Saturday 6 August 2011

Errant behaviour

Damian and Lula are away visiting relatives  so only 36 hours after they have left I am practically feral, having to remind myself to eat at regular intervals, returning to the house because I  am wearing odd flip flops- definitely not a matching pair.  My hands can't take the strain if I sew non stop- which is what I really want to so- so I have to break it up with dog walks, phone calls, paperwork, faffing around, but I have made good progress on my Portfolio Dress.
The main fabric is from some curtains I found at the car boot sale a few months back.  They are cotton with cotton lining so I cut the fabric as if it was two layers to make a lined dress the easy way!
The contrast fabric is Sweetwater Sunkissed- nice to have a bit of text fabric in clothing.  I have completed one arm- the left in this picture but I am going to make the sleeve detail the Sweetwater print too- it doesn't quite balance without the contrast.  It is a well behaved pattern with interesting construction, especially the front pockets.  It did come up quite large and I have taken the sides in.  I also put tucks rather than gathers down the front, I find it a more flattering effect!
I have recently had some great deliveries.  This was a large parcel from the states of a few Etsy vintage lots.
This was not an easy venture.  The seller hadn't sold overseas before, I gave her links to USPS website and the fixed price mailing system, she then agreed to sell and a few days later cancelled the purchase.  In the end I had to use my friend Kathy's mother's USA address and then have it mailed from there to UK, so I have Kathy to thank for its arrival.  It was worth it, there is fabric treasure within!  The fabric had come from an estate sale and had belonged to an elderly and life long quilter looking at the age of some of the pieces.  The sorting and washing of these has taken ages.  There is a large pile of scraps and also some bigger bits- mainly in red.   The print on the bottom is especially good- large sketchy grey apples and little red apples dotted on top.
These are solo scraps, bits that are just too precious to discard despite their marks and stains- I have soaked them so they are clean.  The designs are so reminiscent of different eras, I can't tell you how much I love them.
These are some of my favourite florals from the scraps- again these are mainly solo bits but I do have some multiples here.  
I have already started using them in my Pay it forward pincushions for Rachael, Suzanne and Leila
And these pretty Aurifil threads arrived today plus some testers for me.  I have already started my stringent testing procedure- lets just say these threads do not disappoint.  I'll add more details soon and I'll be giving these packs away so you can try them too.  Now the bath is probably overflowing as I am doing my usual trick of trying to push as much into the time as possible and over running.
Back soon x
sib blog

19 comments:

  1. I bet you are glad you persevered with the postage 'hassles'! The fabric is amazing! A real treasure trove of fabric history! Enjoy!

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  2. fun fabrics, they look amazing, and your dress is beautiful, definitely want to see you modeling it! :) and the aurifil looks yummmy!!!

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  3. Ha! You and Maria Von Trap making dresses out of curtains. You started with better fabric! The dress is beautiful. You will have to model it for us when you are done.

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  4. Gorgeous dress! What amazing fabric too - worth the hassle of getting it to the UK. You have great taste :) x

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  5. Yummy! I have to admit to being very excited to hear there are pin cushions in the works. Pretty soon I'll have to do a pay it forward post of my own. Love the dress--very cute use of the Sweetwater!

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  6. Lovely dress. The fabric bundle looks amazing! :) x

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  7. I'm loving your 'sound of music' dress ;-) I'd love to see you model it once it's finished.
    Great vintage stash I'm sure you'll make wonderful things with those pretties!

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  8. Dress is looking lovely. Look forward to seeing it finished! :)

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  9. Wow what a great bundle of fabrics - I keep finding more little pieces in our loft, it is such a delight! Hope you're enjoying the peace and quiet!

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  10. I love the dress! That vintage stuff is lovely too! I've not used arifil but hearing everyone rave about it makes me think I should track some down!

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  11. Lovely dress! (You'd never know it was curtains in it's past life)

    Thank you so much for the Amy Butler fabric, it arrived last week (and the sweet little extra piece!).

    Rachael.

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  12. Wow, what wonderful scraps! Nothing more pleasing than a good haul of vintage fabrics.

    I'm planning on buying some more Aurifil at the Quilt Festival next weekend, as the one spool I bought a while back and finally got round to using is just brilliant - can't believe how much difference decent thread makes to the whole experience!

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  13. Love the dress...

    Am thinking of driving south, sneaking into your house and pinching those fabrics, so keep a look out! Gorgeous! Am utterly green with envy.

    Aurifil is my only planned purchase at FoQ - everyone is raving about them so need to give them a go.

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  14. I keep hearing the most wonderful things about Aurifil thread. I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to.

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  15. Think I need to give Auriful a try....and glad you finally got the fabric after the trouble. People are sometimes like that with shipping to Hawaii and we are in the USA! And yeah on your new toy heading your way....

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  16. I found 1 spool of 12wt variegated Aurfil thread on clearance (for $2) at a LQS last summer and just got around to using it in June. I LOVED it!!! I cannot say enough good things about it! I used it in my machine and it was AMAZING! I went back hoping that they would have more but they didn't. I am so bummed. I've been using the 50wt for piecing and it is wonderful too.

    Yay for free time! Enjoy!

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  17. enjoyed your blog today! and i like several of your tutes, and will try them soon. thanx!

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  18. Wow the dress is looking so pretty! I always love to see the way you recycle fabric to make something totally unexpected! I can't believe the dress is made of a curtain!

    Such lovely vintage scraps! There is a chance that I bought feedsack scraps from the same person..! In my case, I got wrong fabric in the mail, which was supposed to be sent to somebody else, so I sent it to her. Since she got my fabric, she sent it to me, so we basically exchanged the package. I loved my fabric scraps very much except that it was missing a few prints lol!

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  19. Very pretty dress! Short for you, huh? Me too! I only wear dresses once a week, to church. Just bought my first spool of Aurifil. Shockingly expensive to me, but very nice and probably worth it. I like it.

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