Tiered Skirt and a few Books

 Hello everyone I hope you are off to a good start this weekend, I thought I would share with you a couple of thisings I have been up to recently.  I am trying to get back into a more regular blogging routine as I am aware I have not been doing that this last few months.

First of all I have made two versions of this tiered skirt, it is for a minerva video and I wasn't sure weather I should post on these items yet but as I have been given the go ahead to also post on it on their site now I am sure it is ok.  It is a Simplicity pattern  (1110) and I have made the maxi length and the knee length version of this skirt.  Most of the work is in the gathering of the tiers and the rest is very straight forward so if you are looking for a nice easy skirt make then this one is for you.  Just take your time with the gathers to make sure they are even.

The fabric is a chambray in pale blue, I don't normally wear maxi length so this was something new for me, I like the way it swishes though and i do think care will be needed in climbing stairs.  I am the type of person who is often flitting around so I hope I will not be ending up flat on my face from standing on it!

The next picture is a still from the filming of it ...

I do think the longer version has more about it even though I do normally wear them around the knee length, something tells me I will be sweeping the floor with it however when crouching and picking up after pets. Maybe I will have to get a grabber ;)

Next up is the little pile of books I have read over the last few months, some of them have been real favourites and others were so so.  I did give where the crawdads sing another go as I was bought it as a gift, it was ok but did not live up to all the hype.  The Hoarder was very good, The Muse and also Ten Thousand Doors of January.  What have you been enjoying reading please let me know I love to have ideas of  what's good so then I can  order them from the library.  These were all from the charity shops apart from the one that was a gift.

I am now on with my Autumn reading I have a few picked up second hand but my current read is from the library and it is Honecomb by Joanne M. Harris, fairy tales this one so it may not be for everyone but I love a little escape sometimes and not everything has to be so serious.  

We have just had a trip to the dentist this morning so that is out of the way for another six months, I am about to make some falafel and cake then off for a walk with the dogs.  There is also a pice of fabric that needs a decsion making on it so there will also be some sewing going on of course.

Whateever you are doing this weekend  have a good one. Bye for now. 

Autumn Dress £1 Refashion

 Hello everyone I hope you are all having a good week, I got off to a wobbly start but I am feeling better today and i have a few things on the go as always I am keeping busy.  I have made a skirt for a video and unfortunatley my phone was not behaving and it came out dark so I have to remake and redo the whole thing! This time of year is not great for filming, I also made another dress and video and that filming seesion came out a lot brighter so I have uploaded that to youtube, more on that in a minute.  I am reading a lot, working on another bag and planning a few Christmas makes so afew things to keep me busy here.

First of all is the dress I will tell you about the dress I have just finished, now I am not big on buying expensive patterns myself as I like to make my own but the covers can give you some great inspiration from time to time.  In this case I saw the image  for The Alexa dress a while ago and just saved it, the pattern is expensive and it is not that different from a  number of dresses I have made before but the combination of details and fabric worked well so it caught my eye.

A few weeks ago I shared here my charity shop bargains for £1 each and among those was a floral dress, too big with buttons down the front.  I immediatley thought of this pattern and had the idea to recraete it form the image in my mind.  My only mistake this time was not to take a before picture of me wearing the dress prior to dismantling it.  I am very happy with how it turned out and have included the video link below. There was just enough fabric to create the frill details and switch around the collar, it now has a full zip up the back and all the buttons from the front and the cuffs will be saved for another day!  I wore it at the weekend and it made me happy that it has new life and looks just like the pattern.

See the video here

If you do decide to watch I would love it if you left me comment there.

So the original dress was too big and had a shirt style front, button down with long sleeves with button cuffs.  I took off the skirt, turned the bodice around, cut a new neckline at the front, cut away and saved the collar which was then trimmed and cut the sleeves to elbow length.  The bottom of the sleeves were cut into strips to make the frills, these were then gathered and put back on. (oh I also took in the upper sleev to make them more fitted. I darted  the dress bodice at the front from bust lines to waist and also at the front neck as it was roomy.  I re-attatched the collar backwards then pleated it to the neck by hand.  I stitched the skirt bottom back on with added gathers to fit and added a back zip.

I am really happy with the neck effect especially as I was really winging it here and had no idea how this would turn out.

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I think this fabric is just perfect for Autumn and also really cheery, I love these thrifty makes they are the reason I began sewing as a teenager and they always make me smile. 

Below is the image of the pattern cover that I copied....

 

So what about you, do you ever just copy the pattern images? It is very satisfying to just work it out for yourself.  Let me know in the comments below if you do this and what you have made.

 Well have a lovely week, take care.

September Days

 Hello everyone, a bit of a busy few weeks here.  We are  back to school  a new term and I have  caught a cold again!  I am pretty certain it is from the same little person who gave it to me before the summer hloidays because they have come back full of it, oh dear.  Anyway that aside I have completed quite a few sewing jobs but can only share a few as some of them are for Minerva videos that won' go live yet.  I am quite nervous that when they do go live people will like them/find them helpful, I hope so but I suppose I just have to get over that. 

We had another weekend away at Leyburn two weeks ago and that was lovely, we met with some of our family who have a static caravan out that way and we managed to find the most gorgeous small CL site just five minute from the site that they are on.  We had a day out in Richmond with lovely walks around the town charity shops then along the river and stopped at a little micro brewery on our way back for a drink outside.  I tried this amazing rhubarb and apple cider, liked it that much I brought some home with me. 

This is a picture I took on our walk, it was quite overcast on this particular day but still quite warm and lovely to be out.

Here I am wearing one of this months makes, this is my minerva make for the month and I used the Freya dress/top pattern to make this as I find it very reliable in fit and just very comfy to wear.  The fabric has little stars on it in peach and mint I thought it went well with our caravan but you can't really see them here in this image. 

My other Minerva make was this dress using a Simple sew pattern for the Sienna dress, I have worn it without a top underneath on a warm day but my intention is that it is worn with a long sleeve top for the Autumn.  Here I took pictures both ways so you can see the difference.  It has little bears on it so a very different fabric choice.

It is a polycotton fabric and reasonably priced if you are interested, although wearing little bears on your dress may not be your thing!

After I shared my last few £1 buys from the charity shop I got a few more ready to remake, as soon as I get a minute I will share those.  I have just the plan for one of the dresses based on a pattern I have seen, I will not be buying the pattern as it is about £18 but I will be copying the image. 

On Thursday we went to the cinema I really enjoyed it, we went to the Penistone Paramount and this is a lovely old fashioned cinema that still has the original seats, curtains and half time intermission.  It is like stepping back in time, it is lovely.  It also doesn't get full of people kicking the back of your seats and munching snacks through the films so that is a bonus.  We saw The Courier and I would recommend it. 

We have added some fake grass recently to the top of our garden just to break up the slate a bit, it is very practical with dogs although they do tend to go and do their businness right smack in the middle of it, but at least it is easy to see to pick up.  My husband fitted it and we bought it from a local carpet shop. I find this quite funny that we are technically buying carpet for the garden but our dogs just ruined the real grass when we had it, it just ended up muddy tracks where they ran around the same spots. 

A lot of things have gone over in the garden now but the Cosmos are doing so well.  My only thought is that next year I will conrol them better a s they do tend to flop every where.  I think my pear tree has some sort of disease as it does not look very well at all, orange spots on the leaves I am going to look that up now.  We have put some lights around the seat at the top of the garden, they are solar so they only come on if we have had adequate light during the day  but they look nice from the window at night when they are on.

 I hope you are all having a fabulous week wherever you are and if you are in the UK that you are  making the most of these last sunny days while they continue.

Take care.