February...ing

Here we are half way through February so I thought I would do an 'ing' post, the mornings are getting lighter so at least we are moving in the right direction as dark mornings are really not my thing.

Making more bags, as after a little lull I have sold two this past week so I thought I would do a little restock. It does make me happy to think that people want to buy the things I make and I always enjoy reading the feedback so here is to hoping the last two sales were well received.  I know not everyone leaves feedback so that makes the ones that do all the more special.  Here are the two bags I made this week and below the latest one I started to work on yesterday.

I have a shirt in this zebra fabric so the bits I used were left over from quite some time ago when I made that, it always pays to save your scraps you never know what you might use them for.

The mint on the table is what I used to draw around for the partial circle shape, use what you have on hand, ha ha.

Learning a new song on my guitar, now I tried to find a basic chord sequence for it online but I couldn't, there only seemed to be very complicated ones for experienced players.  So after two hours of tinkering around I think I have figured it out for myself, I played it for my husband and he said it sounded like the song so I am pleased with it, it may not be perfect but this is something for me I don't have plans to go on stage or anything!  The song is Secret Place by Phil Wickham and I keep playing it now to try and get it to stick.

Drawing a little something everyday, I got this idea from an excerpt I read from a book.  They are only little quick sketches and so far I am just doing them in my diary as a reminder to do it.  The idea is to keep your creativity flowing and I do really like drawing it is something that we just don't do very often and I don't really know why.  I am trying to build it in as a new habit, I may share them later if I feel brave enough, again this is not something I have any expertise in it is just something to enjoy.   The book I read the excerpt from is Conscious Creativity by Phillipa Stanton I am currently wondering whether to treat myself to the book as it is not available form the library.

Feeling under the weather, ok this is my one bit of negativity as it is half term again and I have had a cold. Anyone who works in a school will know this strange phenomenon it is like your body holds on until the last day of term then says 'that it you can be ill now!'  For me personally it seems to happen every school holiday but on a plus note you could say at least I don't have to worry about work and can just rest through it, every cloud eh?

Enjoying a course I have been doing on Open Learn called from Sound to Meaning, all free and there is so much on there so if you interested in learning anything new go and have a look at all the courses on offer.  I am about seventy per cent through it now but I do write down everything, I have to say my note taking is not very concise I will go back through it after and gradually condense it all down, that is just the way I learn.

Planning on making better use of my cook books over the coming months, I do cook from scratch all the time but think I'm maybe sticking to the same dishes a lot recently so I will  be trying to work on this and will of course share this as I go.  Since last November my husband has also been vegetarian  ( I went vegetarian at twenty and vegan three years ago) and I am so impressed with how he has stuck with it, due to this I have been buying more meat substitutes to ease him in but I feel now is the time to try and expand on that a little, we'll see how that goes  I enjoy all kinds of beans and veg dishes but I think the substitutes have helped him a lot.

That's all for now, I'm hoping for more days out and dry weather over the next month. Take care.

Another Mock Jumpsuit

Hello I hope you are all having a good week, I think it has been a rather calm one and the sun has been shining today so that always makes me happy. Last weekend I completed my top and trouser set that looks like a mock jumpsuit, similar to the one I made last year but this time with a slightly different top.  You can see the one I made last year right here.  I actually found the burda top pattern to be a very good fit and shape so that was a decent freebie with the Simply Sewing magazine, and as someone who doesn't part with money for very basic patterns that is high praise!  I will make it again as a dress and also show some ways you can hack it as promised in my last post.

I wasn't sure if the trousers were a little loud when I first finished this, but after an iron and trying them on I realised that they hang really well.  As an added bonus I already had the shoes/ankle boots to match so it was meant to be, I ended up wearing this outfit to go out for tea with friends last Saturday. There is a tie belt, a little tricky to see in the above image and belt loops neither of these are on the pattern I mentioned in my last post, it was just a case of cutting  strips to make them and fitting them into the waist seam.    I will be posting more on this in my Minerva post so watch out for that, I will post a reminder when it is live giving full details.

Here is an image of the top on its own so you can see more clearly the shape of that, it is a very basic make.  You can easily get way with no facing or binding round the neck by just overlocking and doing a very narrow hem, the same with the sleeves.   The fabric used here is John Kaldor if you are wondering and I was gifted it by Minerva.

I have another piece of fabric that I am thinking of making The Liberty spring dress with, this fabric is also for Minerva so I am uncertain if I can use this pattern as it is a magazine edition and not one stocked by them.  I don't know if any of you have any ideas about this?  For example could I use this one and then find and compare one that is stocked by them in the same style?  If you have any ideas please leave a comment with your thoughts.   Failing that I will have to have a rethink as I can make the dress without and do step by step instructions, but not everyone is confident without a pattern so probably a pattern is best for that project with it being a sponsored post. ( Is it still called sponsored if you are paid in fabric??)  Any how this is the dress in question complete with the magazine below...

It is getting steadily brighter as I leave work but this was still the situation at three in the afternoon the other day...

There are signs of daffodils everywhere so I'm looking forward to those, it is a sign that it may be cold and dreary but not for long.

We have binge watched a series this week on Netflicks  called The Stranger, I really enjoyed it and it starred Richard Armitage (always a bonus!)  If you haven't seen it go and find it now and add it to your watch list. It is a British cast and you will see lots of familiar faces including Jennifer Saunders who I don't really associate with drama, but there she is.

Book wise I am reading After Me Comes the Flood (still) and I can't seem to get into to it, I loved the Essex Serpent and Melmoth but this is plodding along.  I am in a 'started so I'll finish' kind of mood so hopefully it will all pull together.

That is all for now, I hope you are having a peaceful week of making and planning.

Art Gallery Fabrics Red Dress

I have been wondering what to spend my birthday money on for a while now and as my birthday was a number of months ago I thought I would treat myself to this lovely fabric.  I am quite bad at buying for myself and I suppose that is not such a bad thing, I usually buy bargain fabric or very rarely anything above the budget range so this was a bit of a treat for me.  I only bought one metre and squashed a dress out of that!   I used an existing dress that I made the pattern my own pattern for and cut around that, it was a quick make and I went out in it last week for a curry with my husband.

I would have got a picture with it on but we were in a hurry to go out when I wore it and I have a faff  with the tripod on my own so here it is on my faithful model complete with dog bowls (keeping it real you see) no photoshop perfection here. Ha ha.

This has got to be the simplest dress to make and I see so many expensive patterns for this very simple style of dress and I have to say I really don't get it.  I must urge you to try it with some cheap jersey and experiment a little .  ( Maybe not the art gallery fabric!) You will learn far more than from an expensive pattern.

I have received my first copy of Simply sewing magazine, it is probably a bit basic for me but at £1 a copy for the trial I am sure there are bits I will use.  I decided to try the pattern for sizing for this Minerva fabric, I'll make the basic top to go with trousers and let you know how the sizing is.  This is another example of a basic top/dress so useful for those of you that want a very simple pattern for tops and dresses.  If any of you are interested in a series on ways to hack that pattern for lots of different looks please let me know in the comments and I will do some posts on that.

I hope to have some time to get on with this tomorrow, although I m not sure we will have the weather to wear it anytime soon.  This pattern on the left I made my blue mock jumpsuit from last year.  I made the trousers narrower and added belt loops I intend to do the same thing with this as it was such a good make. In fact if you are going to buy any patterns this one is really good value as you get three items, really good value for me as a friend gave it to me.

I hope you are all staying well and avoiding the winter colds, back soon.