A small present

A friend is having a birthday soon and I was very unsure what to do for her.  Eventually I settled on machine embroidered pillow cases.  Using two of her favourite colours I came up with these.

I used the Singer 306 again because of its interchangeably cams.  It was actually remarkably well behaved.  It really didn't like the downward triangles but I had some lightweight interfacing underneath and that helped.

Downward triangles, or upward I suppose if turned up the other way!

I think perhaps I need to play with the tension a bit more but it worked and that's all I'm concerned about!

Oooohhhh tension!

These were really rather neat, I quite liked them.

This has to be one of the more interesting renditions of sideways triangles...

A close up of the cam on the Singer 306

The beautiful Singer 306

The Singer 306 has to be one of the most beautiful machines, in my opinion anyway!  I know a lot of people don't like them and to be truly honest if I'm not feeling patient I prefer not to use them.  They take a shorter needle than your standard sewing machine and have a front loading full-rotary bobbin.  The timing on these machines seems to slip quite easily and unless they are perfectly timed they go from difficult to impossible.  Unless you are sewing slightly rigid, heavy weight, woven material at exactly the right speed they are likely to skip stitches quite frequently, no amount of anything seems to completely rid them of this trait.  I found through testing with my 206 (the pre-cursor to the 306) that they like a spotless and well oiled bobbin and foot area.  Changing the bobbin (which by the way, is flatter than your standard bobbin!) requires you to tilt the machine backwards in its box or stand, no mean feat considering the weight of a 206!  However the one-piece throat-plate is handy because there is little for your thread or material to catch in.  I totally love the zig-zag and needle position adjuster knob though, I've always found it fascinating.  The final catch with these machines is that internally they have a 'cloth' belt which apparently is not particularly robust although in my three they are fine.  I have found a lot of more modern machines use these crimped belts as well but I suspect they may be stronger than the ones used in the 206/306/319 clan.  If sourcing bobbins and needles for these machines is difficult there are a few solutions.  You can re-time the machine to take standard sewing machine needles, some people disagree with this but my 206 is re-timed and works fine.  The machines will sew with standard metal Husqvarna bobbins although they won't wind them.  I buy the Husqvarna bobbins and wind them on a stand-alone bobbin winder, it's easier.  If someone is offering you one of the clan I would say yes and have fun going completely barmy!  They are great if you have patience!  When they're good they're very, very good but when they're bad they're horrid!

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside.....

Some more sea-side pictures today.  The only thing this weather is fit for is swimming!  Although Shirley has found a new occupation in singing to the air-conditioner and whatever music I am listening to.

I'll finish with a slightly appropriate song from Queen.

Queen - Seven Seas of Rhye

An Oldie but a .......Goodie..??

A while ago ( and it was a while ago, when I first started using the 206 as my go-to machine) I made this skirt.

 I liked it, even if it was a little odd because I made it up as I went.......wrong usually!  First time I just stitched the purple broadcloth pieces together and I couldn't get into it so I found some garish quilting material and made pleated side panels and matching waist-band.  I liked it, it was colourful and I love colourful (think Freddie Mercury, Shirley Strachan, Elton John...) but sadly almost everyone else was stuck for something nice to say about it.  I suddenly decided yesterday, what the heck, I was going to wear it out anyway.  So being me, instead of pairing it with plain top and shoes I created this outfit:

Yes I know, just laugh quietly will you?

We are forecast more warm weather this coming week but here are some pictures I took the week before last.

Below are some images of the three 'colourful' mentioned above, in some of their more interesting costumes.

From 'It's A Hard Life', one of my favourite Queen's.

One of Shirl's more interesting, if not better clad, costumes.

And I'm off for another bout of tidying up.....ooohhhh I hate it!

I'm Back....Kind Of

Sorry for my long absence I have been helping my Father.  Things should be settling down now and hopefully I should be able to get back to usual blogging soon.  In other news I have finished the galactic satin dress.  I'm not 100% happy with it but I will post pictures.  In the meantime I'll leave this, one of my favourite songs.

Sea-side

It is hot here.  42 degrees C + for the next dew days.  Today there was a thunderstorm in the afternoon.  Here are some photos from the beach.  At the beach it was cool, overcast, noisy, wet, raining, beautiful.....

The clouds were heavy.....

....the tide was coming in....

.....the waves were fast and furious....

....there were some brave swimmers....

...and unwary photographers got wet!

There was a thunderstorm whilst we were there and some spectacular lightening.  Unfortunately pictures of the lightening eluded me.  A lovely evening!

The Finished Blue Dress

Finally, pictures of the finished blue dress.  I'm afraid the model always looks most unfriendly and she has a very interesting stance.  It makes the dress look boxy and rise at the shoulders.

From the front

From the side

Close side

From the back

Close front.

I am still working on the satin dress, it is driving me insane but I am slowly getting there!

Starting Simplicity 1777

I have started the Galactic Satin Dress.  I am making Simplicity 1777 with the contrasting panel and long sleeves.

I decided to change machines and use the Borletti to make this.  I have to say I wish I had stuck to the Necchi!  The Borletti is very sleek and even comes with cams but I think the thread is getting caught somewhere and there seems also to be a bit of a lack of speed control.  I don't remember having either of those problems last time I sewed with that machine but maybe I've just got more finicky.

Finally an overview of the Galactic satin.

Maybe if I get time tomorrow I will post some construction details for it.  The satin is sliding all over the place and absolutely nothing is staying lined up for more than approximately a second, I think I'm going insane trying to get seams the same length!  I've also managed to upset my overlocker tonight, something I will hopefully be able to resolve tomorrow morning when I'm not so tired!

New Material

I'm not sure what it is about buying new material but I always want to make something with it!  Fortunately I bought material for a project yesterday so I am definitely making something.  It is for a dress for my sister, I will post the dress pattern later, I will be making it in a size 12 and satin, I am a devil for punishment!  The satin is called Galactic Satin and it is easy to see why!

The contrasting section of the dress will be in green satin, as shown together below.

The colours aren't quite displaying correctly in these photographs.

I also saw this fabric yesterday and although I had no immediate plans for it, I bought it.  I mean, how could I resist??  There was only 1.45 metres left on the roll and I had the lot, I'm thinking a shirt, or perhaps a skirt.....

New Years Day

Was hopefully a sign of the year to come!  It rained, quite heavily, in the middle of summer!  I love the rain, the smell of it, the fresh feeling everything has afterwards and the water.  The downside is everything is very dark and my camera does not like the dark.  I took a few photos though, all delightfully wet.

An update on the blue dress: it is finished and I'm not going to make a belt.  I am hoping to borrow a model from work to model it, stay tuned!

Blue Dress

The blue dress is almost finished.  I will try and do a proper shoot of this dress to post.  I found the instructions slightly difficult to understand and ended up totally altering how I inserted the zip as I considered their method messy.  Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of the construction of the outer bodice and there are only limited pictures of the lining.

The facing stitched to the lining.

The outer bodice stitched to lining at the slit.

The collar stitched to bodice but not slip-stitched down.

Finished collar

Each sleeve had three darts at the elbow.

The sleeves were eased in and then double stitched.

I hand-stitched the hems on the sleeves.

I ended up folding the seam allowance of the lining to the inside and machine stitching the zip to it.  I then carefully folded the upper seam allowance inside and stab stitched over the zip.

Finished zip, I think it looks neater than it would have the other way which was to fold the seam allowance of both the lining and the upper to the right side of the lining and machine stitch, I did half and it looked awful so I unpicked it.  I've hemmed the skirt upper and only have the lining and a belt to make now.  I wasn't going to bother with a belt but when I tried it on my sister told me it looked like a nightdress so I thought a belt might improve it!