Kindness

The lovely Kathryn of Our Shabby Cottage and I were discussing my paper dolls on the weekend. And what should arrive in the post this week, but a pretty paper doll print fabric from her stash.... I think this will be party-frock fabric for my girl. Thanks Kathryn - you really know how to brighten up a week!

And I found this fabulous cowl top on my cutting table - made in the softest, drapiest baby wool knit (while I was off at Sewjourn).

It's a tube knit - so no side or back seam. It can be pulled and twisted into all sorts of shapes - loving it! Thanks to the sewing elf (sewing buddy) in my studio for my new favourite garment.

The quality of the fabric beats the pants off the bits I was hacking together over the weekend (which, incidentally, I mostly haven't even unpacked, let alone PHOTOGRAPHED... me being sick and then ditzy with keys and all...).

The Accidental Watcha Wearing Wednesday...

I accidentally locked my keys in the house today, and couldn't drive my heavily-loaded car to work.

I had to walk to the bus stop...

..and for some reason was inspired to take action shots as I did it. Suddenly I'm Watcha Wearing Wednesdaying....

I made the top and leggings and bought the middle two layers on the sale rail of a boutique in Lancefield on the weekend (while I waited for my car to be repaired.... which is another story altogether). I made the Sling bag I'm carrying - it used to be the covergirl on the pattern packet.

All up I reckon I'm dressed for under $60.... which is less than the original pricetag on the frilly black middle layer.

...

Am I just trying to shine a light on everything but the inevitable truth about how silly I felt about the keys...?

Do you have sewing skills to share?

I think you all know how much fun it is to get together with a gang of women and sew.... If you're looking for an opportunity to join a sewing circle in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne you might just find that this is for you....?

There are sewing clubs Footscray, Flemington, Braybrook and Hoppers Crossing that are looking for volunteers to share and learn sewing skills with women who have come to Australia as refugees.

The sewing clubs offer friendship, sewing skills and the opportunity for women who have recently arrived in Australia as refugees to develop their English skills.

The sewing clubs meet each week for a few hours during the day.

So if you have a love of sewing this is a great volunteer opportunity to welcome refugees to Australia and get some of your sewing projects done!


Please contact :

Karen Dimmock
Manager
Volunteer West
130 Buckley Street
FOOTSCRAY VIC 3011

p: (03) 9687 7661

f: (03) 9687 4422

e: karen@volunteerwest.org.au

NOTE: Please don't contact me for details - I'm simply trying to help by passing the message on. Karen is the girl with all the answers!

xx

nikki

PS. The photos above are from the Great Sewjourn Weekend - Kathryn and Rachel sat either side of me and whipped up the most extraordinarily pretty quilts. I was a bit awestruck.

Chucking a sickie

The "sickie" is a great Australian tradition.... taking advantage of sick pay and enjoying a day off. When you're self-employed and feeling too poorly to go to work it's not half as much fun.

The wee girl, however, thought it was GREAT fun - just like a weekend - to be home and having my undivided attention. She organised lots of activities for me. (I was kind-of hoping to get a book proposal written or a shopping cart tweaked... alas, it wasn't to be).

We checked in on last weekend's project (inspiration from here) and were happy to see our egg family growing wheat hair at last. There were discussions about a relocation to a sunny windowsill to help the hair grow a bit faster. It's cold outside these days!

There was a bit of blackboard action.

And a spot of painting. This artwork is "Worms in the Rain". "The dots are their tracks... do worms have tracks?".

We made pavlova. We smothered it in cream and grated mint chocolate (...and I ate most of it. Oops).

Inspired by this book, we made a wheat bag from scraps of Thomas the Tank Engine flannelette (from the pj's I made on the weekend). It was a real team effort.

My assistant cut the eyes and eyebrows (I was on nose and mouth duty... and helped a bit with the eyes). The wee one also helped to steer the fabric under the machine and was in charge of raising and lowering the presser foot. She filled it (BRIM FULL!!) and I stitched it up.

When it was finished we played throw-it-in-a-bowl and catch games ...and were equally bad at BOTH games! (I think she's inherited both my craft and complete-lack-of-sporting-prowess genes).

While the sewing machine was still out we whipped up a mini-Mummy outfit (read: no pattern skirt, hacked together polo neck top and super-quick leggings). We gave it a quick road test in the park.

PLEASE NOTE: Being in the SWINE FLU epicentre of Melbourne, I thought it wise to take all precautions and not share the love around (any more than I may have on the weekend). A trip to the doctor today confirms that it's a regular winter virus.

I think the "holiday" is over and I'll be back at work tomorrow. Sick days are more exhausting than any day at work, it seems. Oh, and I'm feeling much better now.

...

...

PS. The top in the "sickie" photo (taken by my assistant as I tried to keep her amused at the doctors) was one of the no-pattern cowl tops I made at Sewjourn on the weekend. I'll try to photograph a few more bits over the next week or so (but if you can't wait that long I'm sure there'll be a few similar tops seen around the Ballarat area later this week.... and perhaps a few in Thornbury...?).

Everyone should do it...

Leave your family/pets to fend for themselves. Leave the housework and any other responsibilities behind and have a sewing weekend with a gang of great sewing gals. Eat lots of chocolate. Drink and sew and laugh. Sing and dance and scream with laughter again and sew a bit more and stay up too late and make lots of mess and talk a lot and sew a bit more and laugh and be inspired and sew and laugh and sew and laugh....

It's good for the soul. It's also astounding how much sewing you'll get done.

Thanks to Annie, Lara, Jodie, Kathryn, Rachel, Emma and Megan for letting me jump on your getaway bandwagon and for being such fabulous company.

I'm waiting for my man....

Soon I'll be heading off to Sewjourn for the weekend with a group (gaggle?) of lovely crafty types... Woo hoo!


I'm just waiting at my studio for the man of the house to come and pick up his daughter - so I can take my over-burdened little car up the Tullamarine Freeway and sew the weekend away. Apparently a gang of gals has already sewn up a storm there this afteroon.

I'm getting restless.... and... ummm... wrapped in sticky tape.

Flickr Favourites Friday

Vintage du jour purse
Originally uploaded by plus1design

Isn't Kirrily clever?

You can read all about the creative processes behind this little bit of gorgeousness... or just head on over to Etsy and buy it!

Heads-up on a pattern giveaway...

Pssst.... Tania over at Jet Beads and Craft (formerly Jet Music and Books) is having a 100th post giveaway.


You could win a book and two patterns (including mine) . Check it out NOW!!!

If you miss out on the giveaway, you can always do a spot of shopping at their 'bricks and mortar' or online store.

Jet Beads and Craft
17 514 Warwick Road
Yamanto Shopping Centre
Yamanto Qld 4305

( 07) 3288 0156
www.jetmusicandbooks.com.au

A trip to GJ's...

With the purpose of dropping off some patterns and refreshing the bag and hat samples, I trundled off to GJ's in Brunswick.
I skipped back with these....

...and these gorgeous Paper Dollies!!! They were originally supposed to accompany the Paper Dolls fabric range last year. The dollies themselves have only just arrived in the country and they are LOVELY!!

I LOVE the little vintage outfits and vintage ink colours.... love, love, love.... and don't want to hand them over to a scissor-weilding three-year-old.

I'm thinking of putting the wee girl into paper-dolly training..... perhaps we'll make our own first....? She'll have to have the concept pretty well sorted-out before I let her - and a pair of scissors - anywhere near (colour copies of!!) the clothing for these dolls.

Perhaps by her 4th birthday..? Or perhaps I'll just keep them myself (and only play with them after she goes to bed)...?

So... what's under YOUR Rajah Cloth??

I've spoken of Rajah Cloths before....

Today I used one to press the RIGHT SIDE of a PVC strap (with the iron on a wool setting). It worked a treat! I was so impressed I took a photo. Tomorrow I'm going to try it on a COTTON setting....

Edited to add - Cotton and linen settings didn't melt the vinyl when the rajah cloth was put to the test today. Magic, I tell you....

Rajah cloths are a chemically treated cloth that somehow MAGICALLY take the sting out of a hot iron while still allowing the heat to do its work. Don't ask me how - just get one. You'll be amazed.

(Yes - we sell them. See details here).

And the bride wore black...

While unpacking a few more boxes this weekend I found a photo from my wedding day - all creased and torn (a bit like that marriage ended up...).

I've always loved this image, because it sums up the day perfectly. It's of the full bridal party sliding down the Helter Skelter on Brighton pier (in the UK). It was Summer and we were young and beautiful. We felt like we'd be that way forever.

I also love the way the camera caught my sewing buddy's hair in full flight... (and reminds me just how long we've been friends!).

That's me in the middle with the long black hair... what happened to that??

It's amazing what you find when you move house.

My Creative Space

Is tidy. A rare thing indeed, to see the surfaces of every table.... I had to photograph it.

Even the wee one's area (back right) was tidied ... as best as could be managed with a wee one in the room.

Oh... the constantly-rummaged-through cutting table stash isn't very tidy, but I didn't see the point in taking things too far.

You might have noticed that my space isn't about interior design... it's about making stuff.

Take a peek into other creative spaces here...

Flickr Favourites Friday

I've been looking through the photos in our Flickr group pool - marvelling at all the beautiful work done by people using my patterns. It's truly inspiring. Here are just a few from the group...

Beach bag by Marilla in Sweden. (Photo by www.studiolighthouse.com photo/copyright : roger schederin tel 0046 70 515 46 70)

Evening bags - (one of them has been slightly elongated) by Kathy from the USA.

Laptop Bag by Sarah from NSW (Australia).

If you've made a bag (or bags) using my patterns and would like to share how clever you are, you can join our Flickr group (if you have a Flickr account) or simply email your photos to us and we'll upload them through the nmdcustomers account.

I've received some lovely emails this week from people who have wanted to show their appreciation for my patterns and for what they have done to help improve their sewing and bag-making skills. Since this was the original concept behind my range of patterns, it's rewarding to hear that it's working. Thanks guys - your support and appreciation has brought some light into otherwise dark days!

What's he BUILDING in there...?

There's been a lot of thumping and banging going on behind the facade of the website.

Super-Joe (the web developer) has been tweaking and shifting things around... and quite possibly wishing he'd never taken on the job of sorting my sprawling pages into a sleek new shopping cart. I think he's doing a stirling job of translating my vague instructions and is ever-so-nice, to boot. If you need a website sorted, then he's the man to do it.

While we're working on things, please pardon my strangely changing images (you may have noticed a certain murkiness in a few images lately...?). We've been playing around with different options for optimisation (say THAT three times quickly) and some have been more successful than others!

It's all to do with the format that my images are currently in, and my attempts to NOT have to prepare a whole new batch of them. Don't panic - it will all be sorted out soon.

Oh - and while I'm on the subject of the wonders of the www.... Hotmail and MSN email addresses are now rejecting emails from our business address! Oh Joy! Apparently we look like SPAM.....

Leah did a bit of research and found that we could apply for certification to get through their new whizz-bang filter - with an application fee of $200+ and an annual fee of $440+ (up to $82,500!!!), depending upon the volume of mail we send. Ummm... or not. (Between you, me and the gatepost... I think we'll be trawling computer geek forums).

In the meantime - if you have a hotmail address and another address... would you mind please using the OTHER address to contact us?

Memory Chest

I made a travelling trunk for my mother - just a small one.

With stamps and labels from the places she's been... young single girl, wife, mother...

I added recent photos of my girl and her art, and then filled it with Mum's photos of the extended family (they used to be in a very ordinary-looking basket).

She seemed to like it.

Technical information: I roughly followed a project in this book, and used a combination of fabric, Peltex, Fast2Fuse, interfacing, Vliesofix and injet-printable fabric. The base fabric is Portuguese linen from the wonderful Méri and some fabric offcuts in prints that were reminiscent of the age in which my mother grew up.

PS. Thanks to all the lovely messages of support re: my last post. I hope that the discussion will make people think a bit more about sharing other people's ideas.

Thanks again, folks. I'm truly touched.

Friday Night Blues... and reds...

It's been a LONG week...

I came home and cracked open the last of the Christmas wine (I only drink red occasionally - if I'd been given half a case of white it would've been lucky to see in the New Year!). My sister works at the vinyard where they make these gorgeous wines and we all look forward to seeing it... I mean HER ...each Xmas.

Ok, so I've had a glass and a half of red wine.... time to change the tone of this happy blog for a minute and spill the beans on what's been eating away at me. I'll get it off my chest, clear the air (and any other cliche that involves having a good whinge) and then get back to being happy.

It's been a tough week of personal grief (with a hefty dose of three-year-old tantrums thrown in). On top of that, it's been a week where I've seen how vulnerable my business is to people abusing my intellectual property. I feel completely used - and not very much like writing the next tutorial or designing the next pattern.

I know this doesn't apply to most people - but can I please ask anyone who may be contemplating it - PLEASE think about it before you share a sewing pattern with friends, copy instructions or patterns in any way, copy designs (ie a bag style) without actually BUYING the pattern, publish online tutorials showing the methods that I've developed or blog the construction processes....

Just realise that you might be killing the goose that lays the golden egg.



Phew! I feel like I've lanced a boil or something. Sorry about the mess of pent-up emotional goo everywhere.... Can we go back to being happy now?

Last Minute Opportunities

At the last minute we've had two cancellations for next week's "Better Bags" class.

It's on Thursday night, beginning 6.30-8.30pm in my studio. We have a waiting list of people who have since made other plans.... so there are now two vacancies.

Better Bags is a six-week bag-making class, where you work at your own pace on the bags of your choice - with my assistance, demonstrations and LOADS of hot tips and sewing secrets to make your bags look a little less "home made". With a maximum of six people in the class, you'll have lots on one-on-one brain-picking time with me and get to chat and enjoy the sewing group experience.

The course fee is $275 and includes a pattern and enough of the basic materials (interfacing etc) to make your first bag.

It's suitable for anyone who has basic, intermediate or experienced sewing skills and wants to learn more about bag-making. (If you've done Bags For Beginners with me, then this is the next logical step).

If you'd like to take up the opportunity to jump in at this last minute, I'll throw a free pattern into your kit!

If you need any further info or want to make a booking, contact Leah on (03) 9940 1533 or email sales@nicolemdesign.com.au

Edited to add.... the empty seats are now filled!

Not the blog post I planned...

I documented today's work with the idea of blogging it. Instead I'm playing around with family photos. Remembering snapshots of childhood. Noticing resemblances in our children to ourselves at the same age....

Shedding bucket-loads of tears.

I'm making something to celebrate my mother and the family she made. I hope it turns out ok and I hope to have it finished by Sunday.

If it works, I'll show you.

Winter Hats

Today I finished off some winter hats that I started over the weekend. They're all made using my Hat patterns for adults and kids.

I made a bucket hat in this fab textured cotton fabric (scraps from my sewing buddy's coat). It looks cute with the brim slightly rolled, perched at a jaunty angle.... almost like a top hat. I used a vintage button from the stash I inherited from my grandmother.

Wool... OH HOW I LOVE making wool hats!!! I made a couple of kids hats in wool today, and FLEW through the process.

HOT TIP: If you're new to hat-making, make one in a brushed wool flannel or wool velour (even better, wool-cashmere!). It's the most malleable, forgiving fabric you'll find. Easing curves together is a dream and it steams into shape beautifully.

With a few rough running stitches and cross-stitches, it also makes a super-cosy little winter hat.

I used medium-light interfacing in these hats - didn't want too much stiff structure in the wool.

This hat below is in a brushed wool flannel. I used a straight-grain binding to create a sharp curve on the brim and made simple poppies with pinking shears and micro-suede.

Sometimes I have an idea and then I don't like it once it's made. This hat is one of those.... It's handwoved Donegal tweed in all the wrong colours. I thought I could make it work by doing a particularly rustic flower thing on it.... hmmmm.... not sure about it now.

I've been incubating this flower idea for a while but I think they'd work better on a bag or cushion.

I did like this hat, though - beige moleskin with micro-suede binding and belt (and another one of Nan's buttons). It didn't look like much until it was on a head. Mine was the nearest.

That old how to photograph yourself in a hat issue arose again. Lots of pictures of the floor, bag rack and a few blurry hats.... and a few that give you the picture... (At least it was daylight this time!)

If you want to learn the tricks and tips of fabric hat-making, I have a two-day workshop in October- and I think there are a couple of places left on it. If you're interested you can email Leah at sales@nicolemdesign.com.au .

If it's model millinery techniques you want to learn - and you can get to Melbourne - then Serena Lindeman is your girl. You can download her current course list here, and she'll be updating with a July-December schedule soon. If you want to be on her mailing list you can email her at serena.l@optusnet.com.au .

Happy hatting! Oh - and I'll be back to bags soon. I'm incubating a few ideas there, too...