Dunnyruggers

The name has stuck. Pants made out of chenille are called 'Dunnyruggers'.

This pair has some pockets on the back made out of vintage sheets. I'd love to show them off but I still don't know how to upload 2 photos at a time which is very frustrating as I'd like to start doing some tutorials just to give a little back to the community and help anyone new to sewing.

I love sewing with chenille - especially when the fringing is still on the bottom. This fabric was given to me by another lovely sewist and blogger quite some time ago. Thank you Claire :)

Thinking outside the box

I was looking at my 55 litre tub of UFO's the other day when inspiration struck. I had a few squares cut and sewn for this quilt, it's a truly scrappy quilt. The kind only mad people make and people who can't throw even the tiniest scrap in the bin (I fit both of those categories lol). Then I spotted the unfinished Feliz that I was making out of calico. Light bulb moment. I needed calico squares......I didn't want to finish that Feliz. Out came the rotary cutter and problem solved. Then I found another unfinished peasant style calico dress. It too was cut into squares.....yeah!! I won't go into a whole description of how this quilt is made as there are plenty of other people doing the same thing out there and they have far more experience and can offer much better advice than I can. I'm not a quilter at all, I just happen to like using up little bits of fabric. I just cut them into strips and stitched them over the calico squares. I wasn't sure that I liked the look at first and was going to turn it into a dollies quilt, but it's grown on me so I'm going to keep adding to it. Which is great cause I have an unfinished dress in that cute blue cherry print and my rotary cutter is itching to get stuck into it :D

Slinky Laguna leggings

Another couple of things out of the UFO tub! These are panne velvet leggings made using the Farbenmix Laguna pattern. Panne velvet makes such great leggings....it's stretchy, recovers well so there are no 'knees', it's warm, comfy, feels very "slinky" (so I'm told lol) and it looks really cute. Can you tell I like them? :D The only issue I have with the panne velvet is the waist elastic tends to roll over and over inside the casing, so to fix this I have stitched the elastic in 4 places......over the casing and through the elastic at the back, the front and at each side. I'm actually pretty happy with this method as one of my gripes about handmade is the loose elastic turning over inside the casings, but I have had no luck with overlocking the elastic in (as you see on store bought pants/skirts). I find the overlocking method permanently stretches the elastic so that the waists are then too big and it's such a pain to re-do. I think I'm going to do all my elastic waists using this method from now on. It makes for less fiddling later when the clothes are being washed and put away. I also found the Laguna leggings pattern was a bit generous so I didn't add seam allowance and this made them a bit more fitted.

So this is not the most exciting creation ever but it is one thing out of the UFO tub. It's just a simple little nightie. I used some horse rib knit that I bought from the US. I know I should buy Australian but I have to be honest and say that the US knits are nicer than what I can buy here and even with the shipping it's a whole lot cheaper to buy from the States. I do have quite an enormous stash of fabric now so I shouldn't have to buy anything for quite some time. The pattern is a Kwik Sew nightie pattern that I picked up in an Op shop for 50 cents. Bargain! I can't remember the number but I can dig it out should anyone want to know. It's easy peasy and has become my go-to pattern for nighties.

55 litres of UFO's

So here it is..........this is my UFO tub......all 55 litres of it!! Now, if I'm going to be completely honest, there are more UFO's lurking about the place. There's the Burda skirt I started when I was 18 and couldn't finish as when I was 18 I wasn't as clever as I am now. Only trouble with that is I'm not as thin now as I was when I was 18. Still, I'll finish that skirt one day. That skirt reminds me of Uluru......when I was 16 I went on a school trip to Uluru and I was too scared to climb to the top. I felt like a failure. But I was terrified of heights and I just couldn't do it. So, when I was 26 I went back to Uluru. I had to conquer my fears and overcome my defeat....and I did it. I was still terrified and in sections I inched along on my bum (not a pretty sight and really embarrassing when the german tourists kept offering to help me lol) but I did it. I won. It was the greatest feeling. I'm nearing 40 now and it's been a very long time since I was 16 and terrified of being blown off the top of that great big rock. It's been a long time since I was terrified of all the pleats in that Burda skirt pattern too. It's been a long time since I went back and conquered Uluru. These days I have other things to worry about and as I approach 40 I'm thinking about how I don't want to carry the fears and failures of my past into the next half of my life. I want a new start, I don't want to procrastinate anymore. I want to be strong, happy, wise and loving. I want to follow my dreams and have no fear of failure. I want to have fun. I want to be the best version of myself that I can possibly be. So, this tub of UFO's has become the physical manifestation of my procrastination and it has to be completed. I also need to find that Burda skirt. I know it's here somewhere........and when I'm done I will feel like I've won. Like I'm ready to move forward and onto better things. I'm really looking forward to seeing the bottom of that tub!