I’m getting to the end of my “unblogged” sewing projects pile. Now I’ll have to start sewing again so that I have something to blog about! There hasn’t been a whole lot of sewing going on since moving house, but I’m really missing it so will definitley start making some more time for the sewing room now that we are feeling more settled.
I’m sure this pattern doesn’t really need much of an introduction, the Grainline Archer Shirt is everywhere! And when I see a pattern sewn and blogged about in such abundance I can’t help but give it a try myself.
This is definitley a “slow and steady” project, it was completed in a few sessions over a week or two. Although it is a little more complicated than most patterns I sew, it wasn’t difficult, just a little tedious and detailed.
I used a piece of chambray (Robert Kaufman Slub Chambray in Indigo) that I have had in my stash for awhile. You can’t beat a good chambray and Robert Kaufman knows how to make them.
This shirt is definitley a wardrobe staple. It coordinates with everything and is easy and comfortable to wear. I’m not a fan of wearing the sleeves down so always roll them up or wear a jacket over the top when I wear the shirt. Because of the loose, boxy fit of the shirt I feel a bit frumpy when the sleeves are down, but I like the rolled up look so that works for me!
I’m debating on whether I should curve in the side seams a little when I make another, just to add a more feminine shape. I made a size 6 and am really happy with the fit.
The only thing that kind of bugs me about the shirt is the blue tone of the chambray is similar to most of my jeans so I feel like I’m a bit “double denim” when I wear it with jeans! Overall though, I give this pattern two big thumbs up – the sew-along is a great reference too for unfamiliar parts of the shirt and it comes together beautifully.
We have been living in our new house for 3 months now and I’m ready to start sharing some pictures of where we live! You can click on these links to see some “before” and “during” shots if you are interested. And here it is – all finished and lived in! Today I will share some pictures of the finished exterior of the house and will move inside next time. Jaron (Starbox Architecture) designed the house (the designs went on foooorever…and he has already started getting ideas togther for our next one!) and it was built by LAW Constructions.
Our block is just over one acre. Towards the end of the build, we had a digger and bobcat come in to level off the yard and create a circular bank around the perimeter of the land. It looks a bit scrubby at the moment with LOTS of weeds to get rid of and years worth of landscaping to do but has great potential.
Another benefit of the bank surrounding the yard means that we have a head start on screening and privacy as the bank sits about 1m above ground level so anything that we plant now will already be sitting higher than the yard. Plus, it looks pretty cool – once the grass has grown and thickened up we are going to enjoy some fun footy, soccer and cricket matches out there!
The grass has been a big job for us. Before we moved in we got a heap of topsoil delivered, but unfortunately we lost a lot of it in crazy high winds that we experienced a few months ago. Before sowing the grass, we installed some underground irrigation. The system is automatic so Jaron sets the timer for when we would like the grass watered and the little sprinklers pop out of the ground and turn themselves on. I wasn’t too keen on the system when we were getting started, but can now see that it was well worth the investment with the time and effort we are saving by not having to move portable sprinklers around the yard all day just to keep the grass wet! Our soil is pretty rubbish out here – we are basically living on a big sandpit! It is actually awesome because no matter how much the kids dig and roll around in it they don’t get dirty but not so good for gardens and lawns. Our grass is slowly getting there, but it is going to take a lot of work to get it to where we want it. I’m obsessed with weeding and head out for a little while every day pulling weeds but it’s amazing how much faster and stronger they grow than the grass! Because of the sandy ground, any time we want to plant anything we have to fill the area with potting mix first.
This is what you see when you come up our driveway. The main entrance to the house is actually at the back – although we still call it the front door! A few years down the track we hope to finish the driveway with hotmix, but compressed gravel is doing the job for now. We waited awhile to get the block fully fenced (it was included with the land) and I thought it was going to be such a relief when everything was finished so that I could send Harvey outside to play on his own…only to discover that he could squish is way underneath the fences and escape! We are very lucky to be only one of two houses in the subdivision so it is a very quiet street and can let the kids ride bikes and play anywhere they like without worrying about cars or people that we don’t know hanging around.
Here is a close-up of the entry. Jaron’s office is behind that timber wall. This works great because when he has clients come and see him they walk straight into his office and the rest of the house goes unseen. There is even a separate toilet right next door for them to use. One of our priorities after moving in was to eliminate the amount of dust, sand and dirt being blown and walked through the house. The garden at the entrance was one of the first things we did after the grass and we planted it out with daphne bushes, kangraoo paw, jelly bean succulents and some hearty grasses then finished it off with a medium sized stone covering. It’s amazing how much cleaner the house stays when there is grass and garden keeping the dirt at bay.
Let me try and list all of the exterior materials here in case any of them interest you. The big feature of the house is the timber wrapping around the front and a little at the back of the house. Originally we wanted to go for a grey colour, but ended up choosing a more natural brown colour, Spotted Gum from Woodform Architectural. The original colour of the timber was exactly what we wanted and then when it was stained it turned darker than we had hoped. We still like it, but are happy that the colour will fade with time and then we will coat it with a clear stain to retain the lighter colour. The ends of the house are clad with South Australian limestone from Limestone Australia. The roof and slanted wall at the back of the house are Colorbond Custom Orb in Shale Grey colour. And the window frames are all Shale Grey colour too. At the entrance of the house, you can see slanted timber posts which are laminated Tas Oak.
The building to the right of the house is a shed with Tas Oak timber posts and slats to screen air conditioning external units and wheelie bins. The shed roof is also clad in solar panels.
I think I’ve covered everything and will try and write a post in the next few days about some of the interior of the house!
After packing up to move house a few months ago, it became clear to me that I have way too many craft supplies. I mean, I knew that I had a lot, but it wasn’t until I counted my boxes of fabric next to my boxes of kitchen items and realised that they were pretty much equal that my eyes were really opened! And that was just fabric…not everything else!
So, I’m trying to become less of a hoarder and more of a user. It is a bit tough at times but I’m just gonna do it because if I run out of a precious supply I can always replenish, right?!
Our kids start school in a couple of days and the start of the school year brings the book covering marathon. It seemed to go on and on and on this year with three kids to cover books for! To make the job less of a chore, I am the sucker who tries to get crafty at the same time! Lil’s books are much easier to “pretty up” as a lot of my craft supplies and papers are girly looking. The boys require a little more thought and I resort to using printed wrapping paper on some of their books.
These washi tape covered school books, however, are both boy and girl friendly, and take much less time and effort to make than they look. In fact, they are so easy to do that Oscar and Lil even covered a few books each using this method with great results! Because the washi tape can be repositioned without tearing the paper underneath, they can pull a misplaced piece of tape up and have another go at sticking it down if it ends up in the wrong spot.
Even if you think you’re not a crafty person, I can guarantee success with these books! And if you have covered your kids school books already then maybe you can make yourself a special washi tape covered book to write important notes in or to use for journal keeping?
To start with, you will need your book to be covered and a selection of washi tapes. If you don’t have a big supply of washi tapes, don’t let that put you off. Some of the books I like best are covered with a repeated pattern of just 4 or 5 different tapes.
Before you start sticking down your tapes you will need to cover your book with a piece of plain copy paper. Most washi tapes have clear or opaque areas in the design, so if you don’t start with a white base you will see the colours and patterns on the cover of your book through the tapes. I just stick mine down with a couple of pieces of double sided sticky tape. For most of my books, I only cover in washi tape and then stick a patterned paper on the back. If the book is smaller though, I will cover the front and the back. Do what ever you like – but just make sure that you have white paper on any surface you want to cover.
Decide on what direction you want your washi tape to run (diagonal, horizontal, vertical, etc.) and stick one of your tapes in that direction, leaving a little bit of tape hanging over each edge of the book.
Open the cover of the book, and fold the overhanging edges of the tape to the inside cover and press down.
Take your second piece of tape and line up the edge with the first piece. Press down, break off and fold overhanging edges to the inside cover.
Continue adding strips of washi tape…
…until your book…
…is completely…
…covered!
Decide what you want to put on the back cover – I mostly use scrapbook paper cut to size (yep, using up those hoarded craft supplies!) and stick it down with a few pieces of double sided sticky tape.
To keep the spine of the book nice and neat, choose a washi tape to run down the folded edge. Make sure that half of the tape is hanging over the spine…
…and fold it over to the back cover of the book.
Fold the short, overhanging edges of the washi tape to the inside of the book to finish.
And there you have it! A washi-tape covered school book that is way cooler than any Disney or Minecraft character contact!!!
I like to finish my book off with some protective plastic. If the book is A4 size, I buy plastic book covers (way easier than contact!) to pop over the top. And I use clear contact on smaller or odd shaped books. If you are covering your whole book (front and back) in washi tape you could probably skip the plastic covering, I would skip it for myself, but not for the kids!
Happy covering, and here’s to using up pretty hoarded craft supplies!
It was only a matter of time before I joined the Bombshell Swimsuit bandwagon. I first noticed this pattern in the middle of 2014, Winter for us, and I wasn’t really interested in spending my sewing time on Summer attire so I popped it away for warmer days. And stocked up on some swimwear fabric in the meantime.
After a few beach trips this Summer, I was well and truly sick of my current swimmers and that was good enough incentive to spend a few evenings sewing myself a new pair – and here they are!
The pattern was great, I had a few issues getting an even zig-zag stitch with the rubbery swimwear elastic I bought but it ended up okay in the end. My sewing machine doesn’t sew well with cheap thread on any decorative stitches and I had no polyester navy blue thread in my stash so I ended up doing all of my topstitching with 100% cotton thread in order to get an even stitch…so I’m really hoping that it holds up in the elements! I don’t really go swimming that much and I’m sure I will make myself a few more swim suits in the future so I think we will be okay! There are still a few areas of skipped stitches but they aren’t noticeable enough to be an eyesore.
This pair of swimmers is my trial version…I’ve got a few other lovely swimwear fabrics in my stash that I want to use on another pair – or maybe even another pattern? But thought this navy blue fabric (from the Fabric Fairy) would be a good, basic design to start with. I lined the entire swimsuit in nude lining also.
For future Bombshells, I wouldn’t change much at all except increase the shape and support in the bust! I knew that I would like a pair of swimmers with good bust support but for this pair I pulled out some cups from an old pair of swimmers I had in my cupboard and they weren’t very supportive at all!
I really like how modest this swimsuit is, it provides good coverage in all the right places and is comfortable to wear. Nothing worse that being at the beach in something that doesn’t make you feel good! Plus, the extreme gathering on the side and back seams really helps to disguise parts of the body that aren’t in such good shape!
Anyway, if you are wanting to sew swimwear for yourself, you should really try this pattern as a starter to help you get the feel for it. I didn’t find the experience hard, but there were some parts where I didn’t really get what was happening but just keep following the instructions and it all makes sense in the end!
Back in October I blogged about my first Tova top. The one that I was sure would be a great fit so cut into some of my precious Nani IRO, only to end up with a beautiful top that was just too tight for me across the bust and underarm area. I have since handed it off to my little sister and after lots of feedback from you lovely blog readers, Instagram and Facebook followers I didn’t feel so bad about the poor fit because it seems as though many others have experienced the same issues as I did!
So, I did what I really should have done at the beginning of my sewing experience with the Tova and made myself a muslin! To be honest, I hate making muslins. They seem like such a waste of good sewing time, but I know that it is valuable when you aren’t getting a good fit from a particular pattern. For this muslin, I went with a brushed cotton fabric I had in the stash. I bought this super cheap (like $3m?) on clearance at Spotlight once. I think I must have bought about 5m of it because it just keeps on going and going! I used it to line my Minoru jacket and still have a decent amount left over.
So, this time around I decided to sew a size medium, with no adjustments (I sewed a straight small last time.) I also added a fair bit of length to the top because I thought it could look cute as a dress. Here are the two options below…I asked for opinions of dress or top on FB and IG and both versions got a decent vote…but a few people did mention that the dress looked a bit like a nightie in this fabric (which I was kind of worried about, myself) so I chopped it off and stuck with the top!
The fit this time is a lot better across the chest, but if I am being super picky, I feel like the sleeves and underarm area are a bit loose and baggy so I would probably reduce some of the bulk next time. I also took in the side seams a lot – I think I curved them in at the waist a bit to give the shirt more shape and like how this looks a lot more than the straight, boxy look the size medium had before. I also added a couple of buttons to close the front placket up a bit because it was a little too low for my liking.
Prior to this top, I haven’t worn red clothing in a very long time. I just don’t feel comfortable in it so I thought that this top would never be worn. But I was totally wrong! I wear it HEAPS. So maybe red isn’t a bad colour for me afterall?! Or perhaps it just works in this particular top and the blue plaid check lines help to break the boldness of the red up a bit? I don’t know, but I am happy that my muslin is completely wearable and wasn’t a waste of my time!
Will there be a third Tova? I do think so. It is such a comfortable top to wear – especially in the cosy brushed cotton fabric.
I’m getting to the end of my “unblogged” sewing projects pile. Now I’ll have to start sewing again so that I have something to blog about! There hasn’t been a whole lot of sewing going on since moving house, but I’m really missing it so will definitley start making some more time for the sewing room now that we are feeling more settled.
This is definitley a “slow and steady” project, it was completed in a few sessions over a week or two. Although it is a little more complicated than most patterns I sew, it wasn’t difficult, just a little tedious and detailed.
