A Quick Thrifty Skirt

Today I made up this very quick skirt with the fabric remnant I bought last weekend, I had a pattern from a magazine a friend gave me for an A-line skirt  but it seemed such a waste of time to cut out a pattern for such a basic shape that I didn't bother.  There is also the fact that as an untested pattern I don't know if the shape  or size is going to be any good so I opted to just cut two shapes using a dress of mine as a guide.  I didn't cut it exactly the same as the dress as the fabric wasn't wide enough but it gave me a rough idea of size.

The fabric was £1.50 so an amazing bargain, when I picked it up my husband said 'but there is a bit cut out of the bottom!' I said oh it will be fine the skirt won't be as long as that.  The zip I already had in my sewing box, I always salvage zips from things also I didn't use any interfacing in the waistband. 

On the inside I hand stitched the inside of the waistband it looks neat and I quite enjoy doing hand stitching.  The fabric is a bit like scuba and didn't fray so I haven't bothered with edging on the inside seams apart from the bottom hem.

So overall this was very quick and just goes to show you don't always need patterns and lots of supplies to get a project finished.  After flicking through some of my donated sewing magazines I got the impression that some of the articles suggest you need to spend an arm and a leg before you can get any sewing done.   There seems to be a gadget for just about everything, threads for any emergency and don't get me started on feet!   

I have to say that when I began making my own clothes at sixteen it was not only for the love of it but also because it was cheap.  I could see an image in a catalogue ( yes it was catalogues back then) and then try and copy it, often with whatever cheap fabric I found on the market and never with a pattern.  Now I tend to think if people are buying really expensive fabric they are going to be nervous about starting things.  There is also the fact that patterns are not always accurate so it does not really follow that just because you bought an expensive pattern it will fit you beautifully.   I hope more people will try out doing their own thing with cheap offcuts or clothes in a larger size from the charity shop, it really is the best way to learn.   

Here is the dress on the table as you can see it was not an entirely accurate copy of it 

but I feel it still works really well.  The main thing is that is wide enough, I knew that any problems with tapering the sides could be sorted later, as it happened it was fine first time.

Springing Awake

I feel like the cobwebs have really been blown away with all this lovely weather we have had recently. Easter weekend you could hardly get us inside in typical British fashion we were out, sandals on sorting the garden, with the odd bottle of beer in hand of course!  My husband has built us some amazing raised planters down one side, we need things like this as the dogs have a tendency to jump on dug soil and dig.  Sometimes they just walk through it just to get dirty and annoy us I think.

Anyway these will be really useful for the summer, they took quite a lot of filling and I have to say that buying soil is not fun.  The rest of the garden was given a wash down and a weed and now it is looking much better, I hope we haven't scared away the rest of the sunshine now.

So as things start to grow in the greenhouse there will be more plants to fill them up, just looking a bit sparse for now.  We bought an ornamental tree and a pear plus we moved a couple of aisas to the boxes.

I didn't feel much like being indoors sewing while the weather was glorious as you never know how long it will last, we also had a trip to Castleton and a bit of a walk around there.  The rest of the time was just spent in the garden . I

Now that the evenings are lighter I have felt much more productive and various ways, I am sticking to practising my guitar every night, doing 20-30 minutes of pilates and I have started a Norwegian course that I have been doing for just over a week. So that I don't forget anything I made myself a little tick calendar.

I managed to repair three pairs of jeans and turn another pair into shorts, I did a few tops and alterations for people I know and I completely reshaped a jacket I made a while ago but forgot the before and after photos.

I have been getting more books read, this is in part due to being more strict with my online reading.  I do love to read online but I have a tendency to jump through the links on a topic when I am interested.  This can be good for learning but also bad for concentration so I am trying to  limit my use of online articles or  read them alongside a book where I can.  I will share more on this another day as it is a topic all on it's own really.

On Saturday we visited a fabric shop in Barnsley as I needed a zip, only to find a closing down sale!  This is sad as the shop has been there for years however the last we visited it had new owners/managers or whatever  and the boss was clearly humiliating a member of staff in front of all the customers, we were embarrassed for her. So maybe there is a reason it is closing if that was a reflection of life for staff at the shop on a regular basis.   I did manage to bag a £1.50 remnant while I was there, it is not very big but enough for a small skirt, I will share another day. I'm off to work on my to do list :)  

Simple Sew Dress

I have this lovely little pattern that is so easy to make up, this Simple sew pattern is actually for  a top but I had this piece of fabric I bought on sale a while ago and I thought it would make a lovely dress.  It has a nice drape to it and as the style of the top is a bit like a  kimono shape I thought they would go well together.

You can tie the tie front or back and here I have decided to cross it over at the back and tie it at the front.  I think I like it best this way.

To make the dress I simply cut the pattern pieces out a bit longer the only thing is with this pattern is that once you tie it and it wraps around your body there are obviously bits that hang down longer due to the width of the garment.  This is fine on the top I feel but on the dress I wanted it to look level once tied.  So I tied it on the mannequin and put pins where it was hanging down longer as a guide.  Then I lay it out flat and tapered it in with scissors following the pins, this just meant that I was taking a couple of cm off at each side seam decreasing towards the centre in a straight line.  Now when it is tied the hem is all level and it is not something you would be wearing untied so problem solved.

 Here is the before picture so you can see where the side pieces hang down longer when tied behind. I should have taken a picture while I was cutting it off but I didn't think at the time!  I was just set on rectifying the issue.  It would have been fine left alone I just have to faff. 

This fabric has a bit of a silky feel to it and that is lovely, however once I tried it on I noticed it is also really full of static.  Does anyone have any ideas how to combat this, I do wonder if it will either cling like crazy when I wear it or work its way up.

Here is one of the pieces to the pattern and there really are only a few of them. So easy and yet so nice. 

I finished reading Money A Love Story by Kate Northrup a couple of days ago, I have to say it didn't do much for me.  It is supposed to be motivational and helpful in terms of how we look at and view money and yet it just felt very self congratulatory.  The author mentions her mum wrote a best seller years ago, then she mentions this throughout the book and also did I mention her mum was on Oprah twice?  No well she does often!  I hate to be negative when someone has wrote a book as it is such an amazing thing to get one out there at all but parts of it just put me in a bad mood.  I think there is lots of good advice out there on blogs that is  more realistic and it doesn't have to involve shady  deals, network marketing or any other way of roping people in to pyramid selling schemes.

I plodded on  with the book as I like to finish things and there is always the possibility that you will gain something you didn't know before, and I did, that I am very happy with my way of doing things and it has served me well.  Spend way less than I earn and stay out of debt, no magic formula required!