It’s been a busy week and a bit. There’s been a lot of sewing and cutting and a little bit of hair pulling thrown in for good measure! The highlight of this week is definitely the news that I won the Sewing Indie Month’s Dressed to the Nines category! How excited was I when I got that email?!?!?
I was sooo chuffed, so I have to say a very large thank you to all those who voted for me, and for Daughter No2’s pretty butterfly dress. There were some fantastic entries from all over the world so it is a huge honour to have been chosen as people’s favourite out of all of them. A massive thank you also has to go to Mari from Seamster Patterns for organising the whole party and keeping a careful eye over the proceedings. The sponsors have been superb too, there are so many loverly prizes!! I had thought of possibly passing a few on, spreading the love, you know. But first I need to check that that would be allowed.
Over the weekend I also found out I’d won a prize in The Monthly Stitch’s New to Me competition. That’s where the Carme in Liberty had been submitted, so that’s even more patterns for me! 🙂 So I definitely need to pass on a few, this community is so great I couldn’t keep all these goodies completely to myself. So stay tuned, there might be something going on in the next week or so.
In the mean time, this is just a little bit of what I’ve been sewing up. Last week I finally got my butt into gear and cut out the Gabriola from Sewaholic patterns. I had initially thought to enter the Fan Girl section of The Monthly Stich’s Independent Pattern Month, then I thought I’d probably done enough for competitions lately! But over the weekend Daughter No2 persuaded me to go for it, after all, I was going to be making it anyway. The fabric is a pretty bird print chiffon from Croft Mill Fabric.
It was a devil to cut! Loads of pins were required for cutting and even more for sewing! Normally I don’t have an issue with chiffon, you take your time, breathe deeply and pin like mad. This stuff needs GLUE!! Anyway, things are progressing. To go with the skirt I’m going to make the Renfrew tee. Thank you so very much to Caroline from Croft Mill Fabric for finding me the right colour jersey to go with that bird print, and for getting it off in the post after I’d left it to the last minute to decide to have it! 🙂 I love good customer service!!
I have also made progress on my outfit for a wedding Husband and I will be attending in July. I will go into more detail in a later post, but I’ve done the trousers in a navy cotton sateen from Fabric Godmother, it’s so beautiful!! I lined the pockets with left overs of the Liberty used for Daughter No2’s Carme, little details!!
The spotty stuff is a slik chiffon that will become the blouse/top. That’s it for now, I need to get cracking with stuff today. In the mean time, here’s a look at the internal goings on in the Paris Snowball, as requested. 🙂
THE COMPULSIVE SEAMSTRESS 
Lovely fabrics!
And lovely finishing too! Congratulations – you totally deserve your prizes! Love the blue details – I like to make my pockets in left over bits of tana too. Re chiffon – I have read good things about something called sullivan’s spray stabilizer – Sarai of Colette uses it for slippery silks. I have been trying to persuade British retailers to import it as i can’t get it from the States by mail:(. But people have also had good results by using gelatine, or Sulky’s stabilizer – you melt a bit, soak the fabric, and it becomes papery apparently.
Thanks for the tip, I’ll try it on my next make! Weirdly I had no problem with the last chiffon blouse I made, this one has a lot of drape & weight, that’s what’s causing me all the problems! 🙂
Congratulations on your wins they are well deserved.
Thank you! 🙂
Congratulations! Very well deserved wins. I love that navy fabric. Off to check it out.
The cotton sateen is really nice, the right weight for summer trousers, but could also be great for a dress or skirt.
Congratulations! and very well deserved!
Thank you! 🙂
Congratulations:-) And I like very much the fabric you chose for the Gabriola- can’t wait to see it when it is finished!
I liked it online, and I liked it on my sewing table, but I have had such hassle sewing the darn stuff! 🙂 By the way, I ordered that French book, daughter No2 has a wish list already! I said she could sew them in the summer! 🙂
yay!! I am sure your creations from the French book will be inspiring and look forward to seeing them 🙂 haha, that would be a great idea to pass your sewing skills to your daughter 🙂 the items in the book are quite easy – even a slow sewer/seamstress? like me found it quick to make!
Yay for Caroline at Croft Mill – such a lovely, helpful lady! Following in her Dad’s footsteps. (Yes, I am that old! 😉 )
She’s fab, I got the jersey I needed after deciding last minute to order it in just 2 days too!
A super lot of congratulations for winning! How much fun and encouragement to continue making gorgeous garments. You have so much on the go right now, and I cannot wait to see the finished garments.
Thank you Tia! I just need another one of me to get all done in time…
Congratulations! And I can’t wait for my insides to look so clean!
Practice! 🙂
Yeah! Congratulations on a well deserved win! I can’t wait to see the Gabriola sewn up!
Oh dear, it’s almost done, just the nightmare of the wibbly wobbly hem to tidy up…
Wow! Well done to you…..but well deserved. I love all your makes they inspire me to sew my best!
Thank you! 🙂
Yowza! Busy lady!! Congrats on winning the contest – you did such a lovely job & your dress was fantastic! 🙂 I was sad I didn’t even make the finals, but it made me feel better that you did! ^_^ All your lovely fabrics are making me drool over my keyboard haha ^_^