Sew, I've Been Thinking ...

I was saddened to learn of the death of Margaret Whitlam on Saturday. I grew up in Gough Whitlam's electorate of Cabramatta and I was 9 years old in 1972 when Australians decided It's Time and elected him Prime Minister. My parents were die-hard Labor voters so we went to as many local events where the Whitlams were present. I remember one Sunday my parents planned to go to the opening of a local community centre at which the Whitlams would be presiding. My mother had chosen a hideous polyester lemon yellow dress for me to wear and I hated it with a passion. We fought long and hard all during my mother's Saturday preparations of washing and pressing outfits for the whole family. I wanted to wear a different dress. One of my cousins had handed down to me a pretty floral dress with a gathered skirt, a ruffle down the front and a wide self-fabric sash that tied in a big bow. I had a pair of glossy black patent leather 'party shoes' and a pair of lace trimmed s...

This is going to be a bit of a rant. Of all the compromises I expected in moving to Tasmania, not being able to buy BASIC sewing supplies was not one of them. The only fabric store in Hobart is Spotlight. There are a few small quilting stores and the sewing machine repair store down the road from my office at least sells thread. I had a hell week at work last week and as it was a long weekend, I looked forward to a solid three days of finishing my SWAP and maybe doing some planning for future sewing. I didn't get time to buy thread for my jeans during the week, but as Spotlight is open all weekend I wasn't worried. Last weekend I spent an entire day working on refinining the fit of my TNT jeans pattern and so I was ready. Saturday I cut my jeans out and Sunday morning at 10am on the dot I was waiting outside Spotlight for the doors to open. I needed a zip. The zip rack was half empty and there were NO metal pants zips at all. Funnily enough I could have had any size ...

I altered my favourite Burda skinny jeans pattern by guess work this weekend. I tried on three pairs I've previously made from this pattern and assessed where I needed to tweak. It was all in the rear, so I slashed and spread the yoke and the back by what I hoped was the right amount. I muslined in some fabric with slightly less stretch than the stretch denim I've bought and with that in mind, guessed once again about the final amount I needed to adjust. That brought me to Sunday lunchtime when I talked myself out of cutting the real fabric. Because I've been head down in SWAP for some months now, I haven't really been looking at what I want to sew next, so there was nothing screaming at me from the sewing queue, or at least nothing I could achieve in a day, so my eyes shifted to the UFO's. This shawl collar jacket is made from more of the Vera Wang wool I bought a few years ago. This may show as purple in the picture, but it is red and blue woven together ...