Congrats to Gertie.

I haven't been doing much sewing lately, but I have been lurking in the background.   That's not to say sewing hasn't been on my mind, I've been lurking behind the scenes reading blogs, reviews on pattern review and buying way too many patterns on-line.  The $1.99, $2.99 & $3.99 pattern sales from club BMV hook me in every time!

Many of you bloggers out there have heard of Gertie from Gertie's Blog for Better Sewing.  Today she announced her new book;   Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing: A Modern Guide to Couture-Style Sewing Using Basic Vintage Techniques.    I've been following Gertie's blog for a couple of years now and I'm excited to hear her new book is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com (and also Amazon.ca).  I placed my pre-order.  Now's the tough part, waiting for September.

For those of you on Pintrest, I've started a Sewing Pin Board.  You can follow me Here.

Happy Sewing!

Fantastic Bloggers

I spent alot of time this month reading all the fantastic blogs out there.   Some blogs of note that I wanted to highlight are as follows:

http://petitmainsauvage.blogspot.com/. A great inspiration, especially since many of her creations are self drafted.  This week she posted a tutorial on how to take a basic t-shirt pattern and convert it to a cowl neck pattern.  You can find the tutorial here.

http://remnantremains.blogspot.com/ took advantage of the Leleka free patterns download that I blogged about last month and there are some examples of her creations on her blog.  Leleka top and Skirt

At the blog, Patterns, Scissors, Cloth you can find step by step tutorials Here's an example; tricks of the trade.  A great step by step tutorials with photos taken throughout the process.
Carolyn took her creativity one step further and shows us six different ways of wearing her self stitched creation.  She certainly made me stop and begin to "think out of the box" when she took a top she created a while back and blended it with existing wardrobe pieces to create six signature outfits.   Great job Carolyn, I admire your creativity.

Sue at QuiltSewSue has taken two hobbies sewing and working out at the gym.  Check out her post where she shows off her great new skort from a Jalie Pattern 2796

Being a pattern junkie myself, I really enjoy the commentaries on http://patternaholic.blogspot.com/.   I get flooded with memories of learning to sew whenever she posts patterns from the 70's

To all you sewing boggers out there, keep on sewing and keep on sharing

More Creativity Unleashed

In August, I wrote a post about creative bloggers.  The trend continues, I've come across more great bloggers with wonderful tutorials. 

1. Feeling the need to be Antropologie ruffly chic, here's a tutorial of a ruffled chiffon scarf. 
2. How about some new life for an old denim skirt. 
3. his one is for a laptop bag, but could easily be adjusted for to make a tote bag as well.  
4. I'm seeing lots of refashioned t-shirts and this one has a nice girly touch. 
5. And, how many times have you had a wrap top, that just lets "the girls" pop!  Well here's a tutorial for inserting a modesty panel.  
6. How about being proud of your creations and designing your own labels.  Kristy at Lower Your Presser Foot has some instructions on how to create your own custom labels. 
7. Check out this darling shirt makeover,  
8. And, I never even thought to check out Ikea for fabric, maybe it's just and Australian thing, or perhaps I just haven't been paying attention when shopping at Ikea.

Another wow and a great big thank you to all the bloggers out there!

Busy times...no sewing

Ever have one of those time periods where you spend alot of time on sewing related tasks but you never actually do any sewing. For the past two weeks I've been reading sewing books, perusing the latest issues of Vogue Patterns and Burda Style and checking out everyone else's projects on various sewing blogs. Getting lots of inspiration, but not alot of sewing going on.

I am particularly inspired by a number of bloggers who are into vintage sewing. It's amazing to see patterns of the past adapted to today's looks. http://25dollarvintage.blogspot.com/ is one of the bloggers I've stumbled across. I love how she creates retro garments, all for less than $25.00. At the Pins and Needles blog http://scpbanks.blogspot.com/ I oohed and aahed at the great vintage shirt project http://scpbanks.blogspot.com/search/label/Great%20Vintage%20Shirt%20Project. It never ceases to amaze me the amount of talent there is out here in blog land.

Another contributing factor to my lack of sewing has been the fact that I haven't been home much. After getting back from Spain, we had a few days at home and then we headed out to British Columbia for a family reunion. For me it wasn't really a "reunion" as there were a number of cousins that I met for the first time (that is if you don't count meeting via Facebook). We had a great time and even had the opportunity to climb the family mountain...you know you've married a hillbilly when the family has their own mountain. After that we headed out to St John's Newfoundland, and then back to Alberta where we spent some time hiking in Banff.

The coming weeks look equally busy. Mid August I'm walking the Reykjavik Marathon in Iceland and I'm also headed to Toronto for a business trip at the end of July. I hear there's some great fabric stores in the garment district of Toronto. If anyone in blog land has any recommendations, let me know.

Happy Sewing!!
Christiana

No Sewing

Well not much progress on the sewing front. Work has been keeping me away from my sewing room...very far away. First Vancouver, then Winnipeg and this week Toronto. The time away has allowed me to catch up on other blogs and I must say there's a lot of great sewing blogs out there. YIPPEE....the art of sewing is still alive.

I also discovered the pattern review site http://sewing.patternreview.com/ Loads of great information, one can spend days there...

Cheers!
Christiana