glory day

47 down, 1 to go

The Rugby World Cup has been absolutely amazing.  So far 47 games have been played and I’m pretty sure I watched at least some of every game (unlike the rest of the rugby world I just can’t bear watching Argentina play so I zoned out of those games.  The Argentina-Scotland game would have driven me to drink if I hadn’t driven myself there). 

So it’s less than 4 hours til the final featuring the All Blacks and France.  I think I’m holding it together pretty well – I woke up in tears feeling like someone was sitting on my chest but the sense of impending doom has passed somewhat.

There are really only two teams I feared going into this world cup – Australia and France.  We played Australia last Sunday (and won) but the lead-up to that game was just brutal.  I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat (by which I mean ‘couldn’t eat actual meals but scoffed my own body-weight in potato chips’) and couldn’t read any rugby coverage.  So winning that game and moving on the final was a huge relief.

Now I have France to worry about – and they have form at spoiling our world cup parties! – and I’m all of a dither.  I think I shall have to go and do something repetitive and meditative, like ironing.

I was re-reading Fever Pitch yesterday and some of the phrases were straight out of my brain.  When it comes to rugby I am superstitious beyond belief, and incredibly fearful that something I did or didn’t do will lose the All Blacks the game.  The power is all with me, you see.  Unlike, you know, the actual players on the field.

It’s hard work people, really hard work, but these are the lengths I will go to in order to win the RWC for the first time since 1987.  1987.

The AB’s are the bookies choice for the win and apparently 83% of NZers polled expect to win the game.  But there will be no counting chicken before the hatching in this house!  I remember back in 2000 I’d bought a bottle of champers before watching a Bledisloe Cup game, so that if we won I could have a celebratory tipple.  Time was up, the AB’s were ahead and just as I was easing the cork out of the bottle John Eales went and kicked an almost impossible conversion, giving the Wallabies a 1 point win.  Irritating.  So there’s no champagne here, just in case.

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In news utterly unrelated to the RWC I have been a bit stressed lately about the state of my fabric stash.  There are 17 different places where the fabric stash lives and finding the exact thing I want was taking too much time, so sewing projects have been abandoned on the flimsiest of pretexts.

Here is some of the stash – and this is just the fabric that is stored downstairs:

This is about the point where I gave up and moved to Thailand just to escape the mess.

But no, I soldiered on and now everything related to the making of clothes has a place to live (even the patterns!) and hopefully in the fullness of time some of this fabric might actually be turned into clothes, let’s hope.

And after all that work, and vowing and declaring that I would never buy any more fabric again EVER I found myself outside a fabric shop the very next day.  And I bought some leopard-print cotton and some gorgeous black silk velvet and I only felt a little bit embarrassed.

This is why it’s so hard to sort out the fabrics:

Because the needs of Mr Puss will always come first!

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Oh hell.  Less than three hours now. GO ALL BLACKS!!

Why I get nothing done

I didn't know I was so fascinating until we got a cat.  A cat who follows me everywhere and watches my every movement.  Which is quite cute and all, until we get this:

CLAWS DO NOT GO IN FABRIC AAAARGHHHHH.

Fabrics and lists and friends, oh my

I have been that busy coming up with new systems and writing lists and decluttering and trying to get our lives more organised that I've completely ignored the other parts of my life - namely anything to do with sewing, pattern-making, blogging or not obsessing!  However we are over that particular project and ready to move on to designing the perfect wrap dress pattern.

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Cool things that have happened recently include:

Fabric from Green Olive!

Martine was kind enough to send me a pack of her gorgeous as-seen-on-TV fabrics which will become a wrap dress in the fullness of time.  The colours, the texture - this fabric is awesome, and check out the Tribal range as well.

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I had my hair cut.  While I really, really like it I can't help but feel I look a little bit like David Bowie circa Aladdin Sane.

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A Highlanders jersey of my very own!



For years I've been wearing an old Otago jersey which my brother unknowingly donated to me which, while very good in its own way, isn't really the same thing as a Highlanders jersey.  De was in Perth a while back and found the 2007 jersey design on sale and thought of me!  And the Highlanders have won every game since so obviously it was meant to be.

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Spotlight had a 'spend $100 get $40 off' which I thought was sneaky-clever.  I now have my own body-weight in retro florals and black crepe suiting.

A random gift of silk

Yesterday one of De's colleagues received a silk scarf as a gift from a client.  He was about to throw it out but she valiantly saved it for me.  It's quite over the top and a bit frightening:

but it's large, it's 100% silk and I'm sure I'll be able to do something with it.

My de-cluttering project is not off to a fantastic start.  So far this week, in addition to the afore-mentioned silk scarf, I have acquired two shirts, a book, a belt and a carving set.

De-cluttering: Iz doin it rong.

Peacock feathers, paua shell and loud loud prints

I have had the most vicious head-cold this week.  Thankfully it's getting a bit better now but I was like a lurching zombie for most of the week.

I did manage to make a couple more faux-wrap dresses, in red and purple, and to cut out another one in the loudest print imaginable:

I also made some xmas ornaments.  I usually make things in greens, blues and purples, like paua shell or peacock feathers, so I thought it was time to go to the source:

and make things out of paua shell and peacock feathers.

But when DON'T I sew frocks?

Today I sewed frocks.  One of the frocks is partially made from fabric I bought in NZ last year:

which is described on the selvedge as 'Crazy Paua'.  What's really crazy is that I bought three metres of it, like what was I thinking I'd make from it?

I really like it, but it's one of those 'only in small doses' fabrics.

Not that I really want the full-blast Sydney summer either

Today is one of those days, you know?  When it's cold and raining outside (in November, why?), and it doesn't seem worth going outside and the dishes won't do themselves you know, and it seems like the best thing to do is just stay home and tidy up.

On the plus side, however, now that downstairs is cleaned up FrockProject can continue to ramp up the pace tomorrow (the downside of sewing on your dining table is that you need to move all the food-related items off before you can start sewing).

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An open letter to the Welsh rugby team:

Wales, I have always tried to like you.  My surname was apparently derived from the Welsh some centuries ago.  Years ago when I learned Highland dancing I also learned the Welsh clog.  Your supporters are passionate yet generally polite.  I enjoy the choral singing (great work with our anthem, btw).

Your players strike me as genial and hirsute men collectively surnamed Jones (and the occasional Alfie just to keep everyone honest).  You have a long and proud rugby history and are current holders of the Six Nations trophy.  So why on earth do you persist in talking yourself down?

To be fair it's always been likely that the AB's will get a Grand Slam this tour - but Scotland and Ireland both talked themselves up, showed a bit of moxie.  Yet you have your former captain quoted as saying: a loss by 10 points or less would be "a virtual victory".

Sorry, I can't get behind this.  If you don't believe in yourselves I don't see how you can expect anyone else to do so.  So being beaten by 20 points was, really, a fitting outcome.

PS: loved your response to the haka, appropriate and spine-chilling on both sides.

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The frock I made on Friday has a bodice printed with little reddish-burgundy dragons:

Interestingly the Welsh rugby team are also known as the Red Dragons - see how much I want to like you, Wales?

I'm wiped

Today has been made up of a lot of awesome.

I went to Marrickville with De and a friend of hers and bought the rest of the fabric I need to finish FrockProject.  Then we went to a new (to us) fabric store, which was wonderful and amazing and overwhelming in equal parts.  I bought only some fabric to make some pants (FAIL. this is supposed to be about making summer clothes!) because I worried that if I picked up any fabric I would want to have it all.  Then to Lincraft, now at a handy-dandy location in Alexandria. 

The only less-than-stellar experiences in our day was pretty much any time we had to interact with service staff - really we were unlucky in that area today.

And now I'm totally exhausted.  I'm going to cook dinner and prepare to get up at 4am to watch the All Blacks take on Wales.

Here is one of my favourite photos of Mr Puss, posing on the ironing board in front of another tuxedo cat:

CrappyCam has given him 'Children of the Damned' eyes.  He doesn't usually have those.

That's IT I'm not making it again

I started my day by stepping in a pool of rapidly-cooling cat vomit.  Pretty much anything was going to be better after that.

After much deliberation I re-made one of the frocks I made last week, and I'm so much more pleased with it, particularly the detailing at the waist:

I had to do a lot of tutuing and fiddling about to make the various pieces work and I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

Tomorrow I'll be spending the day in the attic to work out my next frock decisions, what luxury.

Change, the winds thereof

What a lovely if full-on weekend. I spent yesterday embellishing an old frock with jet beads while watching action movies, which seemed as good a way as any of having some quiet time.

And today I've been really productive doing those little things that need to be done, but have absolutely no wow factor - like hemming and mending and fixing the waist lines. But I have lots of lovely fabric in my sewing basket:

and I've promised myself that I can start on some of that tonight. Oh I do love that green velvet.

A chance comment from a friend on Saturday night (and the follow-up email this morning) have started me thinking about making some big changes to my life. It seems silly to ignore opportunities when they present themselves, so for now I am cautiously going along with it, and we'll see how it goes.