Saturday, 4 May 2013

Happy 80th Birthday Mum! -- New Look 6009 Top.



After doing a suck-up - I mean some sewing for  my MIL I needed to be fair and do the same for  my own Mum. She has just turned 80 years young and still sews most days - most of her own clothes and  patchwork and machine embroidered quilts. She can also do that thing with knitting where she knits really fast without even looking and doesn`t make a mistake - totally jealous and hate that but then again I am not a knitter so there.

Just when I was wondering what am I going to make Mum this year  I found 3.6 metres of Thai hand woven  silk in the op shop for $8.00!  In a background colour of mauvey, browny I don`t know what with blue and brown diamonds it was perfect . Talk about lucky - I just wish I could find that winning tattslotto ticket .

So I nicked - well borrowed - a pattern from my Mum`s stash - which is only fair really since it was for her ( and I promise I gave it back too - except I might nick it again to sew up for me ) -New Look 6009.
It is a simple drop shouldered top . The cute part of this pattern is the keyhole in the front with a loop of fabric above which gathers the  material into a sort of a bow look. The back is done up with one button / loop  .




It is a REALLY easy pattern - with only the front , back and facing pieces and a small rectangle for the loop.
The only tricky bit was because I used fabric with such an obvious pattern it just took a bit of  care to match the diamonds . I found some matching bias binding to finish the facings and a cool vintage button for the back from  my stash ( bummer that I only had one ) .






End result - one happy Mum who loves receiving ( and giving ) home made gifts. ( And the other best bit is that there is heaps of material left over for me .)

As Jen S said in her blog - yesterday was sewing group. One lady was doing a toile for a red lace dress for a wedding, someone else was sewing a self drafted dress , another was completing a chanel style jacket  impeccably  fitted mind you, another perfecting a toile for a shirt which already looked  well  perfect , another was making a lined coat , Jen cut out her houndstooth jacket and what was I sewing - a plastic fold up shopping bag - I am all class I tell you. Our new group is called From Tshirts to Couture - but perhaps it could be changed from plastic bags to couture :)  .

Cheers . Janine.

14 comments:

  1. Great top - your mum is very lucky.

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  2. What a gem! Actually - 3 gems: the top, your Mum, and you :)

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  3. Great find and what better way to use it than for a gift. How lucky is your mum!

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  4. The fabric is lovely. What a find.

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  6. Beautifully made and great fabric. A very thoughtful gift.

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  7. It is so pretty-what a great fabric find. Your mom is lucky and so are you-to have each other.

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  8. thankyou for all your comments. Yes I am very lucky to still have my mum .

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  9. I am quite sure there is a natural fabric filter at the local opshops. Everything inside is polyester. What a great find.
    You have picked such a clever pattern for it, the top displays the fabric beautifully.

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  10. Hi Janine, I'm nominating your for the One Lovely Blog Award. You can pick it up at my blog, and that will tell you about the Award. if you don't want it, that's fine as well. Looking forward to seeing your next sewing project. Sarah

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  11. Generally I don't learn post on blogs, but I would like to say that this write-up very compelled me to take a look at and do it! Your writing style has been surprised me. Thank you, Very Great Post.Also visit my page

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  12. What a bargain! Happy birthday to your Mum, and I expect she was very happy with her top

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  13. What lovely unselfish sewing you have been doing. The dressing gown in your last post is lovely as is this top!

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  14. Hi Janine, what a really beautiful top! You've got a lucky mum right there. Love that she's 80 and still creating stuff regularly, what an inspiration!

    Thanks so much for your super sweet comment on my MMM blog post the other day, I really appreciated it. I'm really pleased that you feel these challenges are a valuable endeavour, and fear not I definitely plan on hosting another next year!

    All the best
    Zoe xx

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