Sewing Season is upon us.

 Happy New Year all. It's day 11 and I've been doing sewing or sewing adjacent things:

• Traced off the Summit Dress pattern from Scroop. I have lipstick red linen and Italian linen black background with traditional Mexican hearts printed all over it for the godets. But the execution is being delayed for a while
• I've rehomed my small collection of A0 patterns to see through document wallets, all clearly labelled. Previously in rolls standing up in a laundry basket, I could never find the one I wanted and even paid to have one printed twice! I've also culled the collection of several that I think other people will be more likely to use.
• David cut up thin MDF saved from a collapsed kitset desk, to make shelves for my cubby stack. They're held in by pushpins! The level of DIY hackery in this makes me so very happy! And it works a treat
• I MADE a linen shift and sheer curtains and a whole dress! 
• I'm making my friend Joy a dress so she came over for a toile fitting and also rethreaded the @$#$%#$@ overlocker so I could finish the seams of said dress - purple linen. No photos of it yet.

Cubbies with shelves!

Boring linen shift but a very satisfying make nonetheless!

My oppressively sundrenched studio now has some sun quenching sheer curtains. they're cream so do an extra good job. No more working with the curtains completely closed needed!

Bonus smashed spuds content - my favourite holiday food. The perla potatoes are so yellow inside they look even more delicious when cooked! 100% recommend smashing your spuds hehe.

That's pretty much it so far - apart from a LOT of admin for my biggest project ever, but more on that some other time <3

Sewing small projects

 I'm working on a couple of garments that need slow sewing, so to give myself satisfaction, I'm also doing some quick win projects too.

OK so with NZ in semi lockdown and mandatory mask wearing, the shop is selling them almost as fast as four of us can make them. I've made at least 25 for the shop, but I'm also making some for me and for friends who have specific tastes.

My friend who shares a love of Frida and Mary is getting three masks, these are just cut out so far but I love the so much!

As for me, I've made a couple with plastic stays going across and up/down, to try and create space to breathe. They are a bit beaky but I don't care. I LOVE this rose fabric

This one is a gorgeous ombre of fizzy bubbles and I love how it reads different colours on either side.

As well as masks, I've been feeling the cold footwise and find that socks bite into my ankles and slippers are all so synthetic they feel yicky.

So, I made some! Using the Twig and Tale Wayfarer Shoe pattern, I made these cuties. Outer is a pair of old jeans, lined with some Liberty cord, and the sole is suede. All out of what was in the house. They're just enough warm for the house in this early spring weather. They were so easy, I think I'll make some warmer ones for winter.

So there you go, small wins. 

I went back to the office on Monday, quite eerie with only about 20% of our team coming in. But it really has helped me to get my head back in the game. Swapping slipper for masks.

Working from Home

 I've had an epiphany about working from home. Last year it nearly did for my sanity, but now I have a lovely little desk, a comfy chair, a big monitor and a window with decent light, in a room I love and it's a game changer.

My own laptop and a whiteboard are on a chair just to the left (I'm left handed) so I have music playing on that one while I work on my teeny work one. Thank goodness for big monitors at reasonable prices! And on my beloved whiteboard I can plan and brainstorm and organise things

When we went into proper lockdown in April last year, I was caught completely short. I immediately took leave because I needed to be at the shop looking after locking it down too, and so got no time to collect furniture or equipment. It was dire with a broken chair and no decent screen or keyboard!

Anyway that was a long time ago in a flat and job far away. Most of us work from home at least one day a week to alleviate the space issues in the office. And I find I do really get a lot of work done in my happy place!

The Week of Red and Gold

 After the rather expensive anti climax of moving out for no real purpose, I really wanted something to look forward to when we returned. So, we decided to re-wallpaper the feature wall. Actually we wanted to do the bedroom too, and I got paper for both from an emporium for $10 a roll! It's posh Canadian stuff, excellent quality, clearly bought as a joblot for next to nothing. I do love a bargain!

My dear friend Ross offered to hang it on a skill swap basis,and he got it all done in a couple of days. Such  hero.

HERE IT IS!!:

Red and gold! How surprising!!!

the completed job. Yes, our floor length curtains are also paisley. So are the dining room chairs, a different one again. Fight me!

With the dresser in pride of place again. With bonus detritus of moving!

We're all in. Well, all but a carload, or two. Yesterday I unpacked wine!

All sorted into wineries. I found things I had forgotten about!

Also, CDs and DVDs, clothes, glassware, all put away on moving day no less. Feeling pretty content, and sore.

Today I was cleaning at the rental. My lovely friend Nicole came to help, in denim short and 5 inch espadrilles, she brought glamour to the work! We're half way there, and hopefully all will be done and dusted tomorrow.

BECAUSE:

On Saturday 13 Feb, I will be on stage at the Wellington Opera House, performing to 900 plus people!! ARGH!!! It's the biggest indoor audience I've ever performed in front of, and at the end of this week, it's going to take a lot of coffee and pep talks.

The stage. The boxes will be full of the Mayor and his family, drag queens, glamorous burlesque performers etc. I've been in one of the lower boxes for all the shows so far, in full Seen from Space glory. To be in it is exciting and terrifying!

This is looking more or less the other way. EEP! This week they opened the Gallery, aka the Gods and it's filling up fast. The theatre has a 1200 capacity, and we are not anticipating a full house, but close to.

Oh, clerly it's the week of Red and Gold.

Another UFP Finished

Another UFP (unfinished project) lurking in my house is a footstool I bought a couple of years ago in a junk shop in Taihape as discussed here. But to save you jumping around, here is the photo I took of it when I got it home. Sadly the beautifully executed tapestry top was so badly faded, there was no hope for it. I did try washing it to see if it was just dirt but nope, munted. I binned it and the naked, flock covered inset has been sitting balance on a chair in the lounge while the frame skulked behind the dining room table. This all had to stop today!

Its original magnificence -mine for $23.

 The components. 

 A close up of the fascinating flock stuffing, clearly made from shredded rags. It's revoltingly dusty, over a straw sub layer, but I am reusing it because I can't be bothered spending hours recreating this part from scratch.

To contain it all, I put a layer of the thin non woven stuff we call pattern cloth over it. This also gave me a chance to vacuum it without sucking the whole lot up the cleaner!

Next up, my fabric. It was an upholstery fabric sample from goodness knows where, and I fiddled about for a bit to get the right part of the pattern on top.

The big flower and leaf were the best option, and I am happy with them. I've fiddled with the colour to try and recreate the richness of the fabric but even here it isn't really showing how fabulous it is!

This is the top cut out with just enough underlap. Or so I thought. When I was pressing it I saw that there are holes along one short end from where the sample was pinned to its header. I could have easily cut it a bit longer had I seen, GAH!

See the holes? I managed to just make it fit at both ends by putting the holes here. As the inset is well and truly fitted into the frame I think these will last just fine in their trapped state. But you can see below how short I had to make it at the other end.

After gun-stapling all the way around. I distribute the fullness at the corners into a series of pleats. I think we could have stretched the fabric a wee bit more but it is firm enough. This is the big rookie mistake with upholstery - either not stretching the fabric firmly enough, and/or pulling it into the corners too tightly so the bias distorts and the corners eventually wear through ahead of schedule. Ask me how I know...

And here it is! I decided I wasn't going to chalk paint it because the oak is in such lovely condition and it goes with our house really well as it is. Also, this means it's now DONE.

No more weird bits of furniture in my lounge, but  a lovely foot stool and extra seat for visitors!

I am so not caring that I didn't line the bottom with some pattern cloth to hide the raw edges. I would have, had the sides not been deep enough to well and truly hide it.

What do you think; pretty?

Wellington gets its shimmy on

Oh dear the shakes are back. We were just getting to the point of thinking life was back to normal when this afternoon around 2.30pm, a 6.5 hit. The shop rocked like it was on board an ocean liner. I dived under one of the big tables in the studio. It lasted a long time. That's the worst bit, when they go on and on.
Amazingly, noone else in the shop joined me. Mostly young students, they went outside for a bit then came back in and continued their purchases. Design students are tough!
Knowing there would be no customers, we rang the small shop and told Mel to lock up and go home. That part of town is full of government and corporations in high rise buildings, who get sent home on such occasions. With the trains and buses cancelled, town soon got gridlocked with cars. I had the car at work and managed to get home quite fast as it is not far.
David got sent home from his 24th floor office, so he took over the shop from Bruce. I was meant to be cutting out shirt samples at home (my leaving early was because of this not the quakes) but I was too freaked out to concentrate.
That was 8 hours ago. Since then we have been jolted, swayed, rocked and shaken almost constantly, from gentle tiny, barely perceptible shocks that make one wonder whether they happened or are just shaky legs, to deep, hard jolts and long deep rumbles that put my heart in my mouth and had me running for the doorway.

 From this website, I think we can all see that it's been a bumpy ride today!

Our beloved old factory apartment is perfectly fine. I know this, but I cannot rationalise away the fear. I wish for once we were in a nice one level wooden house built on rock!
I am a tough Wellingtonian born and bred. I grew up with earthquakes and they have never bothered me. But this, with the spectre of Christchurch still vivid, feels really bloody scary.
I have cut out one shirt now, even pattern matched the pocket, and I feel calmer. I hope that we are not awoken by a shake as sleep deprivation does not help at all!
I am eyeing the dining room table, and wondering if I could make a little nest under it to sleep in.....

Crazy Reactions

Today I got some really exciting news. I can't share it yet, but I will do so soon as it is VERY exciting. But what I CAN share with you is my reaction. Stuck at home and having called everyone I can share it with, I was still fizzing with excitement, so what did I do?
I got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed my bathroom floor.

source

It has been bugging me for ages, but 20 minutes with hot water and some sugar soap and it is better than new. And I feel very satisfied!
Does anyone else react or respond to energising news by doing housework?

The Trophy Wife - unplugged

In my last post I described my quilting stash as a trophy wife. Well, here she is, all scrubbed and made up!

 MrC supplying his 6' 3" self as a point of reference. I've had a quick count and multiply and estimate there is 300 yards of fabric in these cupboards *gulp*. But all folded nicely and arranged by colour or theme, SO much easier to find things!

Half of my fat quarters packed into an enormous boot box I was given. It is straining a little, I hope it doesn't bust apart as it is so pretty! the rest are in other shoe boxes and baskets...

Here's the slatternly mistress. Unlike the prissy trophy wife, this stash (only partially shown here) actually delivers! It's a mess as these fabrics don't fold up and stack as crisply as the cottons. But I know what I have in here and the bottom shelf is all marked for stash rehashing.

Snow and trophy wives...

It's snowing here in Wellington. I am 46 and it has never snowed in my lifetime before. So many people are posting Christmas card photos on Facebook and on their blogs of back yards covered in white, snowmen of varying sizes and quality, trees crystalised, all that stuff.
This is a time when living in the city is boring! Our walkways are slippery and icy and the street seems to have missed the white out. So, I am at home, and after making a nice merino hat for a friend, I have been through my stash cupboards, refolding and reorganising my quilting stash into a pleasing sight again.
I have way too much fabric, but unlike dress and costuming stash, I find it really difficult to cull the quilting cottons. When I go through them I love each and every one, even the 'uglies,' but in very few cases do they whisper in my ear what they want to become. I have at least four projects auditioned and packed into baskets ready for I'm not sure what - possibly for the right inspiration of matching person to quilt? A few are definitely for tea cozies or other craft projects, and some I would wear in an instant except I only have a fat quarter or half yard.
No, I reckon my quilting stash is like a trophy wife. Pretty to have and admire, not terribly useful and quite expensive to keep up. But somehow it is compelling and I can't bear to part with it! ;-)

Warehouse chic - For So Zo! :)

The most fabulous Zoe of So Zo, what do you know? once posted about how much she would love to live and work in a warehouse. As I kind of do, I promised to post some pics that actually SHOW this about my living space. The ones I've posted before say more about my OTT tastes and penchant for red and gold furnishings (I think I missed an illustrious career doing interiors for Chinese restaurants and bordellos!) than the provenance of this wonderful space.
It was originally the Empire Spice Factory, and after a short and famous career as student living, was converted in around 1997 to eight flats, and we have the one in the front top.

This is an old photo as the decor visible through the windows isn't ours, nor is it that of the previous owner! I nicked it off a real estate website.
I am told by a friend who quite coincidentally flatted there "23 years ago when it was a studenty dump" (his words) that in certain weather you could smell the spices in the floor. I was so hoping this would happen still but alas no!
Anyway, I think our place falls well short of Zoe's fabulously evocative description:  "a sanitised, pre-converted trendy warehouse pad with its token ‘original’ exposed brick work wall and fancy lampshades installations" but it's not her ideal either: "a big industrial or ex-industrial space, all brick and concrete, with lots of light and air in which to spread out to live and create. Big areas [...] in which we would work and generate ideas and hang out and relax."
Zoe I love how you put words together! :)
In spite of not being an enormous industrial feeling space (requiring a LOT of heating, she thought practically) it does however achieve being a place in which I and other creative types hang out and create :) Several such sessions are in previous posts, but there are heaps more.

 But first some crazy ceiling shots to show how interesting this space is still. This one shows the skylight over the stairs and a glimpse of my costumes rack (shrouded in a white sheet to protect it from fading)

 Same view, different angle. I think our ceiling at its highest would be 6m.

 This is where the ceiling drops to accommodate the upstairs space.

 The stairway to (sewists') heaven!

BAAAD photo! This space is 6m by 4m at least, but with the DH lurking around on the computer in his dressing gown, and the place being a tip right now, I can't get a good all encompassing shot. But I have 4 tall cupboards for stash, lots of shelves for, umm, more stash, lots of bookshelves, and two big sewing tables so at least three of us can set up machines. A quilter's envy; design wall big enough to take a queen size quilt, the "big computer" and its desk (where I am now) and windows on three sides with views over the rooftops of one of the funkiest parts of town!
So, it is pretty darn fabulous. And I fought for it! :)
Like Zoe, a part of me yearns for the big industrial space to live, work and create in. But for now, I am chuffed as ever to finally have a home that works for us on almost every level, at a price we could afford. And I wish the same for you, Zoe, and every other creative soul working away on the dining table or in a dark nook somewhere :)

Taking the plunge, at last...

I know I am meant to be getting on with my velvet frock coat, but I tried last night and even with company, I just couldn't summon my muse. So, instead I made something we have needed for ages. Cold second cups of coffee, no more! I have at last made a coffee plunger cosy for us!

 Isn't she magnifique! I've never made a crazy patch one before. It took AGES. Bits of trim, buttons and several gold and beige fabrics later, here it is. Umm, except I haven't sewn any velcro onto it yet. hence the blue pins.

 

From the other angle. I LOVE the pewter frogging trim on this side. I have acres of it - it was pretty expensive for a stash rehash, but the quality is amazing and it just keeps on giving. Here it is making excellent Regency hairstyling. And here is the black velvet trim with the diamond criss crosses gracing the edges of the famous Laurel gown.

And here she is with her bestie, the tea cosy. I made the teacosy for last year's Christmas fair, and it didn't sell so I commandeered it, as it was just so much nicer than the one fabric one I originally made for us.
The thing is, I don't often make something for my home - I take the things that don't sell, the leftovers. Now as I rarely make something I don't LOVE, this is not a big deal, but it was nice to start a project like this knowing it was going to be for us from the beginning. Especially one with so many nice memories of projects shared with friends :)

Apartment pics at last!

It's only taken me since Thanksgiving to post these photos, which MrC took on the morning of the dinner, hence some rather random elements sitting around.

 The bedroom. Love our chandelier, which is the granddaddy of the one we had in our last bedroom. I looked at heaps of styles but this one won my heart again. Not sure if you can see the toile du jouy fabric of our curtains properly. I LOVE it. Our bedroom was entirely white when we got it, with a broken navy roman blind. Its new look gives me much joy!

 The living area, dining room end. A tantalising glimpse of my gorgeous paisley curtains!

Curtains closed and close up. I LOVE this fabric. It's so OTT having it floor to ceiling. But hey, if the shoe fits...;-)

 Other end of the living room. The somewhat odd formation of chairs was just part of preparing for 11 guests.

 Kitchen. Love the wallpaper I found for the bench, which used to be the same pumpkiny colour as the cupboards. The big red cupboard on the far right houses our fridge (facing towards the kitchen) and transformed my life! Suddenly I have a big cupboard above, the skinny one behind and there are places to put things away. Yay! That's me in the kitchen preparing to feed people. Yum.

Oh no!! We've been done over! No, actually, that's about typical for upstairs. It's a creative space and chaos is its natural state ;-)

Why so quiet?

So much to share, so much to show off! The apartment is looking gorgeous and I've got a quilt, some presents and all kinds of other things to show. HOWEVER, our camera is nearly flat and can we find the charger? No we can't! So, I have finally given up and bought a new one. When it arrives and the camera is ready to roll again, I promise to be more interesting.
It's the award ceremony for the Plain English Awards tomorrow night. I've got my frock sorted out, still not sure what to do with the hair though. Luckily I am on stage for the first two awards only, so I can get it over and done with, and enjoy the rest of the night. :)

My excuse!

We're moved. That was the easy bit. Unpacking all the boxes is the hard part!

This end of the living room is even worse than the one I am flaked out in! (MrC is taking photos from the stairs)

The studio is so solid with boxes, I can't imagine ever being able to sew in it.

The funny thing is that the amount of boxes totally overrepresents the amount of our stuff - the packers use so much paper and bubble wrap, each box is easily a third just that.

mind you many of the boxes in this last pic are fabric and things that don't break and are chocka. Hmm.

Anyway, am I excused for not being a good little blogger?!

I'm still here!

Sorry my devoted readers, to neglect you for so long. Life has been...textural...lately.
Best news is that we are now the proud owners of one gorgeous inner city apartment, converted from 1920's warehouse and with covered parking. All miracles. The complementary news is that we are soon not to be the owners of our lovely townhouse, and the upshot of course is that the contents of House B need to be moved to Apartment A, but not before the contents of House B have been scrutinised for ongoing relevance in our downsized life, and dispatched to new homes, hopefully occasionally with shekels changing hands.
So, because I have gorgeous photos taken for online listing, I am devoting this post to House B. It is not its fault that it is too far and uphill from the city. We will miss the tuis singing in the trees, the quiet and peace and loveliness of its setting.

This is our front view. We fell in love with the cute cottageyness of the place

Sunspots through the cabbage tree - MrC gets artistic :)

I love this view from our landing down into the front hall. The long interior window is all that is left of the original and unnecessary kitchen door. Reclaiming the space allowed the magic to happen within.

Our dining area with the famous WLW (World's loudest wallpaper). I like this is as it shows the library dresser my Dad made, the chest I painted and the chair I had powder-coated and recovered, twice now.

The other end, living room. It is bigger than it looks but it is not big.

You've seen this room even if you don't realise it - it used to be my studio. Who'd have guessed that under all those cupboards and shelves there lurked a tranquil, tasteful master bedroom? I am very proud of this bed - it is a blow up queen mattress balanced on a bookcase lying on its back, still full of books. Anyone sitting on it would have ended up on the floor with a duvet flung over their head hehehe.

Ironically, the new owners are running their business for this room and they are in the sewing machine business!

The inner sanctum - our room. You can't properly see our dear little chandelier. I love the curtains in this room, the fabric is so William Morris and it was a bargain from D Alexanders back when Doug was still there *sob sob*. Still, party of the fun of a new place is choosing new stuff. And I've already done most of that!

the view UP from the landing to the upstairs. Our room to the right, bath straight ahead, spare room to the left. It shows off the lovely paintings my M-i-L gave us as a wedding present. I had them framed and the Chinese couple who own the framers were amazed a westerner wanted gold mounting. But it suits the style :)

So, that's what we're giving up. when I get some good photos of Apartment A, I will post. It is about to get a semi makeover so that should be interesting!