The Freya Top

Yesterday I finished my Freya top from the Till Stretch book and I am really happy with the fit, it gives a choice of necklines one of them being a cowl.  I originally cut the neck as it is for a roll neck but I felt this was too high for me and may drive me a little crazy, so I unpicked it and halved the size then stitched it back in.  Much better for me at this size, although if I made it a bit looser I am sure it would be great with the higher neck for winter.

I opted for a size three and the length and fit are very good but you do have to ensure that your fabric has the correct amount of stretch to get the accurate fit.  This will become a staple of my wardrobe and I will be adding more of these for the cooler months when I see the right fabric at the right price of course.

So here is my me made May day 11, I have paired my new top with another self drafted skirt, fully lined with a side zip.  This skirt has been in my wardrobe a good few years and I love the bird print, birds feature quite a lot in my clothes.

I tried the top on my mannequin before I made any final changes to the sleeve and hem but to be honest it was already looking good, so a very accurate fit for me on this one.  Just a tiny hem on the sleeves as I do have long arms.

 Here it is with the higher neck before decided to shorten it, if you didn't want this style of neck at all you could always turn a narrow band to the inside and topstitch down, this would create a flat round neck.

My trusty brown baking paper on the go here again, I have made little white sleeves for all the patterns have made from this book then I intend to print of some of my images of the finished garments to stick on the front of them.

I have had a lovely day of making today, it is a gift for a friend of mine and I love it so much it will be hard to part with it.  Due to this fact I am unable to share it yet just in case she sees it on here and her birthday is this month.  I will have to try and remember to share it later.   It was one of those projects that just fell into place, the perfect fabric was spotted the other day and then it arrived today earlier than expected.

There has been some mending going on too and that is always very satisfying, I have a few images of that saved too.  I am currently working on my husbands laptop mine is in my techy sons room as he adds a new ssd, I am worried about lost documents and photos even though this is his job.  We really do rely on our computers now don't we and feel a little lost when something goes wrong.

That is all for today, stay safe.

My Favourite Burda Jacket

Today I am layered up for me made May 2020 day 10 with tights and a jacket to leave the house, yes I left the house to go shopping.  Who would have thought that the weekly shop would become an event, but it is and with a cold, cloudy day a jacket was required.  Something of a change from yesterday.  I made this jacket a few years ago I think it is Burda Young 7018 and I have since made another in cotton, it is a lovely pattern and I used a really good quality black denim for it.  Originally it had a pink and white Paul Smith cotton lining it, now that is still in there but has since been covered over with a slinky blue lining that slides much better over clothes.   The added lining now makes this quite a warm jacket while still looking smart.

The dress I made quite recently and is a simple sew top pattern lengthened into a dress.  Another favourite style for its simplicity.

I managed to get on with cutting  out another pattern from the Tilly stretch book,  this time the Freya sweater.  The fabric in mind for this is a textured jersey with a stripe, I bought the fabric because I like red and it was inexpensive.  It was also destined to be a long sleeved top as my aim is to start adding a few more basic bits that can go with skirts  as my pattern mad brain will always lead me towards the prints creating unmatchable separates!  There are two skirts in my wardrobe with red in so  this top will fit right in.   I will share more on that tomorrow.

This book has proved to be really useful and I will have a look out for her other books, as I mentioned before I got it from the library and then lockdown occurred and we were given a long extension on all the books we already had out.  Due to this I have had this book a while now although I did read all of it the first few days and made plans for what I wanted, it has been nice to keep revisiting it and having another  browse.   I own a Japanese pattern book that is lovely to look at but the patterns in that one are very faffy to trace off as there are so many lines!  Also all of the clothes come out much smaller than the sizes stated.  So if you are looking for a book for a gift or to treat yourself the Tilly stretch book is a good one.   My only slight modification is to make the sleeves a little wider on the patterns.

We have a viewing empty space this evening, as I have said before we don't follow many t.v shows as they are aired but we have been a fan of Sunday evening Homeland, what will I fill that with?  

Well I hope you are all having a relaxing weekend and are ready for the week ahead, I have just watched the update on the virus situation and it doesn't seem too much is changing just yet, just keep doing as we have been and keep smiling.

A Suuny Day Dress

What another glorious day and a chance to wear this dress that I made for a Minerva make and this dress needs just the right weather as it is not really one that I can layer up.  Me made May day 9 (is it only day nine?) and I am not used to this daily photograph business, happy to make the clothes and write the blog but I always feel  a little foolish in front of the camera that is why you usually see a lot of my makes on the mannequin she is much more confident!  The pattern for this dress is a Kwik Sew one and I do like the style and I think it would look good in a jersey, mine is a sort of chiffon so I have had to line the skirt.

I opted for an indoor image today as the sun is so bright out I could hardly see what I was doing.  Here is the pattern if you want to try it out.

There has been a lot more planting going on and I am now in need of another  bag of compost or possibly two.  A few seedlings were potted out on the front and more started off in the greenhouse.

Here are few lovely things making me smile in the  garden because they are just returning and taking care of themselves.

I am still rescuing these from all over the place I love how they just get on with and grow any where, even if you dig them out of paths and pop them in some soil they come back completely undisturbed.

This little beauty has never seemed to die off, it was flowering in winter!  There are loads of new buds on it.

These little buns were made just using up lots of bits that needed eating, over ripe bananas, nearly a full carton of coconut cream, half a bar of dark vegan chocolate plus some raisins and almonds for good measure.

I made 24 so you are only seeing half of them here, I really need to buy myself another cake tray as the rest were put in cases with no support so they look a bit mutant!  Never mind they will still be consumed, one disappeared as soon as they were out of the oven they never last long.

We had a nice drink in the garden today, making the most of things it felt a bit like we were on holiday.  Best not to think too much on what  is going on while at the same time being sensible.

I hope you are having a good weekend wherever you are. Back soon.

Another Joni Dress

Yesterday I made up my new fabric and opted not to go for my skater dress but make another Joni dress from the Tilly Stretch book.  The last one worked out so well and looks very dressy, due to lockdown I have had no opportunity to wear it yet.  This new fabric is fun and summery so will be more of a casual dress so making a Joni in this seemed like a good fit.  Now when I bought the fabric I only bought a metre, the dress pattern requires more so I have had to modify the skirt.  It is not a full floaty skirt on this version as I ran the sides of the pattern down to make it fit a metre of fabric I will show the pieces further down.  For now here it is on me, made May day 8 and we had lovely warm weather today to wear it.

So as you can see the skirt is nowhere near as full as it should be but as a casual dress it is probably a good thing.

You can see the colours and the detail on the dress better here on the mannequin. I particularly like the cross over detail on this dress pattern as I think it is very flattering.  I opted for short sleeves, well I had to have short sleeves due to the amount of fabric :) it is a summer dress so that is ok.

I swapped my needle for a nice new ball point one as this fabric has lots of bounce in it, if you are interested it was from Minerva and only £5 so a bargain of a dress.  I made the  neck binding by just cutting strips of the same fabric and I took extra care not to pull it as I was sewing, because this fabric was light it made a very good job of the twist detail at the bust.

This really is a new favourite pattern and I may go off and make many versions of it over the coming years, watch this space!

Here you can see my pattern piece folded over quite a lot, it changes the shape of the skirt but not the fit, you just get more of an a-line skirt rather than circular.

We have had a nice long walk today with dogs, sat out in the sun for a little while and now I am planning what to make for dinner. I have seen lots of bunting out ready for tea parties here in the UK I will be cooking a hot dinner, as sandwiches were had at lunch time.  There are also some overripe bananas in the cupboard so a little more baking may be happening later to save them going to waste.

  If you are all set for your garden party then I hope you have a good time, socially distanced of course.  Bye for now.

Paisley Dress

I have managed to plant out quite a few seedlings today in pots my only hope now is that the cool weather we have coming next week doesn't kill them.  They  have been protected so far in the greenhouse so it will be interesting to see how they get on outside.  The  seeds I planted straight  into the garden are no where near as tall so they may have a shock.

For me made May 2020 day 7 I am wearing this dress which I made not so long ago, it is quite easy, self drafted from a t shirt I think with a high/low hem, elastic around the waist and a tie belt.

This photo came out very blurry and I don't know why, anyway you get the idea, the fabric is very soft and it is another  comfy dress.  In fact I have been wearing it with trainers today as I did the garden so it is very versatile and it hasn't crumpled too much either.

Sewing wise I cut out and stitched up my new fabric, here you can see my fabric pieces on brown paper that I made quite recently from the Tilly stretch book. I will share more on this tomorrow as weather permitting I will be wearing this garment.

This brown baking paper from Tesco holds up really well for pattern pieces so much better than the flimsy pieces you often get in bought patterns

Evie from Sister Sun is interested in making the orange cake from yesterdays post and as I forgot to note the ingredients here it is today!

Orange Olive Oil Cake

 175g /6oz self raising gf flour
55g/2oz gram flour
1tbsp apple sauce
3 tsp baking powder
55g / 2oz ground almonds ( I used flaked)
225g/8oz brown sugar
zest and juice of 1 unwaxed orange
egg replacer for 1 egg
90 ml /3 floz soya milk
150 ml/  5 fl oz olive oil
75ml/ 2 1/2 fl oz coconut oil


  Crystalized oranges and syrup
1 large unwaxed orange scrubbed
100g/3 1/2 oz granulated sugar
350 ml/ 12 fl oz water


Method
Pre heat oven 180 c  / 350 f   /gas mark 4, grease a 9 inch cake tin, sift dry ingredients into a bowl add the orange zest, mix up the egg replacer, add to mix with the wet ingredients and fold in. Pour into the tin.  Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.   To make the syrup boil the water in a pan and set to simmer add the sugar and stir to dissolve. Add the orange slices and simmer for twenty minutes. Leave to cool on a drying rack.

When the cake has cooked , pour over the orange syrup from the orange slices, pierce the cake so it soaks in.  I didn't use all of it just spoon some over.  Arrange the slices when cool.

Here it is again

This recipe is adapted from Gluten Free Vegan Baking.

Happy baking everyone I hope that helps.

It's a Wrap

 Now today I am actually sharing a dress made with a pattern for me made may 2020 day 6, one from a magazine in fact and very easy to wear and I would also think an excellent make whatever your size due to the waist ties. They make the dress so versatile and I would also think this would be a  perfect maternity dress as it can grow with you for quite a few months.

 It is a wrap dress with very long ties that go through a hole in the side seam and then wrap around a few times to make a sort of kimono style dress.   My only reservation with this one is that it is so comfy that I do think are people wondering if I have left the house in my robe??  My husband said no it just looks like a summer dress, but I do have that  feeling that it looks very robe like, oh well I have seen people out of their homes in onesies at least this looks more dressed than that ;)

Another fun fact about this dress is that I made my mother in law a maxi dress with this fabric and she bought such a big piece that there was enough left for me to make this dress and line a number of bags.

Here is the pattern of you want to seek it out, I am sure you can buy back issues of the magazine, or you may have a friend who has it like I did.

My School are having a sort of virtual bake off this week so this prompted me to make a different cake instead of sticking to the trusty tried recipes.  I  have made this Orange Olive Oil GF vegan  cake with almonds.  There were still a few modifications to be made as I had a few ingredients missing, I am at a point now though where I will sub things without too much worry. I am finally starting to get a good feel for what I can and can't do with gluten free vegan baking, to the point where I know it is wrong by the way it looks sometimes.  This one looked right though, and my son has had a slice and says it is lovely, I am saving my piece to have with a cup of tea later.  He came down earlier and I said don't anyone touch the cake as I have to take a photograph for School!  So we actually have an image of a complete cake today, hurray. 

So the oranges on top you have to cook in sugar for twenty minutes and this also make a syrup that you pour over it at the end.   

My tester said it is just the right level of orange flavour.

I sat outside earlier and read some more of War and Peace yes I am still going with that book too and enjoying it more now.  At half way through it, it is a good job I am enjoying it as it is no light read.  I keep thinking it would help if the writing was bigger (it is really small print) but then I suppose the book would be far too big to hold then 987 pages as it is, plus additional info. This was why it was chosen a s my isolation book, it was a now or never kind of thing. 

Take care everyone and if you are in the UK  enjoy the lovely weather for the rest of the week.  If not have fun wherever you are. 

Going with the Flow

Another day at work in it's new location and the day passed by pleasantly, I felt a bit reluctant as I left for work yesterday in a different school and I thought this must be how supply teachers feel all the time never knowing what to expect or where anything is! For us of course this is only temporary while the children of key workers are cared for in specific School sites, I needn't have worried as it was completely fine.  Today I was completely fascinated by  pair of twins who kept changing the rules to a game we were playing outside. Now it was a made up game so of course they made the rules but it was just so interesting to hear them bouncing ideas off each other, agreeing then disagreeing but all the while keeping up! Children are so fascinating when you have time to listen and be part of their worlds, plus they were having such fun with this bean bag game of theirs it was a joy to observe and play along.

Todays me made May day 5 is another self drafted skater dress same as my red one ( there are a few of these!)  fabulous fabric on this one that washes like a dream, very bright after lots of wear and I have other items in the same fabric so watch out for it again this month.  My colleague loved it so much I took her to the fabric store and she bought some, I then made her a t shirt out of it.

 Here we are lucky enough for another outdoor picture, still in tights you will note but I have hope for tomorrow as it is supposed to warm up.  Things are looking leafy and green and quite a few of my seedlings in the greenhouse need potting on now so that is a job for tomorrow.  I have planted some straight into large tins that can go straight out as soon as they are large and sturdy enough.  The cook at out School last year saved me the large catering tins for tomatoes.  They make excellent planters some are still silver, quite a few are rust.  They only have flowers in them so the ones that are rusty looking won't affect the flowers will they? I wouldn't plant food in a rusty tin though, time will tell with the flowers.  I'm sure some gardening expert out there will let me know if this was a dreadful idea, I had intended on just recycling them when they lost their sheen but I quite like the rusty shade.

My exercise for the day was just dance with the children this morning in the hall, once again I feel the staff enjoyed it more than the children did.  We are all just clearly happy to be out in the world! I may in fact find some of these routines myself now and carry with at home for the rest of the week, it's not a bad way to start the day.

I've shopped my own bookcase and decided to revisit another title, this time The Four Loves  by C.S Lewis.  I do like his style of taking about life and getting you to think, he is not always easy to follow but definitely worth it.

Tomorrow I am home so I will have time for some making, I'm going to have a think now before I cut into my new fabric.  Stay safe everyone.