Later that day.......

Yippee, Sofie's team won gold and are the state aerobics champions for their level. So now she gets to go to the nationals. This will be held here in Melbourne in August. Well done Sofie!!

Ellen and I survived her first driving lesson. It took us 35 minutes to travel 2 klms in a local car park. We had a good time and will be out again tomorrow....watch out Melbourne!!

I also managed to finish Burda 1-2008-116. The very popular wrap top that many of you have made already. I should have read the reviews BEFORE I cut it out. Of course the ties are too short. Barely make it around me to tie.

I used a knit I bought at Brunswick Fabrics on our first Pattern Review Down Under weekend a couple of years ago. I bought quite a few metres and I have some left over for a matching skirt. The fabric has two layers. The under layer is very sheer - you can see my hand under it. The top layer is partially stitched to the bottom layer and is raw edged. I am not sure what the fibre content is but it feels like it has some cotton in it.

As promised here is a photo of me in Burke Rd Camberwell. Sorry, you can't see much of the street but I am in front of Koko Black where we had coffee. I will forgive Ellen for the not so good photo as she said my top looked like something you would get in Vesace..nice girl!!


No, I did not get to the gym, I certainly did not do any washing...so a very good day!! Hope your Saturday is as much fun as mine was. Oh, and we went out for pizza in celebration.....

Meme

I have been tagged by Claire of Sewing is Like Chocolate to answer a few questions.

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

• Not much different than what I am doing now. I was working 3 days a week and spending the other four with my 7 year old and 4 year old daughters. I worked for the same accounting firm, lived in the same house, went to gym etc.......mmmm......perhaps I am in a rut? Well things will be changing now – the x husband moves out next weekend and I may have to go back to work full time to finance the move the girls and I will need to do at the end of the year.

2.) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

• Answer this meme. I saw the email yesterday from Claire and have been thinking about it since.


• Take Ellen for her very first driving lesson!! ick!! Yesterday morning she passed (well got 100% actually smarty pants) for her learners test so now she can be let loose on the road. Wish me luck.Take Sofie to her aerobics competition. Sofie's school has 2 teams in the state aerobics finals today. It is being held in Camberwell (for any Melbourne readers). Sofie's team came first in the regionals and the other school team came in second.


• Have coffee in Burke Rd Camberwell with Ellen while we are filling in time waiting for Sofie. We will be watching routine of course but she needs to get their early so we will wander the “high” street and see what we can see.


• Finish my Burda wrap top. Almost finished last night but decided to go to bed instead. I admire others who can stay up and finish off their garments. Me, I just get cranky! I only need to hem a sleeve and the bottom. If I am a good girl and get it finished this morning, I could wear it this afternoon and get Ellen to take a photo in Burke Rd.


• Nothing else I have to do. I could do some washing. I could go to gym. Maybe I had better get out of my PJ's and into the shower to start the day.

3) Snacks I enjoy:

• Cappuccino's! Yep always plan a trip around the coffee stop. I rarely have anything with it. The cakes always look good but are a disappointment. Nothing compares to home cooked.


• Brie cheese. This I have to share with Sofie. We can polish off quite a bit in one session. It's good for my bones, isn't it?


• Champagne (or good old Aussie sparkling). I know this is not really a snack but it does have calories!


• Fruit.


• Sofie is now out of bed and she said to add "Sofie's chocolate cake". Mmm, I wonder if she will make one of those today?

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

• Easy.....quit work. Take the girls on a world trip and stop at.......Rome, Paris, London, New York etc and at each destination we would buy a completely new outfit each including shoes and bag and then wear that said outfit to the best restaurant in town!!! I would probably also buy some fabric.....
  Naturally a lot of pampering would be in order too – massages, facials, etc etc.
  New house, new car, more new shoes.........
  Of course my conscience would get the better of me and I would have to share. Perhaps I could pay for all my blogging friends to come and visit in Melbourne?

5) Places I have lived

• Edithvale, (suburb of Melbourne by the sea) – left when I was about 6 weeks old.


• Bendigo, Victoria, Australia – until I was 3


• Shepparton, Victoria, Australia – until I was 18 (except for next line)


• Moorestown, New Jersey, USA – when I was 14. Dad worked for Campbell Soups and we were transferred for about 9 months.


• Melbourne (various suburbs) from 18 to 24 in flats with friends.


• Rowville, (suburb of Melbourne) – first house with DH


• Park Orchards, (suburb of Melbourne) – current address and have been here for 17 years.

6.) Jobs I have had:

• Very first job was part time at a supermarket in the fruit and veg department. Back then we wrapped all the fruit and veg in plastic wrap. The wrapping was the “glamorous” j ob of the department. I had to pull the produce from the wooden boxes for others to wrap! Sigh!! Lots of spiders and splinters in those boxes.


• First job out of high school was in the office of Shepparton's mini department store.


• Left that job to follow friends who had moved to Melbourne. I worked in the accounts department of an insurance agency. While working there I decided to study at night to become an accountant.


• Worked for a couple of large city accounting firms before moving out to a suburban one to be closer to home (we lived in Rowville then). Have been there ever since.....22 years!!!

7.) 6 peeps I wanna know more about

• Sorry I am not going to choose 6. I tagg all of you reading......

I will leave you with a couple of photos of Sofie and Ellen and my sister and me playing in the autumn leaves in Shepparton a couple of weeks ago

..


Sorry mum....we will rake them up later....

Sofie's wardrobe refashion

Sofie is in year 9 at school and they run a special course (in addition to the usual subjects) for the year called the Ayin Program which is a multi-disciplinary program. One of their tasks this semester was to "go green" and included in that was an option to rework a piece of clothing that was past it's use by.

Sofie chose to rework an old evening dress. Here is the glamorous frock modelled by her sister Ellen:

Sofie prepared sketches of what she wanted to do to the dress. Unfortunately she had already handed the them in to the teacher so I can't show you those. They were really good, most impressed with her fashion drawing ability. We found some poly in the stash for her to use and this is what she came up with:

The dress is a bit big (well not the length!) on Ellen as it was made for another student to model at school. Next semester Sofie will be studying textile arts as well. It is good to see sewing is still alive in some schools here in Melbourne!

Happy mothers' day! (and my new skirt)

I have been away to see mum over the weekend in Shepparton. And I have come back to all your very kind comments. I think I am overwhelmed with your hugs and kind words. You truly are the best ever friends a girl could have. I know a lot of you have been through what I have (and will continue for a while) been and understand how I am feeling.

I have to say I had the best weekend. The girls and I went up with my sister and two of our brothers. Mum is still in the nursing home but we took her out for drives and to church. She wasn't so good on Saturday but on Sunday she was quite well. Also the weather was fantastic, the champagne cold and the coffee good!!

The girls made me a photo album for mothers day. They had selected many photos of the three of us taken over the years together and added love hearts and captions. Really the best ever present a mother could want. Here are a couple (of many) of the photos that the girls worked for me....

And, I wore my new skirt to church today:

The fabric is a wool gauze type of fabric with fibres embellished into stripes. The stripes are a repeat type of pattern. The white stripes I put at the top and the rows of black at the bottom.
I bought a length of the repeat at Dancing Queen on our first Pattern Review weekend down under shopping trip. To make the skirt I joined the selvages for the back seam after inserting an invisible zipper. Then to fit around my waist I just made tucks in the front and the back to fit. I lined with black viscose lining. Easy peasy!

Some sewing for a change...

Yes, I have been sewing! But not on any of my fit projects. My DH and I have decided to end our marriage and the process has left me drained. It is what I want, but of course it is a process that must be lived through, so bear with me over the next 6 months (or however long it takes).

So I needed to sew! Something quick and creative....

The inspiration:
I have these great shoes and some jeans that I can now fit into and I need some tops to match. The jeans were purchased really cheap in Hong Kong a few years ago and the shoes are from David Jones May 2008!

Having recently been inspired by some Geoff Bade knit jackets/cardigans that sell for $186 I gathered together bits and pieces from the stash. Geoff's designs are made from 4 or more different fabrics. I came across an outlet in Bridge Rd Richmond a couple of weeks ago. Bridge Rd has a lot of fashion outlet shops and is a great place to have a shop.

The ingredients:

I'm using - thin fake fur - vintage Lincraft, rayon lycra jersey - not so quite vintage Lincraft, open end zipper - Lincraft (not sure how old), stretch lace - recent Lincraft purchase and lace mesh from Ann's in Sydney Rd Brunswick, purchased on our first PR weekend.


The back is made up of 2 fabrics. The outside is the mesh. This mesh does not really have any stretch so I cut the seams 2 cm wider. I cut the mesh and then laid it on the rayon jersey to cut that out. I basted them together and worked them as one.
I used an Ottobre T from 2/2007 as the base pattern. I adjusted for a V neck. I also lengthened the sleeves to full length and also lengthened the body to fit the zip.
As my remnant of fake stretch fur was not long enough to do the front, I had to piece it together. I cut the stretch lace in half to use at centre front and the neckline. The full size lace is used at the hems

The end result:

(oops, please excuse my non glamorous shoes in the shots)

After that, I thought...mmm, a skirt would be nice to co-ordinate. Next post will show the skirt that I whipped up yesterday.

Book tag!

Birgitte tagged me for this meme going around:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Turn to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people and acknowledge who tagged you.

Ok, next to me on the computer desk is an old school novel of both my girls - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Copyright 2003. I haven't read the book but both of my girls enjoyed it very much. Now to page 123.....

"And Mother had never written a letter to me before.

There was no date on the letter so I couldn't work out when Mother had written the letter and I wondered whether someone else had written the letter and pretended to be Mother.

And then I looked at the front of the envelope and I saw that there was a postmark and there was a date on the postmark and it was quite difficult to read, but it said: London 16.10.97 NW2"

Now that is 3 sentences but the next one is interesting....."Which meant that the letter was posted on 16th October 1997. which was 18 months after Mother had died." Mmmmm, interesting, I think I want to go and read the book! The girls highly recommend it which is quite a feat since they HAD to read it for school. And with that title it really is intriguing.

Just to be different, I think I will tag some Aussie and NZ blogs - maybe there will be some new blogs that you can discover (some I discovered myself this morning) . And isn't it great when you find a new blog to see that you have been linked! :))
Tessuti -a Sydney fabric store blog
Lower your presser foot - this one is new to me, but she has me linked!
Sew-4-fun - Belinda, of course - another Melbourne girl
Karen - who lives in sunny Queensland and never stops sewing!
Keely - from New Zealand.