My Favourite Burda Jacket

Today I am layered up for me made May 2020 day 10 with tights and a jacket to leave the house, yes I left the house to go shopping.  Who would have thought that the weekly shop would become an event, but it is and with a cold, cloudy day a jacket was required.  Something of a change from yesterday.  I made this jacket a few years ago I think it is Burda Young 7018 and I have since made another in cotton, it is a lovely pattern and I used a really good quality black denim for it.  Originally it had a pink and white Paul Smith cotton lining it, now that is still in there but has since been covered over with a slinky blue lining that slides much better over clothes.   The added lining now makes this quite a warm jacket while still looking smart.

The dress I made quite recently and is a simple sew top pattern lengthened into a dress.  Another favourite style for its simplicity.

I managed to get on with cutting  out another pattern from the Tilly stretch book,  this time the Freya sweater.  The fabric in mind for this is a textured jersey with a stripe, I bought the fabric because I like red and it was inexpensive.  It was also destined to be a long sleeved top as my aim is to start adding a few more basic bits that can go with skirts  as my pattern mad brain will always lead me towards the prints creating unmatchable separates!  There are two skirts in my wardrobe with red in so  this top will fit right in.   I will share more on that tomorrow.

This book has proved to be really useful and I will have a look out for her other books, as I mentioned before I got it from the library and then lockdown occurred and we were given a long extension on all the books we already had out.  Due to this I have had this book a while now although I did read all of it the first few days and made plans for what I wanted, it has been nice to keep revisiting it and having another  browse.   I own a Japanese pattern book that is lovely to look at but the patterns in that one are very faffy to trace off as there are so many lines!  Also all of the clothes come out much smaller than the sizes stated.  So if you are looking for a book for a gift or to treat yourself the Tilly stretch book is a good one.   My only slight modification is to make the sleeves a little wider on the patterns.

We have a viewing empty space this evening, as I have said before we don't follow many t.v shows as they are aired but we have been a fan of Sunday evening Homeland, what will I fill that with?  

Well I hope you are all having a relaxing weekend and are ready for the week ahead, I have just watched the update on the virus situation and it doesn't seem too much is changing just yet, just keep doing as we have been and keep smiling.

A Suuny Day Dress

What another glorious day and a chance to wear this dress that I made for a Minerva make and this dress needs just the right weather as it is not really one that I can layer up.  Me made May day 9 (is it only day nine?) and I am not used to this daily photograph business, happy to make the clothes and write the blog but I always feel  a little foolish in front of the camera that is why you usually see a lot of my makes on the mannequin she is much more confident!  The pattern for this dress is a Kwik Sew one and I do like the style and I think it would look good in a jersey, mine is a sort of chiffon so I have had to line the skirt.

I opted for an indoor image today as the sun is so bright out I could hardly see what I was doing.  Here is the pattern if you want to try it out.

There has been a lot more planting going on and I am now in need of another  bag of compost or possibly two.  A few seedlings were potted out on the front and more started off in the greenhouse.

Here are few lovely things making me smile in the  garden because they are just returning and taking care of themselves.

I am still rescuing these from all over the place I love how they just get on with and grow any where, even if you dig them out of paths and pop them in some soil they come back completely undisturbed.

This little beauty has never seemed to die off, it was flowering in winter!  There are loads of new buds on it.

These little buns were made just using up lots of bits that needed eating, over ripe bananas, nearly a full carton of coconut cream, half a bar of dark vegan chocolate plus some raisins and almonds for good measure.

I made 24 so you are only seeing half of them here, I really need to buy myself another cake tray as the rest were put in cases with no support so they look a bit mutant!  Never mind they will still be consumed, one disappeared as soon as they were out of the oven they never last long.

We had a nice drink in the garden today, making the most of things it felt a bit like we were on holiday.  Best not to think too much on what  is going on while at the same time being sensible.

I hope you are having a good weekend wherever you are. Back soon.

Another Joni Dress

Yesterday I made up my new fabric and opted not to go for my skater dress but make another Joni dress from the Tilly Stretch book.  The last one worked out so well and looks very dressy, due to lockdown I have had no opportunity to wear it yet.  This new fabric is fun and summery so will be more of a casual dress so making a Joni in this seemed like a good fit.  Now when I bought the fabric I only bought a metre, the dress pattern requires more so I have had to modify the skirt.  It is not a full floaty skirt on this version as I ran the sides of the pattern down to make it fit a metre of fabric I will show the pieces further down.  For now here it is on me, made May day 8 and we had lovely warm weather today to wear it.

So as you can see the skirt is nowhere near as full as it should be but as a casual dress it is probably a good thing.

You can see the colours and the detail on the dress better here on the mannequin. I particularly like the cross over detail on this dress pattern as I think it is very flattering.  I opted for short sleeves, well I had to have short sleeves due to the amount of fabric :) it is a summer dress so that is ok.

I swapped my needle for a nice new ball point one as this fabric has lots of bounce in it, if you are interested it was from Minerva and only £5 so a bargain of a dress.  I made the  neck binding by just cutting strips of the same fabric and I took extra care not to pull it as I was sewing, because this fabric was light it made a very good job of the twist detail at the bust.

This really is a new favourite pattern and I may go off and make many versions of it over the coming years, watch this space!

Here you can see my pattern piece folded over quite a lot, it changes the shape of the skirt but not the fit, you just get more of an a-line skirt rather than circular.

We have had a nice long walk today with dogs, sat out in the sun for a little while and now I am planning what to make for dinner. I have seen lots of bunting out ready for tea parties here in the UK I will be cooking a hot dinner, as sandwiches were had at lunch time.  There are also some overripe bananas in the cupboard so a little more baking may be happening later to save them going to waste.

  If you are all set for your garden party then I hope you have a good time, socially distanced of course.  Bye for now.