A break from the mundane - rally driving!

Last September, I bought Chris a voucher for a rally drive experience for his 30th birthday. It was great to finally use the voucher, to get away from the mundane for a few hours. By an amazing stroke of luck, today was beautifully sunny and warm. Driving in the wet may have been a bit too intense for a novice!

Rally Drive NZ were well-organised, and safety was clearly a key priority. That said, there weren't any unnecessarily stifling restrictions on spectators or photography, so I joined the cheerful crowd at the start/finish line.

Vogue 8831 - good basic with great potential

First - thanks for all your support on my last post. I'm not going to let things get me down! We will prevail!

Moving on... it's no secret that I LOVE cup-sized patterns. I'm still not too confident in my alterations for a full bust, so I love it when the companies do the hard work for me. An added bonus is that there are now several basic patterns that come with cup sizes. I like the idea of starting with a basic pattern that fits, and adding style details to make it special.

Vogue 8831 is a princess-line tee, with cowl neck and sleeve/hem variations. I've made my first attempt in a cotton-lycra mix, reminiscent of leggings material. It's got great stretch and recovery, but it's nearly too firm to let the cowl drape properly.

Seams! Shaping! A basic t-shirt style that actually fits!

There isn't much to say about the construction process. The instructions are clear, and the drafting seems fine. I made the long sleeved version, which comes with a slight high-low hem. Not dramatic enough to be the dreaded mullet, but nicely shaped to cover one's butt if one were wearing leggings.

Where's my gut going? Oh yeah, it's disappearing at a very tiny rate of speed.

I chose to topstitch all the vertical seams, just because. The hems were sewn with a 2.5mm twin needle, with the stitch tension at just below 1.

The only kind of mullet that I don't find embarrassing to wear.

This top is destined to become a staple. I really like cowl necks, and the various sleeve and hem options keep it interesting. I can envisage another version in soft stretch velvet, or perhaps colour blocked with the cowl and central sections in a different colour.

Would you rather have several of the same top (that fits well) in different colours, or try something new and different each time (with the higher possibility of things fitting imperfectly)?

This is not a fun post

Don't worry, nobody is dying and I'm not going anywhere. But we found out this week that Chris and his workmates have a high probability of losing their jobs in the near future. Pretty much all of them.

New Zealand is a small country. This essentially means his field of work (aircraft engineering) will not exist here in any substantial way. The career he has studied for and worked in since he was a teenager, gone. Hundreds of engineers searching for the few small pieces of contract work that will be available.

There are very, very few jobs in aircraft engineering in Australia, either. Like the garment industry, it's now cheaper to outsource to Asia - never mind the skills of the workers, or fair pay and conditions.

We haven't decided what to do yet. There probably is nothing that we can do, other than save our pennies! It's much too early to know what Chris is going to do if the work does indeed run out. I feel awful for him - I can't imagine how I'd feel if civil engineering was no longer a career in this country.

I just wanted to let you all know what is going on. I'm not writing this to elicit a thousand sympathetic responses, or career-change advice. Being entertained and distracted by your blogs is more than enough. I greatly appreciate your work!

Thank you all for being inspiring people and wonderful friends.

Muslin muslin muslin

I've thought about the word 'muslin' so many times that it has lost all meaning.

Normally, I use a combination of tissue fitting (a la Fit For Real People) and winging it. But this dress is going to be made of nice materials, so it requires less 'winging it' and more actual effort. Fit For Real People is great, but I think large adjustments are more accurate on the fabric.

Significant alterations required at the top of the bust!

Warning: bra and undies photos below the break!

Hard-won sewing tip #1: Quality Hardware

Good hardware and quality haberdashery won't solve your life's problems, but they will prevent a bit of heartache.

What happened?

I had a denim tragedy. I'd made a beautiful pair of jeans, which is a large investment of time (because I'm slow). As I tried them on to photograph them... the zip pull disintegrated. After some tears, I unpicked the zip. Then I hand-sewed in another higher quality zip. The fly will never look quite right.

It's just not the same.

The zip I originally used was a no-name special. It wasn't particularly cheap in price, but it also wasn't a YKK or RTW-style zip. Yes, other cheap zips have been successful. But would this one have failed, if I bought a proper brand to begin with? Less likely, I think.

What's the solution?

Using the powers of Google, I bought about 20 YKK zippers from ZipperStop for about $50 including shipping. Brilliant! This is both cheaper than Spotlight, and less likely to end in disaster.

In summary: quality hardware and haberdashery reduce the risk of failure.


This lesson is not limited to zips. If your thread keeps breaking or shredding, and getting messed up in your machine... try a higher quality thread. I have few problems with Gutermann or Metrosene. Cheap elastic tends to lose its stretch. And fabric with a high polyester percentage seems to pill and fray quicker.

Don't let your materials spoil your hard work! I think it's better to have one hard-wearing pair of jeans than two cheaper ones that fall apart. Your time is invested in that sewing, too.