Another film from Ellen

Today I am off to Shepparton for a couple of days so no more work on the Jacket. Thankyou for the encouragement. I really want to get it done now!

In the mean time, Ellen wanted me to share this with as many people as possible. She has made a short film (about 90 seconds) for a competition initiated by a company that travels to schools to perform and educate on Shakespeare plays etc. The competition entails interpreting a line of Shakespeare any way you like. She has chosen the line "Out damn spot" from Macbeth, the play which she studied this year. In a nutshell - Lady Macbeth is feeling the guilt's for her part in the murder of the king. I really like what she has done with this.

There are lots of good prises, so if you would like to vote for her she would appreciate it very much.

If you go to this link, Ellen's film will show up (eventually) and then you can watch and vote for it (if you like). Make sure you have the sound on as that adds to the film.

http://www.makeascene.spikemobile.com/?mediaid=23253

Enjoy your weekend!

Rockin' Girl Blogger

Summerset has nominated me as a Rockin' Girl Blogger! Thankyou Summerset, it is a real honour to be nominated by you!

Today's post is a family one where I get to "skite" about my girls. The week was the Visual Arts week for my girls' school. The best work done by students was on display and some were up for awards. Sofie had her boxer shorts and matching hand sewn ball on display. Well done Sofie !!! She is also holding another item she made in her textiles class.
Ellen had her short film nominated for an award...and ta da...she won first prize. I am so proud. I had better start on our Oscar frocks!
I have embedded the film but please don't feel obliged to view. When I first saw it I thought, boy she is not going to get good marks for this....but what would I know ? - she got full marks! The criteria the students were given was to show how you can't always judge a book by its cover. So she made the film about monsters being kind and caring.

I suggested for her year 12 film she could film the creative process of purchasing fabric and the journey to the end product - the garment. I haven't convinced her of that yet!

Sewing for school.

There is much talk about sewing for going back to school on blogs and on other sewing sites, so I thought I would share what happens here in Australia. We have school uniforms - yippee! At first this may sound too "uniform" and conformist but it really is very practical. Yes they are expensive but you only need the one! And you buy them, so no taking up precious sewing time on school clothes. Here are a couple of photos of the uniform my daughters wear:

On the left is Sofie on her first day at high school - February 2006. This is the summer uniform. The hat must be worn when outside and the blazer must be worn when outside school grounds unless the temp is over 28 degrees Celsius. On the right is Ellen and Marine in the winter uniform. I think they look pretty smart - and there is no trying to dress better than everyone else.

Yesterday we said goodbye to Marine who has now gone back to France. We really enjoyed having her stay with us!!

And I would like to thank Summerset for posting (very quickly) tips on prick-stitching. You guys are great! So generous with your time and talent.

Vintage sewing....back when it wasn't vintage...

I just read Marji's post about the first garment she made and also Carolyn's post about some sewing that is several years old.

I think this McCall's pattern was the first thing I ever made. I made the short skirt, the long sleeve top and a scarf as well! I used a pretty groovy knit fabric as well - plain interlock I suppose as spandex was not around back in the early 70's. I still have the top (not sure what happened to the skirt and here is a picture of Ellen modelling it....

Here is a close up of the fabric (and if you check out the shoulders) and a close up of how I fixed the problem of too much fabric from shoulder to bust ...mmm...

I don't remember buying this fabric, but I do remember a very early on fabric experience. It was a red cotton with I think flowers, or it could have been abstract design, that was outlined in gold metallic paint...ahhhh...I HAD TO HAVE IT. I made the following pattern. Unfortunately I don't have any photo of the shirt.I wasn't really happy with the shirt as it was too big and the collar was too stiff - the old interfacing problems!

While I was searching through old patterns I found the following. My sister Cheryl was after one that we both made up way back when - are these what you were after sister dear?

Apron

Today, Sofie and I, made a new apron for her to wear at school when doing food tech classes. Sofie is really excited about the classes as she loves to cook and the school has brand new cooking facilities. Sofie got to do most of the sewing and I had the job of cutting and pressing. I think we did a pretty good job...

Here is a close up look at the pocket. The main fabric was from the remnant bin at Spotlight and the pocket is a bit more of an old pink sheet that has been used for many projects.

And thanks to everyone who helped me figure out how to take a photo of myself without the flash in the face......

Warrandyte and Brunswick Street

Yesterday it rained just about all day! We visited Warrandyte, an outer bush suburb of Melbourne, for a walk along the Yarra and to buy some bread from the Warrandyte bakery. This bakery cooks all it's bread, cakes and pies in a wood fired oven. Mmmmm, very nice with some homemade soup after a very wet and cold walk along the river. We also had coffee at one of the quaint cafes in the area.

The Yarra River flows from the mountains, through the Yarra Valley, though the suburbs of Melbourne, through the city and out into the Bay. The above photo is a typical photo of the "bush" of this part of Australia. Notice that it is the middle of winter and all the trees retain their leaves. In about a month the view will be quite different when all the wattles are in flower. This group of trees and bushes have vivid yellow flowers. I will try and remember to take a photo of the same view then to send to Marine and to show you.

In the afternoon we visited Brunswick Street. Here is a blurb from Brunswickstreet.com.au

"In all, Brunswick Street has become synonymous (along with Lygon St. in nearby Carlton, Chapel St. in more upmarket South Yarra, and more latterly Fitzroy St. in St. Kilda) in Melbourne with the relaxed café style vibe that the city is globally famous for." Not sure if we are globally famous for anything, but it is a great street to visit. Lots of quirky artworks, cafes, shops etc. And of course it has the Alannah Hill outlet. This is of interest to sewers as she has excess fabrics and trims for sale there. I don't have any photos of Brunswick Street as the rain was pretty steady all afternoon. But if you are interested, here is a link to a website on the street. Brunswick Street

Today the girls are off back to the city to shop and go to the movies. Apparently there is a bean bag theatre in Melbourne Central! So maybe I can get some sewing done!?

Yarra Valley

Today we went to the Yarra Valley to see and taste some good old Aussie sparkling. The Yarra Valley is 50 klms from Melbourne and even less for us - about half an hour. First stop was Domaine Chandon - some lunch, a tour of the wine making facilities and some tasting....The next photo is a view over the valley. It was raining and quite cold. We also stopped into Yering Station - another winery in the region. The Yarra Valley is a very young grape growing region and the wineries are all very modern with large glass walls with a great view! And I have never seen it so green - surely the drought is over????

The final stop was into Yarra Glen for some warm refreshments...

Great Ocean Road

Today we went for a trip down the Great Ocean Road. 3000 returned sailors and soldiers built the Great Ocean Road, the world’s biggest war memorial, as a monument to their fellow Australians killed at Gallipoli, at the Somme and the many other places where Australians served in the first world war. It winds around the bottom of Victoria at the southern end of mainland Australia. Some photos......

Much of the road is very close to the water and winds around mountains and cliffs.

Here the girls are on Bells Beach - a very famous surf beach. Not much surf today, but there were some poor surfers out there trying to catch a wave.....brrrr..

We went only as far as Lorne where we had lunch and a bit of fun on the beach. Here the girls were running across and jumping...had to work off lunch somehow.We stopped at Airey's Inlet to visit the lighthouse....

Tomorrow we are off to the Yarra Valley to visit some vineyards....hic....

Update

Hi everyone, I have been extremely busy...but not with sewing alas. As you may remember we were getting new carpet. So that meant all cupboards etc had to be emptied, which started me on a very early spring clean that lasted for a few weeks. But now, it is all done and I am so amazed at how good the house looks all clean, neat and just more open. We have given away to charity a lot of items we not longer use but had horded in cupboards. A lot of rubbish was thrown out too!!

So here are a couple of pictures of my sewing room after a new paint and the stain free (and pin and thread free) carpet.

I inherited the bookshelves from the girls old playroom - useful for all my mags and sewing books. I also inherited a larger TV and a DVD player - yay! Now I just want to sew but I am a tourist in my own city this week as we have Marine our French exchange student staying with us and it is school holidays. Here is a picture of Sofie, Marine and Ellen in Melbourne yesterday.See the tall building just to the left of Sofie - that is the Rialto and it has an observation deck. We went up there too and got some great photos. Will post some of them tomorrow... Today we are off to Eastland to buy Marine some school shoes.

Thank you!

Thank you to those who sent me cyber hugs. It was much appreciated!



I have sad news....my dad passed away only a few hours after my last post. Unfortunately we did not get to see him again, but I am happy that I spent the prior weekend with him. It was quick and peaceful in the end.


My mum is still very unwell and will probably require a fair amount of my time. She is in hospital under the care of the mental health unit. There is really nothing I can do to reduce her anxiety and distress, other than to pray. It really is so difficult when someone suffers from mental problems as no amount of logical conversation can make a difference. Hopefully her new medication can bring some relief and we can bring her to Melbourne to be closer to us.


On a more positive note, my sister is back from her cruise around the Caribbean for the cricket world cup. She stopped into New York on her way back and bought me some trims...



I am not sure how much sewing I will get done...still trying to catch up on the washing, shopping, blog reading (a lot can happen in blog land in a week and a bit) and off to work tomorrow.

Happy birthday to us!

Today is Ellen and my 65th birthday! We don't look too bad for 65 (especially Ellen!). My baby Ellen was my 33rd birthday present and now she is sweet 16.

So what have I got for my birthday? Well it is still early here and I am having a coffee and checking out the blogs of some of the SWAP contestants - that is birthday viewing pleasure enough. I have only been following a few via their blogs - Marji, Summerset, Shannon, Carolyn. I will catch up with the rest over at Timmels site later as the week progresses. And how can I vote? - to vote for one would be to not vote for another!

Another birthday thought - I am not getting enough sewing done! Last night I was reading a book about bodybuilding - in particular a chapter about goal setting. And that I think is the key - set some goals. Otherwise you put things off - you need a deadline. Just like SWAP! So today I will set some goals of what I want to achieve over the next 12 months, 3 months, each week and daily.

Now I must be off - birthday things to attend to and photos of the SWAPees to check out!

Warning...not sewing related....

This is what teenage girls do on school holidays. Sofie, Ellen & Grace (the tall one who is Sofie's friend) filmed this on Tuesday. Sofie edited and posted. Only watch if you are completely bored or curious! HAPPY EASTER everyone!

What to do next?

Yesterday, I was going to sew but DD's have been nagging for me to get the computers fixed. We have 4 - Ellen's laptop, one pc that has internet access, another pc that somehow has lost it's internet access and an old pc that just won't turn on.

I took the old pc to the shop and yah! it now works, it even connects onto the internet....yippee. I changed the port that the non accessing internet pc was plugged into on the router and shock and amazement, that one now connects. So when the girls came home from school, we had 4 working computers and they all access to the internet. So no more fighting for a computer!!!

Next job will be to look for faster access to the internet. .......

Also yesterday, I bought myself a piping foot! I didn't know they existed. When making Ellen's formal dress I had trouble keeping close to the piping, and I thought I must get an edging foot (or something). Well now I have a piping foot, so the next project should be something with piping.

I am tempted to make something to wear this weekend - going to visit parents in the country with my sister. It is always nice to have something to show off! But I will have only one day to make it.....so a skirt, or a dress? I could make a final summer garment, but I think the weather is going to turn cold........ah, indecision is my middle name.....

And my sewing machine is sounding like it needs a service.....