SarahLizSewStyle

Last week was very trying with all sorts of disruptions and things needing attention.  Mostly to do with the house.  Our drains are very old, and during summer the back half of the drains collapsed, and replaced - with most of our lawn dug up.  The lawn came back, but now we are back to this: No lawn  again.  And as you can see, it is damp and gloomy - I've just taken the last two pictures at 4.45 pm in NSW - and this is how dark it is already.  And the plumbers keep stopping work when it rains - the drains going up the side of the house are being relined so that we don't have to dig down there as well - you can see we have had to at the corner, the pavers are up. So I am about over drains this year.  And the lawn is now going to have to be turf laid I think.  I'm not weeding the mud patch over winter. We are also having our roof replaced next week after the cyclone of April 2015 left us with holes in the roof and lots of other damage.  As it is a slate r

A few weeks ago my husband celebrated another birthday.   I didn't want to buy something that was not needed, so I thought about what my husband might like. (And just in case you were wondering, I have de-identified DH for many reasons - so all photos will be sans head). My husband  tends to don a long, ethnic robe when he gets home  after a day and long evening of wearing suits.    In the evening he just wants to read the paper and wear something comfortable.  Understandable.   He does have a corduroy robe, but I thought a soft, snuggly, fleecy one would be even nicer to wear. So I set about making one.  I had already stashed the Poly Cotton sweatshirt fleecy when Spotlight had a sale.  I figured I needed quite a bit, so stashed 3.7 metres at $6.99 per metre.  They charge $16.99 full price at the moment, and sale about $9.99, so stashing on this occasion paid off! The middle eastern gowns have a slit in the front neckline, and I wanted an opening so DH could easily get

 Currently I am in the middle of making a few knit garments.  As many of you know, I only started sewing with these last year, and I am still getting the hang of how these fabrics behave.  I figure it is worth learning how to sew knits because the finished garments are quick and easy to sew and also don't need much ironing.   This makes them great for quick wardrobe building - well, it will when I have learnt to sew knits quickly... This little top is a Simplicity Pattern (1317):  I purchased this on a $5.00 sale at Spotlight.  I love these pattern sales as it means I can try patterns out with not much lost if I don't like the pattern at muslin stage.  I guess this means I like the experimentation that a cheaper pattern offers.  When they are full price you pretty much have to buy something that works well for you, which means getting a bit stuck in a rut sometimes. The fabric was a polyester/elastane 4 way stretch knit I purchased at Spotlight for $9.99 pe

I started sewing with knits last year. I have to admit I don't really like sewing with knits yet, but every so often I think that I should practice a bit more, so that one day sewing with knits is second nature, like sewing with woven fabric is.  I mean, learning to sew with wovens didn't happen overnight, and I am still learning, so I can expect it to take time to gain some sort of proficiency with sewing knits. Meanwhile, I stash patterns for knits when I find them on sale.  This was one of my recent purchases and I thought I would play around with some remnants I found at Spotlight and make this top up.  It has a back zip feature, and I decided that it would be worth learning to do this.  Why, I don't know, but that's a sewer for you. I broke with my usual tradition here and did not make a muslin.  That's because I found two pieces of blue knit in Spotlight's remnant bin.  A grand total of $2.50 was outlayed.  I figured that I may as well just go ahea

I always like the start of a new month and new plans - especially after my fizzling attempt at Me Made May - last week I posted a couple of pictures on Instagram, but have absolutely no motivation to write any sort of post documenting the last week.  Partly this is because I had to go away again, and had little time, and partly because of what needed to be done when I was away.  So I decided to call it quits for this year and try again next year. No matter what else is going on, I do manage to do a little bit of sewing each day.  I would prefer larger chunks of time, but really, if all you do is a little job each day, after a period of time you have a nice new garment.  And sewing is also a form of focused distraction for me, necessary for relaxation in my case, as is blogging. So, what will June bring? As far as the blog is concerned, I have a few garments that need to be posted.  The first is the top shown  above. a Simplicity pattern.  The second is this top, also a Simplicit