Simple Summer Dress

This afternoon I made a dress because I needed to sew something rather than needing the dress. I have had the fabric for  a couple of months and it is a light summer fabric despite the fact that it is black which I suppose is not a very summery colour. However  I know it will get worn because it's black, sometimes I choose wild prints and then feel they are too dressy for work or every day wear so at least this is a practical colour.

It was another pattern free affair, I made sure I cut out a top shape big enough to pull over my head without any fastenings and then cut a semi circular skirt.  Not quite a semi circle each piece just a little under.

Now the shape of the skirt has made for a nice swirl but also a bit of a worry on a windy day so it may need an under skirt I don't really want to be adding a lining to this one.  Now do they still do underskirts is it worth making one?  I can honestly say I have never owned one but thinking about the amount of times the fabric is thin or floaty it might be worth it.  Maybe I am just showing my age but I don't want a see through skirt, and usually I just line everything.

I added a thin elastic at the waist, and a little turn up on the sleeve which pressed in nicely in this fabric.

 The reason I have gone for sleeves on this summer dress is that I have a few with bare shoulders and sometimes you need a cover up.  I am loving the sunshine we are having but it is hitting the shoulders so an option with a cover up it is.

Here I tried a pale pink belt to lighten it up a bit, not sure which I prefer.  The dress was a quick make up due to the lack of fastenings and detail, I also have a couple in jersey in this style and they are quick to iron so quite a no nonsense item.  I did try the outdoor photos today but the breeze was blowing the dress about!  That was what alerted me to the need for an underskirt.  

On a different theme the cook where I work has been saving the large tins from food and I now have a little collection that I can use for planting so there will be veg going in those soon.  Lots of lettuces are coming up now so it may be those but up away from pets.

Quick Sew Solution to Loose Fitting Sandals

I have a problem with shoes being too big and no I can't buy a smaller size as my feet are long and narrow.  If you have this same problem you will know what I mean when I say in winter this is not an issue, I can use an inner sole and socks or tights but sandals never ever fit. My feet just slide to the front and over, this can be very uncomfortable when out walking and any kind of inner sole shows and looks silly.

After coming back from a walk yesterday I had made my mind up that the sandals I had on were going, but after a bit of thought I decided to try something.  Now I wouldn't buy these sandals today anyway as I no longer buy leather but I already own them so in the interests of no waste which I hate, trying to make them a bit better fitting seemed to be the way to go.

I cut a paper template and then put my foot on top to see if it was in the right place and wouldn't show, I also need the padding to be here as this is where the shoes sits above my foot.

I flipped the paper over to make the same one for the other side and had a look in my scrap fabric collection, luckily I had this bit left that is just the right colour. (May as well try and make it pretty.)  This involved cutting two pieces of this fabric for each shoe then I experiment with layers of denim two and three layers, then layers of fleece.  I found two layers of fleece inside was just right for me you may need to experiment depending on the fit of your sandals.

Once I was happy walking around on these I zig zag stitched all the layers in place, this was nice and quick.  I also added a little double side tape to the bottom when I put it in the sandal but it didn't really need it, due to the shape of it there isn't any movement.  That was all there was to it, now my feet don't fall out of the front and it's a little bit of extra softness under foot.

I hope that has been of use and perhaps save a few pairs of sandals from being discarded, you often see wide fit shoes but never narrow ones, or only in selected styles at places like Clarkes, and chunky socks and sandals don't quite go do they?

Last year I actually bought a pair that were fine across the front but the elastic was too tight at the heel, I cut the elastic, added ribbon and did a bit of a refashion on those as well. That can be seen here, Shoe Refashion.

Catching up, Growing and Vegan Ice Cream

This week has seen a lot of alterations some mine, some not but no photos. I started the week by getting rid of all the little jobs I had been putting off. So I added a zip to a dress that I felt was not fitted enough, re-doing the waist yoke on a skirt, taking in another dress, altering the sleeves and shoulders so I will actually wear it, fixing some of the boys clothes then  finally taking up and adjusting two brides maid  dresses for somebody.  The lack of photography does not mean it hasn't been busy but I will try to take some updated pics of some of my items this week as I wear them and I will link back to their original posts.

In the garden my husband  has now made me some planters from pallets that are hung on the fence, the reason for this is that the dogs insist on digging in newly planted things and I don't want my veg dug up as they are put out!  Obviously this won't work for everything but we thought for light things like lettuce it may be ok, currently they have viola and pansies in there oh and my swiss chard is up there for safety.

We have had that swiss chard in a salad now twice already so I am impressed with that little plant.

A quick peak at a few other things growing...

Strawberries, I think these will just stay inside to at least give us a chance ahead of the birds this year.

Tomatoes and courgettes going wild but I don't know why there are now white marks on the courgette leaves, I will look that up in a  bit.  Tomatoes smell so lovely I keep rubbing the leaves to have a little smell of them.

Curly kale also growing nicely though this gets big so will have to go out I just need to decide where.

On a different theme yesterday I was in the mood for something sweet and cold so I made this ice cream alternative.  It is really easy and just requires you being near the freezer so if you are home it's not a problem.

Vegan Ice cream 
Chop one banana and put it in a bag in the freezer, leave it for a few hours then take it out and mash it up.  Add 1 tbsp. peanut butter, 2 tsp cacao powder and a squirt of maple syrup.

Give a good mix then put it in a shallow tub and back into the freezer, after an hour take it out and give it a good break up and mash down again.

 Put it back for another 2 hours after this time it will be ready to scoop.
See easy, if you are home it is no big deal to walk past the freezer and give it all a stir is it. The good thing about this is that you know there is nutrition in there and not just cream and sugar as with regular ice cream, it is the kind of snack you can have after a long walk or a run when you need an energy boost.

Yesterday I picked up a couple more books from the library,  I had been reading The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock but I just couldn't get into it after a hundred pages so I took that back.  I am now reading The Utopia Experiment by Dylan Evans and this a non fiction work, I have to say I am half way through already as it is intriguing.  I have been watching a few videos recently  on youtube about small communities living small and so on, so this caught my eye while I was browsing.

Now don't get me wrong I don't think we should all go and live in yurts or anything like that, but shouldn't energy and water preservation be more of an issue in that it was something we had to do, a colleague of my husband's was saying how in Germany they still have coin return on bottles and it appears other European countries are ahead of us in these areas. I don't know why we lag behind.

Lily Blouse

This blouse has taken rather longer than it should, sometimes I decide to do something different and then don't know where I am going with it, I don't know if anyone else has that too.  I started this last week then it sort of hung around for a while quite literally because I couldn't decide on the sleeve shape.  I have also really shrunk down what would have been larger pleats front and back to little tucks as I thought it looked too much.  Here is the finished blouse then I will go through the process.

I was going to do short raglan sleeves then went for  capped raglan and to be honest I don't really feel the top gains anything from the different style of sleeve I probably could have just cut the top as a front and back piece with the sleeves included but you have to try these  things to see don't you.

So I began by pinning my fabric to the mannequin to see how it would look, then I added some pleats which then turned to small tucks.  I also cut the shape of the neckline using paper then cut this out from the fabric, lining fabric for stiffness and interfacing.

I then had a play around with different shapes for the sleeves, I finally settled on a  capped raglan which was going to have pleats at the shoulder but it looked too fussy. (old fashioned)

I hand stitched the pleats in place once I had pinned them so that they didn't move about when I removed it from the mannequin.  The sleeves were trimmed to fit and notched at the centre shoulder.

When I had joined my neck pieces together I pinned the front and back pieces to them so I could get an idea how it would look, this was to save on unpicking later but because of this fabric shifting and fraying there was lots of that anyway.

I added a band around each sleeve for a neater finish and because it was a bit flimsy without.  There are belt loop each side, in the photos it is a ribbon tie belt but I have also tried it with a slim patent belt.

I like it now it is finished but there has been a bit of cursing going on under my breath mainly due to the amount of fray!  

The rest of the day has been quite a lazy one as I did not want to miss any of the sunshine, we get a little crazy her in the UK don't we at the first sign of sunshine because who knows how long it will last.  A bank holiday weekend with sun is particularly unusual we opted not to go anywhere as the traffic would have been mad so I just nipped to the shop for beer, to drink in the sun of course. I hope everyone else has been enjoying the weather too. 

Projects, Books and What's Growing

A bit of a catch up post today rounding up some of what has been happening over the last few weeks.  I am loving the greenhouse, even on a rainy day like today I can pop in and check on everything and it's nice and cosy.  It is amazing how much things have grown in the two weeks since we put them in, we went straight out when the greenhouse was finished and bought some small veg plants to starts us off then I bought some seeds.  I wish I had measured everything now as they have grown such a lot, especially the swiss chard which was tiny...

I put it in that pot as it had lots of room, it may need moving soon!

Tomatoes and courgettes.

The strawberries always get ravaged by the birds outside so we thought we try those inside but one is flowering already, will this force them on too soon?  Advice welcome.

I thought I'd killed these Kale when I put them in as they were tiny and looked very unhappy at first but now they are growing .  I also planted seeds of purple kale which are now  just coming up...

This is quite exciting!

Basil coming up there in the middle, chives and parsley either side (when they show) my friend bought me this little set as a gift about a year ago. 

There are other things in there as well but I am sure you will get bored with looking at pictures of my plants, you may not find it as exciting as I do but I will update as things develop so you have been warned.  

I have finished two books this last couple of weeks Eleanor Marx A life by Rachel Holmes, this was fascinating but heavy, literally. It was quite intense to read and a big thick hardback so also hard going to hold up while reading.  I started it before my holiday and finished it last week, what an interesting life, I may not have agreed with all her ways of thinking but wow! Definitely worth a look, I actually read this because of the Essex Serpent it was listed at the back as a subject of research and I'm so glad I followed it up.

I then started a novel called In a Cottage in a Wood by Cass Green, when I first started this I was very nearly put off by the first few pages. It begins with a scene in a grotty hotel room after a one night stand and after the beautiful language of Jane Eyre a few weeks ago it felt a bit jarring.  I am glad I stuck with it as I really enjoyed it, there are a few twists and just enough suspense.

On the sewing front I have two projects to attend to, one is for Minerva and has just been cut out.  I couldn't go any further until I had been and bought the lining fabric which I have done today. The thing is I didn't want to take all the pattern pieces off until I had the lining and I could see everything was there.  I am using a pattern this time, my favourite jacket one...

An unusual choice for a jacket I know, but we will see what it is alike when it is all made up.

While I was there I also spotted this lovely black fabric which will become a top tomorrow, I just need to decide on my neckline I have an idea to do something a bit different but not sure if it will work.  Pattern free again for this top so just a case of working it out.

I may have been influenced by the growing theme here. 😊

Handmade Greenhouse Reveal

My husband starting building me a greenhouse late last Autumn using the hand made base he constructed for what used to be our raised fish pond, he has made me wait until it is completely finished before I show the pictures so here it is and I think he has done an amazing job.  Everything was made from scratch, using wood we had, sale wood and new wood at full price from  builders merchants.  He just made the frame as he went along tweaking things where necessary.

I thought I'd start with the finished item then work back.

It has two opening windows, one on the end and one at the side and the benches for planting are all built in.  We left the back wall without benched as grow bags will go there, we also opted to panel that wall as it just backs onto the garden fence anyway.

This was how it began, my husband drained the pond and cleared it out.

He cut a doorway at the side.

The beginning of the frame.

The bit of mesh you can see just inside the opening was to block the doorway when he wasn't working on it as the dogs wanted to go in there and use it like a toilet.

This next part took a bit of time, he was very thorough.

Starting the roof.

Making the benches.

Gravel on the floor.

A lick of paint.

Panelling on the back wall.

So on the roof he used dual wall polycarbonate and for the windows clear acrylic as it was supposed to be more efficient and safer than glass.   He has also added a mini guttering and a small water butt. In total for everything he had to buy it has cost roughly £400, I think this is amazing given the quality of what he has built and the price of flimsy greenhouses in the shops, I would say this is more of a garden building. Of course there were many man hours put into this project but he has enjoyed the process.