Friday 28 March 2014

Where has the last week gone?!

Time is just flying over here, so I must be having fun!

The weekend seems like a long time ago now, distant memories of a shooting weekend up in sunny Warcop...


OK, I'm lying. It was actually snowing. At 0800 we were stood outside of the Armory collecting our weapons, gazing at the sky thinking 'I must be crazy'! For those of you who've never been out shooting in the snow, I'll tell you this - it's pretty darn chilly.  Fortunately for us that's where the snow finished for the weekend. I got a little wet, but nothing too bad, but it was definitely chilly. Not only was I wearing waterproof trousers, but also my scarf and gloves. 

Armed with several cups of hot tea I ventured out for the shoot. I was feeling pretty darn confident. A couple of practice shots at the targets and we come to the main shoot. I'm loving it - Ye haw! So I'm about to do this shoot where we stand a few paces back, watch for the target popping up, then have to run to the firing point, throw ourselves on the floor 'belt buckles down' and then fire 5 shots at the target. So I throw myself down for the first shot and clumsily the iron sight hits me right in the shooting eye with the recoil from my first shot. [Swear word] then my eye decides to to leak and I can see nothing! I came out of that with 15 rounds still in my magazine out of 65, but only 1 point worse off than my neighbour who had fired all of his rounds - bonus! But I was still shit. Never mind, I had a great time.

Sunday I got to take part in Clay pigeon shooting. This was by far the best activity of the weekend, but also my worst ha ha! I had 14 cartridges and I hit zero clay pigeons boooooooo... [sad face]. Still had an awesome time and I'm looking forward to more shooting later on in the year.

So I haven't actually done an awful lot of sewing. I've managed to fix a UFO that I started back in July last year. I'm particularly proud of this because I'd been having really awful fit issues and had ended up sacking it off to try something else. That's my Joel Dewberry Meadow Spirit skirt which I originally posted about here. Back then I had little experience of fitting garments, I just picked the nearest size and hoped for the best. So I've finally completed this skirt, but I'm yet to take some pictures for my blog, so I'll probably post that this weekend.

I've also started to make myself a Colette Zinnia skirt. I previously made one for my best friend for Christmas and I've been dying to make myself one ever since. You can find that here. I'm still on with this, doing a little bit here and a little bit there. 

On top of all of this, and possibly for the last few weeks I've had a go at quilting. A friend of mine bought a quilt from the States for her baby to be from Etsy and it took something like 6 months to come. It was such an anti-climax as she's not so fond of it and it cost a fortune. When I saw it myself, apart from the designer fabric that had been used I couldn't see why it took so long to arrive or why it cost so much. So, I thought why not have a go myself?

Unfortunately, I've had a few motivational issues with it and I'd run out of materials to finish it off. But this is how I started:


To save time, I very lazily bought a couple of charm packs from eBay. (I won these at like 99p each woop woop!) I then stitched them together in rows and then stitched the rows together, pressing the seams out as I went.  That is the picture that you can see above. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out.

At this point I should probably mention that I have absolutely no experience in this area, I've not even made a coaster! So I think I've done it a little wrong! So what I did next is sew the batting to the piece of fabric I was using for the underside (An old white Egyptian cotton sheet that I'd cut down). I've since found out that this is not exactly how it should be done! Finished article to be finished soon.


Tuesday 18 March 2014

Elisalex the second

I've definitely caught the bug! By Hand London's Elisalex bodice is just amazeballs. So I had to make it again and this fabric was exactly what I'd had in mind for the pattern. Unfortunately it didn't arrive in time so I made my Joel Dewberry version first.
This fabric is some vintage upholstery - Savannah a screen print by Osprey on cotton satin. I totally fell in love with the mahooosive flower print. The moment my little eyes landed on the listing in eBay I knew it would be mine. 

This time, I still managed to chicken out of making the dress with the intended tulip skirt! Barry said I should make it as an A-Line as he's not fond of the tulip shape. So I did and I must admit I quite like it with an A-Line skirt. I used New Look pattern A6053 for the skirt. Yup I feel like such a cheat, I really should be drafting my own skirts by now, especially one as simple as this!

Wednesday 12 March 2014

OUI! It's another Peplum!

I've done it again, I think I'm a little bit obsessed with Peplums at the moment! But I have to say, although I love all my Peplums equally, this one is definitely my favourite.

I used Vogue pattern V8815 and I actually started it well over a week ago. I remember it quite clearly because Barry had gone for a day session in Newcastle for a leaving do. (The guy wasn't even leaving he's just moving to another team a few pods up, but that clearly gives an excellent excuse for a piss up!) 

So, as I was home alone, I decided this was the perfect opportunity to move the dining table in front of the TV so that I could set up all of my sewing whilst watching BSG: Blood and chrome that I'd recorded off the telly a couple of weeks before!

What a mess!! But whilst the cat's away...

The pattern is wonderfully thought up and so easy. It went together like a dream, however, surprisingly enough it came with no facing pieces. But that's no big deal, it gave me the perfect opportunity to draft my own! After tracing out the main pattern pieces, making adjustments for my size, I then took another piece of tissue, placed it over my pattern pieces and created what I now think is the best facing ever! It's sort of a semi-lining that goes all the way round the neck line and around the arm holes. It works an absolute treat, that design with what I now know is called 'under stitching', prevents that horrible flappy facing problem.

No flappy facing for me.

You could use bias binding around the neckline, but I like the clean lines that I've produced without it.



The fabric that I used is a quilting cotton in Glimma by Lotta Jansdotta, which I got on sale at Guthrie and Ghani. For the bow at the back I used some ribbon from Boyes. You can't beat good old Boyes for little bits like that, especially when you make a last minute decision.
This fabric probably wasn't the best choice for this top. There was very little hope of me pattern matching with all the wave lines. I'd match it in one place but the then rest is out, so I just had to roll with it. This is exactly the fabric that I had in mind for this pattern, so the lines had to lie where they have.

I wore this top on Friday for Barry's birthday dinner, however we got very (very very very) tipsy and no photo's were taken of the top. So, as I'd washed and ironed it again over the weekend I thought I'd wear it to work today, which gave us an excellent opportunity to get pictures.

Overall I totally love this top, it's the right shape with the right pattern and it fits beautifully. (Or at least I think it does!!) I'm definitely going to make more.