November...ing

 Hello everyone, it has been a few weeks but I am recovering from the dreaded Covid.  Just before half term I strted to feel unwell and it quickly got worse, my husband and I have both been very poorly with it.  Two weeks mostly in bed and I have been back to work lasy week (bad idea) and I was wiped out when I git home.  Anyway trying to do bits here and there to not feel very useless! I have managed some sewing and there are a few sewing bits from weeks ago that I forgot to share too.  It really makes you think how you take your energy levels for granted and also how not  being unable to get up and do all the things you normally do is very depressing.  Well enough of that and here is my slow start to November so far.

 Making a couple of videos for Minerva, so I have had to do these in stages as I have been so tired and these were completed this last weekend and yesterday.  Just a bit at a time, which is unusual for me as I normally make things in one sitting.   So an apron, a dress and a top and these will all be on the site when all the others go live I believe.

Everything is a little odd as I have taken stills from the videos.

I do think this last one turned out really nice although it will have to wait for next summer now.

In other sewing I started a blouse before I got ill and I finished that last week, there were just the sleeve plackets and buttons to stitch on.

This as Art gallery Fabrics cotton poplin and this was from Minerva also I have put this in the #sewshirty21 challenge I don't know if any of you are doing that.  I didn't think I would be able to as the deadline arrived and I was ill but they extended it.  I always think i will join in with more instagram sewing challenges to be more a part of the the community bit then things happen or there is always some other pressing sewing to be done.

Selling a couple of bags on Etsy, that always cheers me up to think someone has wanted to buy something I have made, well, one make up bag and one handbag.   I only sell them occasionally but it is a nice little boost when I get a notification.  I did make a slightly larger one a while ago that I listed and I have also bought myself some little faux leather labels to go on any future bags I make so this was the first one with a label too.  Joe at Three Stories High gifted me some of the fabric used in this one and I always mix in other offcuts and recycled bits.

Watching well binge watching they call it! The Handmaids Tale season 3 and 4 while I was ill and unable to do anything else.  Now I did get bored with this a while ago as the tv show had left the books behind long ago but as I was too drained too do anything than watch bits of tv I thought I would give it another go.  Don't do it! It becomes increasingly dark and I did watch it to the end but was left feeling very unsettled and any sympathy I had for the main character was long gone.  Did anyone stick it out and watch the whole thing?  All I can say is it was a very bad choice for when you are already feeling down but I should have known that!

Appreciating the way the garden is just not giving in, the cosmos are just going crazy still and the dahlias it is really looking cheerful considering general neglect of late.  The weather has not been that bad though.  I do have a very sickly looking pear tree at the top, it has not faired well at all this year so maybe it will have to come out.  The rest though has been grand and pretty much taken care of its self after the initial growing and planting of seeds.

Reading or trying to, The Beloved Girls, not sure if this is for me but determined to press on as I have abandoned three books recently in disgust at how bad they were.  I seemed to have a good run over the summer and now I keep picking up poor choices.  I ordered this one form the library but already feel the writing is not to my taste, however I bet my mum would love it as it seems to be the kind of thing she likes.  My mum never reads anything I tell her too though, I gave her a book a while ago that I got from the charity shop and enjoyed.  She passed on it and took it too the charity shop herself, a few weeks later she was reading the same library book in her room and told me how good it was!  I said I gave you that a few weeks ago and she said 'oh did you I don't remember'.     I have also tried a few recently off the Libby library app but again it is hard to know if you like them without flicking through a few pages first, at least it is not wasted money this way.

Baking a lovely carrot and walnut cake yesterday from my Ainee Carlin book  The New Vegan (one of them I have about four) I have made this cake before but I like to try different peoples recipes to see how they turn out.  It was a good cake personally I think it could have done with just a touch more moisture to it, maybe just a little more rapeseed oil.   Still it has gone down well and we do need building up. 

Needing a really good sort through my sewing room.  It has just got out of hand and it started out so neat and tidy, I keep going in to do bits and just organising the very main work space but behind me there is a chest of drwera stuffed fill, piled high and a wardrobe with a piling system going on inside it.  I do like to keep all my offcuts for bag making and recycling but I am very disorganised at the momnet.  I think I will pick a section at a time to keep at it, I know this is  not very Marie Kondo she says you have to get it all out and tackle it head on.  Well I am not up to that right now so it will have to be small steps.

Planning making some Christmas cards before it suddenly arrives, I am going to get a few ideas together in a shoe box and bring some some supplies down to have beside my chair so I can pick things up and get on with them while watching the TV.  When we watch something in the evening I often get bored with what is on offer and would much rather be doing something else, however we don't always want to go and be alone do we? So this way I can be present but still busy, I know a few of you knit so solve it that way.  I do not have those advanced skills, I can knit but haven't done so for years and I was never great.  It also took me about a month to knit a jumper so if i didn't like it I was gutted. 

Well take care everyone, I hope you are having a good week.  

    

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.

#

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.