Birthday haul

A while back I got to the ripe old age of ... hmmm ... 33. I had been telling my son 27, but he is dreadfully attached to telling the truth, who knew :-)

My sister, sister-in-law and mother-in-law all decided to feed my habit. How great are they?!!!?

I now have Dana Willard's Fabric A-Z to assist me with buying fabric online and in the store. I also have Wendy Gardiner's Sewing Machine Accessory Bible Machine which has already been a great help in deciding which extra feet to order for Christmas.

My lovely sister-in-law gave me The Sewing Book Step by Step which is just fabulously detailed in every way.

And last but not least my baby sister got me my very own picnic blanket skirt fabric. It won't be exactly like Tilly and the Buttons version, because I am a bit triangle/pear shaped and a gathered skirt like that makes my hip look enormous.

Anyway, today it is 35 degrees in Brisbane and I am taking back everything I moaned about being cold :-)

more procrastination - a new book

procrastination thy name is Giggles ...

I find the hardest thing about sewing is actually cutting into the fabric, which is pretty silly considering I mostly sew with remnants that are 2 dollars a metre at Spotlight. Also, they are by no means rare specimens, but, with all the trepidations I go through before actually cutting into the piece, you wouldn't know it.

In case you are wondering what brought that on, I have a piece of oilcloth - a remnant - that is barely big enough for the sewing machine carrier outer layer and I have been debating how to cut it most effectively basically since last Friday. I keep worrying that I'll cut it just too small (by like a cm or so) and then it'll all be wasted. I have made excuses saying that the hardware (eyelets for the straps) have not arrived yet so I can take my time, but in reality I have just been procrastinating over a piece of fabric that cost me a $1.20.

It's nice, but still, there is no need for the long decision making process :-)

However today was a wonderful day anyway, because I won the book DIY Couture from the very talented Karen at Did You Make That and it arrived TODAY, yeay.

The Cape inside it and the Cape pattern in the Sew Everything book are yelling at me wanting to be sewn just in time for the winter here, but I am really trying to resist it. It wouldn't get a lot of wear and I don't have any heavy fabrics.  Let's see how good I am at that sort of impulse control :-)

Yeay ... yeay ... hoorayyyy

Amazon has delivered my books - one of which I should have bought before I actually started sewing.

I am so very excited for Sew Everything by Diana Rupp to finally arrive. Ta Da ...

However, I probably should have bought the book before I bought the sewing machine, but in all fairness, had I not bought the sewing machine (that was on a super duper extra one day special) I would have not thought about sewing anything really. It seems to have a wealth of tips and tricks in there, so I can't wait to get going.

I also got the BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook and the Pattern Review - 1000 clever sewing shortcuts and tips, although I am not sure just how useful that will be. It was more of an impulse buy :-)

New Book

Whilst I am still waiting for my amazon.com order (at least now it is in the country, according to the tracking number) I stumbled across this beauty in a second-hand bookshop that I just couldn't pass up.

It's a 1961 original and it gives incredibly detailed instructions on the sewing process and altering patterns to fit. Yeay :-)