A Mock Jumpsuit

This week I have been putting together this outfit for a Minerva post, I had intended to make a jumpsuit but do you know what I don't feel there is any need for my top to be connected to my bottom garments ;). really it just makes it such a pain when you need to pay a visit that I decided separates give the same effect without the hassle if they match.

I will give a peek here but I am saving the full post for Minerva Crafts . I enjoyed  making this as I didn't set myself the task to do it all in one day as I sometimes do.  When I do that any interruptions to my sewing are annoying  and I wanted to avoid that.  Instead I chose to do a bit each day over a few days.

My son very kindly rook the photo's for me and this saved me messing about with the tripod, this was just as well because it was very windy.   I know I will be more inclined to wear this as it is easy to get in and out of.

Today I have done some hand bag sewing, I have just finished that about twenty minutes ago and will share it once I have uploaded the photo's to Etsy. In an attempt to be more aware of marketing I have been reading this...

I get the idea however I am already on all the social media it suggests, I don't really have much of a following as I don't follow hundreds of people myself.  If you do that how on earth do you ever get anything done. I would rather  follow crafters that I am interested in, food design and stuff like that and then I can enjoy what pops up rather than scrolling, how do you all feel about this? I do understand that it is an important tool.  So there I am no business woman I guess but if I follow you, you can be sure I actually read your content!

In other reading I have just finished 'People in the Room'  by Norah Lange.  I have to say this book was not for me, it never really went anywhere and I kept at it as I was waiting for some revelation that never came.  Has anyone else read this and if so what are your thoughts?

We have also started watching a new drama this week called 'Undercover' and this one is in Flemish (subtitled) we are quite enjoying it.  It is quite amusing that there was a time when my husband didn't watch anything with subtitles  and now that is most of what we watch.. I think it gives so much more variety and you get to know which genres you like from where.  We find a lot on Netflix and BBC4 More 4 are good too.

Scrap Busting T-Shirt

This make today was a bit spur of the moment, I started looking through my odd scraps of fabric to design a new bag and then saw a charity shop t-shirt I bought for the fabric and another scrap in the same colours.  I instantly thought they should go together to make a new item and set about cutting up the t-shirt.  It has been in that cupboard for about a year and a half, I remember thinking what did I buy this for? Well again it was another thing  just waiting for inspiration, I have to say I love the work of Marlies Witjes at Made by Liesl. She is always finding inventive ways to use up every last bit of fabric and her bomber jackets are a work of art!  So this little project today was inspired by her work.

It is all jersey fabric so it will be comfy to wear, I do find I end up wearing the jersey items more than anything after all we all want to be comfortable.  The piece on the pocket is scuba from a dress I made a while ago.  I am so pleased with result I have been having another look to see what else can be cobbled together but nothing else is jumping out in the same way.  Also a lot of the bits I have clash or would be too busy together.

The make was easy I just cut the bottom off  the  existing charity shop t-shirt  then cut up the sides as well.  I lay the top part on the fabric to make the shape for the top half of the t-shirt and just cut grown on cap sleeves.

As you can see here the top of the original t-shirt was a bit fussy, it also had a tie that went around the waist.

When I have the top part cut I always fold it in half to check it is the same on both sides, I also had to do a bit of trimming on the bottom so that the pattern was level.  The pocket I just guessed and cut a shape, I hemmed that first then pinned it on before stitching it to the shirt front.

I almost forgot to mention that I made some binding for the neck with another bit of leftover jersey, I cut that so the embossed strip was laying horizontal not lengthways in the biding pieces.  The idea was it would be folded to the wrong side but it looked good showing so I topstitched it to stand up.

A good fun make I think and a bit of reuse, recycle in there too.  I will have to get to that bag idea later.

One thing I have decided in light of reading Atomic Habits is that I will have set days for blogging. After a bit of thought I have decided on Tuesday and Friday starting this week, I know that because I have committed to it I am more inclined to stick to it.  There was also a comment that James Clear made about his own  blog and that was to just show up and post, and also that often he would put off because he didn't feel things were perfect but the act of getting something out there keeps the momentum going.  He worded it better than that but you get the  idea, I'm not sure how this works when on holiday but I will deal with that at the time. 

Wrap Dress

This morning I was up early so I have had time to get on and make up this dress that I cut out earlier in the week.  It is a wrap dress from Simply Sewing magazine, the fabric was a leftover from a dress I made for a relative last year.  I have to say that when I cut it out I thought it may look too much like a robe but it does in fact look great.  A simple pattern too so ideal for a beginner.

I did have to take the shoulders up by quite a bit but I am thinking that is probably my fault and maybe I should have cut out the smaller size.  I am always cautious of new patterns a s you can take in but you can't put back on once it is cut so I go for caution then adjust.

The ties are really long and go around three times, this makes for  an interesting belt though and of course you have the option as to where you tie it and how.

There are no other fastenings on this dress other than the tie belt, so if you are nervous about different closings this might be the dress for you.   I think it would be a good holiday dress especially for the beach over a costume maybe.  I will lookout for fabric that doesn't crease to make another one of these.  This one is lovely and smart but I think it would be good in a casual style of fabric too.

As I said I have had this fabric since last year when it was left over so it goes to show that sometimes it is good to hang on until you see the right thing for your fabric.   When I saw the cover pattern in a green floral I instantly thought of this fabric in the cupboard so maybe it was meant to be.   I hope that when we go to Wales for our holiday we will get at least some sun so I can wear this.

Right now I am off as I have boring house jobs to do like hanging out washing, doing the food shop etc.  I'd rather carry on sewing but these things need doing ;)