EB Christmas Table Runner Swap

This is the culprit. The culprit for my sewing course and for this blog (well, one of the chicks I encountered there is the culprit for the blog - yep, I'm looking at you LilFrankie). I've never done any quilting before and never really been interested but it caught my eye in the recent posts section and I thought, "why the hell not?". So I started surfing the net for pics of Christmas Table runners, which revived the idea of doing a sewing course. A lovely, lovely friend with whom I used to work and I had looked into it once before. We were hoping to find one close to our work place and do it together. She is fantastic at sewing and incredibly creative. She has encouraged and inspired me to have a go (indeed, I should name her as a co-culprit). She feeds me patterns from Russian pattern mags that she buys and translates the instructions for me. The dress that I have mostly finished is one of those patterns and the maternity outfits I made are from another (same pattern just made one as a top and one as a dress), and I have a number of patterns for kids stuff that she's given me. Oh, and then there is the whole box of fabric that she picked up at the markets when I was pregnant. It's all sitting there waiting for me to morph it into something else.


But I digress, what I wanted to write about was the fabric and the basic pattern I have chosen for my table runner. The fabric I have ordered today from The Fat Quarter Shop

The fabric is going to be Toasty Glitzmas by Robert Kaufman


And the inspiration for the design of my table runner is coming from here: http://www.pleasant-home.com/2010/07/another-table-runner.html

I hope I can do this.

Breaking the seal

I am about to embark on a basic dressmaking course at a local community to college to sharpen up my sewing skills. So far I'm pretty much fully self taught (read - make it up as I go), which kinda limits me to straight or zigzag stitch. I have 2 very beautiful 16 (well, almost 17) mth old twin girls and I have discovered that the world of fabrics availabe online is immense and beautiful. I want to dive in headlong and fill their wardrobes with such delights. But, if I want to be able to produce for them items that I'd be proud for them to actually wear out in public then I need to do some learning.

I have been encouraged to start a blog about my adventures. So, here it is. Let me start by giving you a full list of everything I have sewed in my life to date (which, I might add, I think is non too shabby given I have no freakin' idea what I'm doing with a sewing machine - okay, maybe not quite no idea but definitely very little).

1. a tissue box cover (the obligatory first year high school item)
2. my finger (whilst attempting to produce above obligatory item)
3. a dress (in my final year of high school - nice dress, nice fabric, not so great a job, wrong style for me to wear but I wore it, once)
4. recovered some dining chairs (very easy, cut out squares of fabric, put over the seat, stable underneath)
5. covered a really ugly lounge in a semi-furnished apartment I rented (also really easy, kind just hemed a large piece of fabric and tucked it all around)
6. another dress (well, I've never actually finished it but it's really just a tie on the back that it needs; I'll get there. Really I will)
7. some cushion covers (was quite proud of myself - worked out the pattern on my own and even included a hidden zipper)
8. a bunch of peanut shaped little pillows (this is my grandmother's design. She used to make them for us as kids - great for sticking behind your head when watching tellie or for cuddling in bed at night when you are too old for a teddybear to be socially acceptable. Oh, and they squish down really well into your backpack if you are travelling over seas. Great for sleeping on planes and other forms of public transport - I've made them for me and other people who have seen mine and wanted one/some).
9. a couple of maternity wear items (a dress and a top)
10. some curtains for my babies' room - twice (we moved when they were 5 mths old and I had to sew some more)
11. some more cushion overs (a bunch of them in varying shapes and sizes)
12. some cloth nappies (REALLY proud of this effort and oh the $$$$ savings not buying disposables for twins)

Umm, well, I think that's everything.

Updated to add - no, it's not all. 13. I also sewed my mum, my sister, myself, a friends new born, and my girls a dress each last year from some shirred fabric I bought at spotlight (the newborn got some little bloomers too - damn they were cute and even better, they fit!).