Author: christinahopgood

dress, life, sewing

I have a (sewing) problem – Luck Be A Lady Dresses

christinahopgood
I admit that I have a problem. So far I have bought two versions of the beautiful Luck Be A Lady dress from Modcloth. I love them both to bits – they fit well, look great with or without tights and cardigans, are work appropriate, come with a cute belt, and have pockets. Pockets, you guys. I wear them ALL THE TIME. They are quite pricey, so I thought I was done.

The dress in ‘dots’, which I wear a lot to teach and work.  I love that it looks like an aboriginal dot painting.

The dress in ‘Blue Dots’, which is now totally sold out and gone.  This is more of a party dress, but super comfy and rad.

Then, recently, I went through my dresses to assess and downsize. I realised why a lot of my dresses don’t get much wear: they’re all made of patterned fabric, which makes it hard to pair with other patterned things. I need some solids! Enter the Luck Be A Lady Dresses in the original green colour and in Violet. Two beautiful jewel-toned dresses perfect for upcoming autumn and perfect for my wardrobe. I can just see myself bustling around in that gorgeous purple one with mustard tights and a ponytail…

Gorgeous, amirite?


And forest green!  Beautiful!

I decided to wait until I’d earned some money this year, since they didn’t look like they’d sell out and ANYHOW, Modcloth usually sends me an email before things on my wishlist sell out. I did a few hours work and earned $100, then sold a dress online, so I figured I could buy them.  I went online to do so!

VIOLET IS SOLD OUT.

Whaaaaat.  Modcloth, y u no email me? I don’t want to buy just one, because it’s expensive shipping and also, violet was the one I wanted MORE. Which brings me to!

CAN I SEW MY OWN?

I have looked on the McCall website (which has the patterns from McCall’s, Vogue, Butterick, and Kwik Sew) and couldn’t find anything like it with those lovely neck-pleats. The skirt part is easy enough without a pattern.  I’m going to keep looking. Imagine how great it would be to be able to make my own Luck be a lady dress in whatever colour I like! More like Christina be a lady. Dress.

So please fellow sewers, keep an eye out! I’m even considering unpicking one of my own to copy, and we don’t want that to happen!

Has this ever happened to you? What would you do in this situation?  Would you just buy the one in Autumn Plaid?

life, percussion, photo, ragtime

Sticks and Tones – mini photoshoot and new website!

christinahopgood
Today Charles and I wanted to do some photos for our ragtime duo Sticks and Tones.  My dad has been coming up with names for our percussion duo for years and one finally hit the mark!  Apparently there’s ANOTHER Sticks and Tones which is also a percussion family duo, but they’re not in this country so I’m not going to worry about it.


We have some concerts in February and March so we’ve got to get cracking on this stuff!






This is all in our new house.  I really like the Christmas lights as a background, it’s so indie and pretty!

We also have a website!  www.sticksandtones.net

Next thing is to make some demo CDs to sell at gigs.  Also business cards!  Or flyers!  So much to do!

Uncategorized

Busy knitting!

christinahopgood
So I’ve started YET ANOTHER new project.  What is wrong with me?

Knitting!

This pattern is the Miette cardigan by Andi Satterlund. And it is gorgeous.  I first read about it on Lladybird (which is a blog you should all follow).  Then I joined Ravelry.com and realised that what I should be doing with my time is knitting!  Why stress about finding the perfect cardigan when I can create it myself!

So the first thing I did was go through my cardigans to see which colour was missing, and the answer was Coral!  So I went out and bought 7 balls of this lovely Patons merino cashmere from Lincraft, which was totally cheap.  Like $4 a ball.  What.

All my materials ready!

I did have about three false starts, because the first few rows of knitting is complicated and very easy to get wrong.  I kept having too few stitches.  But once I finally got going it became much easier.  The whole thing is stocking stitch except for the edges.

The cardigan so far!  I’m hoping it’s not going to turn out too big, but if it does, I can shrink it magically somehow.

Knitting needle chest. I stab you!

Now I look at Andi Sutterland’s ravelry page, she has heaps of lovely jumper and cardigan patterns!  I would like to make them ALL!  Let’s see how this one goes and then I’ll decide what to jump into next.

Do you like knitting?

dress, sale

A couple of dresses for sale :-)

christinahopgood
Please comment if you would like one of these dresses!

KidsYoYo blue floral Mary Magdalene replica dress.  Includes two detachable bows, has back lacing and side zipper.  I’d like around $75 but please make an offer!

Dear Celine black velvet dress.  This also has two detachable bows and back lacing.  This one’s a little big for me.  I’d also like around $75.

Original sales post here! Includes worn photos and details etc.
sewing

The Anna Skirt progress!

christinahopgood
Well, things are slowly settling down at my new place.  We now have two desks to work at, and both our instruments are in!  I’ve resumed work on some sewing projects.

Currently I’m making a skirt for my friend Anna (she lives in Melbourne so if it doesn’t fit when I sent it to her… bah, it WILL fit).  It’s a McCall’s pattern M5591 view A.

The fabric is some I bought from Spoonflower, which was an absolute pleasure to use!  For those of you who don’t know, on Spoonflower people can upload their own designs which can be printed on fabric.  There are thousands of designs to choose from, and if you don’t like any, just do one of your own!  This is the fabric we chose, it’s called Seedpods, but we thought it looked so much more like marimba mallets (she’s a percussionist like me)!

n.b. The fabric came in the mail beautifully wrapped and their business card is printed on a piece of fabric, you guys. So cute.


It turned out that the print was a bunch larger than I expected… These guys are the size of bass drum beaters, not marimba mallets!

Here’s my progress! Skirt part done, pleats and pockets all went very well.

Today I went out and bought some more thread and a matching zipper to finish.  I need to attach the waistband and hem it yet.  The hem is going to be huge.  I made a boo boo with the length! Like that bottom-most seed pod will most likely be folded over entirely. This is because in the pattern the bottom section is a contrasting fabric, with a giant hem.  I didn’t realise the hem was going to be giant when I cut T_T

The hold up has been my sewing machine situation.  I picked up an unwanted sewing machine that was by the side of the road.  At the time I had NO sewing machine, and thought “Something’s better than nothing!” and to be fair, it does work.  But.  It’s a Pfaff 1196, which I estimate is more than 30 years old.  It’s clunky.  So I’ve been avoiding sewing which is lame.  Also, I just got my desk.  So hopefully I’ll be able to finish this in the next few days!  Fingers crossed that the machine doesn’t clunk off its mortal coil.

In other news, damn it’s been hot. Anyone who doesn’t believe in climate change ought to come to Australia right now and tell it to our faces.  I can hardly remember a time when it’s been so hot for so many days.  We don’t have an air conditioner (only just cracked and bought an evaporative cooler) so it’s pretty uncomfortable here right now.  Not exactly weather for sitting at a sewing machine.  My day goes like this:
Get up -> Put on nice dress -> change into cooler daggy dress -> Try to do something useful -> too hot -> watch tennis with a cool drink.  I’ve also been getting into kids TV since it’s been on.  I’m a big fan of Horrible Histories and Good Game.  And the Aquabats Super Show, obvs.

Ok no more blogs for now bye!