Our Garden

I am excited to be moving in the next few months to a new house but I will miss my garden ( but not all the hard work ) . My garden is just starting to come to life with spring and I wanted to capture some memories so I can look back at all the plants and design that took some 16 years in the making .

A mish mash of bulbs - the upright bulbs came from my beloved Aunty Pearl`s garden and she has been gone for some 30 years .

Magnolias are amongst my favourite trees - I will definitely plant some in my new garden but it will take a long time before it looks like this. There is a self sown echium off to  the left. I also really love maples and viburnums. I love dogwoods too and planted a genuine Canadian Dogwood but our harsh Australian summers were just too much and it curled up its toes .Living on tank water I can not afford to water too many plants here - they have to be drought resistant and tough .

 

This is a part of my Japanese inspired garden. I have divided my garden into `rooms` - there is the native section, a woodland garden ( with small fairy statues hidden - I must try to find them before we leave ) , the japanese garden, a perennial section , herb garden, citrus area  and `secret` garden ( it has a pergola with a seat underneath - concealed by lots of climbers and shrubs and looks toward the valley and mountains to the south ) . The gardens all blend into each other.

 

This is a part of my perennial garden which is only just starting to bloom. I love the smell of wall flowers - like Johnsons Baby Powder and they must be the easiest plants to grow from cuttings. I also have lots of salvias , some lavenders , lilies , catmints, penstemons  and irises here. I tend to love pinks , purples and whites with small splashes of red and yellow .

 This is the herb garden - I have parsley, spring onions, pizza thyme ( I like the flavour  better than common thyme, ) varigated oregano, a spindly savory bush , curry plant , chives, garlic chives , a potted bay tree, a so called dwarf rosemary bush ( hah ! dwarf if you regularly prune it ! ) and a moroccan mint ( sweeter than common mint and not invasive at all ). There are sporadic cat mints as a border and self seeded feverfews and some decorative roses  ( although I have toyed with the idea of making rose petal jam ).

My Irises and the main rose garden ( and the good old washing line )  - the irises are starting to come out. Again irises are one of my favourite plants - they give so much for little return. I am torn about my roses - most of them I have obtained by cuttings or gifts . However everytime I go near them they spike me- should I take cuttings or do I just leave them. Off the side is a  part of the native garden - mainly indigenous natives but there a couple of ring- ins as well.

Well this is just a portion of my garden. I really bit off more than I could chew in making it .
Hope everyone is having a good day.
Cheers Janine.

Sewing Curved Pockets.

I have been sewing the dress  Burda 7808 which I sewed in January this year. I was very impressed with the comfort of this dress during really horrible hot days and wanted to have another one as one dress like this is not enough for our Australian summers ( although why I am sewing it now when the hot weather is a long way off I really do not know ! )

 I am sewing the version with a collar, contrast front inset and adding the pockets. The pockets are curved with some slight gathering at the top. The instructions say to fold over the seam allowance of the pocket and baste. This is not so easy when the pocket is curved. Years ago I read this so simple tip to help with sewing curved edges. I have simply sewn a large gathering stitch around the edges of the pocket within the seam allowance. The threads are pulled gently gathering the pockets. The gathers are then adjusted to form a nice curved pocket. When you are happy , pin in place and then give the pocket a good iron. So easy and simple. I do wish the pattern companies would add in these extra little steps to help us sew better .
Cheers Janine.

Butterick 4247 - A Green Handbag.

 I have been sewing a bag lately. My current handbag is on the way out - the straps are starting to break. 

I bought this pattern back in 2005 when I first had the bright idea to sew a bag. Better late than never I suppose.

                I used all fabrics from my stash  - this is printed linen that was in a large plastic tub of patchwork fabrics I bought last year for only $15.

The lining material was also included in the tub. I modified the pattern to include pockets in the lining and added a concealed zip flap at the top . I interfaced the bag with remnants of fleecy - the stuff that is fluffy on the inside and looks like knit on the outside. I was going to throw out the pieces because they are too small to sew any clothes with but I read about this tip to use it for interfacing bags and it is great. Really adds weight and thickness.

I finally managed to find a use for these charms  . The sewing charms I bought 20 +years ago and the tea charms on a holiday in 2006 . I found them irresistable but had no idea what I would do with them.

I used some very old and very  heavy metal buttons for the bag feet - I remember playing with these buttons from my Mum`s button jar when I was a little girl. ( Just to clarify - Mum gave me these I didn`t nick them !)

Pattern Review is having a handbag competition which was the push and the shove I needed to finally make a bag.
Cheers Janine.

Topkids No. 23 - Birds of a Feather Flock Together Shirt .

Birds of a feather flock together - having made tops for my youngest and eldest daughters out of the same hummingbird fabric. However I think they would rather be plucked , quartered and roasted before they were seen together in them !

My daughter wanted a simple sleeveless button up collared blouse - we saw heaps of this style on our school holiday shopping trip and lots of bird prints too .

I pulled out all of my old Topkids pattern books and found a pattern I could convert to what she wanted.  

This one is issue 26 from Spring 1993 ! I used to absolutely love my topkids pattern books . They are like burda magazines ( with the same kind of instructions and no diagrams ) but the patterns are almost exclusively for children. I made dozens and dozens of the patterns and had only a handful of the Big 4 patterns for my children. I loved the magazines so much they were a part of my fire plan ( after grabbing children, pets, important documents, etc etc if there was time I would take my magazines- that is a bit sad but hopefully other sewing fanatics would  understand .)

I have always wanted to sew this pattern but my daughter did not want the interesting parts of the pattern - the shaped hem and added flaps with the extra buttons.

The pattern has you finish the neckline and armholes  with single fold bias binding ( made of self fabric ) . I also was able to do french seams everywhere  so I think my youngest daughter was pleasantly surprised by the end result . She certainly wore it right away when we went to friends for tea  and she was quite happy to pose for the blog  ( I didn`t even have to twist her arm or anything else for that matter.) If anyone has young children and babies I would  recommend getting old copies of these if you see them. The baby clothes are seriously cute .

I can now also say that having sewn more chiffon I am no longer afraid of it .

Well now my blog is starting to look like an Alfred Hitchcock movie I must leave the last word to Bob the Second.

Honestly while the girls got on with the serious business of pecking and scratching Bob POSED for the camera.

Cheers Janine. P.S My family are back from France and it is wonderful.

Simplicity 3786-Hummingbirds for a Honey Top .

 

   Last school holidays my eldest daughter spotted this bird printed chiffon at Spotlight and loved it  and since then has been reminding me to sew this up. This school holidays I have been trying to do 'nice` things for my eldest and youngest daughters as my middle DD is in France with my DH.
So I finally sewed up this tunic - hmmm , top homemade by Mum , trip to France with Dad  - yep that just about balances things up !
   Just to ' quickly ` explain about the trip - my eldest DD went to Japan for three months a couple of years ago on an exchange programme and since then our other daughters have been muttering that this is  not fair . Then my middle DD said ` Just give me the money .` and my eldest DD said ` That`s not fair ` and I said `I am most certainly not just  giving you the money ` and then my husband said he could go to France with middle DD and I said ` That`s not fair ` ( only joking about the last bit ) .

Simplicity 3786.

   Anyway I have now sewn Simplicity 3786 four times so I have it down pat although I have not sewn it in chiffon before. However, soaking the fabric in a gelantine mixture that I previously blogged about , using a walking foot, lots of sharp pins and  lots of pressing ended up helping alot . Once the little pintucks and the mandarin collar are sewn this is a very easy top to sew. I used french seams where I could but otherwise sewed the side seams and armscye with double row of close stitching and then trimmed the excess fabric very closely ( and carefully ) to the stitching. I took in the side seams by several cms and added narrow ties because this is a loose fitting top and she wanted it to be slim fitting .  We added some non - functional buttons to the front which match much closer in real life than the pictures  show  . In case you can not tell I highly recommend this pattern.

Anyway the end result is that my eldest DD loves her new top. While I was cutting this out my youngest DD said that is pretty fabric and luckily there was a sizeable remnant that is already cut out for another ( different ) top for  her.

Cheers Janine.

StyleARC Abby Cardy Meets Animal.

I whipped this little number up over four weeks which is pretty sad really  !  This is by no means anything to do with the pattern . I really thought I had been sewing more than what reality indicates but life has been very busy . I really am missing sewing and reading all the sewing blogs  . Anyway I would highly recommend this pattern. I will definitely sew this one again in a plain fabric.

 

I used a remnant knit  left over from my Butterick dress I sewed last year for my muslin  . I only had enough to sew the short sleeves unfortunately .

As with all Style Arc patterns there are no detailed instructions.There is the list of steps involved and one small diagram showing the centre back neck/ shoulder  and where the facing attaches. The pattern pieces are quite well marked though.

It is a very simple cardigan to sew however  so the lack of detailed instructions does not matter  but if you were completely new to sewing it would be a challenge.  

 I really like the end results - unlike some other drapey cardigans it does not have masses of fabric at the front , the fit is great and it can be styled in several different ways. Also I was very impressed by the service I received from this company - the pattern arrived the week after I ordered it and the costs were quite reasonable.I also really like the small swatch of fabric they include - this really helped with my material selection .  I will definitely buy more patterns. ( I also have the Peta Pants patterns and have sewed a muslin - another happy success !)

I hope to get more sewing done in the next month - I have been on a prolonged break from work and go back to the real world in a month. Also I have lost my nocturnal foot warmer for the next 4 weeks - my husband and middle daughter have gone to France while I stay home with the oldest and youngest daughters - sigh .We are expecting some extra special souvenirs - well they better or else !  I don`t know what the or else is yet - hopefully we won`t have to think of something ;)

Kwik Sew 2694/2900 -Remnant of a Remnant Top.

It feels good to be back on the bandwagon so to speak- selfishly sewing for me !
I have been doing some boring sewing - sheets, pillowcases and a swing seat roof cover.
This was very good for stashbusting but not so good for my sewing psyche.
However I did manage to use the OLDEST piece of fabric from my stash in doing so  - 2 and 1/2 metres of garbadine in exactly the same grey that primary school boys have their pants made of - see why it was in the stash for so long . When I got married I inherited this fabric from my new husband - see my husband came with a dowry - free fabric - how could I have not married him. Pity the fabric was ugly but beggars can not be choosers -lol. ( If you want to know I have been married 22 years and the fabric was at least 6 years old when I received it . )

So I have eventually gotten around to sewing the remnant knit from my daughters knit top( from my last post )  that in itself was a remnant from my eldest DD`s knit skirt !

My tatty Kwik Sew Pattern - 2694.

I used Kwik Sew 2694 but added in the long sleeves from Kwik Sew 2900 and also added a band around the front/back pieces . I choose KS 2694 because the front upper and lower bodice pieces are only small - perfectly  suited for my scraps. I only had enough fabric to cut one sleeve and the lower front  bodice and one upper front and the band . I really liked this fabric and was determined that I should get a garment out of it somehow ! A few weeks ago my Mum took me to Darn Cheap Fabrics in Heidelberg , Melbourne. I didn`t have my remnant material with me so I had to make a guess as to what would match  relying on my memory ( that can be dodgy sometimes ). I bought some dark teal mesh and although it doesn`t match perfectly I think it blends in quite well.

This pattern is very simple to sew - I made this top over the course of a week in about 6 easy sewing sessions including cutting out. I doubled the mesh where used for the back, one sleeve and one upper front - this eliminates the see -through factor and makes the top a bit more snuggly warm. Before sewing the garment I stitched the mesh together at the tops and bottoms of the pattern pieces and then just treated them as one piece of material.
I have previously sewn Kwik Sew 2694 twice before - the upper front is a bit revealing - I have to wear those tops with a camisole underneath . Adding the front band has eliminated this need. I simply cut out two long rectangles 5cm wide and sewed them together. Then this long rectangular piece is folded together - wrong sides together - and attached to the garment ( after you have sewn the upper fronts to the back ) right sides together. I then zigzagged the raw edge , ironed this and top stitched the band on the main garment pieces. Also as I was attaching the band I stretched this fabric slightly to snug up the front bodices.
I would highly recommend this pattern although it is getting pretty old now.

Now here is my ` happy` problem` - I used up all my remnant knit but in buying the  teal mesh I asked for 1 1/2 metres but the sales assistant was very generous and gave me what was left on the roll - over 3 metres ! So now I have a remnant of the teal mesh and now I will have to buy more fabric to use up this remnant ! I know - lucky these are the `problems` I face.

Hope everyone is happy and healthy. Cheers Janine.