23rd March

I am taking advice from the comments left on the last post. We have slowed down here. I put the UP dress away. And the sewing machine.
We have made "prototype one" of a water clock. It worked but was not big enough. We now need more empty bottles to make what I told by T is to be the test model.
I have done some (for me) exciting online pattern shopping. More to follow in another post about that.

We made a cafe in the living room. Some fabric from the bags I bought back from Devon makes a perfect pink and white tablecloth.




"You like coffee? Milk?"


Yesterday's MM March outfit is below.

In the background Little I is getting busy with the tub of mud and water...

Me Made top based on Nano Iro pattern.

I made this top as part of a sewalong last year. It originally looked different with a dark brown neckband. But I felt it looked too much like a shepherd's costume in a nativity play and the brown and ochre combo made me think of Captain James T Kirk in the 70s Star Trek series. So I changed it around and altered the neck adding bias binding made from the remnants of my ruffle top. Then I never wore it. It is light cotton from Kaffe Fssett and is too thin to wear much in colder weather. It has languished in my cupboard until today. And I have to confess it is a good top to wear on a warmish day. It is comfortable and just easy to wear. I didn't take my photos till 4pm and one criticism is that this fabric does crease. I also didn't get the neck binding quite right and it doesn't lie flat. But I got a couple of compliments on it.

Japanese sewalong finished

Hurray - we have pictures again!

I have finished my Japanese top from Cecili's sewalong. I am not sure if I like the neckband in brown though. (I keep thinking it may look a bit like the shepherd's costume froma school nativity play in brown) Cecili made a very elegant black and white top in this sewalong and Zoe made a fab seventies tunic, with a lovely shaped neckband. Alison was very clever and used the japanese top pattern with an existing dress pattern to produce a lovely blue dress. Ali, if you are reading this, I am looking forward to seeing yours!

It is really comfy on and has fab sleeves. I will try and photo it on once I have figured out the self-timer on the new camera. I just cannot do that while looking after a three year old and seven year old both of whom love to fiddle with cameras (subsequently breaking the last camera I had). There is a lot of fabric in the body of the top but it doesn't look too huge on (I think/ I hope). I do like it but it is a different style to what I usually wear and I think it is going to take a bit of getting used to. I think it will be great on a hot day to keep cool but also keep my upper arms nicely covered from sunburn. (I have a bit of a thing about avoiding sunburn, having fair freckly skin). I think it was a bit of an error to try and sew the neck band at night when I was tired as I went wrong with it and lost the nice curved shape that it originally had. But I did enjoy the whole sewalong experience and Cecili posted some very helpful advice on her blog - I am certainly going to try another one of these patterns again in the future. I am going to try wearing this top next week and see whether I lose my nativity-related reservations.

The next picture really should have gone in my last post - these cushions are what I made out of the green patterned Ikea fabric that I had rejected as a skirt fabric. The sofa itself is brown not as dark as this photo suggest. Previously we had brownish coloured cushions (why? On a brown sofa? I just don't know) now re-covered they are soooo much better and I have used up some of my stash.

Finally a picture of what I was working on last night - a brown sheath dress from Built by Wendy dresses book with a falso placket on the front. The binding tape is from Liberty via Clothkits (another birthday present). And there on the right - my new attempt at sewing organisation - the zip up bag that I have been keeping pattern pieces and fabric for this dress in. I am trying to organise my projects in this way....