I am CANADIAN!!

I was sworn in as a Canadian citizen today and feel honoured to be welcomed into the Canadian family. The ceremony was extra special because my husband was asked to be one of the special guests and he was up front with the judge.
The ceremony involved 67 people from 29 different countries of origin. A truly diverse group!!



Thats me, centre, with my hubbie looking handsome in his uniform, to the left. Also pictured from left are two local MP's, a World War 2 Vet who I greatly admire for his volunteer efforts in our city, the presiding RCMP officer, the immigration judge, a local police constable and the clerk of court.

SWAP Plan Update

I ordered fabrics and patterns from Vogue Fabrics last night and can now show a more complete plan.

A look back at the original plan shows that a few fabrics, embellishments and fabrics were still to be decided.

Those holes have been filled as follows:

Bottoms

Purchased rayon crepe from Vogue Fabrics

Purchased purple satin for the shorter Burda skirt.


Tops

The LH tank in the crepe shown above.
The New Look blouse will be made up in a red silk I found in my South African stash.


Dresses

I picked up a pattern I had in SA for the shirt dress and bought these beautiful shell buttons there. Hopefully they're destinctive enough for the rules. My local fabric store is having a Buy 1 Get 2 (metres) Free Sale, so I'll visit them for a fabric.


The knit dress will be made from either the purple or black cotton knit pictured above. These were kindly offered up from my mom's stash.

The embellishment option MIGHT get accomplished by using an embroidered fabric panel I bought in South Africa. It was embroidered by a lady in Swaziland as part of a social business venture to support the local rural women. It measures 11" square, with the embroidery measuring about 7" square. It depicts a flowering aloe.

I want to incorporate this into a dress, but am not sure how yet. Any ideas??? If this option doesn't work out, I'll bead the neckline of the red blouse.

General thoughts

I'm really liking the plan, although it seems that I'm not using any orange as I originally planned. The only hint of orange is in the knitted top. I considered using orange in the skirt, but couldn't see an orange looking good with the red silk top. I opted instead for the purple satin, I wanted a pretty colour and a luxe fabric. I looked at brocades, home dec fabrics and novelty fabrics, but decided I needed a solid colour to work with the knitted top as it already has a bunch of colours and didn't want a too crazy look. If I opt to embellish my blouse, I will need another dress so maybe a orange or a print with orange.

As for progress, I'm still busy with the floral dress and am furiously knitting my top....I'm even knitting while I wait for websites to load. Multitasker, YES I AM!!!!

Back in Black

I've had a bias cut black skirt waiting on my dressform since before my vacation, so I quickly sewed up the hem today, to make way for my SWAP sewing.

The skirt is from New Look 6546, a one piece pattern on the bias with an elastic waist and a narrow hem. Despite sitting waiting for 4 weeks, it could've been sewed up in an hour. This skirt was my "bottom" in my 6-PAC. Although the sew-along is finished and they've moved on to the winter collection, I have 3 out of the 6 items now complete. I will still finish up the planned dress and coat, as they've both been cut and ready to go. They will have to wait till April though, as I will be concentrating on SWAP 2010 for now.

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

I'm back from vacation and have been catching up with blog reading and am still trying to unpack, getting the house looking spiffy and getting over my jet lag.

The vacation was awesome, I had a fabulous time with my family, although travelling with the little boys was a slight nightmare. Note: I have an insane inability to sleep on airplanes, so pretty much 48 hours without sleep there and then back again.

I will post pics of the trip very soon and will update my acquisitions, I picked up fabric from my old stash in SA and raided some of my mom's. My mom brought me a bounty of beautiful Ghanian fabrics, which would be ideal for summer dresses and skirts. I also have two new dresses from hubbie and some jewellery gifts & purchases to share. I also got an awesome Indonesian cookbook from my parents, so I should cook from that pretty soon.

I will need to do a weight reduction, yes I indulged a touch too much back home, but I had to take advantage of some of my South African favourites. I usually try to follow a low GI type diet, but I have diet plans that I follow strictly when I need to lose some pounds.

Not forgetting, SWAP 2010...I bought some beautiful shell buttons and an embroidered panel to satisfy the rules of the contest. I brought back some red silk and linen, as well as some black and purple cotton knits. I also have a remnant of a fabric which I believe my mom said was used by my gran for a dress. I will post pics of these too. I've had the black/grey/white graphic floral laid out since before I left and was finding that matching the design was trickier than I thought it would be. But I will continue as soon as my house and I are back to normal. I look forward to 3months of intense sewing and knitting.

Another piece of good news is that I officially become a Canadian citizen in two weeks....very exciting.

So I hope you all have or had fun New Years celebrations and wish you a prosperous year ahead.

On Vacation!!

Just a quick post to let you all know that I'm off to South Africa for 3 weeks. I last saw my family 18 months ago, so am thrilled to be seeing them again. I haven't been back to South Africa since December 2006.

My parents have just moved to a new town so it'll be exciting to explore the new area. They are in Betty's Bay which is about an hour away from Cape Town. The entire Western Cape area is beautiful and we'll be surrounded by mountains on one side, the Atlantic on the other and we'll also be close to the wine producing area. It is a little late in the season, but we might be lucky enough to spot some whales from shore.

I'll pop in occasionally and might upload some photos while there.

I hope you all have a joyeous festive season and are surrounded by love and good old holiday spirit.

November Acquisitions

My local Fabricland (a Canadian chain) closed it's doors on November 29th. They had a closing sale that started at the beginning of the month. Each week the prices dropped and the stock disappeared. In the final days all patterns (including Vogue) were $1 each and all fabric was under $5. All other items were at least 75 % off reg. price.

My biggest purchase was a Singer dressform which I bought in the last week for $100 (down from $400). It isn't the best available, but at that price, I am very happy. I'd previously made a duct tape double, but it was always falling over and it finally came apart in our move. It is now a sad mess of duct tape and batting in the back of a closet. I also bought a tailor's ham, which has become very useful.


I didn't buy much fabric, as the store tends to stock varying degrees of polyester and very little else. I am also running out of storage space and know I'll be bringing back some fabric from my South African trip.

I bought a cotton pique graphic floral which I'm using for a SWAP dress, as well as silk charmeuse in black, purple and grey. I also picked up a seersucker in a red/brown plaid with silver thread.



I went a little overboard with patterns, but at that price, why not. Towards the end of the sale the patterns were in displays where you lined up to pay so it was easy to rummage and add more while you waited. Usually the wait to pay was 10 minutes or more, since there were so many customers.

Burda



McCall's



Simplicity



Vogue

Kids sweaters by Gill (my mom)

I've mentioned before that my mom is a great knitter. She has knitted up a storm since we last saw her and she has a bunch of sweaters for the boys when we visit later this month. I've fished out photos of the sweaters she's previously made and have photos of the new ones too. I think they're adorable. Thanks mom, you're a great grandma. My boys are very lucky.

She made this cute elephant sweater for James, my eldest, when he was a wee little baby. It has a matching hat and has since been passed down to Willem (now 18 months). It's getting a little tight now, so I think it is retirement time. This was one outfit I'll definitely keep for sentimental reasons.



My mom also made this blue hoodie which James still wears. He's wearing it to school today.




And a green vest, which has just been passed to Willem.



These are the new ones which we'll see very soon.