Does she look like a dog with a bucket on its head?

I’ve been looking for a hat pattern: I wear hats a lot, and have trouble finding them to fit my rather big head.  Seems like the perfect excuse for a sewing project, but have been pretty disappointed with the offerings from the major pattern companies.   This hat makes the model look like a Labrador with a bucket on its head to prevent head scratching.  We used to have a Labrador that was prone to skin infections behind his ears, and every so often, after a visit to the vest, we would have to put a doctored bucket on him, and he would get exactly the same  mournful, yet slightly startled look on his face. For anyone who is after this image, the pattern is Vogue v7600.

Soozs did send me a “mud map” on how to make the hat she is wearing in this blog post, but for my first foray into hat making, I would like my hand held.  This morning, while looking around the blogs,  (and this one in particular) I came across Make it Perfect patterns, and within 10 minutes, had purchased the Lazy Day Hat pattern from Duckcloth.

No shipping fees, and she is sending it from Australia to Hong Kong! The new independent pattern companies are really showing up the older more established companies – the photos on the Make it Perfect site are gorgeous, and the patterns all look current.

After shopping, I also found this pattern at Nicole Mallalieu Design. Why haven’t I known about these pattern companies?  Thank-you blogosphere for bringing them to my attention.

How to ruin your wedding anniversary

Really mess with it, and not just for one year? Have a beautiful baby girl the day after it. Due to my medical history, we were obliged to choose a date for younger daughter’s birth, and I had no idea about how the birthday would overshadow our anniversary every year.

It would help if I was the kind of the person who didn’t leave present making, shopping and wrapping until the last minute, but I do.  In addition, the girls’ school has a “birthday walk” which requires me to print photos of every year of her life.  To celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary, my husband and I met at a major mall to pick up the photos, find the last pink iPod shuffle in Hong Kong, and find a birthday book.  I was insanely flustered, having finally finished the birthday dress. Apparently sewing can make me a little agitated. We then went home to wrap the birthday loot.  Not the most romantic of evenings…. We are off to dinner tonight to compensate.

So the birthday dress was finished in time, and apparently it is very good for twirling.

The birthday girl likes it, which is the most important thing. The zipper insertion was very hairy, given that I hadn’t done one in over 10 years.  There was a stage in my life where all sewing fashion choices were made based on whether zipper insertion was required.  In the past I have inserted zippers upside down, and back to front; sometimes in succession.  There has been swearing, grinding of teeth, and binning of projects. This time, I got the zipper in on the first go, but it is the bodgiest job I’ve ever seen (and would not survive my mother’s inspection). I wish that I had watched this video prior to the attempt.

Project specifications

Pattern: McCalls M4817 size 2-5

Fabric: Mystery cotton lawn bought in Singapore – possible from Spotlight

Alterations: The fabric was only 109 cm wide after washing and drying, so the bottom tier of the dress is a little (maybe 10 cm) narrower than specified in the pattern.  It doesn’t seem to suffer much for it. If I was making the size 5 again, I would make it about 5 cm longer to allow more growing room.  There is plenty of room around the chest.

The increased sewing that I have been doing of late has started me thinking about upgrading my machine.  My first machine was a second hand Bernina that my parents bought for me, in a sale of redundant machines  at the college where my mother worked.  I loved it, and it had excellent even stitches.  It died in a puff of smelly electrical smoke when I was frantically making a pair of maternity pants when pregnant with younger daughter.  We were visting New York in the middle of winter, and there were no winter maternity clothes available in Singapore for someone of my size.  The repair man laughed when he looked at the machine, and said that he could not get parts for a machine that was over 20 years old.

Panic shopping, I bought a Brother PX-200 on the first visit to a shop that sold sewing machines. For the price, it is an okay machine, but the stitches are only so-so, and the reverse is problematic, and the pedal seems to only understand two speeds: groaning, and superfast. Thoughts of new Bernina have been entering my mind, but man, they are expensive. I have not found a second hand sewing machine dealer in Hong Kong, but would be very happy to buy one if anyone has one? I’m also interested in recommendations of Bernina models for someone who is unlikely to quilt or do machine embroidery.  My interests are pretty much confined to garment sewing, so I am looking for a good even sewing stitch, reliable fabric feed, good easy buttonhole, excellent lighting, and a hard carry case that fits the manual and accessories in it.

Sewing is occupying more of my thoughts recently, I blame Project Runway and the recent release of some really cool patterns. Have you seen the Cynthia Rowley collection for Simplicity – I would wear everything in it, and am waiting for Simplicity to have a sale to go shopping. Don’t worry, I am still knitting, and am making steady progress on my small sized Icarus Shawl out of Roma.  I had not realised how much I would enjoy knitting with Baruffa Cashwool.

Sewing time

Sewing! Sewing! Sewing! The weather has warmed up here, and in the summer, a matron’s thoughts turn to fabric. Well, mine do, anyway.  Younger daughter requested a new dress for her 5th birthday, and requested the pattern above.  Given that she already has a dress made out of this pattern (made by my mother nearly 2 years ago), I was tried to persuade her of the benefits of another pattern, but apparently this is the best twirly dress pattern there is!  The fabric is some 100% cotton lawn that I bought somewhere in Singapore when we lived there 4 years ago.I am up against the clock on this one.  Younger daughter would like to wear the dress to her birthday party, which is on Saturday afternoon.  In between juggling yarn orders, updating the website, choosing new yarns to order and general household responsibilities, I am sewing this thing up.

The pattern requires a zipper, and unfortunately, I only know of one reliable retail zipper supplier in Hong Kong – Spotlight.  To get to Spotlight, I either endure a journey of over an hour on public transport, or tolls that cost 4 times the cost of the zipper.  I went with the tolls, and purchased a few little extras to make the journey worthwhile, including a hair ribbon that will match the dress perfectly.

There is another deadline that I face, the arrival of my mother on Friday night.  I have the blessing of having a mother who was a professional sewing teacher.  While obviously I enjoyed the benefit of learning at her knee, she is also cursed with what Estonians call “kana silm” – chicken’s eye.  “Kana silm” is the ability to detect an error or oversight at 10 paces, and if there are any flaws in the process of making this garment, I want them to be hidden as much as possible from my mother.  She will still be able to see most errors, but I won’t have the benefit of her picking up mistakes as I make them.

This project is also part of my process to summon the courage to cut the fabric below.  I bought this Tana Lawn at Liberty in 2007, and would love to wear it, but can not quite summon the ability to cut a pattern out.  Sewing is not like knitting – once the fabric is cut, irrevocable steps are taken.  I am planning to make New Look Pattern 6705 (the version in the photo) after seeing this version.

There is an other factor that should help fortify me to pick up the scissors.  Mysteriously, I won three separate auctions of Liberty fabric over the weekend, and will be taking delivery of 8.6 metres of Tana Lawn in three different patterns and colour ways soon. I was astonished not to be outbid, and only realised afterwards that the prices that I paid are very similar to the prices available from this online shop.While Tana Lawn is never going to be cheap, if you have to buy fabric over the internet, then at least you are assured of quality when you buy Liberty.  Being a woman who grew up in country Australia, my passion for Tana Lawn is probably predictable, but I can’t help myself.  It creates clothes that are wonderful to wear.

As for ordering new yarns, I’m contemplating more extra-fine merino, wool alpaca blends, and am feeling strangely drawn to a 90% merino 10% nylon feather yarn. It is so touchable, and feels like a cloud, but I am unsure if any hand dyers would buy it?

P.S.  I’m on Twitter as Travellersyarn, and have changed the sidebar to show my updates.

We have winners!

All in all, there were 161 comments before the deadline, and using this random number generator; the four winners are:

1. Comment 102, Susan, 2 skeins Koigu KPPPM P21481;
2. Comment 72, Soozs, 1 skein Schaefer Yarn Heather, Coretta Scott King;
3. Comment 108,  blogless Kelly R, Trekking XXL Colour 175, Lot 7428;
4. Comment 76, blogless Darja, Trekking XXL Colour 153, Lot 7637;

Thank-you everyone for participating, it has been heaps of fun for me, I really like receiving comments.  Each of the winners has received an email asking for their mailing address. I am off to Guangzhou for the day tomorrow, doing some more advanced yarn hunting.