New Fabric, WIPs & some very personal questions...

Part 1: New Fabrics.

Today I welcome 9 new members into my fabric stash. All approx 150cm x 2m and I believe all are cotton.

Dad came back from a trip to Vietnam on Saturday and even though I said not to buy me anything, he came back with one suitcase full of stationary (for my sister) and fabric (for meeeeee!) Yayayya!

Dad's sister did the actual buying, so thanks aunty! There are some cuties in this bunch - third from top is my fav so far, mmm fruit. The ones that aren't my style or whatever can be used to make wearable muslins - nothing goes to waste :)

For a closer look, I've posted pics at the bottom of this post.

Part 2: WIPs

I've been banging on about these awards nights for months now so you probably vaguely remember that I have one coming up this Friday. Well, the last dress I made (here) turned out to be a thumbs down for me, so that meant that I had less than a week to get an outfit together.

I went shopping at Darn Cheap again during the week and bought "silk viscose" - now, how much should I trust those labels on the bolt of fabric? Is there such thing as "silk viscose"?

Viscose is not my friend from way back. I used to shop on ASOS and bought a few items that were viscose... they annoyed me cos they would get so fricken wrinkly after the wash and I'd accidentally destroy them with the hot iron (pre-sewing days).

With that history, not sure why I bought viscose. It looked good at the time, plus I drove an hour to Darn Cheap, I wasn't going home empty handed.

After some hours on Saturday night and a couple of hours on Sunday morning, I ended up with this mess...

Not what I had in mind. It's too casual for my function, too flimsy... and that viscose did my head in!!! It stretched and warped every time I touched it... nightmare.

This hem line has no chance of being even!

I managed to finish the bodice (fully lined) and attached a full skirt to it before casting it aside and going to a family BBQ.

After the BBQ, I started on another dress using beautiful floral fabric from my stash - cotton sateen is such a joy to work with. Even the sunsilky lining is a godsend after my weekend with viscose.

After 3.5 hours, here's what I have... TBC!

Part 3: Very personal questions

Okay, they're not that personal. Just some questions that I have been meaning to ask other sewists...

I always buy an invisible zipper and a dress zipper for each project, incase I decide to hand pick. Does anyone else do this or is it just me? I'm so indecisive!
When cutting your fabric, do you get paranoid that you will cut off your hair!?! Or your tape measure? I started wearing my hair in a bun when I'm cutting cos I'm sure one day I'm gonna slice off my pony tail.
How often do you oil your machine? I oiled mine for the first time in one year! Bad girl.

It's almost 3AM in Melbourne so I should get to bed soon.

Lucky for me I have no work today and Tuesday is Melbourne Cup (public holiday for a horse race) so I have 2 more days to work on my dress for Friday.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Enjoy my fabric babies x