Giveaways! Buttons! WIPs! Oh my!

I've had such a good day today. It's late August, the magnolias are in full flower, and today in Melbourne it was a wonderful 19 degrees! That means one thing people - spring is just around the corner, and it makes me feel a bit like this:

I'm super excited because yesterday I received a parcel in the mail, containing some grouse vintage buttons I purchased off Etsy about 10 days ago. And when I say SOME vintage buttons, I mean more than 400 vintage buttons! Oh yeah! And what does more than 400 vintage buttons look like? They look a little like this:

I found this great seller, who very kindly arranged postage from the US, and a very reasonable $58 later (nearly half of that postage!) these beauties were en route to Chez Tragic. They had belonged to the sellers granny and she had them listed by colour, so I snapped up the red, pink, green and navy ones. As I write this she still has black, beige, white, yellow, light blue, teal and grey ones - check it out here!

I'd been after some alternative buttons for my WIP red Beignet - I had some vintage ones in my stash but kind of wanted a plan B - as it turns out there isn't enough 3/4 inch red buttons in the haul that would suit, so I'm sticking with my originals, but I considered the above purchase an investment...... I'm very excited by my Beignet - all I have left is the buttonholes (12 - crikey!), the hem and belt loops. And speaking of WIP's I started sewing my husbands Jedediah shorts today - here's a sneak peek (I'm entering the Kollabora competition - the prize is the new Thread Theory t-shirt pattern which I'd love as my self drafted/rubbed version for my beloved turned out to be crapolato in the extreme - be lovely and 'heart' them for me if you have a Kollabora account - here - thanks! xx).

Anyway, I've been thinking for a while that I needed to cull some of my fabric stash - particularly as I physically could not fit my NYC purchases in my stash cupboard (Danielle how DO you exist with just one fabric stash drawer!?!!). Last week I ruthlessly went through it all - chucking the tiny scraps (hoarder alert), passing on the dodgy stuff on to the op shop, and all the while thinking of you - my lovely readers! Now I promise I'm not trying to offload crap. This is fabric that I've either been given a lot of, or purchased (new, not from op shops) and not used for ages, and just can't see myself using in the near future. I have a rule in my wardrobe that anything RTW that I don't wear in 18 months either goes on Ebay or to the op shop, so I'm trying to apply the same discipline to the stash!

So.........2 brown paper packages tied up with string will be winging their way across the world in the next few weeks. If you like the look of either of the packages let me know in the comments which one you'd prefer (and some way of getting in contact with you!). I'm not asking you to jump through major hoops to win - it'd be nice if you followed me on Bloglovin' or told me what your favorite make of mine is, but really I'm not that fussed - if you've gotten this far in this post its enough interest for me! I'm happy to send anywhere, but if you live in Iceland or Estonia or somewhere equally far away yet fascinating I might go with sea mail - there's a lot of fabric up for grabs here!

To the goods!

1) The Christmas Fabric:

For each package 2 metres of a cool typographic print Christmas cotton, and 1.5 metres of a gorgeous red and green matryoshka doll calico print. I bought these thinking I'd make kids Christmas stockings and sell them, clearly THAT never happened!

2) The Printed Cotton Fabric:

Package 1 will receive this lovely lightweight spotty cotton (can't remember if it was 2 or 2.5 metres) and Package 2 will recieve the floral cotton (3 metres - I bought it to make a maxi dress a couple of years ago and I don't think the colours suit me).

3)The Vintage Fabric:

Package 1 will receive 2 metres of this unusual loosely woven cotton gingham that was given to me by a friend of my mums. I made my first Iris shorts out of it - it's lovely and soft and holding up well in the wash. Package 2 will receive the crazy purple - there's about 1.5 metres. It's from the 60's and I suspect it might be 'polyester rich' but its very cute.

4) The Knit Fabric:

Package 1 will recieve 1.5-2 metres of crinkly black and grey knit, and package 2 will get the maroon crinkly knit (its a lot deeper maroon in real life - much nicer than the photo shows). I think there's 2 metres there too. Both are mysteries - again I suspect a bit of synthetic content. I bought these as practice fabrics whilst learning to sew knits but never used them because sewing knits is easier than you think! Both would make a great Renfrew!

5) The Patterns:

Package 1 will recieve a reprint of a vintage Butterick pattern B4513. Now I warn you I have cut this one out (years ago) BUT it is size Australian 6-8-10-12, and I cut out the size 12. It's a pretty simple pattern, so hopefully not too much of the smaller sizes got lopped off in the cutting process.... I'll cross my fingers for you! Package 2 will receive an uncut vintage 70's shirtdress pattern I found in my local op shop a couple of weeks ago. It's a bit small for me but I couldn't bear to leave it! It is marked for a size 10, or 32 1/2 inch bust.

6) The Pillow Cases:

Ages ago I came across some beautiful cotton prints and bought a stupid amount to make and sell some pillowcases. That venture failed, and now my friends and relatives have been getting pretty pillowcases as gifts for about 3 years now! Here are a pair for each package - grey in package 1, blue in 2 - made by moi!

7) The Knitting Needles:

These are my favourite - what has been missing from your life? I'll tell you - glow in the dark knitting needles! I found these babies in an op shop earlier in the year for an unbeatable 50c a pair - I thought they were just hilarious! There is an 8mm pair, and a 10mm pair. I know not all sewists are knitters but I'd enter this competition just for these! And even better - batteries ARE included!

Go on - enter! I'm not that popular so statistically you have an awesome chance of winning! Entries close 7th September!

Here's a photo of Tilbo sphinxing it up in the sunshine between the bok choy and the lettuce (and yes - sphinxing is absolutely a verb....).