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julielivingstone

~ It isn't always about getting what you want. Sometimes it's about wanting what you've got.

julielivingstone

Tag Archives: ASG

Challenges Everywhere

04 Tuesday Oct 2016

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ASG, challenge, sharks teeth

The Refashioners Community Challenge finished on the last day of September, last Friday, with an extraordinary response. Not having been involved before I had no idea how many people would take part, I think perhaps nobody else did either because it seems to have been much bigger than last year.

There was an extraordinary variety of entries, some on slightly similar themes, but on the whole all different. It’s going to be very difficult for Portia Lawrie, who runs the challenge, to pick the winners, but I’m sure everybody who took part has gained something just by being creative and having a go. I know that I have also gained a lot of ideas for future projects, not by copying what others have done but by using their work as a spark to ignite more ideas. It’s always possible to look at a project and think ‘now what if you changed that bit, or used this part to add to something else?’

I’ve been working on my entries for the Australian Sewing Guild convention challenge as well. This year the theme is ‘put a wrinkle in it’ which opens up all sort of possibilities. I decided to enter all three categories, which was probably a mistake since I don’t think I’ve really had time to do justice to any of them. The three categories are garment, fashion accessory, and home decor accessory. For the garment I cheated a bit and used a shirt which I made for a workshop on sharks teeth that I ran at our neighbourhood group last year. It has two panels of sharks teeth tucks in the front, one vertical down one side and the other horizontal across the yoke. I’ve found now that I didn’t take any photos of it at the time, but here is one of another similar shirt I made many years ago.

img_3005

Sharks teeth shirt

My fashion accessory entry is a bag, not finished yet, and the home decor accessory is a trio of pincushions, masquerading as cupcakes. I didn’t get time to photograph them before sending them off either, so they will have to wait. They were pretty complicated to make, so they probably need a blog post all on their own. Next time!

 

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New from Old – Jumper Wrap Workshop

22 Monday Aug 2016

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ASG, jumper, recycling, sewing, workshop

Yesterday I attended a workshop at my neighbourhood group of the Australian Sewing Guild run by Jody Pearl of Sew Outside the Lines. Jody showed us how to make jumper wraps, using old jumpers sourced from the op shop or from our own stash. I had bought several garments to use in the workshop from the Good Samaritan op shop, but in the end only used two of them. I had selected a couple of grey to use as a base, and some pink for additional interest, but I ended up using only the grey to make a monochrome wrap. A bonus is that I now have the pink ones left over for another wrap, and now I have done one I also have more idea about what to look for when shopping for the raw materials next time.

The basic premise is to cut up the donor garments, and start by making a flat piece of fabric. A diagonal cut in the first garment means that some of the fabric is on the bias, which is what gives the wrap an interesting asymmetrical look, and also a bit of flare. After that the donor garments pretty much dictate how the finished item looks, as Jody says you let the fabric tell you what to do. Every finished garment is different, since the starting points are all different, and also everybody has their own individual style which influences the decisions they make.

I didn’t get mine quite finished, so no photo yet. I had forgotten to take a cushion, and I find the chairs in the centre are a little low, so after some time sewing my back was aching and I didn’t feel like finishing. I have a bad habit of disregarding my posture until something hurts, rather than sitting properly to start with, and I need to stop doing that. I have something called a ‘quillow’, which is basically a blanket/quilt which folds up and tucks into a pocket stitched on one side of it and becomes a cushion. I really only use it when I am going out somewhere, so I should keep it in the car and avoid the same thing happening again.

When I got home I was pressing my wrap to try and get rid of a small ‘bubble’ where I had stretched the fabric during stitching, and I noticed a pale streak in one of the pieces. I hadn’t noticed it before, but as usual with these things, it is right down the front of the garment, and once I knew it was there it bugged me. I’m not sure how it got there but I need to do something about it. The pressing didn’t work, but I did manage with a great deal of care to unpick that bit of stitching so that I can re-stitch it without the bubble. Unpicking knitwear takes a great deal of care, especially since I had used a closely matching sewing thread, but I did it without making a hole in the fabric. If I had made a hole though, I could just have stitched more fabric on top, such is the adaptability of the whole concept.

My first thought was to get some fabric paint and add more pale streaks to try and disguise the first one, but that meant going shopping for paint. Then I remembered that I had an offcut of pale grey lace somewhere, and thought of stitching that over the top of the panel with the streak. I’d also add at least one other piece of lace elsewhere to make it look as if the lace was intentional rather than covering up a flaw.

Apart from that I have just to finish the armholes and the wrap is complete – watch this space for a photo!

 

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An Accidental Tourist in Sydney

27 Thursday Nov 2014

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ASG, buildings, sewing, Sydney, tourist

At the end of September I travelled to Sydney for the Australian Sewing Guild annual convention. I joined the Guild around 12 months ago with the specific intention of going to the convention, and I’m very glad I did. I had a really good time, and I can thoroughly recommend the event to anybody else considering going.

Held at the Shore Grammar School in North Sydney, the event was a full week of sewing, with no cooking, no cleaning, and no washing up! Absolute bliss! I did workshops with Lorraine Parker, Larraine Jenkins, and Leanne Abbott (there were some tuturs whose names didn’t begin with L, I just didn’t pick them!) Textile manipulation and embellishment, some seriously useful tips for things like turning collars, and lots to do with buttons, including bound buttonholes. Unfortunately I did come home with another UFO, which I had promised myself I wouldn’t, but I have since finished it, just need to take some photos and then I can blog about it.

Apart from the sewing, I really enjoyed being a tourist in Sydney. I had not been before, apart from about half a day some 20 years ago, which I spent looking at the Opera House, and Darling Harbour. This time I still only got to see a small part of Sydney, the area around the school in North Sydney, and a walk across the bridge to The Rocks, but I was fascinated. I walked around almost with my mouth open looking at all the old buildings! Alright, I know that in the overall scheme of things Sydney isn’t old, but coming from Perth it looks positively pre-historic.

I grew up in England, living in houses which were one or two hundred years old, in one case probably even three hundred years old. And I’ve hardly seen buildings that old since. Perth was settled in 1829, and most of the original buildings have gone now. In the Rocks there were little cottages which might have come straight from any number of cities in England, logical I suppose since the people who built them had only just come from England, or the UK at least. Even the old buildings which are left in Perth have an Australian flavour to them, showing the evolution of building styles to suit the climate in the new country I suppose.

A couple of photos:

City street in Sydney, Australia, with Orient Hotel

Sydney Street with pub

Row of terraced houses in The Rocks, Sydney, Australia

Houses in a Sydney Street

Next year’s convention will be held in Brisbane, and if you are interested in sewing I can recommend it.

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