That crazy little thing called life

Wowzers how much time has passed since I last posted anything?!? Mind you when I look back at what has happened since May it has been a mighty crazy few months.

We moved house at the end of May, the new place is fabulous and it felt like home as soon as we got the keys, even though we had nothing in here yet.  The good thing about the new place, and one of the many reasons we chose this house, is that we now have a hobby room big enough for both of our hobbies that isn't taking the place of what would be a bedroom (B likes to paint and convert miniatures of the war-gaming variety).

My side is a tip!! Best get that sorted (edit, it is now tidy, just haven't got a picture of it).

We now have a space to sit together and don't feel like we are abandoning each other when we want to do something hobby related. However I've not had much chance to do anything lately due to the arrival of a certain little lady, meet our daughter Melody

She will be 8 weeks old on Friday and we are totally besotted with her despite the lack of sleep and all the worries that come with being parents. That fact that she is so cute makes up for the lack of sewing and posting I've been able to do.  This is now the 4th 5th time I've sat down to post something!

Anyway, before we moved I had managed to perfect my renfrew pattern by adjusting the bottom part of the top to come back in under the bump instead of dropping like a dead weight.  I did this by taking the pattern back to the normal measurements starting around 3 inches from the hem line.  Once this adjustment had been made I made two versions.

3/4 length sleeve in Navy for work - pictures taken pre-move near the end of May

Short sleeve in Wham! jersey for fun - Pictures taken post-move about a week before Melody was born.

Despite the awesome Wham! fabric I actually preferred the Navy version because the fabric was better quality, although Wham! is thick jersey it just lacks stability so just felt off when it was worn and also massive on me even though I used the same pattern pieces.  Isn't it strange how you can get two different feelings about the same top just because of the difference in fabric.

If at first you don't succeed

Throw a strop, cry, think, and start again.  I should have given up on this dress way before I actually did.

Lets go in stages as to what went wrong...

1. The shoulder seams and the neck band seams just did not match up, no matter how hard I tried.

Not even the extra special effort to cut and match the notches helped.  So I took apart the neck band and added them separately only to discover that one of the front pieces was then too short.  Oh well I thought I'll just lap that bit at the back, no big deal...

2. I burnt the back of the bodice

See I did say I should have given up way before I did, but this burn was on the inside and not that noticeable on the outside and since I had spent so much time on the damned neck band I decided to solider on regardless.  And yes the inside of the neck band does look amazingly shoddy but I'd already spent 2 evenings trying to sort it out at that point.

3. The issue with one of the front piece being too short took a lot of sussing out to try and fix, in hindsight an extra piece of fabric to make them both the right length would have worked but that's hindsight for you

4. The return of the Frump-Zilla!!

 

Oh. My. God! I know part of being pregnant is that you get fat round the middle and you can get away with those clothes where you think "Eeek I look pregnant in this" but Jesh Louise! I felt like the master of the Frump Clan from Frump Land. Hence why there isn't a picture of me wearing this atrocity.

Totally dejected I felt tearful (I blame the hormones) and angry to the point where I chucked the dress across the room on various occasions after trying to look for a saving grace. If I could have had a bottle of wine at this point I sure as damnit would have done, despite it being the middle of the day.

Eventually after staring at it for an eternity I figured out what was wrong.  The bodice just wasn't right however the skirt was, BUT those gathers needed to be distributed evenly across the front. That in mind I went to the hairdressers thinking of what I could do with it.  Luckily a light bulb struck! I could use the same bodice idea used in my maxi dress from new look 6699 and keep the skirt portion of the current dress.

Returning home from the hairdresser with a new lease of life (I think new hair does that to a gal) I cracked on with the dress, ripping out the skirt and dismantling the sleeves for a new bodice.  I did nearly hit another concrete post though because I wasn't sure I had enough shirring elastic to finish the back, but the sewing gods were in my favour and had left me with just the right amount, pretty lucky since the Wedding was the next day... But it all worked out in the end, even the weather was glorious!

I think it worked

One Maternity skirt made from Simplicity 2451 - Done

Although I'm not entirely sure it will see me through at least for the time being I can wear something other than bloody trousers.  The skirt is definitely not the best thing I've made but I am still rather chuffed with myself for kind of pulling it off.

I utterly failed to take any notes or make any sort of pattern piece for my adjustments as I kind of botchineered* it. 
(*Totally made up word meaning I did something random but it worked, sort of like engineered but with no knowledge of what the heck you are doing)

But here goes an effort to try and describe what I did...

1. Pinned the waistband pieces together at the seam allowance
2. Pinned to the jersey on the fold
3. Measured how much length I would need (I totally messed this measurement up as you can see below, oopsies)
4. Marked that measurement on the jersey and drew a straight line (A)
5. Attempted to join the pattern to the straight line (A), then decided it would never fit round my waist and angled the back seam line a little
6. Folded the jersey at the straight line (A) and cut.
7. Tried this around me and realised I had failed as it didn't even meet at the back
8. Attempted steps 1-7 again but angled the pattern piece at stage 2 so the center front was not on the fold

That seemed to work however as previously mentioned I botched the measurement for the length I would need and it is far too long... Ah well growing room I suppose

And for a bit of a sneaky dose of leopard print, I used a ribbon as hem tape, ooh this bit makes me smile :)

Snood Ahoy!

Remember when I said I was knitting a snood?  Well I finished it and I am totally in love!

I've been wearing it at every opportunity since I finished it and it really didn't take me that long to do either, probably about 5 hours in total (more since I'm not counting stating again...)  It is made from this pattern on Ravelry, I used two balls of Sirdar Escape Chunky and the only adjustment I did to the pattern was to not hold the yarn doubled since I didn't have enough to do that and make it long enough. 

Now I'm contemplating a cardigan, I may have just approached the crazy train!

The dress of Glitz!

Last Saturday was the day of my work's Christmas party and although I'd started the dress quite early I was still finishing it off on the day, you know how it is "Oh I just need to do the button, that can wait..."  Although I'm a little worried about how well I blend in with the living room wall I'm really impressed with it.

Every seam has been french seamed, yes you read that right EVERY seam, including the armhole! I didn't want any of the lace scratching me at any point so I encased them all and I have to say it worked very well so I say "Ha" in the face of all of the you can't french seam a curve naysayers!

 

This is also my first attempt at a thread made button hole (not the foggyist idea what that is really called), it needs so work but definately served the job it was made for.

After taking the photo's above I decided that I'd made the hem a little shorter than I was actually comfortable with, but nothing a pair of tights didn't cure. All in all a job well done and a good night because my husband actually made it! (He works in a toy shop so never usually makes it to anything Christmas related)

The Lowdown

Pattern: New Look 6068

Material: 1.75m Turquoise Lace £9.10, 1.75m Black Liquid Satin £3.92 (both from Abakhan)

Notions: Black floral button £0.59 Abakhan

Total Cost: £13.61

Time to complete: 5 hours (most of that was cutting the lace)

Modifications made: The placement of the keyhole opening from the front to the back

Ze Pantaloons Numero Uno

The trousers! They are finished!

While I am majorly impressed with them I am actually a little disappointed too.  You see despite the fact that I made a muslin to check the fit of said trousers (see Ghastly Pink trousers in previous post, yes the ones Meg actually wants me to finish and wear (Maybe pink trousers in the future but not those)) these trousers are to blinking big! Gah!

I'm surprised they are not trying to fall down in these pictures because I really need a belt to keep them up.  You know what the worst thing about them being too big is?  The fact that I made an extra special effort to finish the seams... /sigh!

Look at how pretty they are! Blind stitched hem and Turned Under Seam Finish.

Other than the crazy size issues they actually went together really well and the instructions were easy enough to follow, even the fly zip went in easily.  I think I chose well for my first venture into the trouser world, I imagine that a closer fitting pair would not have been so easy.  For now though I will consider it a job well done, always wear them with a belt and hope for better luck next time.

Just what you need for dinner

We had some friends over for Dinner last night, something that we've not done before so needless to say we were a little unprepared for it. A random table (that came with the house 8 years ago), 4 chairs that didn't match, new wine glasses (because we didn't have 4), washing plates in between the courses because we don't have enough, etc, etc...  I guess we wouldn't get very far on Come Dine With Me would we? Haha.  Anyway a few hours before our friends were due to arrive I decided to make place mats, because who has dinner at a table without place mats?  With the seed in my head I sifted through the stash for some fabric and came across the Amy Butler fabric that has been sitting there for almost a year, cut 8 squares for coasters, 8 rectangles for place mats and wadding for the middle just so they weren't just 2 pieces of fabric sewn together. I suppose I could have used interfacing but I like the squishy and not too stiff effect of the wadding.

I'm rather pleased with them and they had the desired effect of making the table look like a real dinner table too.  Not bad for a random idea and an hour.

Raspberry Dress

Phew it's taken some mental doing but I believe I've finished the Raspberry Dress.  After posting about it on Friday night I made a brew and ventured to the dreaded task of finishing the dress. After trying it on I decided that although it is meant to be a loose fitting dress it just looked like a sack on me, and something somewhere was pulling the fabric in a strange way (Good spot there Rachel!).

 
I've not tried to fit anything like this before and all of the fitting I started to do seemed a little haphazard and not particularly helpful so I decided to rip out the zip and both side seams (I think I nearly cried at this point) and start again with the front sides as the back appeared to be fine. 

To fit I just tried it on inside out and pinned the dress until it looked a heck of a lot better, and wiggling out of the dress with it all pinned together made me realise that I didn't need a zip after all, I consider that a win!

It's going to look much better after a good iron, but I'm pretty chuffed with myself for actually finishing it!

Hello Maxi!

While I've not found much time to blog I have found some time to create. Today is the last day I will be able to blog in over 2 weeks, so I'd better show you something before I disappear to Las Vegas and get married to the love of my life Mr B.


So here's a little something I stitched together for the holiday

I decided sometime ago that I wanted a maxi dress and I searched some shops to try and get one on sale. What is it with Maxi's they either show masses of boobage or are mega low in the back making wearing a bra impossible.  So I decided that would not do, and searched for a pattern to make a Maxi that covered my criteria (No masses of boobage and the ability to wear a bra). Fail... /sigh so what did I do?  I attempted to use an existing dress to create a pattern for the top part of the dress.  Again with the fail thing! Was this Maxi dress destined to never be. Nope, I had a brainwave to use the bodice from the New Look 6699 dress and another brainwave to make the back one piece and Shir it.  I also changed the straps to make them longer so they could be tied in the back because I was too lazy to measure them properly for a pretty detail

 For the skirt I just cut two long rectangles, but since I forgot about the fact that I would need to walk in the dress I had to chop it off around the knee area and add in a wider panel, I think it works.

I am really pleased with how it has turned out and it meets both of my criteria too. Win!

 Righty-o best be off and continue to pack for Viva Las Vegas and Sunny LA.

The post of meh...

I realised earlier that I have only been showing you my successes in the sewing world recently and zero of the mishaps/items i don't actually like.  Well that is about to change, be prepared for some things I have not been feeling like raving about...

Goldenhawk fabric top I mentioned I was starting back in this post. This top was meant to be a shortened version of view B since I thought that it was far far too long for me. 

Ignore the bright red bra, Maybell's boobies are just far to small

Hmmm I thought it doesn't look too bad on Maybell, save the weird gathers half-way up the neckline (that you can't even see in the picture!)  Then before I hemmed and bias taped the armholes I went and tried it on.  Holy crap it looked like a tent! I'm guessing the extra length was there for a reason so that the top held some shape.  I'm saving you the horror of me in this but the next pic is what it looked like at the sides when I tried it on, enormous! (ok maybe exaggerating ever so slightly) This top has now started my UFO pile and I have absolutely no intentions of finishing it.

Next up is a recent make (about 2 weeks ago)  I scored some jersey whilst visiting London in a gorgeous shade of purple and decided it would be great as a dress, a Simplicity 2369 dress in view A with B's length. 

 It is almost finished but after I tried it on and found it made me look like frumpy the frump-mistress I gave up on it. There is bugger all shape to it. The sleeves look sad and drab not gorgeous and puffy like the pattern picture. So this is another one that is banished to the UFO pile, but I hope to resurrect this one at some point since I love the colour and the fabric feels lovely. Just not now

Grumpy because of the frumpyness

Last on the not feeling like raving about pile is my Sorbetto.  After I posted about it midway through here I did finish the top. But I'm just not feeling it... I'm not really that enthralled by the colour combo although I do really like the blue. I don't think this light viscose fabric works for the top, the pleat is wonky and wobbles all the way down.

 I did however learn that I need 2 bust darts otherwise the armhole gapes (as shown by the lovely green stitches because I thought it was cool was too lazy to change the thread.)  I did french seam the whole top so the inside looks fab, just a shame it is now relegated to the wearable around the house muslin pile.

 Ah well you win some you lose some.

Arrggh not The Birds

Ohh no it's attack of the killer birds! Haha

I got around to deciding what to make with my fabulous fabric, a skirt! To me the weight of the fabric was too thick for a top so a skirt it had to be.  Although whilst I was making it I wasn't sure if I would wear it once it was finished.  But I have one thing to say to that... AM I MAD?!? This skirt is freaking awesome, I'm so in love with it! Strangely enough I'm not the only person who loves this pattern Miss Zoe has a bit of crush on the pattern (Simplicity 2451) It is easy to put together, it has pockets and it uses less than a metre of fabric. What is not to like?

Speaking of the less than a metre of fabric, does anybody else wonder what pattern companies are thinking when they give you the cutting guidelines? According to the back of the envelope I needed exactly one metre to make a size 12, Well that is exactly what I had and by not following the guidelines I have this much left over

It does bring up something I have been pondering for a while now and that is - Do you religiously follow the pattern envelope when it comes to buying your fabric or do you try to wing it and see where it gets you?
I followed the envelope for my London dress and ended up with twice the amount of fabric that I needed!

Anyway enough jabbering, more skirt pics

I've still got to sew the facing down on the inside, but did that stop me from wearing the skirt to work today? Hell No!  I hope this is the start of a beautiful love affair with prints :)

The Lowdown:
Pattern: Simplicity 2451 View C 
Material: 1m Birds Cotton Voile £5
Notions: 1 light blue zip £0.79
Total Cost: £5.79 (with left-overs!)

Refashionista

This weeks challenge over at The Sew Weekly is all about re-fashioning, I've been a bit lax with the challenges recently so in determination to complete this one I delved into the box of clothes we had put aside containing things that are no longer worn.  In that box I found these black jeans

I don't really know why I don't wear them anymore but they were in the box so they were getting used!
I knew as soon as I saw them that they were going to have a new lease of life as a denim skirt. So I tootled upstairs grabbed my un-picker and began to take the inside leg seams apart. Once that was finished I had two triangle pieces in the middle where I needed to decide if they should be filled with the surplus denim from the bottom of the trousers or to use a funky fabric as an insert.  Instead of deciding all by myself I asked B for help, he immediately picked the funky fabric option and I'm glad he did, I love how it has turned out.

I also managed to finish the pillowcase challenge - et viola

One pillowcase shirt complete with paisley collar details.  My only regret with this shirt is that I didn't interface the bit for the buttons so it has a tendency to pop open, eek must remember to wear a vest under this as I had serious paranoia all day at work when I wore it last week...

Ginger the 2nd

Last week I finished my other Ginger, its the exact reverse of the first Ginger but I added a lining (Faux silk too, oooh the luxury!) and the pockets to this one. Now I don't know which one I like best...

 The Lowdown

• Pattern : Ginger by Colette
• Material: 1.2m Blue Floral £6.60 p/m, 0.75m Faux Silk £2.80 p/m, Blue Polyester scrap for piping
• Notions: White Zip £1.35, 2 Red Buttons £1.00, Interfacing from stash, Piping Cord from stash
• Total Cost £12.37