I changed my mind about the skirt ...

Just when I shouldn't be doing it, I changed my mind. I've ditched the A line box pleat skirt and replaced it with a straight one. The other one was feeling a little frumpy. Here it is with the pink McCalls top.

I put the still unfinished jacket it with it and I'm much happier with this look. Sorry about the crappy pictures, but I took Vera outside in the sun and before I could take the pictures, the clouds came over and a big gust of wind blew. It's been shifting between wind, rain and hot sun all day. Now I'm off to make the green blouse I had intended to make ...

From the vault ...

This is last weekend's sewing, another addition to my SWAP. I had planned to make a different pattern with this orange poplin, but at the last minute decided to drag this one from the archives. It's BWOF 10-2003-112. When I first discovered BWOF in 2002 I was a little terrified of the whole tracing thing and this was about the third pattern I traced off and made back then. There are three sleeve variations and I've made them all over the years. I don't know why I pulled this one out, but I really like it. Since taking this picture I have actually bought a length of ribbon that matches. It looks way better on a person than on Vera because you need to adjust the gathers around the boobie area.

Here is the cuff (complete with chalk marks) with the cute little teardrop buttons that came from a mixed bag of red and orange buttons I bought at All Buttons Great and Small in Newtown. If you live in Sydney and haven't visited them, I urge you to make the trip. I only get back to Sydney once or twice a year now, but this place is one of my first stops. I'm amazed at how many times over the years I have bought buttons because I love them, then months or even years later I find they are the perfect button for whatever I've just made.

I'm not even going to say what I plan to sew this weekend, because I suspect that I may change my mind between here and the cutting table. I checked my SWAP story board yesterday and I think there are only two items on it that I've actually made!

Clearly I am stupid ...

How else can I explain the moment when I thought this fabric

Would go with this fabric?

The spring tweed for my SWAP contains almost every colour you can imagine ... except lavender.

Whilst I like the blouse, BWOF 1-2008-107 (which I've made several times now) and I quite like the colour, I have no idea how I thought it matched anything. Especially given that I carry a swatch of spring tweed with me everywhere. My wardrobe has another addition, but my SWAP still needs two tops ...

Not much achieved this weekend ...

I didn't get nearly as much done this weekend as I had planned. We had a small dinner party Saturday night and I spent the entire day cooking and cleaning, leaving me only Sunday to sew. I did manage to pump out this pink top, which is another version of McCalls 5661. This time I made View D. This sad little picture shows a still damp garment fresh from the washing machine because I forgot to take a picture yesterday after I finished sewing. It looks pretty good with the jacket and jeans, but pink is not really my colour.


Next up was the Coffee Date Dress from Burdastyle. I made this from a piece of quilting cotton I bought on sale somewhere. It's been hanging around in my sewing room and finally suggested that it would like to be this dress. It's hard to tell from this picture, but it is brown, white and orange flowers. On it's own it's a little ... old fashioned ... but funked up with this orange belt it looks better.

If I wear these orange shoes with it, I think it will look even better.

Here's a closer view of the ruffle on the front.

This is not part of the SWAP, but I have found that a new theme is emerging ... Chocolate Orange. I've cut out an orange dress, I've made an orange skirt and a brown top, so now I'm looking to tie them all together for the upcoming autumn season, such that it is in the subtropics!

I just need to figure out two more tops, make a skirt and a pair of pants and finish the wretched jacket and my SWAP will be done!!!! I just need to stop adding other projects to my list for a while ...

And you were worried about Mrs Obama's bare arms ...

The debate over Mrs Obama's sleeveless dress has even reached Australian news programmes. I thought people might be interested to see this photograph ...

This is Lady Sonia McMahon, wife of then Australian Prime Minister, Bill McMahon on a visit to thw Whitehouse in 1971.

Denim ...

This weekend I've managed to knock two items off my SWAP list, much to my surprise. First up is BWOF 1-2008-109. I've been wanting to do this skirt for a while, but once again I am a little ambivalent about the finished product. It's no reflection on the pattern, rather a comment on my shape. The curves in the front panel manage to point to my widest part, making me feel fat and frumpy in this skirt. I still love the style and it went together very easily and quickly and I will probably make it again, this time without the colourful topstitching. I made size 38, but probably should have made 36, as it's a little loose on me.

Second is from the Burdastyle website. I downloaded Anita jeans number 6006 in December 2007 and never got around to making them. At the time they were free, but I noticed today that you now have to pay $4 for them. The pattern is very quick and easy. Once again I made size 38, but ended up taking them in again. I wasn't going to do the back pockets as the pattern suggests, but after a glass of really good shiraz, I decided I would. I think they had a bit of whimsy.

It was hard to get a decent shot of these on the bed and I don't have a pants mannequin. It's about nine hundred degrees here today and way too hot to put these pants on for a photo. In fact, I haven't even hemmed them because I was too sweaty to ease my way into a pair of skinny jeans!

I used the same denim for both. It's a very stretchy fabric from Fabric Frenzy at Nerang that I bought for $15 a metre. It's a lovely quality and a much darker shade of indigo than these pictures suggest. Next time, however, I think I would use denim with less stretch. The topstitching is a quilting thread, but I've forgotten the brand. The colourway is Citrus and I really love it.

This has been a weekend of firsts; first time sewing denim, first time sewing jeans and first time using a twin needle for topstitching on anything other than stretch.

The sun is over the yard arm but it's still stinking hot, so I'm off to have a cold beer and cut out a pink top ...