red_swirl

Hey, I can show you a finished object first, talk about it later, can't I? Yup? Yup.

*FO, an acronym I've never pronounced. I'm saying it here, just for fun and also because it's been so long since I finished something.

Posted by red swirl at 16:59 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Begin as you mean to go on ... ummm, right. I hope not, I'm moving back to 2007 if this keeps up. For a start, the neighbours 4 doors down have set fire to their house twice so far this week - a dangerous thing to do, in an Australian summer. No injuries, which is good. And, yeah, in less important news, none of my crafting is turning out how I'd like.

I've realised I blogged very few finished projects last year. Yup, you guessed right, I hardly finished anything. I started quite a bit, but really, do you want to read about the 3 half scarves I made with the same wool? Hmm. Actually, I'm thinking I'd have more to say if I wrote that sort of stuff...

Anyway, I have been sewing, I now have 3 unfinished practice garments. All highly unflattering, so I'm not showing.

A Shari, after which I decided the style isn't for me: the narrow V neck and wide skirt succeed in hiding my best features. A Celestina, which definitely needs a FBA, which I've been avoiding learning how to do. I'm not sure why I feel self-conscious about needing one, actually I feel a bit embarrassed I need any pattern changes.

And a BWOF 2007-01-111 skirt. It's a good style for me, or so I reckon after spending a day trying on but not buying skirts in the sales. But I'm not a size 44 (currently). There aren't any side seems, so I tried to short-cut and just add an inch centre front & back, but when I sewed it up, it was obviously dodgy. Hmm. So I'm stuck with what to do next.

If I were in a Pollyanna-mood, the title of this post would have been "Feel the fear but ... or whatever the crappy* slogan is". On the plus side, my machine can sew a double layer of upholstery fabric (pictured). Which I had kinda doubted seeing as it is a beginner-ill-informed-purchase Singer. And my topstitching is slowly improving. And I did retrieve the situation after jamming the needle in the down position so hard I had to cut the fabric free, take the metal bobbin casing out, wiggle the needle out down through the bobbin area, and remove the other metal bit that makes the needle's thread go round (red in the animation here) and put it all back together and fix all the tension issues this created. Which is actually rather a minus, not a plus? But I'm including it so another total beginner can read it in a few month's time and be inspired by how far I've progressed ;)

*Crappy: every time an ad comes on during the cricket or tennis, I tell Big Sis "don't bother watching this, it's just a crappy ad. They only have ads for things people don't normally want to buy". She's now asking me "Is this a crappy ad, Mum?" And she's right, at 2 and a half.

Posted by red swirl at 15:24 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Happy New Year!!

The three kings, or three wise men or the travelling men (from Little Owl and the Star).

"We three kings ..." is one of my favourite carols, the words are really interesting, particularly if you sing through all the verses explaining the significance of the gifts and of Christmas.

Collaged again from old cards, 2003.

Posted by red swirl at 10:25 | Permalink | Comments (0)