Skater style dress

I have been a bit of a procrastinator this past week, I have done very little sewing, no posts and very little activity ( I usually swim a few times a week) but after seeing a relative yesterday who isn't well, it made me think I need to get on with stuff. I came in today got straight on with finishing a dress, cooked the tea then went for a swim. I don't feel any more tired than I would have done had I flopped when I came home so it just shows you sometimes we just need awake up. the dress I finished is of the same style to two others I have made, one is sleeveless with pleats in red, the other is shaped to the waist  and patterned ( I made that one for my holiday) and this one in navy blue is short sleeved.

I started this a few weeks ago but the weather was still  quite warm and the jersey is quite heavy so I had no inspiration to finish it as I like to wear things when I finish them. However now it has cooled down I know I will be wearing it soon.  I had this belt a while it came with some primark jeans ages ago but I never wear it with the jeans, I knew it would come in handy.  I think this dress would also look good with a long sleeved t shirt under or a little cardi.  Has anyone else been feeling they haven't got on with things recently? How do you motivate yourself when you are feeling tired from work and think of a million excuses why you haven;t done whatever?

I often read this fantastic blog  here  the positivity blog is full of inspiring advice whenever you feel in a bit of a slump. I also think it is good to focus on a couple of things you want to achieve outside of work and not make yourself a massive to do list as this could just leave you feeling worse if you don't accomplish everything.

Pikachu toy from all purpose cloths

This past week my son has been asking me to make him a pikachu toy, I said I would do it then when we had been to the craft shop we forgot the yellow felt even though we were talking about it while we were in there! I quickly thought how I had used all purpose cloths before when I had made him some other toys ( Arx from the Astrosaurs books was one of them) and we still had to go to the supermarket so I decided that was what I would use. They are not as thick as felt but still quite useful for some craft projects and sometimes you can get them in a roll of pastel colours for about £1.50 the ones I bought were yellow as that is what I needed and came in a pack of three for 99p. they are quite a good size 40cm by 34cm.

I only used one and a little bit so I even have some left to clean with. I wasn't sure exactly what this thing looked like as he only had a picture which was obscured on a little game so we went online to find this..

Now I think it's a funny looking thing anyway but mine looks a bit different. I used a fabric pen on the ends of its ears, I just cut one piece for front and back about 30cm tall, separate pieces for the front arms (legs?)

and separate pieces for the tail. I stuffed these then inserted them into notches that I made on the front and back. I used soft toy stuffing but you could use any scraps or old tights that you have and of course it will be machine washable. I  used  some black denim on the eyes and a bit of pink felt for the cheeks ( I had no red left).  Here it is...

Now that he is finished I realise that  he needed to be more chubby but never mind my son is happy with him. 

Vintage style dress

I said I would post a picture of the vintage dress from last week with the owner wearing it and she was happy for me to do so so here it is.  It looks much better with a body in it as it is halter neck and hanging it on a hanger just didn't do it justice

I love the cherry fabric that she chose ( apparently it was found on ebay) and I think the style really suits her figure. Here is a picture from the side.

She bought the underskirt from china so here it was out of the packet and  bit bunched up and will need a bit of a steam to get the layers hanging nicely.  She came earlier in the week and she was going to be  wearing it to a wedding yesterday, I hope she had a great time.

I was back at work this week so I feel I have not done enough sewing, I always feel it takes me a week to get back into to it after a holiday my body needs to adjust to someone else's enforced routine rather than my own ( Oh to be able to work from home full time, Sigh!) I have some grey fabric which is plain  and also some which has little horses on and I hadn't decided up to now what I was going  to do with it well now I have.

 I  think a skirt similar to this but I wont be using a pattern so it wont be exactly the same and also it looks quite high waisted and I'm not sure if I want it that high. I have in mind what I want to do with the blouse but I cant find a picture of it, something like the shape of the one below.

However this looks like it  is made of jersey and my fabric is cotton so I will do a side fastening I think with buttons or a zip I must get these done this week. I have to go now my son wants me to make him a picachu toy!

The old caravan makeover

I recently spoke about our caravan holidays and how they are a great way to get away without spending a fortune. well I would like to share the makeover we did on our previous caravan with you. it was a four berth marauder and we got it about four years ago, my husband had been wanting a caravan for a while as he always loved the caravan holidays he had with his family as a child and his parents had one.  I wasn't too keen at first and one of the main reasons was the initial outlay for equipment and all the accessories, I also wasn't sure if it was for me but after some persuasion we decided to have a look on ebay.  We looked at loads and the main thing that put me off at first was the interior of a lot of the caravans, I didn't want to spend too much but I also didn't want to holiday in something that I though was ugly.  We decided that the best thing to do was look for one with cupboards that I could live with as the seating, curtains and flooring we could change.  We found the Marauder which was in good condition and put in a maximum bid of £900 and got it. Here is what it looked like when it arrived.

Now it wasn't bad but what you cant see from the picture is that the seating is a really washed out blue and pink and with two dogs that dark blue carpet was not practical as I would need a washable floor. The units were good though and not too dated being a light colour with simple silver handles. Here is the other end of the van.

I decided to re-do all the seating so took off all the cushions and went to Dunelm Mill and managed to get some fabric I liked in the reduced rolls. I made fitted covers then hand stitched each one to the seats so they wouldn't move about I also covered all the fabric buttons and my husband made me a gadget to push the button through the cushion so they looked professional. This made the cushions look much more fitted.  We discovered a bit of damp so my husband opened the front wall and replaced some of the board and trim and also put down a laminate floor with some left over from our previous house.  This had been stored in our garage( glad we kept it now!).  I then papered the wall around the window as the board had been replaced. Looking back on these photos I'm quite sad we let it go as we put a lot of time into it and had lots of cheap holidays but my older son needed a bit more room to sleep and the bunks in this one were quite narrow.

Here it is after its makeover.

I decided to keep the curtains as they were in good condition and went with the colour scheme. After 3 years of holidays in it and getting away about 5 times a year we resold it on ebay for £1100, the man who bought it was very pleased with it and it was just for him and his wife. The caravan we have now is a five berth and a bit younger and at the moment we haven't made any changes but we may do at some point if needed. I think part of the Marauders charm for me was that we made it our own. 

Somerset and Charity shop finds

I have been on holiday this last week in our caravan to Somerset. We stayed on a  working farm which had pitches and also static caravans, the field we were on was fantastic as it was huge with beautiful views and there were only four other caravans on it which were all really well spaced out.

Here you can see the lovely setting for watching the sun go down in the evening. There were donkeys in the field opposite which were friendly and my son enjoyed going over to see them, one did try to eat my hoodie though!  It was only young.

We have had a caravan for about four years now and this means we are able to get away a lot during the school holidays to different places for a reasonable cost. I work in school myself and family holidays during the school holidays can be really expensive. The caravan gives us the opportunity to have lots of breaks, without it we may not get to see so much of our lovely country. We don't always get good weather though and this can sometimes spoil it but that could still happen even if the holiday was costing a fortune. We loved the site which was called West Hill farm if anyone is interested in going, the only down side was there was only one toilet and shower each for male/females however they did appear to be in the process of building a new shower block and we never had to wait for the facilities as it was not a busy site. That is the way we like them and we always stay clear of the huge camp sites as they just don't have the same feel.

We always try to get out and see as much of the area as possible, one of the first places we visited and returned to more than once was Weston-Super-Mare which I loved  and can't believe I've never been before.

The weather was fabulous which helped of course but a lovely place. The sea front was spacious and clean and views out to sea were so good you nearly forgot you were in usually grey England. 

We had some lovely meals sat looking out to sea and we usually eat in the caravan but it was so lovely with the sun shining that when we visited we ate at one of the restaurants on the front. I had a gorgeous Greek salad.

We also visited Minehead which was smaller but also very nice, the beaches here were also very good. There is also a lovely tree lined street full of shops and small coffee shops with quite a few charity shops thrown in, always good for a look around.

Minehead

We visited the small habour of Watchet also but I didn't think it was somewhere you could make a day of. It was pretty and had a small railway station with steam train and a boat museum ( also very small) 

We also always try to make good use of our English Heritage membership where ever we go and while we were in the area we visited Cleeve Abbey and Mulchelney Abbey (I may have spelt that wrong) The membership pays for itself after a few visits and it makes for lots of days out.

I mentioned the charity shops well I managed to get a few bargains while I was there, in one town I found an animal rescue charity shop up a side road and I got a yellow skirt for £1 and a blue dress for £2.45 in another shop I got a patterned dress for £2 and here they are..

This dress is a bit long so I will perhaps shorten it, i also think it would look good with along sleeve t shirt under ( I have one in brown) thick tights and boots for Autumn/Winter.

Cushion Tutorial - the easy way

Hello I haven't been around this last week as we have been away in our caravan to Somerset and had a lovely week, it stayed dry and was also sunny which doesn't usually happen when we decide to go off somewhere but the weather held out for us this time. I will share some images when I get the chance we only got back this evening so there is lots to do.  I thought I would share some basic instructions for the bright cushions I posted on earlier in the week and those bits of fabric I had left.
First you need to measure your cushion to see what size you need, alternatively if you already have the old cushion cover you can measure that.

Now depending on how many panels you have you need to work out how wide they need to be then add a half inch each side plus an inch to the length for your seam allowance ( it will be a half inch seam allowance throughout).

You could also just play around with your fabric and lay it on, make sure your cushion is covered with enough over hang for seams, sew them all together then make your neat fitting square once you have done this.  This may be preferable for anyone who is put off by adding it all up and working it out, after all the cushion is unique it doesn't have to follow any set rules.

That is what I did in the one above.

You then need to press your seams open, don't skip this bit as it will not look right otherwise.

Then you are going to add a zip, I recycled the ones from the old cushion covers as its always best to use what you have , just carefully unpick, being super careful at the ends as in my case the zipper had already been trimmed and could fly off the end if you are not careful. Pull out all the loose threads.  Lay it on your two  cushion sides which should be facing right sides together, wrong side up facing you.

I mark at each end with a pin as in the photo. Now remove the zip for now, and sew a half inch seam down to the pin stop and reinforce, go down to the other end where the other pin is and sew a half inch seam again up to the edge.

Now you will have a gap with no stitching down the middle, turn your stitch on your machine to the longest length and sew all along between the pins keep it loose don't reinforce as you will be unpicking shortly.

Now open that seam flat, add your zipper foot to your machine, lay the zip down right side facing downwards and sew closely to teeth, you will know where to position it as you have your pins in place still.

Repeat up the other side.

Now you have in your zip but no opening! take your seam ripper or small scissors and release that loose seam up to the reinforced stitching at each end of the zip.  This should have ensured your zip is in nice and even on both sides. You can top stitch at this point if you like on the right side, I didn't in this case.

With right sides together sew all around the cushion using half an inch seam allowance ( did I mention make sure your zip is in the open position first) You now have a nice cushion shape, snip off the corners then zig zag or overlock all around to prevent fraying.

Now neaten all edges, get rid of al those stray threads and turn through. put it on your cushion and admire your work. I know there will be people out there saying I don't do it that way, well that's fine, we all find our own way. Also not all my cushions are made this way, but some are, it's quick. I also use envelope backs, concealed zips, plackets and velcro but that is something for another time.  There may be a lot of photos but this really is a quick way to do it, have a go and let me know what you think.  Here is the cushion below.

The leaf fabric on the cushion is left over from a skirt I made so when I wear it I will be blending in with the furniture! Back soon with some holiday images and great finds from the charity shops there.

Holiday dress

Well I got on with it and I made up the dress this morning from the cotton jersey. It didn't take very long as I  have made a couple in this style before as they are really comfortable and I didn't need a pattern.  A used a dress that I know fits me well and is also made of a fabric with a bit of stretch, I place the dress on top and cut out allowing a good seam allowance with a little bit extra at the top to allow me to place darts.  I decided on a length then cut the skirt in two pieces with a slight circle shape to it.

Then I pinned in place where I would like my darts based on the other dress, and cut a facing piece for around the neck and one in interfacing, I also cut long strips of fabric to fold and bind around the arm holes.  I always try on half way through when everything is put together just to check the fit and in this case it needed no adjustments.  So I hemmed it and finished all the  binding and here it is.  You can't make out the colours very well but it has a purple and brown spot pattern, it may look good with a purple belt but I don't have one I will keep a look out for one but for now I will be wearing it as it is.

The other dresses I have done in this style I have done the skirt differently and cut out the skirt as one long rectangle and then added even pleats towards the centre front and back. This fabric felt more flowing and a lighter weight so I though it would work better just fitted to the waist and I think it does.