FO: Raspberry Wool Crepe Anna Dress

I bought 2 metres of raspberry stepweave wool crepe on ebay about three years ago.  It languished in my stash as I was too scared to sew with it.  It was a glorious colour but too nice for my slapdash sewing I thought.  Last year I even put it back on ebay in an attempt to clear my stash but no one bought it!  By November last year I finally gained the courage to wash the fabric and using a special wool washing liquid it was fine.  Emboldened by this, I cut and sewed an Amy Butler Anna dress (pattern here). 

Previously, I have made this pattern in plain grey,

  green patterned as a top, in orange as a sundress and in red polka dot as a top!  I think I got my money's worth from this pattern!  

The new dress is fully lined with black and white polka dots.  The wool crepe hangs beautifully and the dress rustles when I walk.  For some reason this equates with being very grown up in my mind!  I am so very happy to have stashbusted this fabric.

 So now are you wondering why there's no picture of me wearing this dress?  Um, well, ridiculously, I am scared!  My daily life is so messy.  I need to gather courage and just wear it this week.  Does anyone else have me mades that feel too much like "best" to wear?

FO: Alessa Tee and 1st May

A little while ago I was lucky enough to win one of Alessa's fabric stash giveaways.  It was a piece of blue and white spotted jersey knit and a piece of stripey cotton.  I decided right away that I would try to make a tee shirt from the blue spotty fabric.  It has a lovely drapey quality that I liked. 

The piece was not very big so I thought of sleeveless and initially wanted to try an Ottobre pattern but  didn't have enough fabric.  Then I remembered a charity shop find from a couple of months ago - Butterick 3070.  Please take a moment to enjoy the full eighties splendour of the pattern illustration. S'great, isn't it?  

 I went for view A, it reminded me of current kimono sleeve tees I have seen patterns for.  I cut a medium but think I will go for a small next time. 

The more boxy shape is a departure for me and I like it with fitted trousers.  I am not sure I would like it with anything else.  I am still debating whether to run a piece of elastic round the hem to gather the fabric and play with the way it hangs.  What do you think?





Spot the baby...



A back view to show you the full drapey quality

So this was my 1st May wear: Me made tee shirt and rtw jeans which I dyed from beige to indigo. 

Thank you Alessa for your generosity.  I am planning on a stash giveaway here soon to spread the good fortune. 

Oh, and look who's walking...

FO: Here we go bag

Kids back to school, feet up. In the name of displacement actitivities (I am so bad at just waiting) and in between granny napping, I finished my changing bag. I used the "Here We Go Bag" pattern from Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings book and stash fabric.

I used to have an old rucksack as a changing bag so it feels fun to have such a smart new one. The size of the bag attracted me to the pattern plus it has side and internal pockets and an inside divider. I hate just having one huge bag in which everything gets jumbled up and which I have to tip up to find my phone or keys. I started making the bag before Christmas and just had a small bit of finishing off to do over the past two weeks. With all the parts the pattern seemed confusing at first but once I worked through it, it became much clearer and the bag went together faster than I had expected. I would recommend this pattern, it is nice and straightforward and gives you lots of options for different ways to put it together. There are lots of opportunities to use up fairly small fabric remnants in this pattern which was fun.

For the main part I used some dark denim from the Rag Market as I wanted something hardwearing and not likely to show too much dirt. I lined it with some left over Amy Butler fabric, which also was used for the handles and also with some tea cup fabric. I used more dark denim for the central divider to try and have a fairly rigid divider. Then I used my final scraps of apple fabric to make the top edging and the side pockets. I made three internal pockets of varying sizes. The bag also has a matching (yes, co-ordinated, I know get me!) changing mat from the Amy Butler fabric which rolls up inside.

The only addition to the bag is that I am going to put a magnetic popper inside it to keep it closed.

Clock without hands top, new pattern love

I rarely buy new patterns but feeling fed up with my sewing and wanting to use my stash of fabrics for garments that I will actually wear, led me to do a spot of online shopping and so I bought two new patterns last week. I think I will get my money's worth from these. They are both Lisette for Simplicity. You may know the work of the designer Liesel Gibson through her childrens' clothing sewing patterns, Oliver and S, or through her blog disdressed. I read somewhere that these patterns are not super fashionable but then, a lesson I have learnt partly from doing Me Made months is that I don't actually want to be super fashionable nor do I want to be making clothes designed for a twenty year old or clothes that are more suitable for my almost four year old daughter than for me. These clothes look as if they are wearable in my life. (I will let you know if they are as I progress) But I have to say making this top was a pleasure, simple and straightforward, it has made me happier about my sewing again. (My needle jammed three times while sewing this top despite me giving the machine a clean and changing needles. So I am now planning to take it back to the shop where I bought it next week.)

I tried out the top view C as I didn' t have enough stash fabric to make the longer version. I also have quite a few long tunic type tops now and a shorter one will be good for summer.

I used cotton fabric from my Devon stash. I didn't have enough fabric to make the sleeve cuffs but just gave them a tiny hem instead. The fabric does crease a bit but apart from that I am happy with it.

The fabric is cotton and has a pattern that looks like a handless clock on it. This pattern is easy to make up and has clear instructions and diagrams. I didn't rush it at all (honestly) but made it within 24 hours from cutting out to finishing off. I may have also found it straightforward because the top used similar methods to other patterns I have already sewn. It is also a quick top to make because it uses no buttonholes or zips. The neck facing is sewn in a "stitch in the ditch" so I have none of the problems I have had before with facings flapping around.

Back view - buttons came from my grey cardigan. I thought they looked frumpy on the cardigan but I like how they are with this fabric AND I like to re-use. I used ribbon to make the button loops instead of self fabric.

Okay, so I now have new pattern love for this pattern. I really liked wearing this top yesterday, and I want to make the other versions too now. The View B longer top and the View A dress have big pockets created from the centre front piece. Regular readers will know my love of pockets. If you are squingting at the pattern cover photo trying to see the pockets, I apologise, it is not clear to see them in the picture.

I would like to make the dress in a denim-ish blue as an everyday dress, maybe with some piping? However I don't have that in my stash, but I do have some liberty cotton in a reddish woven check. I am off to measure how much there is now.

Finished scarves

I have made three of these scarves so far for presents. The first one I made went a bit wrong on the ribbing where you divide your stiches and then rejoin to make the loop for threading the scarf through. But I have now got the knack of it. - hurray. The pattern is quick to knit and only takes 50g of wool so is a good one for using up your stash. I have also enjoyed knitting these as it is so portable and easy to do when waiting outside school, or watching tv. The hardest part was taking the photos as my self timer has stopped working.

I wanted to use up some of my fabric scraps. I pulled out the remnants of my stripey cotton jersey fabric that I made my nautical top from and I found I was just able to squeeze this sleeveless top from the fabric. It wasn't quite long enough so I made a band with the stripes going vertically and put that round the bottom. I used the t shirt pattern from Sew U Home Stretch as a basis and cut the front neck slightly more scooped. I really like this top as I can wear it underneath so many things - I have found the weather is a bit too warm for the long sleeved stripey t shirt at the moment. Then Barbie got a new dress from the scraps.

Tres chic Barbie.

Then, later the same day we found a bag of doll clothes in the charity shop, for what I call "baby dolls". We have two of these dolls and they sadly share one grubby outfit between them. Until now.... the bag proved to be full of jackets and trousers so I got the stripey scraps out of the bin and made one more stripey t shirt. So here is (the very originally named) Baby Doll in his new shirt and trousers. He looks a bit camp, reminding me of Jean Paul Gaultier ads. I am a new convert to making doll's clothes - it is so quick and gives a high satistfaction:effort ratio.

So there really is nothing left of the stripey fabric now (stash busted).

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....

Flowery dress

I had a large piece of this flowery cotton fabric that I bought about four years ago at a second hand stall at a church fete. What better place to buy stuff than summer fetes? I am a great lover of these events as I think they are something quintessentially British but in a good way (I am not really a very patriotic person). Anyway, I digress, so I pulled the fabric out of the storage box as part of the Stash bustin project and made this little dress for my daughter. I used an old Simplicity pattern that I had found in a charity shop. It was for age 1 to 18 months and my daughter is nearly three so I had a go at resizing the pattern. You could almost hear the rusty cogs in my brain whirring as I tried to work out the pattern dimensions. I used Cal Patch's book on making your own clothes for guidance in how to resize a pattern. It is a fairly short-ish dress as I have found dresses below the knee may look very sweet but they tend to trip up a girl who wants to run around.

The original pattern pistured below, ( I made the pink dress/pinafore in the picture) has a vertical lace trim and a ribbon round the bodice - both of which I left out. I also bound the armholes with bias binding made from the same fabric. I have a big pile of this binding to use now in some more projects and also some more of the fabric to use - enough I think for another child's dress. I am thinking of trying a different pattern, though I like the look of the bloomers in this pattern picture.

Stash Bustin Messenger Bag

In the interests of stash-bustin I made this bag for my son from some denim fabric I bought at a market several years ago and from the beach fabric I wrote about in an earlier post. I cut and appliqued some of the fish and a shark from the beach fabric and used bondaweb and stitching to attach them to the front flap. There are also two little fish on the back of the bag.

I lined it with the beach fabric and lined the strap as well with the beach fabric so there are glimpses of colours as you use the bag. I really enjoyed the construction of this bag and working out how to fit it all together. The denim got really tough to sew through on bits like the straps as it is thick material in just one layer, let alone three, and I had to finish off the sewing by hand as it was a bit too much for my poor old sewing machine.

I had thought initially about making bags from the beach fabric by itself but I am glad I stopped and thought a bit, did some sketches and decided to do it this way as I think it is always good to try something a bit different. I do tend to rush into new projects and I am trying to alter that way of working, taking a bit more time to think things through and sketch first. Making this has reminded me a lot of when I was about 17 and used to make lots of bags on my mum's sewing machine. AAAhhhh, nostalgia.

My son has requested several times that I use the rest of this beach fabric for a duvet cover so what can I do but oblige??

A den and gloomy day

It is half term holiday here so while I have been working on my Stashbustin' honest, but have been distracted and out and about, walking in the woods, building a den under the dining table. The den used a large piece of camoflauge cotton fabric , so it is stash bustin in a way (with parcel tape not thread!) but it is too dark here to today to photograph. (It's snowing again this afternoon) The camo fabric came to me via Freecycle and is kind of awful if you are thinking of sewing clothes but it is fab if you have an almost seven year old boy!

I enjoyed reading Zoe's post this week . I agree that it is liberating to give up buying mass produced clothes and to stop shopping so much. We are such a consumer driven society where shopping is one of our top leisure activities and it seems to me that there is something in the zeitgeist in blogland rejecting this right now. (Love that word, zeitgeist!) I have been thinking a lot about how we as a family seem to have so much stuff - since becoming parents, Mr Minnado have been amazed by how much stuff our kids get given. When T was a baby I can remember all his toys fitted in to one carrier bag - now our house is awash with toys, and yet compared to some houses we go to we don't have AS MUCH STUFF! I try and give a few things away every now and then, but still things keep coming. My family tend to give one present to each child for a birthday but my in laws like to give a big sackful - this has led to tension in the past and we have T's 7th birthday coming up soon....just to add to my rant he won the school raffle top prize at Christmas and I was torn between being pleased for him and being appalled at it. It was a huge basket filled with toys, sweets, one book and a dvd. There was more there that I would give him at Christmas myself! I couldn't understand why they didn't giveout 8 or 12 prizes to different children rather than have one child win the lot. There were some lovely things in it - his favourite being an aquabead craft set and a remote control car! But it just highlighted to me how out of touch I seem to be with other parents who think this is okay. We did divide the basket up infact , as there were several pink girly things that went to a couple of friends with girls. T gave his sister the cuddly toy and they have both used the craft sets.

Anyway, I have managed to put half a dozen pieces of clothes on Ebay this week, and filled a bag for the charity shop. And am workign on several stash bustin projects...need to stop typing and get sewing to finish!

Stash bustin' - some random thoughts

I added Zoe's button to my side bar for Stash bustin' then caught stomach flu and was unable to get to write my reasons for being interested in this project. I stumbled across Zoe's blog on sewing a couple of months ago. I like the way her sense of humour and character comes across through her sewing posts and of course she makes some fab clothes! I was attracted initially to the Stash bustin as I like many others am trying to cut back on spending, trying to buy more second hand goods and also I am addicted to having clear outs and getting rid of stuff. I do not have a sewing room and have to store my things where ever I can!

I am also aware of my mental list of sewing projects and the fabric waiting to be used. I do also have a bag of small bits of fabric saved from sewing projects that I usually use in applique - in this instance I LOVE having a stash. It has saved me from many a trip to buy fabric for small projects such as cushions or bags. I love the smug feeling of making something without having to go and buy any extra materials! During the recent snow I was able to make the pointy cat from Wee wonderfuls as described in an earlier post entirely from my small scraps stash. Lots of those scraps come from my mum whose stash of fabric is amazing - over 30 years of collecting there! I will have to take some pics next time I visit.

Anyway, after reading about the stash bustin' I crawled under my bed and pulled out a plastic box - one of a pair I may add! Looking through some of the fabric I can see patterns emerging (in my behaviour, not the fabric). I don't think I spend lots of money on fabric and I don't often visit fabric shops - the nearest decent ones are 15 miles away in another town which for me and my toddler necessitates a Planned Outing. The fabrics are either a "Bargain", a Gift or bought for a project and awaiting their use. The green and orange in the photo here were bought to make a bag my son has designed. The Ikea bird fabric I bought to make some new cushions - though I was temporarily sidetracked by the thought of making into a skirt. Do other people do this I wonder? I visualise almost all fabrics I like initially as skirts.

The Amy Butler fabric here I bought when at the Quilts UK at the NEC last summer and I fully intend to make a dress/tunic from it to wear this summer. It is on my list....

Some of the other fabrics I pulled out seem to have a common theme of being a bargain find in a charity shop or remnant bin - I love a bargain, and I love buying second hand. BUT, the seaside fabric? It is a big piece of fabric and this is just one bit. It is a good quality furnishing fabric found in my local charity shop.

I am not even sure I like it....I am toying with idea of putting it on Ebay.. I thought about making beach bags with it or towelling lined swimming bags for birthday presents for evey child I know....but well, life is short, time is precious and when you have two young children, a partner, a house to rebuild (yep, with my bare hands), then I think I will prioritise, keep the fabric I like for the projects I really want to do and get rid of stuff I don't particularly like.

PS: There's another stash I have to confess to... I need to photograph it first though. It involves vintage lace. I will confess all soon.