Poppy helping make curtains

 Yes they will be much better for some paw pronts and dog hair!

Cushions for Samoens apartment

Making some cushions and curtains for the Samoens apartment.

Exciting to have the overlocker out.

Pretty material I designed and ordered from spoonflow. We have a pine tree theme in the apartment.

Overlocked edge. I use pink all the time because rethreading with different colours for different projects is a bit of a fag…

Finished cushion. There’s going to be 16 in total…

Decorating Frenzy

While Doug was doing a lot of work on the kitchen in La Mongie and at various other points I have been busy making curtains and cushions as well as art for the walls in the flat in St.Andrews

Poppy finds sewing very boring and likes to take up residence on the material in protest. These are curtains for St.A

New cushions for La Mongie.

Three of these printed on aluminium above one of the beds in St.A

Cushions for St.A

In the living room at St.A - printed a meter tall

One of these above the other bed in St.A

I wanted to use this somewhere but could not squeeze it in. Maybe on a mug sometime!

Trying to entertain Poppy with a bone so she leaves us alone to get on with our work!

Shoal of wooden fish for the bunk room in St.A, the tartan one was printed and the white ones spray painted, this is not all of them.

Boats and lighthouse I created for the hallway in St.A

Doing the stuff for St.A has been a bit stressful as it is difficult from far away to imagine what things will look like and to get sizes right. It should be available to rent any moment now!

Flowery skirt

Finally finished this.

Started it in February! Took ages to get the zip in. Then I realised that the lining was the wrong colour (was dark pink/purple and showed through the white bits) so had to get a new lining. You can see in the photos where the white lining stops so you can see the top layer is quite see through.
Then I didn't like the 4 pleats on the pattern and replaced with 12 instead.
Then I adjusted the relative heights of the back and front. Skirts often hang a bit low at the front for me - big (yet shapely) bum takes up space at the back.

So all in all a lot of work! But I like it. Is a full circle which I was trying to show in the swirling picture with more fitting round the waist because of the pleats than circle skirts usually have which is better as they can be a bit unflattering otherwise. There is something slightly funny going on with the shape at the side but a good ironing should sort it.

I am going to make another similar, with the rejected lining and some other silk as the top layer. Thinking of doing it a bit different with a yoke at the waist though and perhaps the yoke bias cut and elasticated. Saves doing a zip and would give possibly nicer fit at waist. We shall see!

Little bag

Doug wanted a little bag to put some hops in as they are meant to help you sleep.
It is very clever, with draw strings.

Another skirt

I made a skirt to a pattern I have done several times now. But this material is very light weight wool and not stretch like the others have been so I ended up altering the pattern a bit so the back hung straight, I think the new pattern will be better in the stretchy materials too. It also had to have narrower seams at the side to allow for less stretch being tighter.

Sorry there is no photo of it on me

Another skirt - but designed by me

It is cut on the bias with a circle frill. I am going to make it again with a few minor adjustments - bit wider at the hips and lower at the front. Very pleased with it though!

More sewing

Dress. I ended up unpicking this several times until the top bit was vaguely right. It is way more summery than the current weather.

Skirt. This take four of this very simple pattert, nearly right... Still not perfect at the waist. Next one will be - maybe!

The zip looks pretty good

What a beautiful hem and seam

Sewing trousers

Completed the trouser sewing course. Was good. Nice people. Trousers came out well. Only slightly worried bum will split when I bend down. They are meant to be short, maybe I should have made them more so, so that was clear!

Wow look at the junk in the background. Must do something about that.

You can see slight buldge at bottom of zip on the left (which is the right of the photo. The back could be slightly higher I think - or something is making th waist band sit a bit funny at the back anyway. Perhaps they could be fractionally more fitted at the top of the leg on the outside. I better made anothr pair straight away while I remember these things.

As I was setting off to work in them this morning Aidan kindly said 'oh my god are you going to trust them at work! Maybe you should take a spare pair in case thy fall apart'. I haven't, but I will sit very carefully.

Dress finished!

I have finally got round to adding the 2nd sleeve and ties to the dress I mostly made in lessons a few weeks ago.

Laundry and junk in the background set it off nicely :)

It is a good fit in some places, but I would add another dart around the bust if I made it again.

I should hem the bottom, but I kind of love the overlocking so much I might not!

Next up is a pair of trousers.

Two skirts

The black one still needs hemming, but otherwise both are finished.

There are many mistakes and bits that had to be done as best I could. Both zips leave a lot to be desired.

But, as they say, practice makes perfect and hopefully if I keep at it, it will get better.

The understitching on the waist bankd went well.

The flowery one is the same pattern as the black one with white spots I made on a course a while ago. I altered the pattern a bit as most skirts hang lower at the front than at the back on me. I thought it was because of my 'generous' bottom, but I have discovered in trying to do the alteration that it is actually because my waist is lower at the front than the back.

You can see that unlike the one above, where the front and back are the same length, the front is lower at the top, and the back is a little longer at the bottom.

Unaltered. Back is on the left and front on the right, they are touching where they will be sewn down the side. Two are cut of each obviously.

Altered

Recopied after altering. You can see there is now two darts at the back and none at the front. The fit is much better and the skirt hangs straight. 

The black skirt is a 'Very Easy' pattern from Vogue. I am not ready to try difficult patterns!!

I altered the pattern very slightly to shorten the front and lengthen the back, just by adding and cutting from the hem. I actually did this one first which was why I embarked on the more complex thing on the other skirt.

The flower skirt I really like even though the waist band is a mess. The black one has a funny shape at the front caused by the waist band (I prefer to look at it that way rather than saying it is caused by my tummy sticking out). It looks ok in the photo where I am holding my tummy in,  perhaps it will soften with washing the fabric again. I think I made it slightly too big too. On the whole I am glad I made this with cheap experimental fabric not anything too nice.

Next I might try an easy dress. I have a bias cut skirt I want to make too.

Sewing lessons

I had sewing lessons a while ago and made a skirt (as well as a bag and a cushion cover). 

Here is the skirt heading to work this morning.

I have made curtains and another skirt (a circle skirt) as practice. It is made of very cheap light material just for practice. 

There are 4 quarters sewn together. The back is a little longer than the front (to allow for bottom curve) although this didn't work out 100% was interesting to do. You can see the longer piece underneath here. 

Zip

Full as is a circle

The hem was interesting to do too as I used the overedge foot to do a very narrow rolled hem which gives it a nice frilly look.

Overall it is rather see through and not entirely flattering at the waist, but all good practice.

I have booked on to another course making an easy dress in April, need to get a bit more practice before then.