Timmel SWAP

The Timmel SWAP 2008 is posted. I spent all yesterday evening looking at all the fabulous entries.

I am really keen to find some new blouse patterns, but unfortunately most of my favourites are self drafted, pattern drafting software, vintage or OOP. Maybe this is why I am still looking for a new blouse pattern!

I am also looking very closely at the use of colour and pattern in the SWAPs. There are some very smart SWAPs in the colours that are easy to find in RTW and fabric - red/white/black, black/grey/white, black/white, blue/white. These look good on other people, not me. I also think that people successfully using more complicated or unusual colour and pattern combinations have a much more personalized wardrobe. Although I think I like classic clothes, I find the little black dress and the plain white shirt rather dull. Perhaps if I were better at accessories I might think differently. I know that when I started my first SWAP with 3 cream blouses I felt unbelievably bored with them and did not wear them for about 2 weeks after finishing. When I made a beige and cream patterned blouse I wore it straight away and felt well
dressed.

I am most drawn to the colour combinations that I think might suit me. I know that these are harder to find in both RTW and in fabrics, and much more difficult to match to each other successfully than those in the black/white/red camp. There are some fabulous wardrobes that I would like to borrow from particularly for the colours. I am thinking of terracotta, dull orange and purple (not together)- this sounds very adventurous for someone who has just sewn 9m of brown wool flannel. I hope it is not an over-reaction. I thought sewing a knit dress in a loud print might dull this yearning for colour, but I may need a few more loud clothes before I can return to drab and classic. Fortunately children look great in brights.
I am also thinking about accessories. I definitely need smart shoes.

Vogue 8426 skirt

 

This skirt is part of my Winter Indulgence SWAP. I chose this pattern because the skirt of my wardrobe pattern, V2925, has a curved seam over the hip, that I thought was very flattering on me. I hoped that the straight skirt with back pleats would be equally as flattering, and also look as if it was part of the wardrobe and match well with the jacket by having a similar design feature. I looked up the pattern on patternreview and it had been reviewed favourably by LauraLo, Erica.B and HawkeMorningStar, among others, so I felt in very good company, although somewhat doubtful that my skirt would turn out as well as theirs.

 

 

The pattern was very straightforward, but, like HawkeMorningStar, I found that it was rather big. It would have fit me quite well in a straight 12, with only a little tweaking at the waist, but of course I made things difficult for myself by cutting out a larger size "just in case". The only real change I made to the pattern was to interface all the pleat lines, so that my soft wool flannel would hold the shape properly. I used prowoven interfacing for this, pinking the edges so as not to have lines showing through to the right side. I also interfaced the zip line with proweft interfacing, and used an invisible zip. I finished the facing and hem with bias binding. On the hem, I used a method that I think comes from Lauralo's blog, of stretching the bias binding as I applied it, so that when it relaxes it pulls the hem in slighty, making it very easy to turn to the inside and hand sew. I am pleased with this skirt, and plan to make another version in some muted red denim that is lurking in my stash ready for a casual winter skirt.

 

My sewing today was limited. We had a very social weekend, enabling me to wear 3 different SWAP outfits (the casual ones). I mended a tiny amount, then made a rashie swimmer top for my son. We are going on a long weekend kayaking trip in a fortnight, and his 3rd summer rashie has just given up the ghost. I worked a bit on his giraffe pyjamas, but am a bit stumped about how to make a long neck. He may need to be a short necked giraffe!

Winter Indulgence SWAP dress

 

This dress is the final item in my Winter Indulgence SWAP. I had planned this dress quite a while ago, but left it to last, as it is more of a project than some of the other items and I did not want to be pressured when making it. I wanted only to make it for the SWAP if I felt I had plenty of time. I finished an alternate item earlier in the week, so that I could work on this dress calmly and with enjoyment. The pattern is McCalls 5177 in linen with silk lining. I have changed the dress a bit from the pattern. The skirt and sleeves are cut on the bias, and the sleeves have a lower cap and are considerably wider.

 

The pattern calls for lining the bodice only. I have underlined the sleeves with silk cut on the bias, I used the excellent tutorial presented on Laura lo's blog to do this, and was very pleased with the result.

 

After finishing the dress, I decided to hand stitch ivory coloured beads to the vertical front bodice seams, and to the neck back. I used an invisible zipper to close the dress.

 

The insert is smocked, and contains much more fabric that allowed for in the pattern, and I have used a gathered panel as the lining for this bodice section, to maintain the elasticity of the smocking in the completed garment. I blocked the smocking to a similar width to the pattern lining piece, then drew around the edges of this piece, on top of the smocking, with tailors' chalk. I then sewed a fine zig zag stitch all along this chalk line, before trimming the smocked piece to size. The smocking was then treated as flat fabric, although I was careful to maintain straight, tight pleats when stitching the bias band at the top, and the waist seam at the bottom of the pleating.

Finish Line in Sight SWAP2 and 3

I had a very productive sewing day today. My in laws took the children out for the day, and I did not have to go in to work. I sewed all day, it was great. I finished my vogue skirt 8426, except for the hand sewn hem, which I think I can do during some waiting around time tomorrow.


I also completely finished a straight skirt, front and back darts that I did not know I was making until this morning. I made this because after I laid out all my items, I realized that another bottom was all I needed to achieve 2 SWAPS that meet the requirements (I knew I would be pretty close before laying them out, as I have sewn so many clothes, I just wasn't sure if I could meet the requirements twice). I have enough finished items to have officially finished both of my SWAPS (other than the hem). The only reason I have two sets of SWAP clothes is my poor planning in the early stages, and I would not recommend it as a plan! I did really need the clothes.
However, I am still sewing for the SWAP because I would like to use a dress in my indulgence plan. This was part of my earliest planning, and I have previously made a trial version and am happy with the fit. I am sure this will look better in my official wardrobe than the knit top it will replace. The dress is McCall's 5177.
This evening I finished the smocked insert I will use in the bodice. I have been working on this on and off as my portable handwork since I finished knitting the cardigan. It is my first attempt at using smocking in a non ling erie garment for myself. I hope it will not look too juvenile.
 
This evening I cut out the dress, using a linen from Michael's Fabrics, and a china silk from Gorgeous Fabrics. I have cut out the skirt and sleeves on the bias, and have tried the underlining method described by Laura lo on the sleeves. My plan is to get up early and do a little sewing before I go to work, which should leave me ample time to finish the SWAP before the cut off date.

Trial Blouse McCalls 8584

 

I made the trial blouse last night, and put on buttons this morning. I am wearing it to work today to see how it acts in real life. Looking at the photo, I think it is a bit short to wear with pants, and will be better with a skirt. The length is due to my fabric limitations. I have used pleats below the raised waist in the front and back, and I like this effect. I have not put a button at the top, as it looks better under the jacket without the interruption to the neckline. The twisted braid at the waist is to distract attention from my inexact stripe matching. This is partly due to fabric limitations, and partly to the darts and pleats interrupting the stripes. I bound the neck and hem with self bias binding, and have added an underplacket to the centre front. I think this is a good base for a work blouse.

 

I have added a centre back inverted pleat as an "action back" to allow free arm movement. I am pleased with how this looks.

I looked at Eva's blog this morning, and she has made a great blouse with a flat sitting collar, no stand, that looks terrific with the jacket. This tempts me to try a collar on this blouse. I cannot decide whether to work on this tonight, or start on my daughter's jeans.

Quest for the collarless blouse

I am having trouble with the blouse requirement for the Timmel SWAP constest. Two of the 6 tops need to be more of a blouse than a t shirt, which I suppose means that all the knit tops I have made to replace my collared blouses that clash with my jacket are t shirts, not blouses.
This week I made a collarless bias cut linen top. I quite like it, but it looks like a t shirt,even though it is made from woven fabric so I don't feel that I have met the criteria. I have been looking for patterns, but am running out of time.

 

I have been thinking about this top. This is one of my favourite tops, that I wear for work and unlike most of my work clothes, also casually. I bought it from Colorado in Brisbane. It is about 5 years old, in common with most of my clothes before this sewing for myself phase, and became totally worn out a few weeks ago when my painty son gave me a hug, transferring irremovable red paint to the front. The v neck does not look good with the jacket, but I thought the other aspects of the blouse might work.

 

This is the pattern I found in my out of date ebay box. It has the raised waist and back darts of my blouse, so I thought I could morph it.

 

I have cut out the top bodice,and sleeves accoriding to the pattern. I will use 3 raised waist darts at the bust like my Colorado blouse instead of the gathers, and have clasps or buttons down the front. I have used the jumpsuit lower bodice with a straight centre as shown above. I will make the top without a collar, but with a jewel neck.

 

I am very short of suitable fabric. Here is a 5 year old pair of drawstring pants that I bought in a fit of postnatal madness and wore about 3 times. The fabric is a striped cotton linen blend, and if it works, the brown and cream stripes are exactly the colour of my jacket and one of the pairs of pants from the SWAP. How fortuitous! I leave this blog in order to unpick.

v8305 dress

 The dress from V8305 is a longer version of the top. This time around, I used woven selvage in the neck and shoulder seams instead of interfacing, as this fabric is less drapey than the rayon jersey. I used a wool jersey that I bought on ebay from fashionwarehousesydney. It is a very different fabric from the wool jersey I used for the jalie top, being lightweight and a fine weave. I was very pleased with the dress. I did lower the neck by about 1.5m, and shortened the sleeves to bracelet length, and the skirt to just on the knee (5 inches off). I also used my blind hem foot with the knit stitch for the first time. It does a great job, and I am sorry that I did not use it for the other knit garments I made today. My next plan is to make either a full length or a half slip to wear under this dress. I have some china silk left, but not a huge amount, so it will depend on how much fabric I need. The knit is very comfortable, but it is a bit clingy.

SWAP knit tops

I made two tops for the SWAP after finishing the jacket. It was a great relief to have 2 instant gratification projects to work on.
 
This top is from V8305. It is made from a thin drapey rayon knit from Gorgeous Fabrics. It is much more stretchy than the 25% called for in the pattern, so I used pro tricot fusible knit interfacing from Sew Exciting Sewing supplies for the neck facing and sleeve hems with good results. I also topstitched the neck, but found this required great care, due to the fabric pulling, so will probably not do this again. I did not use a zipper at the back, and it is a bit tricky to put on. I am planning to made a dress from this pattern next, and am in two minds about the zipper.
 
This is another Jalie sweetheart top. It is made from a wool jersey from Gorgeous Fabrics, this has a slubby side, almost like terry towelling, which I had not expected, despite the description (note to self, read fabric descriptions very carefully before internet shopping). It is a beautiful fabric I have renamed the colour "raspberries with brown sugar" as it is not at all orange like "paprika", and I love it, but I do not think it is suitable for the V8305 dress, which was my original intention for the fabric. I have used it for this top, and embroidered more squiggles on my skirt in DMC shade 221 so that the top now matches this skirt and I can use it in the SWAP. Both of these tops look great under the V2925 jacket, so I am pleased with how my new revised SWAP is progressing. I may make a cardigan jacket from this fabric as a SWAP extra.

v2925 skirt part 3

The wonderful skirt from V2925 uses a lot of fabric.There is very little instant gratification involved in my acquisition of fabric. I order most of my fabric on-line, and then I have to wait for it to arrive. Most purchases are posted very quickly, but we are relying on rural postage here. When I have an urge to make a skirt on a Saturday afternoon, I need to visit my stash. This piece, an Indonesian cotton batik from Ewan Gardam fabrics (a visit to Brisbane = fabric shopping ), is around 2.3 m long, and not quite 112cm wide, but I squeezed a long version of the V2925 skirt (my third)from it. First I trimmed the side seam flare as suggested by Morzel in her review of the V2925 skirt. I took this to extremes, and removed nearly the entire flare at both the side seam and the front and back side seam of the side piece in order to fit the skirt on to the fabric. Naturally, this removed a lot of the fullness, so I added a godet (see above) to the side seams to replace some fullness. I needed to use the cross grain for this, but the print is small, and quite busy, so I do not feel that this detracts from the skirt, or is noticeable to anyone except seamstresses.
I wore this skirt with a top from V2925 to the farmer's markets on Sunday morning and found it very comfortable and light to wear. It was rather windy, so I have shown a photograph of the skirt on the hanger as well so that the shape and fullness is easier to see.

V2925 skirt part one

When Evaposted about her V2925 skirt made in wool crepe at target="_blank">Stitcher's Guild, I instantly wanted to make one, as hers looks fabulous. I have learned my lesson, however, and knew that I should first fit, and second make a trial version before cutting into any fabric that I would be sad about if I ruined.
I decided to use my second piece of stretch woven cotton lycra for the trial version. This was not cheap fabric, but I had a dismal failure making V8305 pants from a caramel coloured piece of fabric that I bought at the same time, from the same shop, and had just over 2 m of chocolate brown looking at me every time I rifle through my stash, reminding me of my horrible sewing experience, not a feeling I like!
I bought this for pants, so there was not nearly enough fabric for this skirt. First I trimmed around 15cm from the side piece flare, as suggested by Eva in herreview of this pattern (it is very nice of Eva to think all this through and post about it so that I don't have to come up with ideas myself). There was still not nearly enough fabric, so I took yet another tip from Eva, and looking at the picture she put up of V8461, saw that this envelope shows a knee length version of a very similar skirt. I do not usually wear this length skirt, as I truly love long and disguising skirts, but decided that I had nothing to lose (well, maybe a few kilos), and went ahead with a shorter version.
I started by tracing out a pattern with size 12 waist and size 16 hips, which is where I started with the pants. I found when tissue fitting, that this was too big at the waist and the hips, and scaled down to 10 and 14. When I constructed the skirt, I found that it was pouchy at the hips, so I took in the side front seam, and trimmed the pattern for next time (see photo above). I put in a single dart at both centre back pieces, then trimmed the tissue at the back side seams to match this for next time. My other changes were very minor. I put the centre back seam just inside the selvage, which I did not trim, for added stability. I interfaced the zipper area, again for stability (all fabrics and interfacing are pre washed, so I do not expect shrinkage), and I used an invisible zip. I did not line this skirt, as I want to wear it soon, in warm weather, and the fabric is thick.
Below is a photo of the skirt worn with the V2925 jacket, that I am still hoping to replace, and one of the V2925 tops. I love the skirt pattern. I am making more versions - see the next post.

SWAP progression

I have been sewing, not posting since the middle of February.The top picture is of the Jalie sweetheart top. This is the pattern I bought from Julie at Timmel fabrics as a possible qualifying purchase for the SWAP. This is my first attempt for me, and I used fabric from a hemp/cotton knit coat that I bought 5 years ago and have worn only 2 or 3 times. There is less stretch than asked for in the pattern, and allowing for this, I think the fit straight from the pattern is amazingly good. I did not think this style would be suitable for work, but my husband disagrees. I am taking his advice and have cut out a 3/4 sleeve version from a rayon jersey knit purchased from Julie to wear as a winter work top. The neckline works very well under the V2925 jacket, and I am very pleased with this top. I am wearing it with the olive linen/viscose pants from V2925. I made a shorts lining for these per the review by Morzel on pattern review, and they sit more nicely than the caramel pair, (thank you Eva), but are a little too warm to wear at the moment, they too will be for my winter work wardrobe.
The second picture is of one of the tops from V2925 worn with a self drafted generous A line skirt made in an embroidered cotton denim from Kerryn's Fabric world. I like this fabric, and am pleased with the skirt. This is definitely not a work outfit, but more the sort of clothes I wear for my real life. I am increasingly tempted to move the SWAP in this direction.

I worked for a long time on the cream blouse pictured at the bottom of the post. This is from New Look 6945. I originally wanted to make a blouse with a collar to wear under the V2925 jacket. I drafted a flat peter pan type collar to fit this neckline, but I was not able to make it work - it looked too fussy with the other embellishment, so after attempt number 2, I removed it all together. I had intended to pipe the neckline with satin bias binding, but as I had clipped the seam allowance, decided that unpicking again was a risky endeavour, and have left the neckline unembellished. The blouse has pintucks on the front, sleeves and back. I ended up with 51 pin tucks on the back, as the pattern was too wide for me across the shoulders. The pin tucks did not take up as much fabric as I expected, and I had to cut off the button placket so that the front would fit. I used elastic loop tape insterted in the front seam, and a very narrow left button space to fix this problem. I am quite happy with the fit. The blouse does have a very generous 6 inch ease, and my failure to read this before cutting out the pattern lead me to large fitting adjustments at the waist darts and side seam (and the 51 pin tucks). I am wearing the V2925 pants in an olive linen viscose with this blouse as well. I do not actually like this blouse for work. Although the neckline is not terribly low, it does display far too much of me when I lean forward, which I need to do constantly at work. I am considering a stay at the bust, but am not really keen on the fiddling around. I may keep it to wear on desk work only days.

construction issues v2925 jacket

Eventually I gave up on my toiles. I got to the point on my second toile where every time I tweaked in one direction, somewhere else looked a lot worse. Construction was fairly straightforward. Essentially I followed the pattern instructions. I was unable to convince my weft interfacing to fuse, so "quilted" this to the facing. I found the sleeve quite difficult to ease into the armhole, and I ended up cutting out both the armhole and sleeve exactly to the pattern, so was a bit surprised by this. I ran 3 rows of easing stitch to help with the sleeve cap, and was reasonably happy with the end result. However, the sleeve cap sagged, so I applied bias binding to the sleeve allowance in the top 1/3 of the armhole, following the instructions in Kathryn's jacket blog (fxdoc posting at artisiansquare.com). This made it sit much better. The photo is taken using my 10 year old daughter as a dress form, so does not give a great impression of the fit. My other construction variations were to use an aide for achieving equal curves on the jacket peplum and the lapels. The photo shows me using a sticker - this was much easier than drawing a curve from an eggcup, which is what I used for the lapels.

My overall impression when I finished the jacket was that I had chosen an inappropriate fabric. The photo of the jacket on the hanger is of the finished jacket, pressed to within an inch of its life. You can see that the fabric does not hold a crease, and that the jacket looks boofy and horrible. The fabric is a poly/viscose/linen, was $22 per m from a good fabric shop, and I was assured that it was suitable for this pattern. I was not very happy at this point.

My rescue techniques were first to topstitch the collar, lapels and edges of the peplum and sleeves. This helped a lot. I used a heavy weight topstitching thread in a dark camel colour, using an 80 needle. I then tacked the lapels to the jacket, so that they would sit properly, and this also improved the situation. I hand stitched the bottom of the lapels so that they turned outward properly. Overall the jacket progressed from wadder, to only moderately disappointing.
I have bought some lightweight melton wool for my next attempt.

v2925 jacket completed

I finished the jacket from my SWAP wardrobe pattern V2925 yesterday. I am moderately disappointed with the outcome, but hopefully will have forgotten all the bits I don't like by the time it is actually cool enough weather to wear it. In the picture I am wearing the jacket with the camel pants and the chocolate brown knit top from the same pattern. I am pleased to have finished the 3 pieces from one wardrobe pattern that are required for the SWAP, but I am not sure that the cream blouses I made earlier will suit the style of the jacket. The collars on the blouses may not look very good under the jacket, so I am planning on making some more collarless blouses .

V8305 Pants rescue mission

V8305 Pants rescue missioni
Originally uploaded by kbenco

After taking advice from kind sewers posting at Stitcher's Guild (thank you especially to Marji and Licarrit) I think my horrid overstretchy V8305 pants may have been rescued. I stabilized the horizontal seams and the crotch seam with linen selvage, took in the side seams, and am much happier with the extent of bagginess from the stretch woven cotton lycra. To mark their probationary readmission to the SWAP, I even trimmed the ankle split with some pretty bias (they had better behave themselves). However, I am not posting a photo of me wearing the pants, as there is still extra fabric at the front - today I learned that this is called a camel toe and read a very funny and informative tutorial
http://www.fashion-incubator.com/mt/archives/how_to_fix_a_camel_toe.htmlon

how to fix or improve it. The tutorial is by Kathleen Fasanella, and was posted by Johanna Lu - thank you both. Now I can put off working on my jacket for even longer. At least I have stopped fitting the jacket toile, and actually cut it out of the less expensive of my fashion fabrics. I worked out that every "correction" I made was causing a problem somewhere else. My next trial was that the texture weft interfacing refused to fuse. This is either due to it being stored for 5 years since my last jacket attempt, or possibly due to the 99-100% humidity present today. After 4 attempts with the iron, I gave up, and stitched all the facing to the lining pieces at 1.5cm spacing. No one will be allowed to look at the inside of this jacket.

Pants, Simplicity 5220

I sewed quite a bit today, but not entirely on the SWAPs. My daughter had a friend over to spend the day, and wore her twist top and denim shorts (they may be worn out before the SWAP is done). The first words out of Friend's mouth, after the polite salutations - "Your outfit is so cool, where did you get it?" Daughter and I feel very clever as the answer returns "Mum made it for me". I pass the teenager test (friend passed this Rubicon 3 weeks ago and is 13). Friend has gone home with her own new twist top in the remains of the fabric - one more completely out of my stash ( I hope her Mum likes the top as well, I would also like to pass the other mothers' test). It is so nice to be able to whip up a nice top. I think I am a knit convert.

I worked a very little on my V2925 #2 pants. I did some stay stitching, sewed inner leg seams, put in the invisible zip with my new zipper foot - so easy, then finished the crotch seam. That's it. My excuse was that I want to make a short lining for these pants. I had forgotten to pre-wash the lining fabric, and after I hand washed it in very hot water, it had to dry, and I thought I could work a little on the Junior SWAP. The rest of my sewing was on the Junior SWAP. I traced and tissue adjusted all the pieces we will need from her wardrobe pattern Simplicity 5220.

1. capri pants
2. sleeveless woven top
3. cheongsang top with mandarin collar
4. straight skirt

I cut out capri pants in navy blue cotton spandex stretch woven. This is a 70 cm x 150cm remnant from the stash, bought on sale at Lindcraft before the crash, and at least 5 years old. I think I had vague ideas of making a skirt from it. It is a medium weight and quite stretchy. I think there must also be some synthetic in it, although it is not labeled as a blend. I took a lesson from my previous cotton lycra pants experience and cut to her measurements with no ease, according to the finished garment measurements printed on the pattern. I stabilized the crotch seam with selvage, and will also do this for the waist seam when I attach the facing. I cut the facing with the stretch vertically, and bound the edge with bias binding - see the picture. All going well with inner seam, invisible zip (interfaced underneath), even edges etc. I then fitted the pants - this pattern is a weird cut.
You can see from the photo that I still had to take in a lot on the sides. The blue chalk mark shows the edges of the front pants pieces. The strange thing to me is that it is mostly the back that needs taking in. My daughter is not hard to fit in pants. Usually I can just sew them straight up with no changes. She does not have a flat backside or skinny legs which might explain all the extra fabric at the back. I checked that I had traced the pattern correctly, and I had. This will be an interesting pattern to review.
I have sewn up the side seams and put a little trim on the split bottom legs - this is not on the pattern, but an added extra. I will post a photo of this when the pants are finished.

SWAP items completed (not including 2 possibles made before jan 1)- 2 definite tops, 3 further possible tops, one definite pants, one possible pants - 7 items (and one in the pipeline)

Junior items completed (including 2 items made before Jan1) 3, (and one in the pipeline)

Construction details

I'm behind myself with my pictures. These are pictures of Vogue 2925, tops and pants. I described the alterations to the pants a few days ago and have edited that post to add pictures of the alterations. My alterations to the top were very minimal - I scaled down to a size 10, curving out towards a 12 below the waist. I stabilized the shoulder seam with selvage, the dark brown with a lime green strip and the caramel with a green batik strip. I also used swimsuit elastic in the neck finish. I overlocked the edge, then folded it over the elastic once, stretching the elastic very slightly as I sewed. I finished the arm in the same way without the elastic, and finished the bottom hem with wide zig-zag stitch. I am very pleased with both the tops and pants. My little extra for the pants was using a brown/yellow and metallic gold quilting fabric selvage for the waist facing instead of grosgrain ribbon.

I will definitely use the pants and at least one V2925 for my SWAP. I probably wouldn't wear the top to work, unless it was under the jacket for giving a talk or going to a meeting as bare upper arms don't seem very business- like to me. I need the top to complete 3 pieces from the wardrobe pattern, should I use V2925 for the pattern, as I am not making any skirts for my SWAP - this is a self inflicted rule to make sure I use the SWAP to make work pants.

I have some red/brown fabric that I will use to make another of these tops, and that may end up being the inclusion, as I really like the colour.

Today I was in the local fabric shop again, buying the green invisible zip for pants V2925 #2, and also bought some probably not very good quality, but quite thick interlock in a neutral sandy colour. I will not use it for my SWAP, as it isn't a great match for the caramel pants, but it will look good with the green ones, or be a good top to wear with a denim skirt. I bought 1.7m, all there was, so that I can try making a top for my mother when she comes to stay with us for the Australia Day long weekend that is only 3 days away. This is a cunning plan to keep sewing whilst she is here. I will bring the machine into the living room, sew her top, which I really think will suit her, then keep working on my SWAP without her feeling in the least bit neglected. I may also work on my daughter's SWAP, as Mum will enjoy being consulted in the planning stages. I am so keen to sew at the moment that I think I would have withdrawal symptoms if I didn't sit down at my sewing machine for 3 days running.

Today I woke full of fortitude, and revisited my overstretchy cotton lyra woven stretch pants, V8305. I used all the tips from the sewers at artisianssquare, and there was a definite improvement. I will keep working on them. I also sewed and pressed the darts for pants V2925#2. I also went to work, washed the floor, ironed a bit (only because ironing a minimum of 3 items when I get the iron out for my sewing is another self inflicted rule), made a tiger striped vegemite sandwich like the one my son saw on playschool this morning, cleaned the kitchen, made the beds, did 2 loads of washing and 3 rows of knitting so that my sister might get her socks on time for her birthday..... I am not sure how much my SWAP will slow down once the children are back at school and I have all the after school activities transport to do-but the knitting rate will improve.