The first event was that our drains blocked up on New Years Eve.  The emergency plumbers arrived and we got the drains partially running, with the situation to be looked at in the New Year - there seemed to be a blockage further down the line, but no-one could find the boundary trap to the main sewer.  Apparently this part of Newcastle is notorious for lack of records, and also people just tend to bury the sewer area.  A vent was found, but the pipe there did not seem to affect the drainage situation at all.  Over the next few days of digging, we established that it was better to lay a new drain and redo a proper connection to the sewer.  The old plans were well and truly outdated, and I gather from DH, who owned the house before I came onto the scene, that no-one had ever managed to find the sewer connection to the main s