My bias about bias…. binding.

Stitch and bitch Saturdays. Oh. How I really do enjoy them. There is a mixture of relief and lament about joining the sewing circle inner sanctum of my family at the age of 30. My lessons (when my stubbornness doesn’t get in the way) are imparted to me from two extremely knowledgeable women whose sewing skills are honed not just from a seniority to myself, but a tenure that can be traced back to their “Tweens”. Whereas by comparison, my journey into the craft rabbit hole has deepened only in the last year, with brief dabbles throughout my life, tasting both success and bitter frustration. I curse myself for not engaging in this passion that stimulates my creativity and problem solving; as I am consciously aware of what my skill level could be if I had persevered. Instead, I have the sincerely joyous opportunity to learn from these women as an adult, and see them as friends rather than authority figures.

There was no planned project for today initially. Over a coffee and a slice (ok, maybe two) of apple custard-y baked goods, we commenced discussion about a “battle plan” for the coming weeks. Stitch and bitch days happen largely on days when my step-father has absconded for the freedom of flying in gliders in Warwick, and my aunt leaves my uncle at home to be consumed by an electronic online war.
I digress.
Where were we?
Right! Coffee, cake and a decision was made to tackle mumma-chook’s recently purchased pattern – Gidget Shorts. As this was a purchased pattern with tutorial, including strict instructions not to republish, you can find the pattern for sale on Etsy
Here’s my first completed pair!

They were quite easy to do – the challenging part was making my own bias tape that goes around the hem. The pattern purchased does give instructions on how to make your own, but the chooks had a better way! I did a practice of it solo today, and yielded a relatively positive result – but not as neat / tidy as I’m sure the chooks would have achieved. I am going to do some more tomorrow, and photo as I go, and will update this post with the tutorial. But, fiddly bit aside, I quite like the finish of bias tape. I think if you make it in lengthy quantities it takes the time consuming element out of this project. After my trial bias tape today, I have knocked together a second pair of shorts (just a few finishing touches left before publishing them) in half the time!

You can find both the shorts above, and the pair mumma-chook made for sale on our Facebook page. The aunty-chook has also set up a Facebook page for her handmade items – highly suggest you check it out. Maybe one day I’ll be half as talented as these two…

If you have any suggestions for our future crafternoons, please feel free to comment below 🙂
Stitches and such,
the chick

Rage Against The Machine

As I mentioned in my last *actual* post, I was having troubles with my overlocker thread running out at an inopportune time….. I can happily report that I rectified the problem. As is often the case when things get ridiculously frustrating, starting over from the beginning was the answer – it turned out to be much easier to rethread the whole machine than to continue getting frustrated at the one thread that didn’t want to play with me. The resulting bucket hat had a few little flaws in it, but it was for a teenager, and was made out of fabric with unrealistic bodies in warrior costumes, so I doubt a few slipped stitches are going to be his focus.

You can somewhat see what I mean (it is the hat in the top left corner)!

I haven’t worked out the legalities of posting tutorials yet – the pattern/tutorial I used for these ones can be found over at Kitsch Bitsch Blog

A pattern that doesn’t yet have a tutorial that I am developing, is for a little Marilyn style halter dress for little girls (pictured below)

This is available for sale over at our Facebook Page Pollymop for $30. It is a little girl size 2 – I can’t wait to master the grown up version of this! With elastic ruching across the back, it will be a comfortable fit for anyone!!

The chooks and I are having another crafternoon this weekend, where we will be planning out our sewing adventures for the next few months. Sew, if there’s anything you would like us to cover, please feel free to comment below!

Until then, stitches and such!

The chick

xx

 

 

Well the chooks told me there’d be days like this….

Bonus points if you sang the line like it was from the Van Morrison song… but… it has its own truth in last night adventures with sewing.

I successfully completed the finishing touches to a gorgeous little party dress (pictures and link to sale will follow), so I started work on a bucket/fishing hat made out of some funky Alexander Henry fabric that I discussed with someone before Christmas…. and as I got about half way through… one of the overlocker threads ran out….. and I didn’t notice….

For those of you non-sewist, or those without an overlocker – it’s not really just a ‘thread a needle’ kind of thing… It’s more like.. Tying up a chicken to roast. The finished part is amazing, but it’s ridiculously fiddly, and when coupled with a lack of confidence about what you’re doing, turns into a monstrous project – Imagine the predicament you could end up with if not certain about tying up a chicken… although… there are YouTube videos, it doesn’t mean squat if you fumble with a slippery chicken!
The end result for last night was I put my tools down before I put my fist through the window, but it was also about 9pm at night, so an appropriate time to do so.
Hopefully, with a fresher set of eyes tonight, I will resolve the threading bumble and complete what was to be the first examples of my work on my blog!

Stay tuned, chickens!