Post Paris PowWow

I had the pleasure of going to London and Paris last month to visit two very special friends; one who is living and working in London (and having a WHALE of a time) and another who is currently working in Seoul but was invited to a conference in Paris - fancy!


I had a wonderful time with two very old and very dear friends who I can't wait to see again :)
We're planning for South America at the end of next year if you're interested in joining us :)

Anyway prior to leaving home I went on a sewing frenzy (I had NOTHING to wear)!!

The first thing I made was this fun pink waist coat type thing. I added the ribbon trim around the edges but wore it once before deciding I didn't like it so I unpicked it and redid it along the top seams, looks much better that way :)

Next up was this dress (which admittedly I didn't take with to Europe but it was cluttering up my sewing room and needed to be made into something.


I bought the material for the skirt last year from my favourite place in Wynberg. 
It's a lovely lightweight knit that has gorgeous texture.


The top I got from my sister last year for Christmas. She got it from Mr P. It had elastic at the bottom which I really didn't like so I cut it off and made this dress.


The dress is a bit more 'African' than my usual style which might be why I haven't worn it yet, but I'm sure I will soon :)

This is a gorgeous little jersey that I made for myself. I particularly love it because I got the material from my favourite shop in Wynberg and it was remnants which were weighed by the kilogram and came to under R10!!!  LOVE LOVE LOVE a bargain :)

It's not the best quality tho and is wearing quite badly - although to be fair I have worn it ALOT this winter :)

Ahhh the infamous black coat! This thing took FOREVER to make. I got the material from my usual shop (it's apholstery) The lining I got my da Gama and the buttons are from Jaks. I seriously love this coat but it is so warm that I most likely will never get another chance to wear it again. This poor coat got plenty of wear overseas though, I even dropped it under a train and it had to get hoisted up by the Conductor using a rubbish picker upper thing!!! There was a crowd of onlookers - it was so embarrassing!

These are various other tops I made, as you can see most of them are from the same pattern!!!

 This one was a disaster and fits terribly!! (below) I have plans to recycle it into something actually wearable but haven't actually got there yet.

And last but not least my most impressive creation :)

I wanted to make a toiletry bag because they're really expensive to buy and I'm just too cheap to spend that kind of money. So I experimented a bit with the shape and came up with this design. It works really well and I love it :)
 

It folds up like this and travels really compactly :)

the Weekender

In my recent spurt of productivity I made this lovely little jersey which is very hippyish. I love it :)
It's got a wide neck and a flared sleeve which is a bit clumsy sometimes but I'm still very happy with it.


Next I made this animal print work slip on - I'm going through a VERY animal print phase at the moment and just can't get enough of this material. I've bought another piece of it but haven't decided what do to with it yet so I am using it as a scarf and pillow on my day bed w=when I nap - hahahahahaha.

My sis got me this floral material from my favourite shop in Cape Town. I'm not mad about it but it's very difficult to decide to get it when she's sighing on the phone and saying "there's a stretchyish cotton with flowers on it, do you want it?" I always just say Yes because it's so cheap and I can always do something with it. Plus she sort of knows my style and she has semi decent taste so I trust her...sort of :)

the beloved little sis also bought me this lace which I really like and had for ages before I actually did anything with. This is just a little lace top to wear underneath things that are too short or whatever.

20 Sept 2011

It's been a while for which I apologise.

I went on a sewing break because I was wrestling with the DREADED black coat that I decided on a whim to make.

It took AGES!! And completely put me off sewing for a while, luckily I am back with a BANG :)

This is my favourite thing that I've made recently.

It's an infinity scarf, I found the idea on Pinterest (my current fav site) but adapted it to suit my fabric et voila :)

I tied the tape around the scarf where I had sewn it together just to tidy it up. The original plan had been to hand stitch it on but that was way to much of a hassle, hahahaha
Absolutely LOVE this scarf and, if I do say so myself, it looks great on :)

Next I made this work top which is out of a gorgeous crushed material which, as a bonus, I also don't have to iron :)

Bits and Pieces

So I've finished making my vodka concoctions, not exactly what you'd call a resounding success but fun never the less :) I strained the lemon rind after having soaked it for about a week, they were all anaemic: 

And now it looks all lovely like this:

It's VERY lemony and VERY potent, we diluted some with Sprite and it was great!

The grapefruit concoction was less of a success, it's crazy bitter and almost impossible to drink even in the smallest quantity. My sister, Tarryn, volunteered to take it to hockey and feed it to the girls there on their Fines Evening (where people get fined, normally a gross drink that they have to drink for doing something funny/strange/weird during the season...like I dunno maybe BREAKING an opposing team members finger or something - you know who you are!!) but I have a feeling that one of my favourite friends, Zoe who loves G & T, might enjoy it so I'm gonna store it for her until she FINALLY gets back from Korea in August.

Speaking of favourite friends another one bought me this gorgeous egg stand from the UK but since I'm not much of an egg eater I put it to much prettier use and now it stores all my bits and pieces of lace :) thanks Lise!!

it's my life

So I've finally set up a blog to show the world what I do. No idea if anyone will actually be interested but here we go :)
My parents just got back from a month on Italy and regaled us with tales of exploits and new tasty food.
And at the same time we got a monster crop of lemons from our farm...hence the only right thing to do was to make limoncello :)

I grated the rind of 4 lemons into a large mason jar (loving them right now) and added a bottle of cheapish vodka (I'm so stingy I couldn't bring myself to buy an expensive bottle) and let them marinate for a week. The vodka turned this lovely yellow colour and the lemon rind sort of went all  pale and pastey - how interesting! So the next step is to make a syrup of water and sugar and them add it to the vodka (having strained it first of course!) I'll keep you updated on the progress :)
With the left over lemons I made a wonderful homemade lemonade which I enjoyed so much it was half finished before I even had a chance to take a pic :)

 Also from the farm we got some lovely grapefruit which I am making a grapefruit-infused vodka with which I've never made before but hold thumbs :)