Recent Makes

 Hello everyone I hope you are all doing well. I have had a busy month and have decided to have the day off today, well if you ignore editing a youtube video, planning the next one, cooking, baking and cleaning. Anyway all things of my choosing but still I find it hard to quiet my mind a lot of the time. 

So a few things to catch up on, firstly I am still continuing with my scrap busting projects and having recently received some lovely pieces from Jo at Three Storie High I have made a rucksack.  Now I didn't use a pattern for this I made one up as I went along.  If you are interested in this you can see the process on my youtube channel at Beyond the Sewing Room the link is here  it won't be available until after 6.30 pm today.

So I made this to take out on my bike rides, I wanted it small enough to not be bothersome but just big enough to carry essentials.  I am aware it sagged a bit at the front so I added more padding to the front and around the zipper when I got home.

As you can see in this photo here, where the pink spotted fabric is inside that is where I added 

more padding.

Thank you so much to Jo, I had such fun going through the odd bits and combining the colours I will be making more bags from the remaining pieces as I really need to get back into enjoying that.  I do feel my time spent trying to sell some on Etsy then Folksy had spoilt it a bit for me.  It is true what they say, sometimes making money from these things changes how you look at them. 

Now a couple of weeks ago I had a trip to Annies fabric shop on Abbeydale road Sheffield. It is only the second time I have been and we really enjoyed having a browse and buying a few pieces.  I bought linen in pink for some trousers plus some french terry for an autumn top (I will save that for later).  My friend bought t shirting jersey and some double gauze.  We then had a cuppa at a local tea room in an antique yard.

In other recent makes I made a gabardine jacket for myself as my minerva brand ambassador make, the fabric is called pecan pie and the pattern that I used is the Harriet jacket by style arc.  Now the jacket is plain to start with but I added my own pocket detail to bring some life to the front of it.  I think it works really well.  

It was rather hot that day for the jacket, not so today!

I cut shapes from craft paper to determine how big I wanted the pockets.

The lining is a rose and hubble fabric.

I also made this scrap busting shirt for my husband, there wasn't enough fabric for long sleeves or facings under collar etc.  So I made three quarter sleeves witha tab  and did contrasting undercollar, stand and button band facing.  He loves it and it felt very satisfying to use it up on something so useful and seasonal.

Now this next one was a copy of an image I saw on the sezane website, I sort of made it up as I went and used up some leftover jersey.

I did have the image of the Sezane one for comparison but have to clean up the laptop regularly so it is gone. 

That is just a few of the things I have been making, I hope you are enjoying your projects wherever you are.  Take care everyone.

What to Let Go

 Hello everyone, so I have mentioned that for memademay I am focusing on remaking and using up fabric scraps.  This has presented me with a dilema as I  was doing a bit of sorting through last night.  There are some things that I wish to change and there are some pieces that I piece togther to use in garments etc.  However there are also scraps that I will likely never use again, I am not particularly fond of, or I have just seen too many times given that I work on fabrics for my job.  In the latter case they are just taking up space, not only space in my cupboards and drawers but also space in my head as I can't get past them, don't want to use them, so there they sit in limbo.

 Today I am going to have to be a bit ruthless with these bits I feel, I still have friends in schools so I am going to ask if some of those people would like a scrap bag each for craft projects in school.  I had also thought of making up a couple of bags of pre cut squares for patchwork but of course this is a more time consuming task.  Doing both these things will then clear the decks for me to see what I actually will use in either garments or bags. 

I know I have an issue with letting these things go, as I am by nature a very thrifty and use it up sort of person.  The thing is that I have to remind myself is that I did not buy these pieces, almost all are from work projects and I do not need to feel guilt over them.  I can find homes for them else where and it does not need to be here. Just by typing that this morning I already feel like I can begin the process of removing many of them. 

Here is a recent remake of mine from a dress that I made a number of years ago, the dress was from a magazine pattern,  very straight with a tie middle.  The dress always felt a little short ,so was not worn very often despite being a lovely fabric.  To remake it I used a burda magazine pattern from july 2021, this particular pattern has a collar, button up front, a tie waist with elastic casing and also it is sleeveless.  I had to be a little creative with my cutting as the front where the tie adds on I have cut in two pieces when it should have been all in one.  I have also used plain black for the inner collar facing and back inner yoke piece.  

Now I love it! It will get lots of wear because even on cooler days I will a long sleeve top under it.  here it is...

I actually made this a couple of weeks ago and really enjoyed the fact that I had saved this dress for further use. 

It has a yoke back and pleat which can't clearly be seen here.

All this has sort of got me thinking what else I need to let go of?  I do sort my books every now and then to keep them down to a managable amount on the bookshelf but even with that I feel I am at a point where I want to keep all the ones I have now.   I could never be a minimalist, but I am trying to reduce clutter.  I recently gave a big pile of picture books to my husband to offer to his collegues with young children, they were much appreciated and while I was keeping all the favourite books from when my boys were young, will they all be used again? Will they even be relevant if my sons have families one day? So I have kept some but not all.   I will keep at it.

Have a lovely day all, what are you letting go of today? 

  

Me Made May 2024

 Hello everyone I hope you are all doing well I know it has been a while.  There are so many things that I haven't posted that I just don't know where to start so for now I am going to share my Me made May so far just to get the ball rolling.  As I have been absent from here a while I thought this would just get me moving in the right direction. 

Are you taking part in Me Made May? If so what is your pledge?  I have decided to focus on remaking, repairing and using up fabrics that are in little bits.  I have made a start and I will share these another day, today I will show you my outfits for the last few days which have all been made previously and a couple have had a bit of a tweak to get them into regular circulation.

So for day one I wore the Kielo wrap dress by named clothing, made up in jersey.  I love this colourful fabric and the dress is really comfortable.

Day 2 we were out on our bikes and I wore this top from burda magazine, the top has sleeves that are in two pieces with sort of a mock short sleeve at the top.  The reason for this is that I was using up scrap fabrics when I made this, the back is also in two pieces with a central back seam.  It has a zip neck and feels a bit sporty.  The fabric is viscose challis in painted bouquet from Minerva.

Day 3, I am wearing the Tremplin cargo trousers by maison fauve made last year, the top is a t shirt part burda mag and part self drafted as I changed so much on it!  The fabric for the trousers is cotton twill,

 the fabric for the T is cotton pique.

Day 4, I am wearing the morgan jeans in green denim by closet core, and the top is a new look pattern but I have added sleeves to the t shirt.  The pattern had a jacket , top and trousers and the trousers have been made a lot. New look pattern K6532.  The top is jersy fabric.

Day 5, Morgan jeans again but this time with a style arc top in viscose challis.  The pattern is called retro rockery and some days I love it, and others not sure I think it depends on the weather outside. 

Day 6, I am wearing a self drafted t shirt in jersey and a simplicity 8652 pencil skirt,  that I have recently altered from the waist to make it shorter.  It has cute kick pleats at the back that I didn;t want to lose but I did want to be able to walk in it at speed so I took quite a chunk out of it.  Now it will be worn more often.

Here we are a Dam flask...

Well that ia all for today I will try and be more on it with this blog, but right now I need to get on with some work, walk the dog, return something to asda (out of date bread grrrr!) and a million other things.

Take care everyone.