deondergangvanmijnouders

Hi there and happy weekend! It's our last few days with my folks visiting from Australia, so we'll be out and about in Shanghai seeing a few more sights! Today for you in my collection of Scenes from Shanghai blog posts, I've found all the green colours this year (Chinese New Year fireworks right by our 18th floor apartment!) for you! I've really loved collecting the colours of Shanghai together for you, it helps me get a sense of order in a choatic city... but also pleased my virgo-esque neatness... you can see my other colour collections here: Red Blue Pinks & Purples Yellow Hope you have something lovely planned for your weekend, talk soon. xoxo

Hi again! I've got a few more Sewing School Scoops for you before school HOLIDAYS (a lot of the Sewing Teachers will be in France and out of Shanghai for the summer, so we'll take a break! SAD)! If you're new to my blog (thanks for reading), I've been sewing for a while, blogging for a while but have only *just* started learning about sewing & the techniques at a wonderful sewing school here in Shanghai. My teachers are French expat women, and run through Couture Nomad , where Teacher Catherine has created her own patterns for us to sew through the ateliers/workshops. In my class there are two Spanish speaking women, and the rest French... and myself - little old Australian/English speaking me - so you can imagine the chitter chatter going! MOSTLY in French, but I get lots of translated jokes handed down so it's just the best learning to sew... in Shanghai... and trying to understand French & Spanish at the same time! For my scoop this week, here are a bunch...

Hello from Fuxing Xi Lu! It's springtime in Shanghai! And today here's a 'no pattern' outfit... a gathered gingham skirt with a linen hem... with a floppy blousie thing. A knit tshirt tucked in... sounds more posh as a blouse. I'm in the Former French Concession in these photographs, so it's totally a blouse. A few weeks ago, I made some gingham trousers for my little boy, as part of my Sewing School... and since I'm buying 2 metres (liang mi in Chinese) of fabric these days (is that how much you buy? A bit different from op shopping - I would usually just buy everything at the op shop/thrift store)... I had some left over. Childrenswear doesn't take up much fabric, of course, so there was enough for a gathered skirt of some kind, so I fiddled around for a while finding the right kind of shaped rectangle (the skirt) and making sure I had a waistband as well... and then during all my fiddling and folding and checking I found the green linen remna...

Happy Friday! What a beautiful week in Shanghai... I hope it's been lovely for you wherever you are. These photos are a collection of pinks and purples... showing you some more colourful parts of Shanghai... ordered to a colour scheme as I am a virgo and I shall order my things here in the blog how it feels lovely and ordered in my brain. I have green next for you, but for today... enjoy! And the purple spinach was absolutely delicious! Everything in Shanghai is delicious (I am avoiding durian & stinky tofu though) and so pretty! Have a lovely weekend xoxo

  How's your week going? I haven't been sewing much, just sightseeing when the weather is good and eating our way around the city! So while I'm touring around, you can have a squizz of another visit to the Renmin Lu's Haberdashery Market because the first time I visited , it was very overwhelming! I'm not the best at shopping for fabric or notions because of my opshopping days... when you scour over actually trying to find things to sew with... having so much on show like this makes me completely stunned about what to buy, what to make and how to actually choose stuff. Having a shopping list is definitely better at these markets, but you can still feel very overwhelmed... I  remember feeling very shy about asking for prices and saying what I wanted. So this market is your one stop shop for embellishments, notions, elastics, ropes, buttons and all things about sewing but no fabric... there is some lace, sequined fabric, felt and some low quality knits... but have a l...

  Happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend! We have my parents visiting us in Shanghai so it's been busy but it's just a dream sharing the city with them. Husbie even had a day off! YAY! I'm really happy to show you my Pin Pegs Mini Skirt this week... it's a new pattern from a brand spanking new independent pattern designer.... Annie Mollison who's 'Sew This Pattern' stems from a lifetime of fashion design, sewing and modern living & blogging. I can't remember when I first saw Annie's blog, Nine Stitches ... but I just remember her moxie sewn garments & sunshiney photos and her fabric choices being really strong. So when I saw she was looking for pattern testers, I was very curious about her pattern design... and I wasn't disappointed ... this skirt has as much spunk and edge as Annie! So first up, I'm very happy with the skirt... delighted it fits so well, but mostly really happy with my sewing on this one... it was a challenge...