Mar 26, 2010 at 15:41 Please mark your calendars for...
BrisStyle Indie Twilight Markets – handmade wares with a little soul - handbags, jewellery, funky footwear, babies and children’s wear, soft toys, artworks, illustrations and vintage re-creations.
Where and when? King George Square, Adelaide/Anne Sts, Brisbane City
Date: Fri 30/4/10 5 - 9 pm.
Mar 7, 2010 at 10:24 
Just part of my new stash of fabric...When I spotted a stack of Vogue Designer sewing patterns (circa 1980), I suspected this St Vinnies might have some nice fabric in stock.
True to form, I found crisp linen (pristine white and prints), crepes, real wool and shiny silks tucked in amongst their stash.
And the price? A princely $16.50 for some twelve metres of material.
Spot the op-shop jeans...Seriously, who can tell the difference between my brand new $65 no-name jeans and the $4 Levis I found op-shopping in country Kenilworth?
It was so hot camping that I bought the jeans on the right to cut up into shorts, but in the end figured they were too nice and deserved better treatment!
Easiest ever way to convert your jeans to shorts
For those with the same urge to cut up your jeans, I spotted the easiest way to do it on some shopbop.com shorts.
Just turn up the edge once to the outside and stitch. No messing around trying to put cuffs on your shorts - it stops the fraying just a bit and you get a great look for minimum effort!
Feb 27, 2010 at 19:28 
Copy of a Catherine Malandrino sketch
Practising draping details
Sketch of our teacher's 80's dress!Still having fun at college, thanks for asking...
Here's some drawings I've done in our fashion illustration classes.
Try copying drawings that you like.
Or work from real life garments.
Practice, practice, practice!
By the way, when I was a kid, I couldn't draw to save my life. Just ask Christina, a friend in grade 6 that I had to borrow a drawing from, for show and tell time! But I do believe it's like reading and writing, you can learn to do it. Betty Edwards' book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is a fabulous book for those who want to learn to draw.
Feb 13, 2010 at 6:20 
Am loving our sewing class at college - those industrial machines can go at breakneck speed! To get used to them, we've been doing lots of exercises on squares of Vilene. If you'd like to give them a go on your machine, (well worth it!), I've made a little tutorial for you here.
Click on a pic to see helpful notes. Enjoy!
Feb 4, 2010 at 7:40 First week at Fashion Design & Technology school at MSIT... A little strange for me as I'm so much older than most students! Lots are recent school leavers - mostly aspiring fashion designers. Our Industry Awareness class was a bit of an eye opener - designers' jobs are pretty scarce, but there's work going for sample machinists (who sew a prototype garment that is sent overseas for manufacturing) and patternmakers (the area I'd like to move into) are sought after too.
But aspiring designers don't despair - some do just fine. 
Brissie finalists in first series of Project Runway AustraliaMetropolitan South TAFE's most famous ex-student is Leigh Buchannan, runner up on first season of Project Runway Australia. Juli Grbac (the winner) studied in Brisbane too, at Gateway TAFE.