Basics

I have been meaning to replace a favourite black t-shirt for a while now, I made a three quarter length, thick t-shirt a while ago but it was no replacement for my go to short sleeved version.  The trouble with that is it was looking very worn and faded having had it for many years.  However I did like the fit and the sleeve length so I have used it as a pattern for not one but two t-shirts.  The first is a grey one and here I have tried to copy the neckline as best I could, I made the grey one as I needed something to go with my swan skirt from a few days ago.

I found that where I had gone around the neck with bias tape at the bottom was not lying exactly as I liked so I have added a little tab, if you look closely you can see it.  I think it makes it look a little more finished.  A trusty zig zag hem and a band on the sleeve turned and topstitched to the reverse.  it was quite a quick make with the only faffing being the neckline.

When stitching the black one I find a useful little video on youtube here about how to turn your bias binding so that a v neck lays nice and flat. I found this helpful and much neater than how I have done it before.  I have had to quickly take a photo on a hanger as it has now been worn and I just realised I had no image of it.  The fabric on this black one was more springy so I had to unpick one side of that v twice as I had pulled it a little, it is super comfy to wear though even if it was not such a great fabric to stitch.

A bright room with the sun shining through the window does not make for the best images.

Anyway that is two more basics done, and I did say that this year I was going to sew more of those items to balance my pattern heavy wardrobe.  Using the old t shirt as a guide worked a treat, I always favour actual clothes to patterns as a template.

Cutting two t-shirts  out together to speed up the process, and here is the original faded favourite...

As you can see no longer a great shade, it was from Matalan years ago, about three pound and I really have had my money out of it ;) Do you have any old favourites you can't let go of?

Skirt Week

Ok, so it is not officially skirt week if there is such a thing but I have been doing a lot of skirt sewing.  Three of which were for my friends daughter, another one for me and a few other bits but I will stick to the skirts for now.  I was asked a while ago if I would make these as the fabric had been spotted in a shop in York, time passed and then suddenly here we are and  both near our hols so my friend got the fabric over to me.  They are due to go on holiday to Florida so despite knowing about this job for months it ended up being a call with oops have you time to still do the skirts ready for the holiday.   Well of course, and I do things last minute all the time so that wasn't a problem.

The fabric is Harry Potter, Star wars  and some funky glasses, had I known beforehand how much she was paying for the Star Wars I would have told her to shop online, but too late the fabric was already bought.

Here is the first skirt, I didn't use a pattern as they brought me a skirt that fit her well and she liked so I took my ideas from that.  They are all circular ish  skirts, meaning not a full circle but that style.
She wanted them all to have the black elastic showing at the top and not a waistband and zip, though I personally prefer the latter.

Here is the next one, I have  told her to hang onto the original skirt that she brought with her even if she gets bored with it, just in case she wants more of the same thing later.  I could have made her a paper pattern but I don't generally have patterns of other peoples clothes about the place I have enough with my own sewing supplies.

I think this last one is my favourite, the fabric was a bit heavier than the other two and it turns out more reasonably priced.  It just shows how much they can tag on when there is a bit of a theme or film element to the design.

After sewing these I grabbed my swan fabric that was in the drawer and decided to make myself something similar.  Of course I wanted a waistband and zip and I  also lined my skirt.

It seems to me if you line a skirt you can wear it year round as tights don't grab and in the summer you don't feel as if your clothes are see through.  I think that can be an issue with light colours.

The perfect flower button from my odd button jar, a black zip as it is all I had but I don't mind.  Right now I am off to sew a bikini that should have been completed earlier this week before all the skirt sewing frenzy!

Blue Bird Dress

Summer sewing is still underway and this week I have a dress for a Minerva post.  The original pattern I was working from has taken a few adjustments as it felt a little like a painting smock without additional shaping.  I took the whole dress in  by quite a bit and added darts, I will provide more detail in the future post on Minerva crafts.

It is looking much better here with a bit of shaping, you can't see very clearly but it has pockets too.  I don't often opt for pockets but this time I did.   With a bit of thought I should have had a before photo.

I think that a fabric with a bit more drape would suit the pattern better, this fabric faired far better with structure.

So there you have it, nothing wrong with the pattern or the fabric just not the two together unless you are adding darts, that is just my opinion you may feel differently.

Yesterday I started reading this book...

When I came in from work I picked it up and couldn't put it down, I took this photo to show my friend and it turns out she has already bought it as a Christmas gift for someone!  Very organised.  It is historical fiction, a bit of fantasy, something different to start the holidays.

I have been sewing skirts all day and I will share these later, right now I'm off for  a cup of tea.

Sewing Face Wipes

Today has been a bit of a washout so I have been getting some small sewing jobs done.  The main thing I did was to create some more of the face wipe pads that I made for a colleague earlier in the week.  I have made little sets of eight with a wash bag to put the dirty ones in and then I listed two sets on Etsy and two on Folksy.  I don't know if they will have any interest but with the current trend towards using reusable items over throw away ones lets hope that is something that more people will adopt.  They will certainly not go to waste.

I love the fact that these use up small amounts of fabric, these ones match but they don't have to so there is no reason why every bathroom can't have a set.  

It is cotton jersey, soft side up on the back and feels really soft.  Simple zig  zag stitch as my overlocker was not making a great go of such a small curve.  If I made them a bit bigger it was fine but then they are a less handy shape.  I think people sometimes like thing to be similar to the originals and these are more like the removal pads you buy in terms of size.

I also had to take a photo of this lovely plant, the hot pink seems to be theme this week.

Yesterday when I was out watering I snapped a few more pictures of the garden, it makes me happy that just a few months ago this was bare and these plants were just seeds in a packet.  We did wonder if we were able to fill the space with what I was growing in the greenhouse, we needn't have worried.

It is a bit crowded and wild at the moment but I don't mind I like the colour.

Ignore the odd bits of wood next to the fence, they are temporarily filling gaps one of the dog keeps making.

As one thing stops flowering another thing starts so that has been good.

The stone circle you can see in this image had an evacuation of flying ants the other day they were everywhere!  It happens every year and we always have lots of ants on our garden, I should have been quick and got an image of that for you.

Well that's all for now have a good weekend.

Green Things

This past week I caught up on watching Hugh's War on Plastic, it is pretty unsettling stuff I have to say and a lot of it just leaves you feeling a bit helpless.  We try to do our best but as the show highlighted, the shops don't make it easy for you and there is also the fact that as fast as we are trying to reduce our consumption the manufacturers are setting targets to increase output of the stuff.

I was asked this week by a colleague to make some reusable scrubbies for taking off make-up, she had bought some from a shop and wanted more.  I used materials I had and made twelve small circular ones and a little drawstring bag to wash them in.  I had a nice photo to share but yesterday my phone did an update and now everything is in the wrong place and all the photo's taken before yesterday have transferred small and out of focus!  I am disappointed about that and will get my son to look at it when he is home later, as I am not one of the phone generation it will take me twice as long to sort it.

This evening I have been altering t-shirts for another colleague, she buys them and then likes them shorter, with smaller sleeves and a lower neck.  It is one way of getting what you want, a lot of people won't shop charity shops but if they did they would see that you can buy things you love cheaply then get them altered.  It is still often cheaper than buying new and you can have them fitted to you.

It seems there is a lot of action from the public on reducing our consumption but very little from the government or big business. I still see a lot of unnecessary  packaging everywhere and lots of plastic that doesn't serve a purpose.  My husband just feels I think too much about these things but there are too many people who don't think about it at all perhaps.  A lot of the plastic free shops are in affluent areas also and I would imagine many people struggling on a tight budget are more worried about buying  affordable food for the week than they are about our long term futures on the planet.

On a lighter note summer term is almost over, there is lots of winding down going on, people moving on and new faces appearing at work.  I was sad to say goodbye to a colleague today, she  started at the same time as me and has been wonderful to work with.  I am sure we will be seeing her again soon.  She very kindly bought me this plant and I will leave you with an image of that after my initial grumpy start over the state of the planet.

A Day Out

We have had a bit of a change today and went out for the afternoon, my husband had booked a day off so we thought we would make the most of it.  We went  to Cleethorpes, we haven't been there for years and it is only an hour away. As it is a Friday we thought it wouldn't be too busy as most people go for the weekend and don't set off until Friday teatime.  It was still quite busy as lots of people were there with young children, there were also a couple of school trips on the beach.  Unfortunately we couldn't take the dogs down onto the sand but walked along the front instead.

 It has been a good day for the weather, the sun did keep disappearing behind a cloud and it was very breezy but I have to say that is better for the dogs.  If it had been blazing sunshine we would have had to get them out of the heat after a short walk, but with the wind and the cloud we managed a good walk.

There was also a lovely boating pond (no boats on it!) full of ducks that we walked around and had our picnic there. We were very prepared today, icepacks in the rucksack, sandwiches, tomatoes, crisps and drinks.  We also managed to park around the corner from one of the main car parks for free, very frugal!

This one clearly is clearly after some food, we didn't feed it as we didn't have  appropriate food.

 This area was beautiful and very well kept.

There was a path leading to a nature reserve, we didn't take that as it involved walking through long grass and two of us had bare legs, I am a bit cautious of getting a tick from long grass having seen one they are hideous things!

We didn't choose to walk around the town after but headed home before the work traffic started to build up, we always try and plan any outing around the least possible traffic.

When I got home I managed to get a load of weeding done and re-pot one of my planters with some of my seedlings from the greenhouse.  I have quite a lot of black flies/aphids on some of my plants I am finding the only solution where there are so many is to remove the affected plants.  It is not too bad as I have spent very little and the garden is full of colour at the moment, all the seed planting paid off. 

Sewing Blue

I think I need to shake things up a bit when choosing my fabric, I have just set out the fabric for my latest make and once again it is blue.  When I am choosing it I must just go into default mode as it is only when it arrives that I realise I have once again chosen the blue option. A couple of my makes were featured on the Minerva Crafts Blog on Sunday 7th (I've had to amend this as I was given a different date!) so if you would like a look go have a look on the blog, you'll have to go back a bit,   but they are of course blue.  Some of you have seen a peek of these before...

This top.

This dress also.

I have to say they have had a bit of wear already, the dress is comfy and the top goes well with jeans, if you want the full details just follow the link above to Minerva. So as I said this came to mind as I was planning my current make, this fabric...

Maybe I can let myself off the hook a little as I did make the green and grey cami on Friday but that was more of a using up small pieces project.   I wonder if any of you find yourselves going into auto pilot and making the same sorts of choices with fabric or wool. It does make sense to shop what you will wear of course but do we sometimes get stuck in a colour rut without realising it?

Here is a little compilation of some of the other blue makes, not including the one above, so as you can see a bit of a theme.  It also seems to have been the last year or so. Note to self to be more adventurous with the fabric choices.

I have just read 'Grit: Why Passion and Resilience are the Keys to Success ' by Angela Duckworth this past week.  It was an interesting read and makes a lot of sense when you consider some of the people who go on to do great things, they are not always the people who were outstanding students or particularly gifted.

 Following on from that one I read 'So Good They Can't Ignore You' by Cal Newport, this was also enjoyable but not always realistic.  A lot of the career stories mentioned  were of people in fields where there is a lot of room for growth and promotion.  While it is always preferable to be doing your best in anything you do, late hours, working and taking no holidays as a life is dedicated to a certain job has seen some people cast aside redundant after many years of service.  Some are simply overlooked no matter what while others may progress  by doing very little, but have the connections, say the right things and so on.  I think in some cases circumstances just fall right for some and other times life just doesn't go that way.   This particular author is very interesting and has achieved a lot, I have another book of his on my to read list and I find his ideas fascinating.  I just think we have to be prepared for the fact that unfortunately good work does sometimes go unnoticed and that is just the way it is, but to not let it ruin the next venture because there will always be something else.  This reminds me of what I mentioned a couple of weeks ago regarding exam results.  Young people need to be aware that there are many paths, some careers may not work out and some will, plus our plans can and will change.  To be believe in a sole dedication to one thing or else is quite dangerous. What do you think? 

Long Quarter Cami

This past couple of days this make has gone through a few changes.  I decided to use the white cotton with my bird print to make my cami top and then I played around with various effects to make the frill look like it had a bit of movement even though the fabric didn't.  At first I tried cutting a wavy effect at the bottom of the fabric and then edging it really close to produce a wave.  I forget to photograph this!  I tried it on the top but I felt the effect just looked badly made so I trimmed it straight.  After that I tried on the top with the white fabric, again I was not happy as the white fabric looked just like a sheet but then that is after all what it is ;) so off with that.  Finally I cut out the green scrap of fabric (cotton challis)  much better!  I instantly felt this was the right choice so went ahead with finishing up.  After deciding the frill was not an option I left the bird fabric as a loose panel back and front over the green.

I have used the fabric so sparing so I even have some left, I cut small pieces going in the correct direction for the straps then stitched them together to make a long length matching the birds as I went.  So this has left me with a big enough piece to go into a bag. 

Another detail that I added was to put a few gather stitches at the front, just enough to pull the front down a little.  When I tried it on I felt it needed a bit more shape so this was the solution.  Had this been a plain top I may have added a few buttons or a bow there too but as it is patterned it doesn't need it.

On the inside I used homemade bias binding again, this time it was  made a while ago from one of my husbands old shirts.  The colours just happened to be spot on.

As you can see here it goes straight across at the back, I left the top panel hanging away from the green fabric and handstitched a hem on it.    It does look like what I had in my head apart from the  bottom of the print being straight and not frilly, that may not be a bad thing as my husband never seems to like things that are too frilly anyway so this is more likely to get his approval.  

In all I am very pleased with this make, the only new item was the long quarter at £2.50, the green was leftover fabric, bias binding I had already made and the cotton was one I already owned.  Even though it went through a few transitions I enjoyed the process, it is good to try different things to see what works because without that I wouldn't have ended up with this. 

If anyone else decides to give this a go pleased link back to me and leave me a comment, I would love to see other people trying this out with all the lovely craft cottons out there.

Free Cami or Jumpsuit Pattern

Hi there, I know a few of you love printing off these free patterns so I thought I would share this one that I found on the Simply Sewing website.  I love the idea of the camisole with a different colour frill so I think that may be on my list of things to make.  I personally like to make my own patterns where I can so for my cami top I will not be printing off the pattern, it is about forty pages for the whole thing!  The idea is lovely however so this is where I have taken my inspiration but I do know that lots of people like to have a printed pattern to work to so I thought you might enjoy this link if you haven't seen it already.  Simply Sewing Camisole and Jumpsuit free pattern.


Now I am in the planning stage of this make because I have a few bits of fabric that are just big enough to go with a solid colour for the rest of the top.  Well one of the pieces I just bought but it is a small piece. Apparently the free pattern is from 'The Great British Sewing Bee: Fashion with Fabric book, does anyone own this book? If so is it worth a peak?  I may have to see it available from the library.  If they don't have it I may suggest they buy it, you can do that you know. The library have a fixed amount to spend and a librarian at my local  library told me they don't always know what to buy so they welcome suggestions. I made a suggestion of a book before and got a new copy as soon as it was in stock so that is worth knowing I think.

Any how back to the pattern here is a little taste of what I am thinking for my top. I am leaning towards the white with the pattern as the green is not the shade that is in the pattern so maybe it will be a bad match? On the other hand the colour would be more practical as I tend to always splash plain white, even when I don't normally do that when wearing other colours.  I seem to wait until I am wearing a white top!  Does anyone else have this issue?   I feel this could be a good way to use up odd fabric, I bought the long quarter of the bird fabric just this week because it is so cute. Just a couple of pounds spent.

Tonight I will play around with a few shapes and see what it looks like, the free pattern does look like it may be cut on the bias with the way the frill is hanging.  If I am using the bird print I can't do that as the birds need to be the right way up.

This past week I have been finding it easier to get up, also I have switched my pilates (free at home in pjs) to the morning and this seems to be working well as I feel I have achieved something for me immediately.

Tomorrow we have a school trip so that will be nice, lets all pray it doesn't rain.
Bye for now.