A Sew-A-Long

A few weeks ago I was wandering through Spotlight during there 40% off sale and decided to purchase some brushed cotton. I had no real plans for it but was thinking it would make a pretty funky long sleeve top of some sorts. Once home I spied my pile of Japanese sewing books and thought “I know! It will look awesome as that hoodie pattern.” Low and behold the wonderful Cherie & Meg of You +Mie and Elsie Marley fame had the same idea and they were going to do a sew-a-long! It was meant to be………or not so in the end (more of that to come)!

button  happy homemade sew a long

I started out strong. I traced and resized my pattern pieces to an approximate size 2 making slight modifications as I went:

  • Long sleeved instead of 3/4
  • Adding more room to the hood even then knowing it wouldn’t really be wearable as the recipient’s head is bigger than the percentile charts!
  • Making the front and back piece’s side and hem’s straight as I wasn’t adding the drawstring bottom and didn’t want it to flare out.

Sleeve  Hood  Back  Front 

Next up I cut out all the fabric pieces. I was pretty pleased with myself as I was being patient and doing the sewing-a-long as just that – a sew-a-long. Tracing out the pattern pieces when instructed to do so (technically I started that early but I finished it with everyone else) and cutting the fabric in the same way.

fabric cut out

However that’s when things went awry.

Wednesday was the day to start sewing which when I woke up was my intention. I had to nanny in the morning and then I would have the whole afternoon to sew it together but what was to happen next was totally unexpected (in the most awesome way possible) and though I can’t say why it will one day have it’s own blog post. Needless to say I didn’t even step into my sewing room.

Thursday came and it was a trip to Sydney and dinner with friends. This trip was always on the cards but that was ok because I had factored that in to my sew-a-long week. At this point I was playing it cool, all good I can sew it up tomorrow (Friday) no sweat. Then I got a call from Mum “If Dad and I took the day off and came down to help get your house and yard in order would we be of any use?” ahhhhhhh HELL YEA!!!! Since moving in we have been sooooo lazy with getting stuff done so I was never going to say no! Mum kindly informed me they will be on our door step at 9am. Right. Ok then. Hang on what time are they leaving? 3am. Eeek. Drive safe. They are day tripping it? Crazy. (My parents live 5 hours away FIVE HOURS ONE WAY!)

Friday was upon us and a phone call at 8am from Dad to say they were at the twin servos so get up (about 50mins away)awoke me from slumber. Gee thanks Dad you said 9am the alarm was set for 845am you killed me of 45mins extra sleep! Then we cleaned and tidied all day – actually Mum and Dad did. I kind of stood there trying to justify the amount of stuff we own (A LOT) and the lady stayed away from what was the hurricane of my parents cleaning spree. Master B and his Mum popped in and chatted with the lady lady as she washed the week long pile of dishes she had been avoiding! Then came the dinner at a friends house with Master B in tow for the evening. Needless to say it wasn’t a very late night -we were exhausted!

Saturday rolled in and I was thinking maybe I could still get the sew-a-long done today. Nope Master B wanted to play not sew and by the time his Mum picked him back up I was ready for bed. What time was that 6? 7? 8pm? Ummm no we are talking before 2pm here bahahaha!

Ok time to stop rambling – to some up the next 4 days simply I did not sew. There was stuff, lots of stuff going on but now I’m losing track of it all and the sew-a-long is over and I had nothing to add to the flickr pool or even an instagram pic. FAIL. Total sew-a-long failure! But I did finish it! YAY me. Yesterday I turned the heater on in the sewing room and got busy flicking back through the blog posts Cherie & Meg posted to at least delude myself to think I was still partaking!

I pinned the sleeves in and took a moment to make sure they were all actually on the right way (they weren’t I had to swap them) before sewing it up.

pinned to sew

With one final adjustment and eliminating hemming the sleeves by adding a ribbed cuff it was done. In the future I would simply line the hood it would be so much easier and less hassle than using bias tape to cover the seam. All up I am actually really happy with it and I learnt a lesson too – stick to what I usually do trace pattern, cut fabric and sew all in the day that way if anything comes up it doesn’t drag out for another week!

happy homemade hoodie

6 comments:

  1. Hi I was wondering about the day for girls packs and where you sent yours? I'm in Melbourne but the only info I have been able to find is for the USA. Hope you can help - I would love to make some xxBrenda

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    Replies
    1. Hi Brenda, I sent my packs for Day for Girls through Cath at mybeardedpigeon.com If you contact her, I'm sure she would be happy to help. Thanks for enquiring.

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  2. افضل شركة تنظيف خزانات بمكة
    افضل شركة تنظيف خزانات بمكة هي الاختيار الأمثل في التخلص من رواسب الخزانات ، إذا كنت عزيزي العميل تشعر بأن طعم المياه من الصنبور غير جدية ويوجد بها أثار للمعادن وأيضا لها رائحة ولن غير طبيعي فأن الأفضل التواصل مع شركة تنظيف خزانات بمكة .
    شركة تنظيف بمكة
    وداعا لاستخدام الفرشاة والمواد الكاوية في تنظيف الأرضيات فمع شركة تنظيف بمكة سوف يتم التخلي عن جميع الطرق القديمة في عمليات التنظيف حيث أن الشركة تقوم بالاطلاع الدائم على احدث الطرق العالمية في عمليات التنظيف.

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