The Mimi Blouse

 This week has been a bit disappointing here in terms of the weather, lots of grey skies and I have to say quite cool.  May is often a good month but it has not really properly warmed up yet, I hope it does soon as we have such a small season of good weather here in the UK.  

I have made another pattern from The Love at First Book this time the Mimi Blouse, this was a nice make and one that I will definitley return to.  For this blouse I used a piece of crepe fabric that was gifted to me from a friend,  she had a clear out of bits she wouldn't use and I have made my way through them.

There was a bit of creative placement with the pattern pieces to get it out of 1 meter, this also meant that I used a small amount of plain blue on the inside facing for back collar and under collar.  The rest I managed to squeeze out of the piece.

Now the piece I used on the under collar is slightly heavier fabric but it doesn't seem to have it affected the look.

The back has a yoke.

I didn't have any white buttons but I did have some cream ones so I just turned them to the wrong side as they are white on the reverse.   There is also a nice pleat detail to sleeves that I like. Have you made any patterns from this book and if so which ones were your favourites?  I do like these books and I think they are really clear and also really stylish.  The images inside work really well with the colours and styling.  When I went on the library website yesterday I spotted a few other sewing and refashioning books so I put those on hold.

There has also been a bit of filming this week, every day in fact and alterations for people.  Not a lot of out and about as the weather as I said was not very inspiring, just a few local dog walks. This week I hope to improve on that and we will be getting ourselves out a bit more no matter what the weather is doing!   

I hope you have a lovely week wherever you are, back soon. 

The Megan Dress

 Hello everyone I hope you are having a restful weekend.  I have had a good week, yesterday I made the Megan Dress from the the Love at first stitch book that I got from the library.  I am currently working through it and making videos for that on each item so I will link that below if you want to take a look.  If you do can you please subscribe and leave a comment as it is like a drop in the ocean being on there and I don't know how you ever get seen! 

Anyway I enjoyed making the dress and I used fabric that I bought a while ago as a treat but have not used because I was saving it until I knew what I wanted to do with it.  So this dress was on my mind but I only had 1 meter.  Well the fabric suggestions always state too much don't they so I got out the fabric and faffed about with the pieces until they fit and hey presto they did!  I was very pleased about that and I think the simple style of the dress goes well with the patterned fabric. 

A few adjustments that I did make were...

• Altering the shoulder as things tend to stand up on my small shoulders so I have taken a cm out of each side.
• I used a regular zip then topstitched down each side to hide it. (I like to use what I have in. )
• The hem is finished with bias binding as I had to cut the length  a fraction smaller to fit the pieces on the 1 meter of fabric, binding the hem means it still has a good hem on the inside.
• The sleeves are also about a cm shorter but that is not much is it?

So I would recommend making this dress it is easy to follow and if you are not sure just watch my video 😊  as I go through it with you step by step. 

                                                   Sew along video for the Megan Dress

We also had a night away in our caravan last weekend, I did think it was a bit much going for one night with all the stuff and getting the caravan off the drive but it went smoothly the weather was lovely and it actually made the weekend seem longer!  We went to Carsington water, we have been there before when our boys were young twice and it is lovely, plus it is just about 1 hour 20 minutes away so not too bad for a quick get away.  We did the walk and it felt longer than it use to, we must be getting on.  Lots of families with children refusing to go any further, hah, that brought back memories.   Here are a few photos...

How glorious is that sky?  You don't have to go far to see such beautiful places.

Lots of lambs in the fields too and that is always lovely to see.

Of course I have to pop in a picture of our little orange holiday home. 

We didn't bother with the awning as it was just for the night, as it was dry this ok.  Sometimes it is better to have the awning up if it is wet so you can store things out there in it but the weather was gorgeous.

There was a bit of bag making at the beginning of the week too here is the latest one...

Find my etsy shop here

Well that is all for now have a super week and take care. 

A Little Makeover

 Hello everyone I thought i would share this as i actually meant to do so a few weeks ago and forgot!  I have a footstool thingy in my back room where my husband likes to go and sit to do gaming and it is all beaten up from the dogs sitting on it.  It is leather and I don't buy that now but we have had it some years, so I bought some faux leather in grey (well I thought I had ordered grey!) when it came it is a metalic colour and I had not checked the box correctly, well oh well I made it up anyway.  It does look so much better than berfore but it is not perfect.  Here it is....

                        

                              

It was a quick make so I didn't spend too much time on it I just needed to give it a refresh as my husband does use it to put his feet on and there is handy storage inside it.

So if I had been more on the ball this last few weeks you would have seen this already, I have a few other makeover bits that need doing too.  We have recently moved out the troplical fish tank as the last fish bar one had died, the plecostomus has gone to the pet shop to be with friends.  There is now a gap and I have a bit of charity shop furniture that needs to go in the space but not before i have done it up so I will share that with you when I get around  to it. 

This week I have made a jacket for a friend so I must remember to take images of that before she collects it.  Also I have more videos on you tube so if you are not already a subscriber please go and take a look.

Find my channel here

I have got the above book from the library just like I did with my other Tilly  book beofre finding one in the charity shop.  I also have put in a request for the latest one as a buyer request so fingers crossed they get that one in too. 

My husband has a new shirt that I made and he wore it for a night out, so now that I know that he likes that one there will be more to come, I did need to alter the cuffs though I don't know how big they think peoples wrists are, these were quite big before adjustments.

It is a cotton chambray and I have to admit to ironing it about a million times before he wore it.

This t shirt was another tilly make using leftover bits, I am very pleased with this as I love a use it up project.  

Well I hope you are having a good week and enjoy your weekend, take care and bye for now. 

A New Month of Sewing

 Hello where ever you are I hope you are doing well.  I have had such a busy month and it has just flown by.  Last week we went to the Cotswolds in our caravan and that was lovely as we had to postpone our trip to the lakes afew weeks ago due to the weather.  Having a small van and three dogs we at least need some dry weather for it to be enjoyable and this time it was, a fair amount of sunshine too.  I will share a few holiday snaps with you...

This is the tower at Broadway,   we did the walk from the bottom of the hill and up across the fields.  I love this village it is so pretty with beautiful buildings and cute little shops we also had chips at the best chip shop called Russel's with a glas of wine no less.  I had vegan pie too and my husband a a fish.  He is mainly plantbased now but will occasionally have a fish.  I really enjoyed this as we don't often eat out when we are away I always cook and to be honest there is rarely much on offer for me to eat so this was great.

 Here I am looking pleased with my lunch outside!

This is our little caravan set up, we mainly use CL sites now as we like the peace and are not big on large sites with clubs and so on because we wouldn't use them.  

This is one of the many pictures of churches that I took and this particular one is at Blockley where some of father Brown is filmed if you have ever heard of that. I have watched it and there is such beautiful scenery in it, it made me want to visit the area.  The show is filmed over a number of places in the Cotswolds and other places I believe.

I stood there because I thought the car went well with my memade jacket, only a dress maker would understand.  This was in Chipping Camden.

So that is first little jaunt in the van for the year and we have a few more booked in, not too far way I think the furthest we are going is Angelsey.

There has been much sewing and I have just been doing that today too, I have shortened and fully lined the trousers of two jumpsuits this morning  for a customer and she came to collect and dropped off another.  She does love a jumpsuit.

Here are a few of my makes this month...

I enjoyed making all three things from this pattern and the jacket is a lovely fit.

Another Tilly dress from the stretch book i have made four of these now and this fabric was only £2.99 a meter so that was a win.

This is a beautiful dress but requires a night out to wear it, it is fully lined and a super shape.  I really like the colours.

This coat with the oversized collar, I am sure that huge collar will keep me super toasty next winter.

My mustard t shirt from sweatshirting fabric, great for an inbetween day, I had a piece left that I didn't want to go to waste.  I hacked a sweatshirt pattern and added the pleat details myself to pull it in a little bit.  I have worn it a few times already.

Gingham shorts, another good fit so all we need now is a good bit of sunshine worthy of shorts!

A coat or maybe a cardigan either way it is warm, this is teddy coating.

All my fabrics are from minerva.com I haven't listed all the pattern numbers here just because I don't have them to hand right now, but if you are interest in any in particular just leave me a comment and I will let you know the pattern make and number.

Me made May has started today  too, so I will be trying my best to keep up with posting on there so if you don't follow me already you can have a look at that @sewingreenlady.  Are any of you taking part, if so let me know so I can follow your makes/wears too.

Well that all for now, have a lovely week.