Well, today is that glorious time of year. The Vernal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere (first day of spring)
Spring has Sprung in Spain
Autumn in Australia
and the Autumnal Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere (first day of autumn). Both are excellent seasons and an exquisite end to the grey, cold snow and the sticky, humid heat.
An equinox happens twice a year and is the day where the terminator (twilight zone) is at 90 degrees to the Earth’s equator and the length of day and night is precisely equal! Ooooh, the wonderful math and symmetry involved. I get goosebumps!
To help celebrate this momentous occasion, I am giving away the sewing book Chic and Simple Sewing by Christine Haynes.
This book includes paper patterns, instructions and photos for 20 fashion projects that range in difficulty from 1 to 5. There is a rating system applied to each garment so that you know what you are getting yourself into, before you begin sewing.
The first section of the book explains some sewing techniques ranging from patch pockets to applying bias tape and the rest of the book presents a variety of garments for you to sew with the full patterns included in sizes small, medium and large (measurements included). The fun part of this book is that it is divided up into seasons, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter with associated clothes and patterns for each season. I thought this fit perfectly into the Seasonal Celebration we are having!
I have made several items from this book including the A-line skirt, fabric belt and belt loops, The Trench and The Date Dress (which I made into nightgowns). I also have The Retro Shift Dress lined up in the queue to sew for this summer.
The Retro Shift Dress
For most of these projects, I altered and embellished the pattern and sewing to add a bit more polish and finishing. That’s one of the good aspects I found about this book: that it is aimed at the experienced beginner, but as you begin to climb up the levels of difficulty, or if you are already an advanced sewer, you can alter, embellish and add to the patterns and the sewing style to make your own, more tailored creations.
Also, this book is now out of print. Christine Haynes just blogged about this recently, so you will no longer be able to order or purchase this book anywhere!
Projects from the Book
Projects from the Book
Projects from the Book
Projects from the Book
Beautiful Spring Tulips
To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment letting everybody know what is your favourite season and why. You can enter from anywhere in the world, no matter what season it is for you currently. 🙂
The giveaway will close on Sunday April 7, 2013, so please be sure to have your comments in by then. Kitty, of course, will be officiating the draw to pick the winner. Drop by again for the, sure to be exciting, entrant selection!
Update: See the official draw ceremony and the winning entrant here!
Good luck to everybody! And please ensure there is some way of contacting you, if you do win.
Feel free to ‘like’ Gjeometry on Facebook and follow this blog so we can all keep in touch!
(Autumn in Australia pic courtesy of Reef and Outback Rail Tours, Projects from the Book pics courtesy of Christine Haynes blog)
Gjeometry 
My favourite season is autumn. I love that it’s still warm but the colours are changing it often brings the best of the weather if you’re a brit too! It also feels ‘new’ to me; a hangover of the new school year starting I guess! Gotta love brand new exercise books and stationery…
Happy Autumn Gj and Kitty!!! What a day, I just wished Alys at Gardening Nirvana a Happy Spring…LOL. This Blogging thing is a riot.
My favourite season in Edmonton, Alberta is summer. It’s warm and sunny and if you’re lucky enough to have a garden, it peaks in mid-July. I always got the best photo’s in July. The Delph’s are tall and gorgeous, the Poppy’s huge and sway in the breeze, the Sweet Pea’s took over the dog kennel. We cycle and swim outdoors, we go mad because winter will begin again in November. We go full tilt 3 or 4 months!!
Thanks for offering a give-away, I’ll cross my fingers….btw, did I mention you are the cutest Kitty I’ve ever seen….snicker 😉
Thanks for the opportunity to win this book. All seasons have their moments, both good and torturous but for Commentings sake, I will say winter – because I love the look and the sound of snow.
I’d love to be entered into this giveaway – thanks for the opportunity! I think all seasons have both lovely and torturous moments, but above all winter snow is the most beautiful to me.
Spring is definitely my favorite season. Spring is Houston is probably the equivalent of summer everywhere else. I love that it’s hot and sunny, but not quite as humid as summer can get here. I also love seeing all of the flowers blooming after a dreary winter. This looks like a wonderful book!
My favorite season is spring, but currently I feel like we are living in Narnia, ‘always winter never Christmas’
I’d love to win the book
I love spring! But at the moment it feels like none of the seasons know how to behave! Thanks for your support and encouragement 🙂
I agree that spring is the best. Finally the weather warms, snow is gone & the flowers start blooming. I don’t need the book. I already have it & will say that it is well worth trying the patterns. They are really nice & quite easy to add or alter bits here & there.
spring! i love blooming trees. thank you for hosting the giveaway!
I do love Spring because it gives me new creative ideas but summer is my favorite of all. I love hot and humid weather and iced tea and pools and ocean time.
What a great give away! Depending on where I’m living at the time I have two. At the moment I’m living in Port Hedland in Western Australia and here my favorite season is Winter because it’s more like a Spring in my hometown. In my hometown which is the Gold Coast in Queensland my favorite season is definitely Spring. Spring is so full of new beginnings for so many things. There’s always new baby birds flying around everywhere and all the plants come to life and are blossoming everywhere and I just love it 🙂
Spring has always been my favorite. Days are getting longer, but it’s not too hot yet.
I love autum because i like to see the leaves change colour and fall from the trees.
I love the summer when it’s warm and fresh as you don’t have to worry about all the extra layers 🙂 I also love winter when your all warm and cozy next to a fire with a nice hot cuppa and u can hear pitta patter on the window x
I live in the tropics so it would have to be when the monsoon is in full swing. Nothing like falling asleep to the rain on your roof and the sounds of distant thunder!
Is it strange to have winter as a favorite season? I like the beautiful view after a snow storm, when everything is blanketed in pure white.
My favorite season is the spring. After a cold, wet & snowy winter, the flowers are beginning to bloom, the trees are turning green and the birds begin to sing. The temperature is not too hot & not too cold, after winter it is so nice to be able to go out and get my garden started. I love the colors of spring as well, the yellow daffodils, the red tulips, purple pansy, and many more! I love to get inspiration for my sewing from the flowers, you can see many colors in one flower & how nice they go together.
Definitely autumn! Living in Australia summer can be a little uncomfortable day in day out but autumn however is just right. I love the trees shedding their leaves not to mention the beautiful warm colours that are associated with autumn- orange, chocolate, tan, coral, khaki, cream, cinnamon. Oh, and my birthday is in autumn (selfish).
Thanks for the seasonal giveaway, rub kitty’s paw for luck for me Gj.
In post-Christmas winter, my favorite season is spring. In summer, it’s autumn. When I was teaching, it was summer. Basically, I love milder temperatures and lots of color. Or being lazy. Like a cat. (Hear that, Kitty? You and me could be BFFs 😉 )
My favorite season is summer because it is so warm (or hot) and I can spend lots of time in the pool! I also get to sleep in as much as I’d like and my children are all home with me. What could be better?
I lile spring- Im big on light layering and I love to see the new growth appear. I will enjoy watching Kitty do another drawing- Im hoping for the plexiglass box with the names all circulating around Kitty!
Lol, I will mention that to him. No promises. He is his own cat.
I know, he will decide when the time is right!
Favourite season in Toronto is Fall….for the leaves and the clothes 🙂 I love fall clothes!
I really love that period right at the end of summer right before fall. It’s the perfect weather for strolling in skirts and dresses with a beautiful scarf.
I love every season, especially when they are begining. The blloming flowers in spring, the warm summer nights, putting on the first cozy sweater in fall and I love a good snow fall. Forunately for me by the time the season are changing I’m ready for the new one. 🙂
Has to be Summer for me 🙂 …. Lucky for me I live in the desert 😉 constant summer! Hugs and happy sewing, Sarah xxxx
Spring because that is when the air, attitudes and homes are cleaned out!
What a great reason for a giveaway! We are heading into Autumn here in NZ, but you wouldn’t know it! It’s been baking hot for weeks now. Please enter me into this competition – I’d love to read this book and see Christine’s patterns 🙂
My favorite season is summer. More for the state of mind than the temperature. Here is California, it means BBQs, hikes, camping and swims. Nothing is as refreshing as a swim in the cool Stanislaus river on a hot day. That is where we love to go camping.
I really like Autumn as I love the colours of nature during that season. Especially early autumn, when it’s still pretty warm and you can see the changes beginning.
As for the first day of Spring here in Sweden yesterday, it snowed all day.
I’d love to join in!
My favourite season…I’m in the tropics of northern Australia, and I love them all. The cold clear nights and balmy days of the dry season, when there are so many festivals and and arts and cultural stuff going you can’t possibly keep up, coz we’re all living mostly outside because it’s such perfect weather.
The build-up to the wet season is just awful. Except then we get a storm and the relief from the constant heat and disgustingly high humidity, is indescribably. And the storms are so wild and huge and you feel so small in a good way.
The monsoon when it’s hard to comprehend there is just so much water in the world! All raining down on you at once.
And the knock-em-downs, round April, the really really wild storms that spring up, that knocks the speargrass that grew so high in the wet season, down. Then it moves to hot days and hot dry winds, then eventually a sudden cold snap in June sometime, and we’re back to the dry season. I can’t choose…
I love Spring the most because the newly appearing rays of sunlight after a long winter make me happy and make me feel alive. The nights are still cool but the days are getting warmer. It’s not so warm you have to worry about being to hot but you can get out you nicer, floral and girly clothes. Spring makes me want to not hide anymore because the sun lures us all out.
Oh and please enter me in the giveaway!
Autumn’s my favourite by far. I love the change, the drama, the unpredictable weather.
Hi there Anonymous, Do you have a blog or email you can leave us so that you can be reached if you do win?
This book looks great!
When I still lived in Saskatchewan (Canada), my favourite seasons were the change seasons because Spring and Fall only last for about 3 weeks each, and mark the end of the extreme temperatures of Summer and Winter. Summer and Winter were fine for a while, but in the 5th month of never being a comfortable temperature, it becomes a bit much.
Now I live in England, though, my favourite season is Winter (as experienced in Saskatchewan), for the simple fact that we don’t have that here. Here, it snows and you live in a slurpee for two days, then it’s over. But the long, hardcore kind of winter that you have to just settle into for 5 months… that’s my favourite season now.
I love Autumn, the crisp air and the changing colours of the leaves. The chilly mornings where fog lies low in valleys and the smell of woodfires is on the breeze.
You made some great garments from the book, so I’d like to join in! My favourite season is early autumn, where it is still warm but not too hot, and late flowers are still blooming but the air is already getting an earthly smell. It just gives me a happy warm feeling. The only downside is that it will get colder soon. But first we’re going to have spring here where everything wakes up and gets excited to start anew. Well, at least hemisphere-wise it’s spring over here… but a little too early to sew flowers outside still.
Will you say hi to Kitty for me please? (I’m really not trying to bribe him, honestly!)
Kitty accepts your greetings as a non-bribe 🙂 .
I love summer the best because that’s when the rains stop for a while and we actually get to have sunshine 🙂
My favourite season is Spring, or as it’s known in the UK, “summer”! 🙂
I LOVE summer! I can’t stand being cold…simple as that 🙂 (like our 50 degree, Southern California winter’s are that cold, but I guess I am spoiled!)
Thanks for the great giveaway! there are some pretty cute sewing projects in that book. ~Kerrielee
Please enter me. My favorite season is definitely the Summer. I love sitting on the beach!
I LOVE summer in Toronto! I find Spring so short that I feel like it goes from down jacket weather to shorts and tanks weather in just a few weeks. When the snow melts and grass comes out, I know that the hot summer is coming and I get super excited!
It’s hard for me to really understand seasons in Orange County. I can almost wear the same clothes all year long, and people only wear boots here in the Winter for fashion. Oh, how I miss the seasons!
I love spring and autumn though in NZ colours are so much greener all year around that these wonderful changes are a little more muted. What a lovely basis for a giveaway too! Please don’t enter me in the giveaway though as I have far too many under utilised patterns and books as it is…..
Thanks so much for letting me know about this awesome giveaway!
I definitely love summer more than any other season, and the reason is because I love the beach and warm weather. I’m a big wimp when it comes to being cold. 😉
What a great book! Thanks for the opportunity!
I’ll share this giveaway on my blog’s Facebook page for you! 😉
~Jen
Thanks Jen, for dropping by and for sharing the link on your Facebook page! 🙂
I love Autumn, it means the end of the Hot Weather and the start of Winter, cool nights for snuggling and gorgeous Autumn colours.
Summer for me. I love sitting in the garden sewing. We live beside a river, so a glass of wine outside as the sun goes down is just lovely. Hetty can’t wait to see what Kitty gets up to!
I absolutely love spring too with all the gorgeous new blooms and baby animals around always make me feel happy 🙂
I love spring, with all the new blooms around and all the cute baby animals always makes me very happy
Oh the book looks fab. My favourite season is spring, the transition from cold grey wet days into slightly less cold, occasionally blue wet days here in Manchester is always welcome. I’d like to pick Summer, but we don’t have summer here.
My favourite season is Autumn. I live in Geraldton Western Australia so it is starting to cool off and the wind we are known for is getting a little less blowy. Perfect weather for watching the amazing sunsets over the ocean!
I love autumn. The temperature is such that I don’t have to wear boots, but I could wear boots. Same goes with scarves, jackets, sweaters, hats… Plus the smell of autumn leaves is delicious.
I like spring because the days are getting longer, and everything is still green from the winter rain. The retro shift dress from the book looks so cool for the summer heat.
Kitty is going to have a tougher job with so many entries.
Spring!
Being ridiculously indecisive I can never decide if Spring or Autumn is my favourite season! But I love that they both have cool crisp mornings and evenings with beautiful days in between, plus they both begin the anticipation of the food to come for the coming season. Love the colours of Autumn and the feeling of getting cozy in preparation for winter, and the newness of Spring with leaves emerging on trees & flowers blossoming everywhere… See totally can’t decide!
My favorite season is definitely autumn. Where I live, summer is long, hot and humid, so autumn always feels like a big relief that the heat is over lol. You are finally comfortable again.
I love fall. I love the colors of the trees and how the days are crisp. It also gives me an excuse to wear jackets and lots of layers (without the bulk of winter) and accessories!
This book looks really good, please enter me in the draw. My favourite season is Autumn – the colours. I have on my bucket list to see New England in the Fall.
The very beginning of Autumn is the best for me, a bit of heat and beautiful light
The Fall in southern California when the hot winds of the desert blow through the basin is my favorite time of year. The air is clear and the heat is sharp but by this time the garden is bursting with color and fragrance. Mostly, the fall in southern California is considered fire season and yes, we do have many fires during this time, but I still look forward to this season and enough the intense weather.
I love spring, when all that has been sleeping in winter comes back to life. Warm days and cool nights that usher in refreshed fields of color and the wonderful perfume that springs from it.
I love Summer, it feels like the climax to my year…. I adore the long evenings and early morning sunshine, I can walk the dog and have had my breathe of fresh air by 6am… wonderful stuff!!
Bundana xx
My favorite season is summer, because a) It’s my Birthday! b) we get to go sailing c) i love tanning and going to the beach with my friends!
What an amazing Giveaway, thanks for letting me know it was happening!
Zhenya
http://beingzhenya.com
I’d love to win this book! My favorite season is Spring – not too hot, not too cold, and lots of beautiful blooming flowers!
My favorite season is summer because I love to wear shorts and tank tops enjoy being outside soaking up the sun!:)
My favorite season is autumn- I love going for walks when the leaves are changing colors, the smell of fallen leaves, pulling out cute sweaters and scarves, and most importantly, not sweating like a racehorse everytime I step outside. Autumn FTW!
From esthetical point of view, my favorite is autumn! I think, it’s the most beautiful, full of colour and charm time of the year..
I do love summer though, as it’s a holiday time..
Boy this is a toughie for me. I’m torn between spring and fall. If I have to choose one I’d say spring because everything is bright and beautiful and it leads to summer. Fall leads to winter and frankly I’m sick of winter! It’s been snowing here all day and it’s supposed to be spring! Argh!!
Thanks for the giveaway!
shanniloves@yahoo.com
Me Too! I know Kerrielee commented- but as there are 2 of us- (Its not just one person with a split personality I SWEAR) I would love to be in the drawing as well. 🙂 ~Laurie
ALrighty- I am replying to myself— Let’s see. Fave season. I love them all- you know once summer is 3/4 of the way over I am tired of it and getting ready for Fall. 3/4 of the way through Fall- bring on the Winter… Haha… OK- OK- Fave season… Spring. I love the freshness.. the new growth… planting a garden… daffodils… Yeah. I think Spring is my fave… ~Laurie 😀
I love, love, love spring. When the grass starts to turn green, the leaves begin to bud, flowers start to bloom. Bliss.
Don’t enter me in your generous giveaway as the book should go to someone who would use it more than I would, but here is an interesting little factoid for you. Here in New Zealand we mark the turning of the seasons on the first of the month, not the equinox/solstice. So it has been autumn since March the first!
Oh, interesting, I did not know that! Thanks for sharing :). Do you know if there’s any particular reason for that?
What would you say was your favourite season?
I have no idea why it is! I’m a big fan of summer through and through, and we’ve had an amazing summer this year, still enjoying it although autumn is starting to stick it’s nose in a wee bit!
Please enter me into the drawing and I honestly love all the seasons.They all have their own beauty, and I love to see them come AND go.
I love spring because it’s fresh, new, and hope for what’s to come!
Definitely spring. Cherry blossoms in the spring. That is what I’m waiting for.
My favorite season is spring because it is not too hot or cold and it is a great relief from winter. It is the perfect time to be outside because the bugs haven’t come out yet. It also helps our family save money because we can hang clothes out to dry. This is the first spring I have had with my son being so mobile so I love that I can finally take him outside with putting 5 layers on him.
I used to be a total summer girl, but have found with the years that actually, I love all seasons 😀 There’s something grand about the circle of life, and the different feelings the change of seasons evoke that I enjoy more than “just” a single season these days. If I had to pick, though, I’d go for the last days of summer, with the plentiful fruit, the somewhat tired heat, the foreboding of darker days.
Winter! Since I live in Florida, the weather is usually lovely. Plus, my birthday is in the winter AND it’s the seasonal home of Christmas. Great weather, my birthday, and an international holiday aimed at spreading good will? How can I pick any other?!
I’d love a copy of this book. And my favourite season is Autumn. I love the cooler weather and the colours. Spring rates a very close second. I just avoid the extreme hot or cold. Thanks for the giveaway.