Bias cut t-shirt with dolman sleeves

I made this t-shirt over the weekend with a pattern I drew up myself. I traced the outline of one of my t-shirts onto paper and made the sleeves into dolman sleeves. The front and back are the same, except that the front neckline is slightly lower. Instead of having a plain hemline at the bottom, I scalloped the sides.














The fabric is heavyweight cotton knit with terry-towelling backing. I was actually looking for a plain red-and-white stripe jersey when I saw this horizontal striped fabric in the bargain box. Normally I don't go for rugby stripes but since it was cheap ($4/metre, 150cm wide), I decided to make a bias cut top to accentuate the stripes.

Playing House: Contemporary Dolls' Houses 1957-2007

Today I went to a dollhouse exhibition at the Canberra Museum & Gallery. The items on display belong to miniature enthusiast Anna-Maria Svlatko.
















My favourite one is the Mod House, designed by US company Kaleidoscope.















I was also suprised by the amount of detail and workmanship put into the furniture.
Some chairs were replicas of designer furniture.

Tonight's dinner

Pan fried haloumi cheese sprinkled with lime juice. Canned salad (canned tomatoes, canned butter beans, canned peas) with extra virgin olive oil and oregano dressing - my own recipe. Fresh cucumber (leftovers from another dish).

Normally I soak the cheese in water to reduce the saltiness but this is a late dinner and I was too hungry to be bothered.

Sewing aftermath

My carpet floor after sewing that blue jacket.

Artsound Open Day

Artsound radio station had their annual open day today, so I went along to check it out. It was great weather for a BBQ and live jazz performances, and I wore my new jacket that I finished sewing yesterday.

One of the presenters took us on a short guided tour which was interesting because I'd never been inside a radio station before. He told us some interesting factoids about the Artsound premises (well, interesting to me because I don't work in the media). All the studios are identically set up, right down to the chair and desk layout, so that presenters can continue their show in another studio if equipment breaks down.

Artsound also broadcasts 24/7 so there's a music server that will automatically start playing a default track list if programs can't be broadcast. We also went inside the recording studio (Artsound started this service so that local musicians and students didn't have to travel all the way to Sydney to record their work), where the walls and ceiling jut out at crazy angles to divert echoes into the floor.

After listening to a jazz ensemble and a South American folk music group, I went to an exhibition inside the PhotoAccess gallery, which is next door to the Artsound studios. I came in just in time for some cheese and crackers and the launch of Residue, an exhibition by sisters Holly and Valentina Schulte. They had some very striking photos of inner-city and suburban buildings.


I also found a vintage Polaroid on the counter. I wonder if it doubles up as a camouflaged surveillance camera.

Cotton jacket

I've just finished sewing a jacket that I started at the beginning of this month. It's
a Burda magazine pattern from February. It's made from canvas-weight stretch cotton drill. The seams are covered with bias binding and the sleeves are lined with contrast polyester bemsilk.























I chose this pattern because I liked the asymmetric front closure. To make the design more streamlined, I removed the horizontal pleats across the chest, omitted the extra row of buttons along the front, and replaced the gathered pockets with pleated ones. I also removed the sleeve cuffs and added epaulettes to the shoulders.

Unfortunately this jacket doesn't fit me properly anymore because I've dropped a dress size since I made the toile last month. I'm certainly not complaining about that but the jacket is baggy around the upper waist area because the front darts don't sit properly anymore. It's too troublesome to fix because I'd have to remove the bias-binding, the pockets and the sleeves; re-position and widen the darts; take in the side seams; then re-attach the pockets, sleeves and binding. I'll stick with taking in the side seams as much as I can.

Extra virgin olive oil

This is extra virgin olive oil from Greece. I only use extra virgin oil because of the strong taste. As you can see, this one is green which I wasn't expecting - the bottle is also green so I couldn't see the colour when I bought it. The oil that I previously tried (also from Greece) was dark yellow. Both are delicious, especially with a few drops of raspberry vinegar which I enjoying eating with bread, but this one has a slight bitter aftertaste.

Handmade market

Last weekend I braved the horrible afternoon weather to visit the Handmade Market. Although I didn't end up buying anything, there were a lot of unique handcrafted items that were interesting. I particularly liked some of the wooden/acrylic jewelry and Amy Butler fabric bags but decided not to splurge because I couldn't think of any coordinates in my wardrobe. Oh well, there's always the next market in February.

Houseproud - not!

When I'm sewing, I don't like to do anything else. That includes cleaning and putting things away. With projects involving sewing or computers, I need to work very intensely and continuously until I'm physically unable to continue - I don't like to stop and start, stop and start.

As a result, this is the current state of my loungeroom:


Note: That white lump in front of the window is a Burda World of Fashion pattern sheet that I used for a jacket pattern. I stick it to the window and use the natural light to help me trace it onto plain paper.

CSS in progress

I never quite got the hang of CSS (cascading style sheets). This blog layout needs an overhaul.