One day last week while feeling rather sorry for myself I nipped in to the local furnishing fabric shop. They have a room full of remnants that I like to browse just in case they have anything interesting. Before I even made it to the remnants however, I noticed the shop was now stocking some rather lovely printed canvas fabrics, including this Paris scene with little black cats. I couldn’t resist and buying just 3 metres cheered me up no end. ...
I’ve had my dress form for several years now, she was rather broken, picked up from Freecycle. Back then I taped her back together and replaced her stand with that of an old standard lamp, also picked up on Freecycle. My first attempt at making her my size was moderately successful, but after a while I pulled her back to her naked self, covered her with a tube of cream ribbing and just used her as a stand. Like so many of us, I’ve seen various ways to DIY dress forms, on Pinterest and other blogs. I had been planning to make a calico toile and stuffing her, but yesterday after being up half the night thinking up various designs I’d like to try draping, I thought I’d give the Duck Tape version a try! ...
I don’t always blog everything I make, but I do usually share most things on Instagram With February almost here…how did that happen? I thought I’d just do a quick and dirty blog post of my January makes, the good, the bad and the downright disastrous! Firstly the Doris Sweater above. I love this version so much. The fabric is a super soft loosley woven wool blend, and it is so cosy. I feel the cold even in this mild winter we are having, so any excuse to cosy up is most welcome. It’s been a bit of a Doris’y month actually because I also ran up this quick Doris Dress from some vintage fabric I found in a charity shop while visiting my Mum who lives in Somerset. ...
The children all went back to school and college today, India is still home from University, but she was out today and I made the very most of the peace, and most importantly lack of demands to be fed, (children do need feeding so often! ) and spent a very happy morning in my shed running up this Weekend Doris Dress with a twist…or two! It is a basic Weekend Doris, made with a retro style wool blend. (I sized up to accomodate the woven fabric.) I added in seam pockets*, a wider neck band to form a 60’s style “cowl” neck, and hem band. The dress and sleeves are lined. I’m really quite pleased with it, the lining has made it a substantial winter dress, so I’m ready for the coldest most miserable winter months of January and February, even if it is so mild at the moment that the daffodils are popping up at the park! ...
I love modern technology, browsing other blogs, joining in sewing forums, watching videos on line, but nothing quite beats curling up on the sofa with a cuppa and a magazine. I’m really thrilled to now this month have my work in two great sewing magazines! Firstly Love Sewing Magazine has a free supplement this month called Learn To Love Sewing, especially designed for beginners. There are fab tutorials in there, many by my fellow tutors at Ministry of Craft, and including my lovely Flossie’s Pinafore. I’m so happy with the photos and design of the pages, the pinafore looks lovely. ...
Happy New Year! I only got one little piece of stitching done between Christmas and the New Year, and that was this grey Nora Dress for Eden. I’d cut it out back in September, she’d been waiting so long for it, she had forgotten all about it! I’ve another cut out at the same time for India that she can’t remember either! I’m not one for making resolutions really, but maybe I should at least make one about making things up as soon as I cut them out…anyone else have a pile of garments cut out, but not yet sewn? ...
I rarely make gifts these days, I’m a very selfish seamstress, and lately with teaching most weekends at Ministry of Craft, plus working on various other freelance projects and putting together a collection for college, there is not much time to sew for myself at all. Despite that though, I made an exception for India’s boyfriend, John. He is a stylish young man with very clear ideas about the kind of clothes he likes, (I realise my description of him makes me sound about 110 years old! ) as you can see from his blog. He showed me a tote bag he liked and lost for ideas of what to buy him for his birthday a couple of weeks ago, I thought I would make him a bag very similar to the one he showed me. ...
Christmas is very almost here, and I have had to face the reality that most all of my pre Christmas sewing plans are not going to happen. There is a not so little pile of cut out garments sitting out in my shed waiting for me. I’m a little sad at the thought, but on the other hand, I can look forward to going out there after Christmas festivities are over and taking my time instead of rushing to a deadline, that let’s be honest I have set myself. Even my little christmas tree hasn’t made it out to the shed this year, instead it sits on a side table next to my spot on the sofa where I work on little hand sewing projects. ...
Tuesday was the day of my yearly mammogram so Woody had the day off to take me to the hospital. This year’s appointment was in the morning, so we went for lunch in Stockport’s Old Town afterwards, and did a little bit of vintage shopping at the same time. Stockport is well known for it’s Vintage Village and over the past few years a few vintage shops have also sprung up around the market place. I found this piece of vintage fabric in one of the shops for £5, probably a bit more than I’d usually pay in a charity shop, but still reasonable, and so bright and cheery I couldn’t really resist! It is a home dec fabric, the kind I think we had bathroom curtains made from when I was young. Of course it’s intended purpose never bothers me, I knew I wanted a simple A line skirt in it. The Delphine skirt by Tilly Walnes is a fab A line pattern, a nice high waist and the kind of exagerated A line I love. I do think that this is my current favourite A line pattern, taken over from my own draft! I’m calling it my Crystal Tips skirt because the bright colours remind me of a childhood cartoon Crystal Tips and Alistair. ...
I spotted this gorgeous orange plaid/tartan* wool fabric in Abakhan quite some time ago, I stroked it and admired it, but at £10 a metre it was a teeny bit pricey for me, so I left green with envy at the lady buying several metres of it to make herself a coat. Fast forward and on a recent shopping trip, I spotted the very last metre left on the roll and figured £10 was actually not at all too much to pay for enough fabric to make a skirt and I snapped it up. I’d had an urge to make an asymetric wrap skirt for a while after spotting one in TKMaxx and several in Marks and Spencers. I used my skirt block to draft the pattern. The back is one piece with waist darts and the front under wrap is one piece, while the overwrap is yoked. The skirt fastens at the right waist with a hidden button and at the front with an exposed open ended zip. I cut the front wrap with the straight grain going vertically from the waist, but in retrospect that was a mistake, as the edge of the front wrap doesn’t hang as nicely as I’d hoped. Still a great skirt though, and has a kind of “post punk” vibe with the exposed zip. I wore it with my pleather biker jacket and my vegan dm’s which I think works. The offcuts of fabric made a cute beret too, but I’m not sure I can really get away with being so matchy matchy, so haven’t braved wearing the two together yet, despite encouragement from India. ...