Hot tips for sewing like a professional ...and another giveaway (and a little bit about life and work, too).

I'm over at Sew Mama Sew at the moment, giving a few tips on the things that help create a professional finish in your sewing projects.  I'm also giving away a copy of my new book over there. And best of all, in the comments section, people are sharing their favourite sewing tips, too.  What a bonanza of a blog post it is... get over there NOW!

...and here we have another detail of one of the bags made while writing the book.  This is a version of the Melbourne Weekender, in denim and a hand-printed Pippiejoe fabric.

 

Meanwhile, behind the scenes of You Sew Girl....

 

Lately, the weeks seem to be flying past in a blur of workshop preparation and teaching, wound around parenting and house-keeping and general business-running.  I haven't had much time to look up or out. 

 

 

The biggest news in these parts is that I've been offered a new job... a real job (my Dad will be happy), and I've decided to take it on.  I'll be teaching in a Fashion College part-time. I can't help feeling like it was some sort of godsend. 

 

As the dust has been settling after the big move last year, I've been feeling absolutely ready to make more changes in the way that I do things, but not knowing exactly what form those changes might take.  I've been struggling with the fact that I love teaching and want to continue it, but that my product-development mojo appears to have gone walkies... so how do I keep YOU SEW GIRL going into the future?  

 

The new job offers a new direction that inspires and excites me, and I'll be able to continue my own classes and wholesaling the products that I already have. I might regain pattern-writing mojo or maybe I'll just write the occasional book... who knows?  But for now, I have something challenging and inspiring to sink my teeth into (and it will keep paying the bills!). It feels like the beginning of the next phase.  Exciting times, indeed!

 

While preparing lesson-plans and resources, I was surprised to see just how many geeky sewing and fashion technology books I own (this collection was just tidied up on the table one day... there's a 2-metre high bookshelf in the corner, with the rest of the collection bulging out). 

 

 

I've also been busy prepping for my own workshops and for the gigs booked around the traps with other businesses, guilds and sewing groups. There will one day be more photos of pattern-free clothing to show... I've been making, but not poncing about with the camera. 

 

On the home-front, we're fighting colds and can't seem to shake them, so have just been working around them.

 

The girleen has been using her time away from school to brush up her drawings of My Little Pony characters. (As impressed as I am with the likenesses, I'm lamenting the absence of her fantastic imagination in the artwork.... ).

 

In between bouts of cold, we managed a day out to ACMI, with the wee girl and her friend. 

 

We went to the DreamWorks exhibition, which was fantastic ... until the last bit (when they were hungry and tired).  The kids were made to wait about 10 minutes for their turn to use the much-anticipated animation software, and were then only given about 5 minutes (with a stress-inducing countdown of time-nearly-up) to get to understand the software and develop an animation.  They left feeling grumpy and frustrated and teary, because they barely had the background drawn when time was up.  It was beginning to look like a disastrous day (with nearly-nine-year-olds and their fragile emotions...).

 

As a cheer-up measure, we went out for sushi, regrouped and then hit the permanent exhibition at ACMI.  The kid's section there is full of excellent interactive activities, and they had a ball.

And then we hit the playground on a gorgeous Autumn day.... so all ended well.  Phew. 

And in between all of this, I've been knitting (and going to the dentist... which is where this photo was taken).

 

 

 

 

And so, life whizzes by... 

 

So before it passes... get over to that book giveaway and share your sewing tips! :)

New things

This last week has been one of list-ticking, loose-end-tying and every other day,  feeling (mentally) like I've just given birth.  I finished the new Beauty Case, the revised Poppet and have just uploaded the new digital USB Key Fob to the website.

I even did a bit of tidying up ...and filing.  (Not sure what's wrong with me.)

The USB key fob is a quick little project, made with quick little gift ideas in mind (..have you noticed the speed at which Christmas is approaching?). 

The colourful fob makes USB sticks (flash drives.. or whatever you want to call them) easier to find and less likely to fall out of a bag or pocket.  It also makes each one distinctive. (Am I the only one who has trouble telling them apart and remembering which files are on which stick?).  The USB drive is removable/interchangeable and it tucks down safely inside the little sachet when the strap is snapped closed, and it can clip onto a keyring or a key clip inside a handbag.  Handy, huh?

As you can see above, the fabric choice can be a bit blokey, so there's something you can make for the men in your life.  It crossed my mind that a bit of subversive stitchery, gocco printing or inkjet printable fabric could be used to personalise the strap of the key fob, but I haven't done anything with those ideas yet. 

For those of you only recently discovering my little corner of the craft world, I'm including a few photos of the Poppet Purse that I made when it was first released under the Nicole Mallalieu Design label, many moons ago.

I do love my little Poppet. I always feel a bit clever when I make one.  I love its size and proportions.  I love the self-supporting structure in the barrel body of the purse.  I love that it holds a lot more than you'd think.  I love that it can be everything from a make-up purse or a bridal purse....  (...even if I do say so myself)

I had to bring it into the You SEW Girl range.

It includes instructions for a few different strap options, including a detachable strap and a handle with boning.

 And there's a really good chance that this little Japanese fabric one is going to mysteriously disappear from the showroom (and reappear just as mysteriously in my wardrobe). 

I think it's the perfect cafe-to-pub purse (...which is all I did from Saturday night to Sunday night this weekend, catching up with friends. Fabulous!). 

And that's a new thing, too.  Me - going out. I was so excited about having finished my interstate teaching gigs for the year that I spent all my free time on the weekend, catching up with lots of long-neglected friends.

Another new thing, is that we've changed our business hours.  Since we're not flat out with internet orders and walk-in customers (the wholesale trade is much more slow-and-steady and easily managed), and I have a lot of serious book-writing, product-development and US-trip/distribution work to do, we've decided to close the office and shop on Fridays.  I'll still be here if there's an emergency order or retail shopping appointment.  But mostly, I'll be making the most of my one child-free (until school pick-up) day, where I'm not distacted by everyday business, so that I can do the things that take all my brainpower and concentration. (I'm VERY EASILY distracted!)

Our new shop hours are Monday - Thursday 10am - 4pm.  Fridays by appointment only.



One more new thing... As more USB ports died and computer start-ups became a half-day event, I went out and bought myself a new computer.  There are some pretty annoying incompatability issues to sort out between operating systems, documents and software, so in the interum I'm working between the two machines.  The good news is that with the workload on the ol' fella halved, so has page-load and screen-freeze time been greatly reduced.  And I've decided that I quite like having two screens.

I thought I'd share all this newness before it becomes old hat.  I'm afraid there hasn't been a change in my limited blogging time routine.



Winter blues and browns and shades of grey....

The wee girl and I spent most of the day in pyjamas, bonding over my Auntie Wilma's yarn stash and knitting machine. We knitted several fair isle monstrosities in acrylic 4-ply. Ugly but fun.

I just spent time with my beautiful girl, who I won't see much, once the Quilt Show gets underway this week. We didn't take photos, but I was reminded that I hadn't posted these photos of a scarf I made last week.
It's in a simple tuck-stitch, with 2 yarns of slightly different brown tones knitted together. The colour is a rich shade of cappucino... None of my photos captured the subtlety or complexity of the colour, which is a shame. It's lovely.

I love the waffly, spongey texture of this tuck-stitch pattern. I haven't washed, blocked or felted it because I love SQUEEZING it and stretching it in different directions. It's very tactile stuff.

The bloke - dubbed "Mr Wintergarden" because of his current obsession with tending the sleeping winter bastja* - obediently wears the scarf. (*Macedonian for veggie patch).

(I don't think he gets the squeezing, tactile thing. I might reclaim the scarf.)

The sky was grey outside today. The news was full of tragedy, gloom and yet another talented young person's life ended too soon. We stayed cocooned in our lounge room. We had roast chicken mid-afternoon because we couldn't wait until dinnertime. We relished in the don't-feel-like-doing-anything-(so-we-won't) downtime and cancelled all plans for housework or supermarket shopping.

Haunted by the horror in Norway this weekend, I soaked up every ounce of ordinary family Sunday that I could. My heart aches for families who won't have the chance to do that again.

In with the new...

We thought that the silver ones were so cute, we now have Teeny Tiny swivel hooks in Antique Brass colour.

I'm yet to have a play with them, but we also have these snap-together plastic grommets coming soon. Stay tuned for more news and a shop update with these, folks....

And out with the old..... I cleared out my box of purse frame samples (from the manufacturer)...

...and seconds (slightly scratched, mostly) purse frames. I've bundled them up and bargain-priced them. They're all highly usable for OFM (Only For Me) purses or for test-runs if you're new to purse frame purse-making. The faults are mostly VERY slight - and you can examine before you buy.

Unfortunately it's not worth going to the effort to individually photograph and price them for the website, so I'm just letting you local gals know..... COME IN AND HAVE A LOOK through the bargain basket!!!!

We also have 5 samples of these 200mm Chunky frames WITH LOOPS at $9 each. Just email your order for these (or add it as a comment at the bottom of the shopping cart order).

I'm currently looking into the possibility of making these a permanent supply. If I get these, I may have to discontinue the plain 200mm Chunky frames......What do you think?

200th Post

I'd intended to celebrate my 200th post with something cheery - a bit of eye-candy and a giveaway - but I've been watching the news with tears on my cheeks and a sickening knot rising in my stomach.

I feel that for me to NOT acknowledge the tragedy of this weekend's bushfires (and to prattle endlessly about craft) would be fraudulent. My heart breaks every time I see or hear the news about the continuing devastation and the rising death toll, and I find it hard to get excited about trite things like my nearly finishing a pattern.

Safe in my inner-Melbourne home (and today in my studio), my weekend looked mostly like this..

and this...

I've been working hard at it and getting some results. Eye-candy will follow. Oh, and a giveaway.

But right now I can't think much about anything except heartfelt sympathy for people who have lost everything, including family members, neighbours and friends.