Stitch by Stitch

Gotta love giveaways! I just recently hosted one and I’ve since sent off the prize to the winner. Hope she likes it. Now I’m on a giveaway hunt…and this one is from Grosgrain. Pls let me win it!

YAY!!! Got a call on Wednesday from Janome that Missy [I suddenly decided that I'll call my sewing machine that] is coming home!! YAY!!! Yes, after being sewing machineless for more than 1 week, I think it is about time that she came home.

While I hardly had time to sew this week anyway coz of work and all, I can’t wait to start up again. I’m not sure how I’m going to manage coz by the time I get home from work, I’m so knackered. And while I used to be able to stay awake till about 1am every night, staying up past 11.30pm is now a miracle! lol I blame it on my job. In any case, I will have to think of something coz I really want to sew up another mei tai using proper cotton drill which by the way, I haven’t bought just yet. Have to convince DH to take me to Spotlight to get it coz the ones I’ve seen on eBay is just not appealing enough and the ones I like is not suitable!! Also, I really hate it when I have to pay so much for postage. Seems like such a waste, you know?

O well, while I ponder on the list of things that I have in mind to sew, why don’t you pop over to Little Munchkin and join her welcome-back giveaway? I hope I win it!!

Thank you to all of you who took part in my first ever giveaway. Many thousand apologies for not announcing the winner earlier. I had planned to announce it yesterday but I was just too knackered after coming home from work, so today is the day!

And now…the winner of my first giveaway is….JADE!!! *does a dance*

I’ll be contacting you soon for your addy so I can post it out to you. Congratulations on your win, I hope you enjoy the fabric and when you do create something out of it, please let me know so that I can link you up and check it out!

To those who didn’t win this time, not to worry…I had loads of fun doing this giveaway that I think I’ll be having another one soon enough!!

Just keep your eyes peeled….. Happy Crafting!

You start ‘designing’ clothes for your kids!

Well, technically, I wouldn’t really call it designing. It was more like me doodling what I think I can sew for them. It’s just like patterns that I see in my mind and when I put it to paper, it looks ok but doesn’t necessarily mean that the pattern will work out in real life. And lord knows if I will be able to recognise it at a later date! lol

I actually started my part time job on Monday. It is a relatively easy job and I have thoroughly enjoyed it thus far. I am helping out a local college with the enrolments and I’m in charged of form checking so if there are no students to check, I got nothing to do hence, I doodle.

I also notice that this is the time that I get to check out what people are wearing up close and personal. I’ve actually joted down a couple of potential patterns that I hope will materialise as designed. I will have to try it in order to know if it will work. So wish much luck and more brains to pull it together, I hope that what I’ve drawn out so far will be fruitful. Plus, I might try and make a tute as well!

That would be fab, wouldn’t it?

Back from the store!! I guess I’ll have to take back some of the harsh things I said abt that shop. I think they are just better to customers on a face to face basis as compared to phone service. When I got there, I told them abt the pedal and asked to send the machine for service. Told them too that it was still under warranty and that I didnt have the receipt. First they said no can do, but somehow one of them decided to go the extra mile and started looking up the final payment receipt coz we [dh n I] showed her the CC statement. Perhaps that bit of prove that was the one which made them put in the extra effort. so yes….the machine is in for service and here’s hoping that I will get my machine back soon.

Now…I hardly even blinked when dh told me to set up his laptop where my SM used to sit. Apparently that was him being cheeky so I told him not to get to comfy coz it IS coming back!

It wasn’t so bad after all. Updated abt this….

I am pissed and I’m going to rant!

It’s almost 1 year now since I got my machine. To be exactly, it was in February 2009 coz it was Ted’s Valentine’s Day pressie for me, so it’s not easy for me to forget. Seeing that the warranty period is ending soon plus the fact that my machine seems to have a life of its own by sewing without me pressing on the pedal, I thought it was time to send it for service.

The girls in the CM forum also thought that it was about time too coz why spend money on service when you can get it for free within the warranty period. Sad to say, I am so very disappointed with the service and so-called ‘assistance’ that I got from the store I bought my machine from. Remember this store : Janome Sewing Centre in Westfield Parramatta. Don’t ever ever get your machine there. They have absolutely appalling customer service and walk about in invisible labels on their forehead which screams “Don’t talk to me coz I don’t want to talk to you!”.

Anyhoo, like all the times when you want something, you just cant find it..? Well, I had that moment and even with DH helping me out to look for the receipt, we just couldn’t locate it!! >.< How very frustrating!! I know I have it and I vaguely remember seeing it too but now, it just disappeared! I bet it will turn up once I’ve sorted everything out. Humph! Anyhow, I called them up again to ask if I could still bring it in without the warranty since they would have a copy of the receipt. She was SO rude to me! She said no, coz they need the receipt and couldnt trace it back coz it was from last yr and too many to go through. She very condescendingly said to me, ‘Do you know how many machines we sell?’. Now, I wouldnt have been so pissed if she explained it nicely, I know how it works but it wouldnt have hurt to ask on my part right? And she didn’t even bother to suggest another alternative when I mentioned that I may have misplaced the receipt. She pretty much just slam the phone on me!! @#^%&%^%@ Just my luck to be talking to someone who had no intentions of helping me out. >.<

I really regret getting the machine there. I’m still going to try my luck anyway, and bring the machine as well as the statements to the shop tomorrow. And if they wont go thru their records to help me. Then I’m going to walk out and go to another store, I might even email the address they put up in their website and tell them what rotten service they offer to paying customers as well as to get some sort of computerised system running. We are living in the 21st century for god’s sake!! And my receipts are all handwritten might I add. AND when I went to layby the machine, they had this old fashion journal to record everything.

Heck, I rather pay for service in another store than to pay them to do it for me! When and if I get this sorted out, it will be the last I ever step foot there ever again. And I will make sure that I don’t recommend them at all to anyone. I’d hate to wish what I went through on anyone else! Someone’s gotta speak…..

What better way to use up most of the scrap fabric I have than to make some fabric alphabets! Thanks to Aida who first sewed it using this free tute. And a huge thank you to Jessica of thinking of such a brilliant idea!

This is what mine looked like last night. I took this before it went into the wash.

I tried my best to associate the alphabet with the fabric ie. A for apple, C for cat, etc…but after awhile I ran out of fabrics that would match and to be honest, I really had a headache trying to pick the fabrcis hence, I just took whatever I could find! lol I think Arianna is a wee bit confused but she’ll be ok I think.

I’m not too happy with a few of the alphabets so may re-do a few of them. Jessica made hers with cotton I think so it’s nicely ragged around the edges. Aida did hers with knit but looks ok too. However, I mixed mine up and seems as though my knits are curled up….as they are meant to. :/ I think I might actually do rolled hems on all of them or something to finish the edges coz although Arianna loves it, she’s picking at the raw edges of the woven fabrics and it’s ALL over the carpet floor. >.<

But other than that, she loves it and was already excited as I was sewing them last night. They are really easy to make and fast too. Next, I’m going to make numbers coz Milly [lovely CM member] who had given me the batting for these gave me quite a fair bit and I have more than enough left to make numbers. But that will have to wait till the machine comes back from service.

She’s going in tomorrow….and I’ll be on a week long sewing detox from tomorrow! Eekksss…..

TFL!!

This is what I did with the other leg piece. I meant to turn it into a pair of pants but it wasnt enough so I turned it into another bareback dress. This one wasn’t shirred as the width wasnt wide enough.

Don’t mind the hair, Arianna had just woken up from her nap before I rushed her into the dress and made her assume position. lol The things I put my girls through. DH said it’s scary how she knows what to do when she spots my camera and I tell her to go stand there and say cheese. LOL

What I did – a mini tute :

1. This time I didn’t chop both sides up, instead just straightenned the inner leg seam and sewed it up. Again, as with KR’s dress, I measured from the bottom hem up to the length I wanted it to be, and OL the edges.

2. Since I couldn’t shirr the bodice, I decided to use the same method you’d use for elastic bands but instead of elastic, I replaced it with straps made from the same fabric. It’s the same method I used for the straps for KR’s dress. So, you’d just have to tightenned it around the chest and bring the straps up behind the neck and tie it up.

And you’re done! TFL….

I’m pretty happy how these turned out! All from a pair of REALLY old almost vintage sort of cotton knit culottes from the 80’s – they belonged to my cousins and were hand-me-downs until the the elastic wore off and no one bothered to replace them that I took over. And even then, it sat ages in my wardrobe. I had even tightenned the elastic but after awhile, I kinda got sick of it coz I’m really not into culottes so during my recent raid, I knew it was destined to be a recon. It was meant to be Arianna’s but you’ll see why it’s not.

Looking chic in her new-old shirred bareback dress [Note how the bodice fits her so nicely? It would have strangled Arianna! *lol*]

What I did – a non-pix tutorial:

1. From one half of the legs [it's a 2 pattern pieces pants, iykwim], I took off as long as I wanted the dress/tunic/top to be, measuring it from the bottom so I didn’t have to bother hemming it up.

2. Then [stupidly] trimmed both sides to give it a bit of a shape, which I think I shouldn’t have bothered with anyway since with the shirring, you can’t really see the shape. Then I sewed 6 rows of shirring at the top and joined the side seams.

3. For the straps, using the same fabric from scraps left behind, I folded [right sides together] 2 pieces of 47cmx4cm into half and sewed one top and side steams together. Into an ‘L’ shape so to speak and using a pencil, I pushed it through the sewn strap so that I could turn it right side out. Then I just handsewed the other open end, tucking the raw edges in and stiching it up. Lastly, attach the straps by also handsewing them to the bodice. For this dress, I attached it 3cm away from the side seam, I think 4 or 4.5cm would be better. But it’s up to your personal preference of course.

And you’re done!

A backview of the dress

Despite measuring [a sleeping baby], I think this dress is a little long but I was thinking that longer is better so she can grow into it. Also, if the shirring gets too tight, I can later on unpick it and turn it into Arianna’s design [coming up next].

Will be uploading Arianna’s one as well once I’ve taken pix of her in it. TFL….Happy Upcycling!

Since I finished my 2 upcycled dresses, I haven’t touched the machine at all!! It seems as though my sewjo’s gone walkabout! >.< I am sort of feeling that overwhelming sensation coming about me again because I want to sew so many things, and all at one go. It's obviously impossible to do so I end up not doing anything for a long time.

The problem is that I have soooooo many things that I want to sew because I have 3 back issues which just came in the mail before Christmas, 2 Otto Womens issues from a friend, the lastest Winter Otto and before I can even blink, 1/2010 will soon be in the mail!! And to top it off, I have a pile of patterns all traced out just waiting to be sewn. My problem is that I can't seem to decide on what fabric to use. It's not as if I am spoilt for choice, it's more like I have limited choice!! =.=

How I wish I could win the ultimate bottomless gift card to shop with so that I don't have to worry if the fabric is exxy. I guess that is my issue at the moment too. I can't really afford exxy fabrics and most if not all the fabric that I take a fancy to, seems to be SO exxy. Despite the sales, I still feel the pinch so I do the next best thing of course, go on a raiding rampage.

For now, I'm still deciding what to sew to get my sewjo back in action, I got the fabric that I want for my mei tai so that is definitely on the list and I also want some tshirts for KR coz she doesn't have any really. And also more dresses and skirts for both girls. I'm so going to try my hand at making a skort. With a skort, I don’t have to think about sewing any panties!

Lazy me, eh?