Faux Leather Accent Top

I foresee a lot of warm tops in my future and I wanted to kick it off with this ponte top with faux leather accents and patch pocket.

I found this top online and pretty much copied it straight.

I used my trusty Lydia Pattern which I've made here,  here and here just to name 3 out of the 10 versions I've made so far.

This time I used a ponte knit which I stitched up on my new Aldi overlocker. Which, by the way, I am finding to be ridiculously awesome. If you don't yet own an overlocker, you should. The end.

The faux leather accents were pretty easy to draft up although I wish I had have sewn this patch pocket just a little closer into the centre front. Next time gadget.

Unfortunately my regular sewing machine wasn't talking to me at the time so I did some epic hand stitching to get these patches on. I also handstitched the neckline because I just didn't want any more arguments from my machine. It had attitude.

And there you have it another wardrobe staple for the impending doom winter in the mountains.

The Midi Skirt that almost was

A couple of weekends ago I attempted to make myself a Midi Skirt to see me through Autumn. I'd had this mystery fabric in my stash for about a year and I wasn't sure what to make out of it. It was originally going to be a summer dress but I kinda didn't sew much this summer so I thought a longer skirt might suit seeing as the fabric is quite light.

I used a pattern I found in an op shop that I got for 25c. Hooray! It's the one on the left below.

It didn't come with instructions but it was such a simple shape that I could guess my way through it - and I don't always follow instructions anyway.

In fact I sewed most of it in one afternoon until tragedy struck...

The fabric had just disintegrated in a whole section of the back piece! I still don't know if it was the iron being on too hot or just unstable/cheap/old fabric. Of course, being stubborn, I soldiered on and ironed on some interfacing on the back of it but to no avail. It was over and my whole afternoon of hard work was wasted.

In a way I'm a bit glad because part of me thinks the skirt looks a little Amish on me. The rest of me is letting go of a failed sewing project and hoping the next one works out.

Bummer.

My fabric has a new home - a peek in my sewing room!

Last weekend I painted this tallboy so I could put it into my sewing room to hold all my fabric and patterns. We had teal paint leftover from painting the Dining Room and I love all the colourful tallboys and dressers I keep seeing on Pinterest.

While it took me most of my sunday to sand this down and paint the inside and outside with 2 coats plus an extra coat on the top surface it was well worth the effort!

Here it is in place in my sewing room holding my machines. It doesn't have handles yet because I've never loved the handles that came with it and I can't bring myself to put them back on. I'm going to get little round wooden handles from Bunnings and maybe paint them black? Or maybe just keep them teal? What do you think?

So while we're in my sewing room want to look around?

I've moved my table over into the corner so I get the morning and afternoon light through either sets of windows.

And I have all my notions and books stored against the other wall lookin all neat and tidy.

And here's a pretty average photograph of one of my next projects. I've enrolled in a short course on upholstery so I'll be taking this chair apart and redoing it in some fabric that goes with my sewing room.

Stay tuned!

Blue Herringbone Scarf

Hey look I knitted another scarf! And guess what it's Herringbone too! To be quite honest with you I learnt the knit stitch, the purl stitch and did a test swatch to learn to knit. Then I barrelled on learning the herringbone stitch straight away and made my first Herringbone Scarf. I followed that by making this scarf so consequently I'm not sure that I could actually remember anything but the Herringbone stitch.

This is me all rugged up in my backyard. And yes I know it's only really autumn but I've already pulled out this coat and worn the scarf a couple of times. Not sure what happens when winter actually arrives!

The scarf knitted up much faster this time because I used size 10 needles and a thicker yarn. I'm much more in love with this sized stitch than the previous scarf. I still love it but this scarf is more me.

Super long scarf with my Polka Dot Blouse

Here you can see why it takes me so long to knit these things because I make them super long. Taller than me in fact. But I love being able to wrap them around my neck and still have it hanging all the way down to my waist so I'm really toasty.

In other news I've finally cleaned up my sewing room so I'm all excited to sew again. Stay tuned for something actually sewn by me.

My new blog: Where Dreamers Dwell

We've recently just set up a blog to document our process of doing up our little 1940s house. So if you're into Home DIY come check it out!

Blog: wheredreamersdwell.blogspot.com.au
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DreamersDwell
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Where-Dreamers-Dwell/115204348670691
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/dreamersdwell/


Things may get a little quiet around here since I'll be spending a lot of time and energy fixing up the house but there is always time for sewing. Always.

Herringbone Scarf

Once upon a time I had a dream to learn to knit. My mum sat down with me and taught me to cast on and do knit stitch and purl stitch and suddenly the world opened up. You mean once you know how to do one stitch you can just do it over and over and over and over in the shape of a rectangle and out pops a scarf?? Fabulous.

Not being content with starting out slow and steady and all that stuff I found myself wandering around the internet in the hopes that I could teach myself to knit the herringbone stitch. After watching a couple of youtube clips I got all confident and started my very first scarf this way.

The only downfall to this newfound hobby is that this photo above constitutes hours and hours and hours and hours of my life. In fact it took so long I got cranky, hid my knitting and forgot about it until I was packing up to move.

The silver lining in this story is that I now commute an hour each way to work on the train so I now have a dedicated hobby/"me" time. So I packed up my knitting and restarted it on the train. Which is a great idea until someone sits next to me, at which point I become all elbows and flailing needles and promptly have to stop.

So after a couple of weeks knitting this up on the train I'm finally finished and I couldn't be prouder of my new scarf. We actually had a cold snap the couple of days after I finished it so I got to wear it straight away. Cute.

In fact I was so excited about the result I may have started a new one!

Cold weather come at me!

The skirt with leaves on it

I loved my Simplicity 2451 pattern so much I decided to make another one. I got this fabric at a market or op shop for $2 and it sat on my shelf for ages. Possibly because I made a promise to myself to steer clear of prints? So last year.

In all seriousness though I love this print and it's a great skirt to wear with solid coloured tops - which I have a lot of. I won't be swinging back to sewing with prints for a while but this fabric had decided it was time to become something. And so I listened.

It was really easy to sew up especially since it's my third time making it (shhh). It has french seams throughout except for the waistband because it hurt my brain to think about french seaming a curve across 3 panels and then sew through that enclosed seam when dealing with the zipper. So the waistband has pinked seams.

It's a little bit crinkly. Possibly because it's just so damn wearable and I didn't want to stop wearing it long enough to take photos of it. So there you have it - a new skirt with leaves on it just in time for autumn (totally planned that).

I think this kind of project reminds me why I sew in the first place. To create basic clothes that fit me well, go with everything in my wardrobe, are extremely wearable, and say something about me as a person. I call this project a win.

Embroidered Tote Bag

My first sewing project when we moved was this embroidered tote. I now commute to work so I have a spare hour each morning and afternoon to and from work on the train. I decided to put that time to good use by trying my hand at some embroidery on this fabric. I figured if I was any good at it I could later sew it up into a tote bag and it worked out!

The inspiration comes from the pin below. I tried to trace it back but got caught in a loop on tumblr so I can't credit them properly.

Source: leilamontero.com.ar via Scared on Pinterest

I started by drawing my picture straight onto the fabric with a lead pencil. I embroidered the clumps of hair first before filling it all in separately with the strands.

And it turned out like this.

A tour of our abode

Hello friends! I was without the internet for nearly 4 months and going quietly insane but we finally got hooked up a couple of days ago. In fact I walked in the front door after work on Wednesday and Fiance handed me my laptop preloaded to Pinterest. He's a keeper.

As promised I'm putting up a bunch of pics of our humble little abode. Some are from the days after moving in, others are taken on the day of our engagement party but you'll get the picture. So above is the outside and the front lounge room complete with open fire place.

This is the dining and kitchen (a little blurry sorry!) complete with chalkboard wall!

Now for the most important room of the house - the sewing room! Complete with a gorgeous view of our bush backyard!

This is the backyard. The previous owners left that swing seat which I love so I'm sure you'll see a post on here where I make a nice cushion for it.

Here's the yard from halfway down and then right down the back. It backs onto a reserve so all you see is bush which is so nice. Ocassionally I sit out on that bench just to hear the bellbirds, kookaburras and the occasional owl.

And finally this is how we dressed up our yard for our engagement party. You may be able to make out the massive amounts of fairy lights strung through the trees as well as all 130 tea light candles that lit up the pathways as it got dark.

We're in the process of setting up a Home DIY Blog to follow our adventures of doing this place up so if you're interested in that kind of thing stay tuned!

And thanks for visiting my house!

A house and a ring for Christmas!

We bought a house! 

It has been quite the rollercoaster finding ourselves a house to buy let me tell you! We started looking back in January and spent many an evening on real estate websites and many a full Saturday going from house to house deciding what it was that we were looking for. 

There was the time we put an offer in on a house just to test the water and saw online the next day that it had gone under offer while we were still thinking about it. There was the time when we put an offer in on a property and bargained back and forth until we and the vendor agreed on a price only to get a call 3 hours out from signing the contract to say we'd been gazumped. Then there was the time we agreed on a price with a vendor after a week of negotiating, got through our 10 day cooling off period to find we needed more time, got more time only to find that with less than a business day left we'd been knocked back on our mortgage insurance even though we'd got the loan.

This house didn't come without it's ups and downs during the settlement process either. It took 5 full days to get our offer through to the vendor in which time we were stuck in a bidding war with another person. In the end the real estate agent walked around to the vendor's house to tell them the house had some keen buyers. Since both our offers had reached asking price at exactly the same time on the same day the vendor decided whoever could get to the real estate agency to sign the paperwork first got the house. Let me tell you there was a bit of speeding on that day to make sure we got there in time!! Not to mention that the day of settlement the solicitors all turned up to the wrong spot and took a full hour to meet somewhere in the middle just to swap and stamp our papers. Sheesh!

It's been worth every hurdle along the way though and we finally got the keys to our first home on the 19th December. We officially moved in last Friday which means we've been living here a week already! So needless to say our silly season has been extra silly with the move and cleaning out our old apartment and handing the keys back. Along with seeing lots of friends and family around the festive season. No wonder I've been hit with a nasty flu just this mornining.

But wait there's more - we're engaged!

A couple of months ago we booked in a little holiday down the coast to clear our heads and get away from all the house buying nonsense that was going on. Since we found the house it meant that our holiday just happened to be right in the middle of our settlement period. 

While we were down the coast we went out to a beautiful dinner at twilight overlooking the rolling conutryside and surrounding dairy farms. After dinner we had a glass of wine and wandered down to the beach to lay under the stars and suddenly my boyfriend was down on one knee proposing! 

So it's been a whirlwind of joy at the end of a long year. Getting engaged, buying a house, moving in just before Christmas and sharing our future plans with friends and family.

I'm now adjusting to living in the Blue Mountains and looking down at my beautiful ring everyday which makes me feel very blessed.

So things may be pretty quiet on the blog for while as we get our house done up but I hope to take some photos to give you a little house tour once we get proper Internet up and running.

Happy New Year, bring on 2013!