Books, Cookies and This week

There have been a couple of books finished off this week, one of them being Madam Bovary which I bought the other weekend when we went away.  I cannot make up my mind on this, yes of course it is good writing but the very idea that women were arguing at the time because they believed this character was based on them makes me so sad.  That such a dreadful, pitiful woman should spark such familiarity.  As you can tell I had no sympathy for the character at all, in such times there were many women and girls who had despicable lives. The day to day life of Emma to many would have been one of comfort, if lacking in opportunity and yet from beginning to end she simpered and complained.

I'm sure there will be many that disagree but for me while I had to read on to the end, it was more for the resolution of the story rather  than for Emma.

The next book I finished was no regrets on Sunday.  This was an improving book, some good tips some overdeveloped ones also.  I didn't do the activities as there were so many of them and they are so in depth! I only picked it up in passing and read it quickly,  in all it was a bit gimmicky, with the odd bit of wisdom but then I suppose these kinds of books all have a different voice and feel so as to appeal to us all.  So we are probably going to clash with some of them.

I am Malala is the one I just started, I have been wanting to read this one but felt it would be hard and upsetting while inspirational.  As an educational campaigner Malala was targeted and shot by the Taliban and later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  What an amazing young lady.

Whatever the awful germs are that are circling  at the moment I steel feel a bit like a zombie, tight in the chest, wiped out at the end of the working day and it seems so do lots of other people. Bring back the sunshine.   This evening I needed a bit of energy so I made these almond and dark chocolate cookies with Gf Flour and ground almonds.  I will post the recipe another day as all I did today was throw it all in the blender, shape and bake for 12 minutes.

They taste good enough, I may add a little soya milk next time to the mix.

Now that it is cold and dark I like to be home and to shut the cold outside, there doesn't seem to be a great deal on the T.V at the moment.  It seems a lot of the  dramas I was following have now ended. although I have been enjoying 'The Missing' harrowing though it is at times.  Even the BBC 4 subtitled dramas I like appear to have dried up as well.  Feel free to let me know if there are any good dramas I have missed, I will get them on catch up.

Grey Winter Skirt Finished and Sewing a Zip Pocket

Today I got on with the job of finishing my skirt and while I was doing so I thought I would include  few photographs of how I do a zip pocket.  They are not as difficult as you might think and as  with anything just practice on some scraps first if you have not done one before.
Here is the finished skirt, then I will go through what I did.

First of all in assembling the skirt I sewed the little pleat on the front and back pieces.

  I had pins in to keep it even and I repeated the process front and back.

I sewed it to a little v, then removed the pins.

Next I sewed the darts into the yoke panels, I had marked with a notch where I wanted them to go and then deciding how far down was easy as I used the lines in the fabric to keep the end points even.

I have also started adding a pin to the right sides of fabric especially now that it is darker as it can be sometimes difficult to tell the right side from the wrong side.

Next I notched the centre yoke, put right sides together with the bottom piece, stitched them together then top stitched.

For the pocket I decided on the angle and pinned a rectangle of fabric in place, I marked where the top and bottom of the zip would go and then sewed a thin rectangle just wider than the zipper teeth.

Next I cut along it making a little snip into each corner.

Fold it through the hole then straighten it all up, I used pins to keep it all straight.  You don't always need to do that but this wool will not hold the fold, a cotton fabric would.

Next sew your pocket fabric to the zip, I used the wool on one side and lining on the other to save on bulk.

Place it behind your pocket opening again you can pin it if it helps. Don't worry about the shape you will be trimming it neat once it is in place.

Sew on the inside close to the original stitch line.

The wool is pointing upwards when laid flat and the lining downwards.  Now fold the wool downwards so it lays behind the lining piece.

Then stitch around it, now trim away any excess and neaten.

Now I stich front and back together and add the waistband lining and zip.

I hand stitch the waistband on the inside catching in the lining as I go.

I also hand stitch the hem.

A little press and it's finished, sadly dark by the time we had finished our meal and I had chance to photograph it.

A side zip and a small button.

I am very happy with it, all in with the remnant, lining and side zip it cost me £4.50,  the chunky zip in the side pocket I already had in my sewing box.

Pattern Books, Pattern Cutting and the Value of Waiting

We have been out and about today so I have not really done any work on my skirt, that will be my finishing off job for tomorrow.  We had a look around the charity shops but nothing jumped out at me but I did overhear a young woman beside me talking to the lady serving in St Luke's shop.  She was telling her she had wanted to buy the Handa's Surprise book for her daughter from the schoolbook fair catalogue, it was £5.99 she said but she left it too late so there was going to be a late order charge on top so she told them no, leave it then.  She had the book in her hand in the charity shop for £1.50 and was really pleased then the lady said all those books are half price!  She went over and picked out a couple more.  Good for you I thought, how often do we rush into buying things and then have second thoughts later or wish we had hunted down a better bargain?

I think the reason for these choices a lot of the time is that everything is so instant now, we have accounts and passwords for everything and anytime we have a need or whim we only have to turn on the computer, click a button and items are there  within hours sometimes.  So that is not always a good thing.

This whole incident got me thinking about my own list on Amazon, now I have a list but it is very changeable and the reason for that is that I use it as  a holding place for wants.  I only occasionally buy things from this list but throughout the year many items make their way onto it and then later get deleted.    The latest being  this book...

Now I have looked at this book on there before and wondered about buying it,  it is supposed to be the book that tells you all you need to know about pattern cutting, professionally. The thing is, it is £28 and that is a lot of money for a book that yes I am sure I will learn from but I am not ready to commit that amount to it at this time.  So it left my list after a few days, the reason being that I don't want my husband to rush in and buy it for me for Christmas when I am not sure if it will be worth the investment. 

There was another book on there a few weeks ago with patterns to trace, a Burda one and that has also been removed.  You see on further inspection on a new day I had a better look at the 'look inside tab' and found that the items I liked I could already make and have already done so in the past.  The trousers I didn't like but would have been able to figure out anyway had I wanted to.  Maybe I just like the idea of the books because I enjoy sewing and browsing the ideas, but I have the internet for that. 

One book that I have mentioned before and that is inexpensive and very useful is Sew What! Skirts, I have recommended this to a friend who has bought it and used it.  There are no complicated illustrations just some common sense calculations and ideas for variations on what is a basic shape.

I will continue to use my list as it gives me thinking time, for me that is a valuable tool to store things that interest me without committing just yet.  I will keep my eyes open on ebay, in charity shops and look on the library catalogue to see if there is something similar to the book above but I'm in no rush.

If I have been making clothes all these years without knowing the technical aspects of pattern making I'm sure I can wait a bit longer.