Another 'fix' for a sway back on a one-piece dress pattern.

This is not a fix I've tried. My usual MO is to take a horizontal wedge out of the back - approx. 1" high in the centre, tapering to zero at the side seam - which means I have oddly shaped back pieces.

This is from McCall's STEP-BY-STEP SEWING BOOK - click on it to view it at full size.

How to get a Burda subscription if you don't live in Europe

Every so often I see a dress pattern that I really, really want because it has a particular feature that appeals to me. I read the reviews and they're all glowing. Then there's the crushing disappointment when I find out that it's from a Burda magazine. Great, just great. I'm in Australia, I can't just wander in to a news agent and pick one up. I looked into the subscription companies - I think they were charging well over $200 for a one year subscription ................ hmmmm, not sure if I'll like that many of the patterns - they seem to feature sack dresses quite heavily and I don't think I'd need a pattern for that. So, what to do?

My MIL lives in London and it just so happens that I'm going over in a couple of months. After explaining the dilemma to tigerboy he decides it would be a great idea for her to buy them this year and we can pay her back and collect them when we arrive (don't you love that he thought this was his idea?). There is a downside to this - it means that I'll be carting these magazines around South Korea for 9 days. I travel with a backpack and I travel light - even when I'm going to both a cold and a hot climate in one 5 week trip I'll still only take between 7-10kg of luggage, if it wasn't for the nail file I'd be able to take it as carry on, so yes, I would definately notice a stack of mags in my bag.

But wait, I happened upon an even better idea, I contacted Burda directly through this page -> http://www.burdastyle.de/abo/burdastyle/13/language/  It took them over a week to get back to me but when they did ..........

The price of 86,04 Euros (only 1 year subscription exist, 12 issues) includes shipping fees to Australia.

Yep, I'll take that thanks. With the state of the Euro at the moment this is a pretty good deal for us not to mention the fact that they're delivered right to my door, I don't have to wait for months to get my hands on them and most importantly, I don't have to drag them around South Korea.

When Burda replied to me, they included a pdf that I had to fill out and send back. As for delivery? Well, I just received the April edition so I suppose it's not too speedy but that's fine for me, I'm not so speedy either.

How to use a thimble

When I saw this in my book "Successful Dressmaking", I thought "Oh, that's how it's done". So, you're probably thinking I've never used a thimble ........ I have and I own one. I do however remember not knowing how to correctly use it and mucking around until I finally came up with the idea that's illustrated (I think I did anyway - it was quite a few years ago). In the intervening years, I'd apparently forgotten again. Which leads me to another thing - I recently had to use my thimble and it's way too small. I know I would have bought a cheap one and I'm pretty sure that at the time I didn't have a choice of sizes. Maybe it's one of those situations where you need to pay more for a 'custom' fit?

Donate to charity to build your stash!

I have been clearing out again, which means donating clothes etc. to charity. Yes, the whole point is to have less. So, in I go to St Vinnies to drop off a bag and ........................ left with this lot for $4.50! - two Vogue patterns, hem facing, bias, piping cord and etc.

Completely missed the point of that whole exercise!

In my defence - I don't have many bouses in my wardrobe and I think I may have just doubled my blouse patterns. Yeah, I forgive myself - there were extenuating circumstances (my eyes were open).