Bargain Garden Arbour

We have been wanting a garden seat to go in place of the children's trampoline and had thought about making one, I posted an idea from another blog where someone had used three dining chairs.  Well we had been looking and found that the price of decent second hand chairs was quite steep considering we would be taking bits of them apart, we also didn't see any suitable.  We may have been impatient but my husband had been looking on eBay and saw a nice bench and arbour that some one had started to paint and then got fed up with.  He bought it for £80, the guy even delivered it for us as they lived just in the next town.

  My husband spent the best part of the day painting it yesterday and we decided to leave off the back panel as we like the way you can see the bushes through the back. Here it is finished...

The total cost was £95 if you factor in the paint, I think it looks great and he has done a lovely job.  The people who were selling it were moving house and had decided it was one job too many to finish it up.  That was good news for us though as these are quite expensive when they are new.

This one here from Wickes that comes pre painted is £300 so I think that is a good saving.

Cotton Blouse - mark darts as you fit

I have had this piece of fabric since last year, I really likes the design but I only bought  half of a meter. (these cotton prints are so expensive) So I was thinking what can I make?

I decided to just get on with it and make a blouse, hopefully with sleeves if there is enough.  I cut around a button up blouse I have leaving quite a large seam allowance to allow for mistakes. Then it looked like enough left for sleeves and bit of facing for neck so I cut these out as well.

I then sew the shoulder and side seams and try it on, it is usually a bit big when I do this but it doesn't matter I pin where the darts will go, in this case I did some across the top of the bust as well as down the front as it was bulging a bit there. I also noticed it was stuck out a bit on the shoulder blades so I put some horizontal ones there as well.  I straighten them all up and make sure they are evenly spaced when I lay it down flat.

Back

Front

I tried it with the sleeves sewn in and decided to shorten them a little, I did a pleat at the shoulder and also at the bottom of the sleeve then added a button. 

My overlocker has been broken for a while so the inside seams are zig zig stitched, I faced the neck line then hand stitched it invisibly on the inside, the sleeves and hem are machine stitched. (looking at my picture I need to iron the sleeve and dart seems a bit more)

I had hardly any fabric bits left so I really did just have enough for this top, I didn't do a side zip or vent but you could do this to make getting it on easier. I just pull it over my head and it is fine, no room for weight gain though.

I had these buttons in my sewing box, I'm getting through my stuff that I have collected over the years I will have to start replenishing them soon.  I always pick the buttons off things that are no longer any use, I also save all the spares you get with things.

Unfortunately the horses heads and bodies get a bit disfigured during the fitting!

So that is another item finished and no need of any patterns, it really annoys me what they charge for patterns and that people buy them as they think it is the easiest.  It is better to take something apart and look at it and have a go. You can buy  more fabric with the £7 or £8 pound you will save.  

Ethical Clothing and a Skirt and Top Revamp

I posted last week about some items I had in my sewing fabric box that would be made into a dress. These are the items...

Now it is difficult to see but the skirt is long and has a rather silly ruffle that goes a third of the way down the front and a big bow at the waist.  The top has a small hole in the side and the straps a very low ( obscenely low) at the front, if I wore it as it is you would probably see my stomach! So I had thought of making a dress but as I was unpicking the ridiculous ruffle I thought I would do skirt and top as that way I could still wear the top with jeans if I wanted to.   I chopped a good 9 inch off the top of the skirt and cut the skirt front all the way down the front once the ruffle was removed so that the seam I had to stitch didn't look odd.  I added  quarter inch elastic to make a new waistband by just folding over the top of the skirt, inserting elastic which I had stitched to correct waist size by trying first and then just sewing by zig  zag taking care not to catch on the elastic as I went. ( This is very quick)  The skirt looked better a;already without the bow and ruffle.

I fixed the hole in the top with a bit of invisible stitching, chopped of about 2 inch  off the straps, reshaped the front of the top by cutting then hand stitching on the inside so that the stitches didn't show.  (I thought it was a bit too pointy towards the shoulders before.)

Here it is with a belt and shoes ( it seems strange to take a picture without shoes!)

It is wearable now. I have to say when I first saw it I thought what can I do with that. Then it didn't take much to get rid of the fussiness of it.  Another holiday outfit for free!  (Need some sun on those legs though)

I read The Thrift book over the last two days which came in at the library from my order last week. It covers lots of things most of which I do already and I did enjoy it but I did disagree with her take on clothes buying.  She admitted throughout the book how middle class she is and how fortunate she has been but goes on to rant about people buying clothes at Primark and the implications of this.  

Ethical Clothing

I do agree that people should be paid a living wage and child labour should never be used, her argument was if you buy cheap you are supporting this and if you pay top whack you can sleep easy as you have done your bit.  That is all very well for a middle class journalist/author to say but what she didn't mention is that many of the pricey shops also use workers overseas in this way and I don't feel families on low incomes should be made to feel guilty for doing the best they can to clothe their children or themselves.  

I agree it is obscene to go in every Saturday and throw away clothes just because they are cheap to make way for new, but for a lot of people they shop there out of necessity.  

Just out of interest I think it is quite difficult to determine which shops are ethical or not, I had a look around the internet and found some conflicting suggestions as to which were the best places to shop.  One site put GAP quite high but on two others they were near the bottom, I suppose it depends on the loyalties of the site owners!  I did find a list on Ethical Consumer which puts M&S  at the top, Primark are near the bottom but I might add so are Wallis, John Lewis and River Island so it is not so much about what you pay.

I think the best way to be ethical about your clothing is to make it last, recycle, swap and make your own.  If you need to buy cheap do so when you need to, but not every week! 

I would also like to add my mother in law got me the above skirt (Which is GAP) in the St Lukes charity shop sale last year for 50p! The top also from a charity shop I bought for £2 and it's organic cotton.