Quilters, get your shwe shwe charm pack here!

Want to make yourself a shwe shwe quilt but don't have enough different pieces? AfricanCotton to the rescue - she has a charm pack (in indigo) for sale.

Squarebags from African Cotton

African Cotton has some new things in her shop. The squarebag, a cute boxy pouch, comes in all the shwe shwe colours and a shwe shwe baby quilt or mat (shades of indigo). I was surprised to see a bag in the post from her on the same day she listed it. It's perfect for small things in your purse.

*New* shwe shwe skirt panels

AfricanCotton has a new shwe shwe skirt panel listed. It's actually one I chose but never got to list. To me it looks like ben day dot inspired flowers with a psychedelic print on the rest of the skirt. If you bought it you could make the standard skirt or the strapless dress I designed.

great bags made from awesome south african fabric

Dari has listed a bag made from some shwe shwe fabric she bought from my Etsy shop. I'm very tempted to buy it back, lol

Clearance sale of sewing patterns, anyone??

I have some vintage sewing for sale. They must go by Thursday - so please take a look.



uncut patterns
1960s simplicity patterns
mixed bag of patterns
patterns for boys and girls

All offers considered!

Sold out

I've sold out of my shwe shwe skirt panels. wow! And there I was at the store thinking I shouldn't buy anymore. It's probably better that I didn't because our leaving date is now just around the corner :(

I'll let you know when there are some panels on AfricanCotton...

New stuff on Etsy

After my friends loved my strapless dress I decided to make some for my shop. I also added some new panels.

Cheaters' quilt - baby mat

I hestitate to call this a quilt, but I guess it qualifies in a very vague way.
My m-i-l makes intricate, creative and beautiful quilts, so that is why i hestitate. hopefully she opens an etsy shop soon!




I used some blue 'three elephants' shwe shwe. Conveniently I have some available in my Etsy store :D

I made the animals using an iron on paper - tracing + cutting out the shapes. Here are a selection of some african animals:

sew your own (shwe shwe/schwe schwe) skirt+dress fabric panels

I mentioned that I went fabric shopping the other day and now I have listed some of my skirt panels. If don't know what to do with them, check out how to make my strapless dress howto

I am just mad about shwe shwe skirt panels. If you want to buy schwe schwe and you don't know what to do with it, just buy skirt panels. It is really dress making made easy. (Thanks Niall :)

If you want to make the dress skirt check the strength and thickness of the elastic thread you buy. Get a good quality because I found that out the hard way today while I unpicked 7 rows (I was making one of those dresses I already mentioned ;)

Here they are (click on the images to go to the listing)

Been keeping out of trouble

Image by azaldin via Flickr

Sorry for my laziness/lack of posting lately. Since we got back from Cape Town it's been go-go-go!

I went fabric shopping again, and bought loads of shwe-shwe skirt panels - I have sold out in my shop and I have started making some of those dresses. I am going to see if I can sell some in my Etsy shop.

I have got a lot of other projects lined up - repairing the old cloth nappies, sewing some larger size ones, and making bags to sell in the 5th May market in Utrecht (the Netherlands). Oh ja, and don't forget about the t-shirt stuff! (I bought a J-Zee (Jacob Zuma) tee - ready to go.)

An update about the Melville Quilt - I found someone on Etsy who loved it (yay). I posted it off to Esse yesterday. Click on her name to visit her shop.

Sales

I made a sale from my etsy store last night, which is always cause for excitement - I don't make many - yet! What's interesting is that it was the baobab skirt panels ... The brown spider web panels didn't make a great impression on the heartomatic. Now what I need to figure out - was it the price, the colour, or the design. What do you think?

Melville Quilt

I saw a women in Melville selling these quilts and felt compelled to buy one. The only hitch is that I won't be able to convince my husband that we should hang it. I might not even be able to convince myself. So the question is, what to do with it? I am taking suggestions...

The story is as follows (as explained to me). The lady and her husband do their washing. Then they are making peanuts and caring for the babies while the women down below are carrying water back home. The grandmother sweeps and cleans up while the washing dries.

Spot some of the fabric from my store, it is just a different colour.

strapless shwe shwe dress

This pattern is a winner - it's a dress and high waisted skirt combo, and is real easy to make. Best of all no bra is necessary because the elastic in the smocking keep you snug.

As I overheard 'panels are dressmaking made simple'. Very true - if you use at the standard length, there is no need for finishing hemline seams.

All you do is take some panels, in my case I used eight panels in three different patterns. If they are still connected together, cut out panels.


Pin the panels right sides together so narrow edges are together at the top and wide edges at the bottom. Do not sew together in a circle - leave it flat as shown in the picture. Finish the raw edges using a serge stitch.


Then thread some elastic thread (used for smocking) onto the sewing machine bobbin.
Sew in straight lines starting from the top of the garment. Sew on the right side. The first three should be close together (say 1cm) then the next three at 2cm and the rest at 5cm until you have 15cm (at least enough to cover your breasts). In order to keep the elastic lines straight, I suggest marking the fabric with a removable marker (e.g. chalk). Finally sew up the two edges so you have a finished dress.


If you want to make this pattern without the standard skirt panels, use this guide to make your own: each skirt panel measures (without seam allowance)
91cm long (0.99 yards),
13cm wide (0.14 yards) at the top
25.5cm (0.28 yards) at the bottom.

For my dress I used 8 panels and I am a size 78cm (32 inches) under the bust and 91cm (36 inches) over the bust.

I have some panels available in my etsy shop:
brown spidersweb
baobab tree

Ngi Dala (I create)

How cute is this Nelson Mandela bag?

I sell a similar Madiba shwe shwe fabric (but in blue) in my Etsy store.

Here is the bags for nelson blog post from my friend 'b'