Silk 10yd Skirt and my sister the sewing genius!

you're wondering what the fabric was that was so distracting yesterday, right?

silk! mmmm, silk. gaaah, silk!

my little sister is, as usual, incredibly overbooked and frantically busy. about a week and a half ago i took pity on her and asked if there was anything i could do to help her. she's finishing up several custom projects, including several weddings, and still needed to finish her own costume for a big annual costume "ball" that friends of hers organize every year. considering that a lot of her clients are within the same social circle, she tends to really go out with her costumes (plus, she's like i used to be, when i had the energy - any excuse to make an elaborate outfit!) she asked if i would make her a gathered belly dancing skirt, commonly called 10 yard skirts, because the bottom tier is 10 yards around. it was something that i could do without her corset making expertise, plus i have a ruffler foot, so it would take me much less time than it would her.

i, in my typical procrastinating way, left it to the last minute. not entirely on purpose, because this has been a pretty crappy week, but i could have started the first steps on wednesday or thursday, but didn't. i kept thinking "it's just a skirt. how long can it take?"

a LONG LONG time!

first, math is so not my strong point. since i was using the ruffler foot, i needed the gathering to be about the same amount for both lower tiers. i added up the total length, considered that i had 3 strips that long once i'd cut them, and then figured out how long each tier should be. it took me way longer than it should have, but that was partly because i couldn't find a calculator and everytime i sat down on the computer to use google (i love using google as a calculator, i'm a geek, i know!), i'd get distracted by other things. plus, i tend to forget how many breaks my body needs now. you'd think i'd have learned, but i'm in subconscious denial or something.

anyway, i wanted the difference between the layers to be x2, so the final measurements were 86" for the top tier, 172" for the middle tier, and 344" for the bottom tier. not quite 10 yards, but pretty close.

the fabric she had was a 6yard length of sand washed emerald green silk. GORGEOUS. (sandwashed silk is sometimes called sueded silk too) she found it at value village for $5 or $6. she has amazing luck finding fabric at value village!

so super gorgeous, super soft, and super duper slinky and slippery. i had to pin every 1/2"-1" all the way along the selevedges, and even so, it didn't cut straight. the last time i sewed with sandwashed silk was cutting up my parent's worn out shirts to make barbie clothes, at the height of the sandwashed silk trend - late 80s, early 90s!

eventually i just went with it, because there was nothing i could do. luckily with a skirt like this, minor curves are minimized by the gathering anyway. the ruffler foot worked super slick once i had the setting and the stitch length down, so that was awesome.

this morning she came over, and we realized that the silk had really stretched from the weight of the gathers, and the skirt was way too long. blegh! i had to unpick the waistband and redo it and the buttonholes 4" lower before i could put the elastic and the drawstring through.

but i got it done! and it looks amazing. i went through 3 needles (i used fine sharps needles, but even so, the silk seemed to dull them really fast, and the fabric pulled once they were dull), and a crapton of thread, but it turned out gorgeous.



none of the pics i took managed to show the colour perfectly, so just imagine a super deep emerald green, okay?





it is so so full! it doesn't look super bulky, since the silk is so thin, but it billows out fabulously behind her when she walks fast.



i'm really happy with it, but slightly rethinking my plan to make myself a knee length tiered skirt....


while she was here, i took some pics of the custom corset and chemise that she finished up this morning. (she made an awesome period accurate pair of bloomers too, but i didn't get a picture of them)


(we were in such a rush to take the pics, we forgot that the chemise seams and hem hadn't been pressed yet, so ignore that!)











isn't it gorgeous? her corsets are AMAZING! the amount of work that goes into each one is mind boggling. she does have an etsy shop, if you'd like to see more of her corsets,but she keeps selling them locally, so there's only a few left in her shop. i keep telling her she needs to take pictures and show them off more!

Fabric Friday! er..... Saturday!

i'm late! you knew that already though, right?

the funny thing is that i remembered yesterday, i was just so busy fighting with a particular fabric, i didn't have time to take pictures of OTHER fabric and upload them!

however, i'll blog about that fabric later tonight, i'm still uploading pics. here's some simple, easy to sew fabrics instead!

they're both vintage woven fabrics, both a bit heavier than quilting weight, but not quite as heavy as home decor. they'd be perfect for a more structured dress, curtains or a knitting bag, something like that. they'd make awesome pillows too, but probably wouldn't hold up to the wear of upholstery (not that i have nearly enough for that anyway, sadly!)

for the moment i'll just hoard them, waiting for the perfect project to find them!











funny how i ended up falling for the purples and blue again, huh?


for more eye candy, check out True Up's post about spandex fabric (which totally makes me want to go buy more - i love spandex! it's so great for tights) and rickrack.com is continuing with the roses theme for Feedsack Friday, and this week they were BLUE roses! lovely! blue roses are my favourite i think. i love how they're unexpected....

Wordless Wednesday

a quick catch up!

hi!

i know, i know, it's been pretty quiet around here!

i've been feeling pretty crummy, so i haven't been up to a whole lot of crafty stuff.

i also promised my dad that i'd make some cushion covers for his boat, which i really didn't want to do. they're big and awkward and it's tough to control the vinyl pieces, so they make my back and shoulders ache. however, he does lots of things for me, not the least of which fighting with my disability company when i don't have the energy, so i of course said i would. that meant that i felt guilty doing any other sewing, when i should have been making the cushions, but i was totally procrastinating, so i ended up not sewing anything at all! i finally finished them up on friday, and realized i'd procrastinated for over a week, avoiding projects that took less than 2 hours each. totally ridiculous, i know.


i did get a little bit of other sewing done, secrets for friends (that are still in progress) and some sun bonnets for Caring Hearts, since it's that time of the year (though you'd never know it by the weather today!)/

the bonnets are soooo cute. so sweet. i got these two sets of 5 done, and i have more in progress as well.


yellow cotton eyelet








a little bit of elastic in the back


blue cotton eyelet, lined with a cloud patterned poly-cotton blend






i've been doing too much thrifting, and i've been having ridiculously good luck randomly finding things that i'm looking for, and i've also been going through my storage area, sorting out vintage goodies that i no longer need. i'm opening a second etsy shop, and hope to get some fun stuff listed soon!


(it's technically already open - and full of patterns! i'll do an official grand opening sale once i get more listed, but in the meantime - 20% off all patterns when you mention my blog in the note to seller!)



yesterday was father's day here (i assume it's different days in different countries, isn't it? i know mother's day is!)

we had a really nice day. my sister was down in the states for a wedding, but my brother came out and my parents, my brother, and i went out for brunch. later in the afternoon, after much drama, we went out on the new boat.

it was really fun, and was the first time i'd gone out with them. my dad bought a smaller boat last month, and they've all been out on it constantly, but i haven't been feeling up to it.

a few weeks ago my dad found another boat (on ebay, of all places!), and he and my mom road tripped down to utah last weekend to pick it up, so this was the first time we'd gone out on the larger one. we didn't go far at first, but it was really lovely. very VERY bumpy though, and my body was not at all happy. we had to dock to go pick up my brother's girlfriend from the bus stop, so i went home then, after about an hour on the water. i came home and slept, and woke up this morning feeling very very horrid. hopefully it'll pass soonish.

my dad driving the boat


the dash is AWESOME, it looks like an old school video game!

(the boat was made in the 80s, obviously!)

and a few taken just as we left, when we were still going slow enough that i could take pictures - i didn't need to hold on!

Fabric Friday!

this weeks fabrics are a bit simpler than last week's, but still oh-so-cool.

this one has awesome texture, and the black lines add even more visually. i love the pop of the red and blue together. it's a medium-heavy weight cotton, perfect for a bag.


this one is actually a homemade pillowcase that i found, so it's a quilting weight cotton. i love the geometric print, and the pops of red. the pillowcase has a red diamond appliqued at the hem, so someone else obviously loved the pop of red too!





for more friday goodness, be sure to check out Font Friday on poppytalk! i looove fonts, and poppytalk found the coolest ones!

Fabric Friday

i found this fabric in a scrap bag at the thrift store back in February. i LOVE it, though my scanner screwed up the fabulous colours.


so i spent way too much time playing around in photoshop fixing it


gorgeous! if i wasn't so crappy with technology, i'd figure out how to turn it into a repeating design and have more printed using spoonflower or fabric on demand.


for more fabricy goodness, check out today's post on vintagefabrics.blogspot.com (i love the last one!) and pretty much any post on printpattern.blogspot.com (even if it's not on fabric, you'll wish it was!). yum!

Giveaway Winner!

thank you so much to everyone who entered my Sewn Launch Giveaway!

there were a grand total of 95 entries, between the comments on the giveaway post, extra comments on other blog posts (up to 3 per person), people blogging about the giveaway, and people who are followers. i kept track of all the entries in an excel sheet (numbered down the side, so much easier than counting the comments!!), first writing the names of all the folks who commented in the order they commented, and then adding their name again for each valid entry. and then i used random.org to pick the winner.

this is what it came up with!



checking against the excel sheet, number 66 was Melanie, who got her second entry by commenting on another blog post.



congratulations Melanie!



thank you so much to everyone who played along! thank you for all the blog name suggestions, and reassurances that the name i have now is fine (i don't know why i'm silly about it!), all the vinyl applique ideas, and everything else!

rikrak studio giveaway

oh! and i wanted to tell you about ANOTHER giveaway! (there are more to come tomorrow - i know, it's giveaway madness in blogland right now!)
rikrak studio is doing a followers giveaway right now. the prize is one of their awesome vintage fabric clutches, and to win you must be following the blog!

(click on the graphic to go straight there!)

yummy yummy salad!

the giveaway ends in oh, about 20 minutes! i've been surprised by the lack of entries today, they totally trickled off. i guess because it's not the 8th in australia anymore!

i was really proud of myself this time, i managed to check out EVERY blog listed (at the time, about 10 more were added that i missed). like the SewMamaSew giveaway, i only commented on giveaways where i would actually use the prize - there were a lot more this time! i think the biggest difference was that a lot more people were giving away supplies, so it doesn't matter that i don't have kids!

regardless, i saw A LOT of amazing blogs! it took a long time to get through them all, and now i've added even MORE blogs to my sadly neglected blog feed, but i couldn't resist!

i've got lots of things to post about, the newest member of our family, my sad sad sewing machine, etsy and other online purchases, thrifting goodies, etc, but i thought i'd post these pics real quick.

the other day i saw this recipe posted on Jus Shar design's blog, and thought mmmmmmm! i totally start craving salads in the summer. i suck at cooking, but i can handle salads, most of the time!

i'm not a big fan of coleslaw dressing, i prefer feta over blue cheese, and i was way too lazy to cook bacon just for a salad (i love bacon, but i hate cleaning the pan!), so i changed it up a bit.

i used broccoli, cauliflower, dried cranberries, feta cheese, roasted pumpkin seeds and celery, because i'm obsessed with celery and think it belongs in everything!

after i started chopping up the broccoli and cauliflower i realized i'd gone a leetle bit overboard, so i divied it up into two bowls and did different dressings on each.


this one just has a basic balsamic vinaigrette, but it's super yummy!


and this one has blueberry and pomegranate vinaigrette, so it's much sweeter, but still yummy!

EDIT: i just realized that the bowls look really small in the pictures... they're not! they're big corelle mixing bowls! i sent my sister home with a bunch last night, and i've been eating it all day, and i've still got a bunch left!

i love salads with a good mix of flavours, which is why pretty much every salad i ever make has feta cheese and/or roasted seeds in it. i love the little salty bits! (i wonder, there must be a way to marinate tofu to make it interesting enough to replace the feta, right? then it would be vegan, and i could take it to potlucks!!)


i boiled up some beets too, while i was chopping, so i'm going to make a beet salad in the next few days as well. mmm, salads!

more Giveaways!

oh my goodness, there are such amazing giveaways out there!

The Fabric Shopper is giving away 30 Fat Quarters Katie Jump Rope by Denyse Schmidt!! wow! the bundle looks amazing, doesn't it?



My Fabric Obsession is giving away three sets of Michael Miller flannel fat quarters, this set's my favourite!



Lila Mae Quilts is giving away six fat quarters - Five Amy Butler Daisy Chain in Grey, and one Tula Pink Full Moon Forest in Aqua. aren't they yummy?



Crafty Girls Workshop is giving away TWO Moda charm packs, plus a yard of coordinating fabric and a pattern! (if you go to her blog from here, please mention me!)


The Crafty Librarian is celebrating 100 posts AND the Sewn Launch by doing a surprise giveaway!



Cinzia is giving away two different prizes, dependent on where you're from - if Australia you have the chance of winning an oriental pin cushion and for those who come from overseas it will be a donut pincushion.

The Pretty Partridge is giving away a copy of Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol of Angry Chicken. i'm hesitant to even tell you this, considering how much i've been dying for that book!



Snippets'n'Scraps is giving away this gorgeous pincushion, thread catcher and matching fabric (it would make a great sewing machine cover to match the others!)



Mid Ohio Knitter is giving away 4 different prizes! they include 2 charm packs of Heritage Collections for a Cause by Moda, A small fat eighth bundle and a pincushion,
and a charm pack of Wonderland by MoMo for Moda (my favourite!)



Serendipity Design is giving away a packet that includes a fat quarter, some embroidery thread, ric rac and other assorted items. Go check it out, and while you're at it, admire the bags she's posted in that post. aren't they lovely?


The Quilting Book Lady is giving away two books, The Quiltmaker's Gift and it's companion, which includes patterns to make the quilts from the picture book.



BumbleBeans is giving away a whole stack of summer themed novelty prints They look so cheerful!



and of course, don't forget MY GIVEAWAY!

the Sewn Launch Blog Party - Another Giveaway!

you didn't think i'd post about the big Sewn Blog Party Giveaways without doing a giveaway, did you?

now honestly, i have to say, it's been a little bit giveaway overload lately, what with the SewMamaSew Giveaway that i just did, but i couldn't resist the chance to spread the word about Sewn! i'm super excited to see what it's like, and it's really exciting that it's Australia based - there is some seriously cool shit coming from down there! (do you love MixTape zine as much as i do? what about MeetMeAtMikes? see, cool shit!)

you may have noticed that i've been a bit obsessed with vintage sheets lately,so that's what my giveaway will be.



6 Fat Quarters of Vintage Sheets, all in a pink hue





pretty, huh?



i'm going to do this pretty similar to the last giveaway, just a few little changes.


once again, comment on this post with an actual comment, constructive criticism, love, suggestions for vinyl applique images, suggestions for a new blog name (i keep deciding that i hate it!), tutorials you'd like to see, whatever! just something more than just "pick me!", kay? make sure i have a way to contact you, or i'll have to pick someone else if you win!

you can get extra entries by tweeting about the giveaway and by blogging about it. please post separate comments (with links!) for each of these, so that i make sure to count the extra entries!

you can also get up to 3 more entries by commenting on other posts here at glitter, vinyl and thread. no need to post more comments for these, i'll see them as they come in. (1 entry per comment, if that's not clear)

and you can get 1 more entry by following my blog (current followers get it automatically!)


that's a total of 7 possible entries!!


the giveaway will be open from now until 11:30pm pacific time on Monday June 8th, giving you lots of time to enter! the giveaway is open to everyone, regardless of where you live. to figure out what 11:30pm Pacific Time means where you are, this link will help.