Spring Fair Finds

On Saturday I went to one of the local churches' spring fair.  I love looking through the second hand treasures while K loves the bouncy castle and stall selling homemade candies.

I was delighted to find this wool winder to replace the one I had borrowed but need to give back to my mother.  It is in almost un-used condition.

I also found this fabric; the floral already has a proposed use while the large amount of cream cotton will be useful for making pillow (cushion) inners.

I also found these large reels of thread that will be used on my overlocker (serger).  I know old thread can disintegrate easily so I will have to be wary.

I couldn't pass up some cotton ric-rac, random covered buttons (easily to find when thrifting - but expensive to buy new) and these small applique doilies.

 

I also found a roasting rack and a tiny doll's tea-set for K, but forgot to take pictures of those!

 

Spring Sewing

K and I have started thinking about new clothes for the warmer seasons.  She wants dresses - and I want colour.  Here are some of our early plans:

A pair of Colette 'Clover' pants for myself in a 'greywacke' cotton with a slight amount of lycra.

A Colette 'Jasmine' blouse in this cotton/lycra 'coolio' fabric that I got for $5/metre.  Yeah!  I got these patterns from 'pinkchalkfabrics.com' when they had a 20% sale and their postage for patterns is also very reasonable.

 A selection of Lisette cottons from Spotlight for Christmas gifts for little nieces.  Love the colours!

An orange reproduction quilting-weight fabric with tiny bows - I'll make a dress for K - but I'm not sure which one yet.  Either the badminton outfit as a dress, or the croquet dress.  What do you think?

And I have to make another Ice-cream dress - this time using the pink ice-lolly print from the Lisette range and a contrast colour.  I've already made this pattern six times - but it is such a lovely summer outfit.

Some gorgeous bamboo/cotton knit to make a slip for myself and singlets/slips for K.

For a loose blouse/shirt for myself.

And I have this silk with a green base that I purchased from 'The Fabric Store' in Dunedin when it was 'Global Fabrics'.  This chain of New Zealand fabric shops has spread to Australia and I see they are opening in Los Angeles soon.  Lucky them!  I'm looking forward to the re-opening of their Christchurch store sometime soon - it has been closed since the February 2011 earthquake.

I am lucky living near Christchurch and having access to some good fabric shops - my current favourite is Harald's in Birmingham drive - a very old-school retailer with great service.  I've picked up some great bargains there.  

Clothing fabric in New Zealand is reasonable - I can usually get good quality cotton - knit or otherwise for about half the price (or less) per metre than I would pay for quilting fabric.  I would never sew garments with quilting fabric I've paid the usual $28/metre for... it's just uneconomic.  Spotlight always has bargains - and a good selection - but I've got my best deals from shops that have random rolls of fabric.  You have to look through the 'trash' to find the treasure.

A sacrifice for the betterment of my sewing...

I love my Kona cotton colour card.  It incorporates colour and texture ... and the promise of a new quilted project!

I decided to buy a colour card was a worthwhile investment as I've only seen limited Kona (or similar quality cotton fabric) colour ranges locally and they were NZ$22 per metre!  I've found places I can order them from in the US for approx US$5.50 per yard (the exchange rate is NZ$1 to approx US$0.79).  Postage isn't cheap but it is worth it if you can get the colour right.  So that is why I got a colour card.  But it was fiddly to work with so when I found this I thought I could do the same.  So out came a large sheet of cardboard and a heap of velcro.

Before...

 After....

It is so much easier to work with now... and I can pick out a range of colours that I would have had trouble identifying earlier.  See the range at the top right - they go with Bonnie and Camille's 'Happy-Go-Lucky'.

I do recommend writing the number of every colour underneath the velcro on the cardboard so that if a card falls off you can put it back on the right place.  I also scanned a copy of it before I cut it up - so have that to check the order if need be.  Mine also folds up so I can store it easier.  Probably good advice too to say - keep away from preschoolers - or at least watch them with eagle eyes while they look at the colours.

Another link - I found this when trying to match Aurifil thread to Kona cotton.  How handy - someone has done the work for me and it is so much easier when ordering online.

Sewing Shelves

My patchwork fabric collection had been housed in a two old suitcases and were somewhat organised - or so I thought.  After looking at some beautiful shelving systems on various sewing blogs I decided I needed something similar to those.  Unfortunately I'd rather spend my budget on fabric and notions so I came up with an alternative shelving unit.

 I spent a grand total of $4.50 on my shelves - and that was for screws.  The offcuts of wood were left by my in-laws in our garage and no piece was wider than 15cm.  After some fiddling with various lengths my H cut them for me and I was left to sand, drill, screw and paint.

Part way it looked like this:

 And by that time I was doing ok but realised that I should have:

• drilled each hole longer, so that the screws had plenty of room and there was less chance of the wood splitting - it did only a little.
• assemble it on a hard surface - not carpet!
• find clamps to hold it - if at all possible.

But despite each piece being a slightly different width than the others, (the two sides are the same) it has come up very well and is a great place to store fabric.  The paint was 'Colonial White' and was last used for a ladder project ten years ago. 

It was also a great project to show K what you can make with wood.  She loves the carpentry table at Playcentre but this was a chance to show her that even mum could make something!

So I have spent the last week ironing, folding, sorting and trimming through my collection of pieces for patchwork.  Anything too small to be folded went back in a suitcase.  It also helped me to realise what I did have plenty of and yes - there were some gaps.

The top shelf is sorted by colour.
The second shelf is by style (L to R):  Christmas; 30s reproduction; checks; stripes & spots; florals (have heaps of these); and then large eye-spy prints.
The third shelf is by designer:  Sweetwater; French General; a mix; Anni Downs & Bonnie and Camille; Amy Butler etc; and lots of Debbie Mumm (that shows you how old my collection is!)
The fourth by colour again.
Then the final layers have larger cuts of assorted fabrics - including more French General, 3 Sisters, Oliver + S, and a little of Heather Ross.

My larger cuts of yardage - for sewing clothes and quilt backings are stored in other boxes.