All posts filed under: Miscellenia

What I did on my summer vacation

On Christmas day, sweltering in an unexpected heat wave, and waiting for news, Mr D’s cousin’s partner and I went for a walk along the tiny stream near the in-laws house, hoping to find a pool big enough to stand in to cool off. We found the perfect little pool, I was ankle-deep in heaven, I took a step forward, and discovered that the pool had another inhabitant, who also moved forward to protect its territory. There was a bit of an undiginified scramble out of the water but at least I managed to refrain from squealing. So what charged me? A New Zealand eel. There are two varieties of native eels in NZ – the longfin, found only in New Zealand, and the shortfin, which is also found in Australia and across the Pacific. Both are threatened due to loss of habitat and overfishing. The eels are pretty amazing creatures. They live to be over 100 years old, grow only a cm or two a year, and breed only once at the very end …

HSF Challenge 2: UFO – three ways to interpret it

Published by The Dreamstress

The first proper Historical Sew Fortnightly challenge is done – some amazing things were created, it’s so exciting! Mine is done but not quite photographed, so I’ll do that tomorrow and post about it Wednesday after the Rate the Dress. And then it’s time to work on the next one… The next challenge is UFO – Un-Finished Object. Use this opportunity to finish off something that’s never quite gotten done, or stalled halfway through. I’m finishing the Luna Moth frock: I thought this would be super easy, because I have so, so many UFOs to tackle. I assumed everyone else would have the same problem. I didn’t count on two things. To my absolute delight, there are a lot of seamstresses doing the HSF as their first introduction to historical sewing, so they don’t have any historical UFOs, and; Some of you are ridiculously organised and have no UFOs. I am so envious! If you fall into one of these two categories, fear not, I have a solution. There are three ways to interpret this …

Five for Friday: 2012 in Review

Published by The Dreamstress

Theresa asked me to write a post looking back at my Sew Weekly sewing, and Cation Designs did an awesome round-up of her 2012 sewing wins/losses + her goals for 2013. I have smushed the two together, for a look back at what I did best, what I did worst, and where I am going from here. Top five (non historical) favourites for 2012: The Butterick 8044 True Love Story ca. 1940 dress. I haven’t worn it that many times because the weather got too warm, but whenever I do I feel so special, and so gorgeous. The All About the Fabric dress. I wore it for Thanksgiving. I wore it for the Full Swing Christmas dance. I wore it for Christmas. I even wore it for Gran’s funeral. I get comments on it whenever I do. It’s different, and pretty, and very comfortable. The Capelet of Yay. I wear that capelet all the time. It’s taken the place of cardigans and scarves in my wardrobe, and is so much more interesting and sumptuous. The …