BeautyInTheLonely

Bubbles Felted Cushion Pattern

2013-04-22T14:06:00.001+01:00

This textured cushion is super-easy, once you have done the maths. You have to do maths, I'm afraid because I don't know how much your wool will shrink during felting, nor how big your cushion is. Anyway, the maths is super-easy as well. You MUST use pure wool, not superwash.

Your first step is to make a gauge swatch. I hate swatching as well, but it is necessary, first of all to see if you like the fabric you end up with but also so you can figure out the right size for your cushion. To make your swatch use the main pattern, which is:

Co 1

Kfb

K1, kfb, k to end every row until the desired width (the distance between the first cast on stitch and the live row you are knitting will be the unfelted width)

K1, k2tog every row until 2 stitches remain

K 2 tog

For the swatch I recommend making it 15 cm wide. I used needles 1.5mm bigger than recommended by ball band (well I say that, the yarn was some pure wool I have knocking about with no ball band, but would normally knit it on 5mm, I used 6.5mm)

Felt the swatch. I did this by washing in the machine at 90 with detergent, no conditioner, and some jeans and towels that wanted washing anyway. Measure the felted swatch and do the maths, e.g.

felted swatch = 10cm, finished cushion to be 30 cm. 30/10 = 3. You need to knit 3*15cm = 45 cm.

Remember - you can always cut the felted piece down if it's too big, but you can't make it bigger if it's too small. These measurements might not work out with your wool, so swatch!

Knit your square to the size you just worked out, using the pattern above

Then you need buttons, coins, or something else small and round. I used buttons and scattered them randomly, then used crochet cotton to tie them tightly with the knitted fabric stretched over them. In retrospect, it would have been sensible to have used a cotton that was a different colour to the yarn.

Then, with buttons firmly tied in, put the square in the wash to felt. Again, I did it at 90 with jeans and towels (make sure your jeans are OK to wash at 90, obviously!).

Once the square is felted, while still wet, snip the cotton and ease out the buttons. This is quite satisfying. you might need to pop the bubbles back out once you have eased the buttons out.

When dry, trim down to size and make a back for it with some fabric (I put a zip in mine, but you could sew the cushion in there if you prefer). I cut out the fabric bigger than the felt square, cut in half, inserted a zip at the halfway cut, then put the back and felt right sides together, sewing about 5mm from the edge of the felted square (make sure the zip pull is inside what will be the cushion) then trimmed the excess fabric off with pinking shears.

Turn right side out, poke out the corners, insert cushion, zip up and admire your handiwork.

French Heels and Toes - one up, one down

2013-04-15T12:43:00.003+01:00

When I went to my mum's house over Christmas she gave me a copy of Weldon's Practical Guide to Fancy Work. She had found it in my Nan's old house as she was clearing it out when my Nan moved, but it probably belonged to one of my Great Aunt's as it was printed in 1924, when my Nan would have just been 9. It was unlikely to have been my Great Nan's as by all accounts she was a formidable woman who tended to get her daughters to do most of the work around the house.

The book is a treasure trove of knitting, tatting, crochet and needlework; but also rug making, poker work and iron work. I doubt I will be able to give everything in the book a try, you can no longer easily get the materials or equipment for some of the crafts. But I want to try as much as I can.

As well as the general knitting section, there is a section devoted to stocking knitting. This seemed like a good place to start. There are a few specific patterns ("Sock for child of three" and "Ladies plain stocking knit on two needles") but the bulk of the chapter is an explanation of the various ways of shaping heels and toes.

In those days, socks were knitted cuff down and often with a seam stitch to mark the centre back. I prefer to knit toe up - I like my socks long and I like to keep going up the leg until I run out of wool!! To figure out the toe up I decided I would knit one sock cuff down, according to Weldon's instructions, making my own notes, then the other toe up. What follows is the original instructions, then my version of the cuff down instructions, and finally my translation to toe up. The socks are not identical, and of course if you do make one of each kind then your stripes will be upside down on one – but it is a good exercise in thinking about how heels work.

The socks are a little big for me (I'm a UK size 5 with narrow feet and skinny legs (skinny at the bottom, anyway!). This is my first attempt at writing down a pattern, so please, please let me know if there's any errors or anything the isn't clear.

It goes without saying that there is no design copyright in these socks, feel free to make them to sell or whatever. If you do want to use my version of the instructions please credit me and link back to the blog. Thanks! Cathy xxx

Weldon's:

French Heel

Known as a Round and Gusset Heel

This is considered a very pretty heel, and being wider at the top than any other, is especially suitable for a high instep. Knit exactly as directed for a Dutch heel, till you have accomplished the number of rows required for flap. [Note - the instructions for the Dutch heel basically begin with your knitting a heel flap on half your stitches. You slip the first stitch of any row and knit as many rows as there are stitches in the heel flap. The heel flaps in the book are all in plain stockingette with the centre back stitch purled on knit rows]

To "turn" the heel, slip the 1st stitch, knit plain to the seam stitch, knit that, and 1 stitch more, slip 1, knit 1, pass slipped stitch over, knit 1; turn, slip 1st stitch, purl 4, purl 2 together, purl 1; turn, slip 1, knit 5, slip 1, knit 1, pass slipped stitch over, knit 1; turn, slip 1, purl 6, purl 2 together, purl 1; turn, slip 1, knit 7, slip 1, knit 1, p[ass slipped stitch over, knit 1; turn, slip 1, purl 8, purl 2 together, purl 1; and continue thus, working 1 more stitch each time, till all side stitches are knitted in; the last row will be a purl row. This done, proceed for the gussets as detailed in the instructions appended to the Dutch heel [note – the gussets for the Dutch heel are as follows – pick up and knit all the loops on each side of the heel flap (you can pick up extra if you think it needed) . Decrease 1 stitch at either end of foot every third row].

French toe:

This is a pretty toe, but rather short; due allowance must therefore be made for it in knitting the foot. The stitches are to be equally divided upon three needles, with the first stitch of first needle exactly in centre of foot. 1^ST ROUND – Knit 1, slip 1, knit 1, pass slipped stitch over, knit to within 3 stitches of end of needle, knit 2 together, knit 1, work similarly upon ach of the other two needles. 2^ND ROUND – Plain. Repeat these two rounds till the toe is reduced to 12 stitches; place them equally upon two needles and cast off [ Cathy’s note – make sure your toe is the right way round!! I grafted to avoid a toe seam.]

Cuff down sock instructions

Cast on 52 st

Knit 5cm of 1:1 rib (k1p1)

knit plain until leg is sufficiently long.

Heel flap:

k26. Turn.

sl 1, p25. turn

sl 1, k25. turn

repeat last 2 rows 12 more times (26 rows in heel flap in total)

Turning the heel:

turn. sl1, k13, skpsso, k1

turn. sl1, p4, p2tog, p1

turn. sl1, k5, skpsso, k1

turn. sl1, p6, p2tog, p1

turn. sl1, k7, skpsso, k1

turn. sl1, p8, p2tog, p1

turn. sl1, k9, skpsso, k1

turn. sl1, p10, p2tog, p1

turn. sl1, k11, skpsso, k1

turn. sl1, p12, p2tog, p1

Turn, sl1, k across heel flap (16 st?), pick up and knit the slipped stitches on the side of the heel flap (12 st, although you may want to pick up an extra one), k instep (26 st), pick up and knit 12 st on other side of heel flap.

Knit plain to beginning of round (start of foot)

Gusset decreases

K1, skpsso, k to last 3 st of foot, k2tog, k1, k instep plain

k 2 rounds plain

repeaat these 3 rounds until 52 st remain in total - 26 on foot, 26 on instep

K plain until 6 cm shorter than desired finished length.

K 12 (almost to centre of foot). K2tog [note - this is just to make your stitch count divisible by 3, if you start with a different stitch count then you might not need this, or you might even make one to get the stitch count up]. Divide stitches equally onto three needles, 17 on each needle.

on each needle k1, skpsso, k to last 3 st, k2tog, k1

k round plain

repeat these 2 rounds until 15 stitches remain.

on each needle k1, skpsso, k to end of needle

Arrange stitches on 2 needles (making sure you have them straight) and Kitchener/graft the toe.

Toe up sock instructions

CO 12 with Judy's magic cast on.

k12, arranging the st equally onto 3 needles (4 per needle)

K1, M1L, k to end of needle

k plain

on each needle k1, m1L, k to last st, m1R k

rep last two rounds until 17 st per needle, 51 in total

k1, m1L on first needle only, K other needles plain - 52 st total

Rearrange st onto 4 needles, 13 on each needle (if using DPNs. if preferred you can wait until immediately before gusset increases)

K until 10.5cm short of desired foot length.

Gusset increases

needle 1 - start of the foot - k1, m1L, k

needle 2 - k to last st, m1R, k

needles 3 and 4 knit plain.

Do this increase round every three rounds (note - I forgot when making the test sock and did it every other round, it wasn't the end of the world but I have little feet). Continue until 68 st in total, 21 each on needles 1 and 2, 13 each on 3 and 4.

Turn heel

K 27 m1L.

Turn, sl1, p11, m1R

Turn, sl1, K10, m1L

turn, sl1, p9, m1R

Turn, sl1, K8, m1L

turn, sl1, p7, m1R

Turn, sl1, K6, m1L

turn, sl1, p5, m1R

Heel flap

k15 ssk turn

sl1, p24, p2tog, turn

sl1, k24, ssk, turn

Repeat last two rows until 26 heel st, 52 in total.

Your heel is now turned and you can knit plain up the leg for as long as you like. 5 cm short of desired leg length, switch to k1p1 rib. Cast off loosely .

Coming soon! Bridal wear!

2012-09-17T13:26:00.001+01:00

I am designing a mini line of informal bridal wear, for the woman who wants something special but doesn't want to go down the evening gown/ meringue route. Here is a rough toile of a Spencer/ bolero I'm working on. If it works out it really us going to be special, so watch this space!

Onion skin dyeing

2012-09-12T14:29:00.001+01:00

My son has just started secondary school, and his first bit of homework was tie dyeing with natural dyes. The ideal homework for me! So here are a few pictures of the process and result!

Long time no post

2012-08-28T22:18:00.001+01:00

I've had another long break since my last post. I have been working on a few things for me, and a few long term things for the shop, so I've had no time to think of tutorials or anything fun. The good news is the cast is off my ankle and my leg s doing pretty well. It's not 100% yet but the physio thinks I'll run again, which is better than I expected. I have been busy making an outfit for my sister's wedding, and then some jeans for me. The outfit for my sister's wedding is adapted from the jacket in the "Sew Retro - Starlet suit jacket" course on Craftsy. The jeans are made from the Jeanius course on Craftsy. I also did the Couture Dress course, but i made a different pattern as the pattern included didn't really suit me. I have to admit I was initially sceptical about whether Craftsy courses were worth the money, but I am completely converted!! All three courses are excellent, the tutors really do respond to your comments and other student's input is great. The Starlet Suit Jacket course is a really good introduction to tailoring, the Couture dress one shows you how to sew a dress like they would in the ateliers of paris and the Jeanius course gives you a really nifty way of taking a pattern off existing jeans and then explains jeans construction so you can build your own pair. I highly recommend all of them!! Anyway, here's the pics - you can't see much of the couture dress, it's just a simple princess line shift but you must trust me when I say the couture techniques (especially backing it with organza) really made it special.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Ex06a9L1Aqs/UD0o7SQKhCI/AAAAAAAACVA/NrM2aY9vgOU/w412-h549-p-k/2012%2B-%2B1

Tutorial - Chalk bag for climbers

2012-07-04T08:30:00.000+01:00

OK, I'm finally able to think about making my chalk bag without remembering the second occasion I used it ended in hospitalisation! (For the record, I was bouldering and didn't even have my chalk bag on when I fell and knackered my ankle). Anyway, If you want your very own chalk bag from your choice of funky fabric, here's what to do:

Here are the pieces you need. With 1.5 cm seam allowances included they are Rectangle 24cm x 48cm one of outer fabric and one of fleece (I think you can get away with 20cm x 48 cm - my bag is huge!)
Circle 8.5 cm in radius, one of outer fabric and one of fleece
Rectangle 14cm x 48cm just of fleece
two rectangles of 10cm x 12 cm in pocket lining fabric
10cm zip
1 m of lacing (shoelace, corset lace, or anything like it)
2 eyelets large enough for the lacing to go through
One of those things that the laces go through (I have no idea what they are called, look at the pictures and you'll see what I mean.
1m cotton tape and some form of buckle.

Step one is to insert the zipped pocket. It's just big enough for a padlock key and some lip balm.

Mark and slash the pocket opening. It should be opposite where the vertical seam will be. Carefully attach the zip to the opening, right sides together.

Now what I should have done is slash the pocket opening to about 5 mm before the end, then cut to the corners of the opening diagonally (like when making a bound buttonhole). This will make the opening lie flat, which mine doesn't. So pretend I did that and in the picture below I'm sewing the triangle to the zip.

Attach one pocket lining to each zip tape, then sew the pocket linings together. I find a rounded pocket is less likely to get fluff stuck in the corners.

Sew each large rectangle into a tube, short sides together. Sew each tube to its matching circle, so you have two bucket shapes, one of fleece and one of outer fabric.
Next take the 14 cm x 48 cm fleece rectangle, fold it in half and mark on the halfway line about 4 cm from each short cut edge. This is where you will place your eyelets - follow the eyelet instructions. Sew the short edges together and then thread the lacing through the eyelets so it lies approximately along the halfway line.

Attach some cotton tape over the seamline so you have something to attach to a tape round your waist, or to a caribiner. Only attach it at the top and bottom, the stitching down the long sides is "decorative" as I used contracting thread (sorry for the blurry picture)

Next, put your fleece bucket shape into your outer fabric bucket shape, wrong sides together. Then you take the piece with the eyelets and the lacing and fold it in half so you have the lacing emerging from the eyelets on the outside, but most of the lacing is folded inside. Pin this to the rim of the two bucket shaped pieces and sew.

Next you can attach some stiffening to the rim of your bag. I used millinery wire, but you could use zip ties, or not bother if you aren't bothered about the bag holding itself open. I used the zig zag stitch on my machine to secure it, but hand sewing might be easier to control.

The last step is to encase the rough edges and stiffening in bias tape. Again, I used the machine but this might be easier by hand. I used contrast thread, but matching will look neater.. And here is the finished object:

I hope you find this useful. If you make your own bag I'd love to see it - e-mail me at beautyinthelonely@gmail.com
Happy climbing, and do be careful (especially on the bouldering wall!)

Tutorial - altering a pattern - Gathers

2012-06-28T16:54:00.000+01:00

Hi! I'm gradually getting movement back after my ankle break. I still haven't willed myself to write up my chalk bag tutorial, but I have started on what will hopefully be my outfit for my sister's wedding in August.
My statring point is this picture of my Grandad and Grandma getting married. This was June 1946, a year after the end of WW2. Rationing was still very much in place in the UK. Looking at the picture, I am certain that Grandma made this outfit from a large man's suit. If you look at the little bubble at centre front I think that is were she turned a man's notched collar into something like a ladies' shawl collar. And I am sure the pleats down the skirt used to be pleats down trousers! Grandad was still in the airforce so he got to wear his uniform.

My mum bought me some 50s vintage buttons for Christmas so I decided that rather than make something literal and 40s, I would take the gathering detail from Grandma's outfit and put it on something more 50s. I had enrolled onto the Sew Retro Starlet Jacket tutorial, where the brilliant Gretchen Hirsch takes you through the tailoring of a lovely 50s jacket. The jacket in the course is exactly the shape I want, so all I had to do was to add the gathering details.
The first step is to trace the pattern piece you want to adapt. There are a few reasons for doing this. I want to make the jacket without gathers one day, also the original pattern piece is very useful for comparing the gathered peice to (and I might use it to make an interlining to control the gathers. Also you might be as daft as me and start doing this on the side back, not front!!! Mark all notches and grainlines. I also marked where the waist is.

The next decision is where to put the gathered section. This is a design decision and there's no science to it. I didn't want to interfere with the princess seam (and I didn't want the gathers over the bust anyway) and I didn't want them to extend down to the hips. I drew in the grainline and then drew parallel lines perpendicular to the grainline at 2cm intervals.

I made some notes of the distances between points so I would know if I had the right amount of gathering on the finished piece.

Then I cut up the pattern along the horizontal lines

I drew a grainline and more horizontal lines 2 cm apart on a bit of parcel paper. I drew the lines 2cm apart as 1:1 seemed like the right amount of gather. If you wanted more gather you would alternate between a 2cm gap (where the cut bit of pattern goes) and a bigger gap. For less gathering alternate between 2 cm and a smaller gap. Arrange the cut pieces being very careful to match grainlines.

I marked the edges of the pattern at each 2cm line. They won't make a smooth line yet.

I smoothed out the lines with a pencil and a French curve, then cut out the pattern so I could make a toile and make sure the gathers are how I want them.
As I've not made this pattern before I made a full toile to check the fit, but if you are doing this to a pattern you've made thousands of times before then you could just make one front to check.

I'm pretty happy with the gathers, and very happy with the fit. I might control the gathers a bit more when I make it out of the fashion fabric, but I think the overall effect is pretty flattering.

Dressmakers of Etsy blog

2012-06-22T23:12:00.002+01:00

The Dressmakers of Etsy team have featured my shop on their blog. Do check them out at http://www.dressmakersofetsy.blogspot.co.uk/ There's a load of very talented dressmakers in the team so it's well worth following the blog!

New items in the shop - organic cotton and natural dyeing

2012-06-20T18:49:00.000+01:00

Bustle skirt Shirred tunic

AllCraft Media in Liquidation

2012-05-30T18:23:00.000+01:00

UPDATE!! Modern Quilting, Sew Hip, Simply Beautiful, Handmade Fashion, Handmade weddings have been bought by something called Craft Magazine shop. Ominously this domain name was registered by All Craft Media (oddly enough after the date of administration). It looks like Kerrie may still be involved, although nothing has been confirmed publicly yet.

This might be a bit of a rambling post, and I'm sorry for insisting on using the exclamation mark every time I type "Sew Hip!" but it's important to me ;-)
There is a brief guide to the history of Allcraft Media and her predecessors at http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/friends-of-the-group-once-known-as/2116987/1-25#19

AllCraft Media, the publishers of Sew Hip! magazine, went into administration early in May (some time while I was in hospital full of painkillers!).They also published Knit Magazine (Formerly Yarn Forward, to be re-named Yarnwise from Issue 50) Sew Hip Handmade Living Inside Crochet Simply Beautiful Modern Quilting Handmade Fashion (to have been published from April 2012)

I've had two dresses featured in Sew Hip! magazine, the blue shift dress with yo-yos which was featured about this time last year, and more recently the colourblocked dress which featured in their design competition.

The blue shift dress was actually commissioned by KAL media, the previous publishers of Sew Hip!. Those of you who follow craft gossip (especially knitting gossip) will know that KAL Media was run by Kerrie Allman. Ms Allman already had a bit of a bad reputation by this point, previously she had run a company called Hipknits which had long running problems with yarn not being delivered and when it was it was not of the quality people expect. In fact a friend warned me off having dealings with KAL Media because Kerrie was involved. I made a decision to submit a design anyway. The amount of money they were willing to pay me was not a lot for the work involved, but it seemed like a good platform to try drafting a multisized pattern for public use (rather than the scribbled ones I make for my own use).
Anyway, I think it was my 2011 that the dress was featured. The contract stated that I would be paid the month after publication. This month came and went and I hadn't been paid. Eventually I sent a reminder e-mail, and when I had no response I sent an e-mail telling them to pay me or I would sue them. That might seem a bit extreme, but that is what you have to do if someone won't pay up. If you are in business for yourself you need to know what to do to enforce a contract and be willing to do it. After the second e-mail someone called me to tell me that KAL had gone into liquidation and Sew Hip! was being run by "an entirely different company". In fairness, this entirely different company, AllCraft Media, did pay me what KAL owed me. They didn't have to. When a limited company dies, anyone owed money has to contact the administrator and join a list of creditors who will be paid from whatever is leftover once the taxman and the employees have been paid. What the person didn't tell me is that AllCraft Media were owned by Kerrie's husband. KAL were in more debt than they could pay (about £200,000), so they voluntarily wound up. Allcraft Media bought the goodwill of the titles for about £3,000. How is this legal, I hear you cry? Well it is. It's fairly common and it's known as a phoenix company.
I didn't lose any money from the end of KAL, although the sample shift dress I made was never returned to me. Lots of people did. If you are owed money by KAL then contact the liquidators at Harrison.Smith@carterclark.co.uk (Tel: 0208 524 1447).

Allcraft Media were formed before KAL liquidated. As mentioned above, they bought up the goodwill and the titles of the magazines and carried on as normal. I entered the design competition on a bit of a whim in November 2012. I can be honest now, I spent a few hours on the initial design, tops. The top prizes were rather nice sewing machines so I took another calculated risk. Getting through to the finals meant I had to actually make the dress, which was a fair amount of work. In the end I was a runner up. I got to see my dress on the catwalk (which was ace) and got free tickets to the Sewing for Pleasure Show for me and my mum. My prize was a box of thread and the intention was for the finalists of the design competition to draft their designs into multisized patterns for a special supplement further down the line. I made sure I got my dress back as soon as the model disrobed!
I was told that my prize - the box of thread - would be sent direct to me. It wasn't. I have started work on the multisized pattern but breaking my ankle interrupted that anyway. If the magazine does find a buyer (it hasn't yet although some of Inside Crochet, Yarnwise and Handmade Living will be published by Tailor Made Publishing - a previously uninvolved company who have said they will renegotiate with designers who had submitted previously unpublished designs) then maybe the supplement will still happen. If not then I might offer the pattern (and the blue shift dress) for sale, so I haven't lost out there.

So from the sorry episode, I have lost a dress and some thread. Others have lost a lot more. The employees have lost there jobs. And there are designers who had several submissions who were not paid at all. Worse still, it seems that some designers were sold by AllCraft Media to an American publication, Love of Crochet, without the permission of the designers, and without paying them. There are many samples lost. My dress was fairly cheap in materials and fairly quick to make. Not so some of the beautiful knitted and crocheted garments. As well as employees and designers, subscribers to the magazine, the sock club and the lace club have lost out.

Anybody who is owed money or goods, including advanced subscriptions for Magazines, sock, lace or crochet clubs should contact the administrator at
FRP Advisory
10 Furnival Street
London
EC4A 1YH

Tel: +44 (0)20 3005 4000
Fax: +44 (0)20 3005 4400
If you submitted designs to Inside Crochet it might be a good idea to have a look at http://www.loveofknitting.com/issues/Love_of_Crochet_Summer_2012 to see if anything has been republished without your knowledge.
If you sent a sample to any of the KAL/AllCraft Media titles and haven't had it returned, you should contact lesleyanneparkin@gmail.com - Lesley is a Ravelry member who has very kindly offered to reunite samples to makers as long as makers provide P+P.

Sorry for the infodump. I hope someone finds all this helpful!

Colourblocked blue day dress

2012-05-24T16:24:00.003+01:00

I'm trying out Shoplocker as a selling platform - it allows me to sell things from the facebook page or blog so I want to see how that works out. My ankle isn't recovered yet so I'm not going out of my way to court custom orders, I'll be testing the waters with sample sales!! These are mostly one-off items so don't delay! And do contact me if you do want a custom order - I hope to be back at the sewing machine in maybe a month!

SAMPLE SALE - riding corset

2012-05-24T16:10:00.001+01:00

Arrrgh!

2012-05-08T17:36:00.001+01:00

I fell badly off a bouldering wall last Monday and have broken my ankle. I'm back home now, but I'm very limited in what I can do unassisted for the next six weeks or so. I certainly won't be running the 10k in July, in fact the surgeon suggested that I should avoid anything high impact pretty much forever.
I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself, but I am on the mend and the pain is manageable, luckily my partner and son are around to fetch and carry for me.
I can't thank the Surrey Ambulance Service and the staff of Royal Surrey Hospital enough for their professionalism and kindness.
I'm going to spend the next month or so recuperating. I have the pics for the climbing bag - I'm pretty confident it wasn't cursed (I wasn't even wearing it when I fell) but beyond that I think it's going to be a time for ideas, rather than actual making.

Sports news!

2012-04-29T20:20:00.001+01:00

I am going to be running the British 10K in aid of Working Families, which is the charity where I work when I am not sewing! You can follow my training progress at http://69daysto10k.blogspot.co.uk/ and donate at http://www.justgiving.com/Catherine-Rogan
In other sporting news I have made my own chalk bag for climbing. I'm not 100% happy with it but I will write it up as a tutorial so you can make your own if you or a loved one is into climbing.
I'm going to put my feet up now and recover from my run!

Sharing the Liebster Love

2012-04-25T22:59:00.001+01:00

Rachel-Lou of Made With Whimsy very kindly awarded me a Liebster Blog award. This is sort of like a blog equivalent of Herman the German Friendship cake. What you do is:
1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog
2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you
3. Copy and paste the blog award on your blog
4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed (see below)
5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog
Thank you Rachel-lou!!! Here are my five blogs, in no particular order:
http://thejoyfulquilter.blogspot.co.uk/
http://sewquine.blogspot.co.uk/
http://chezroo.blogspot.co.uk/
http://elliestreasures.blogspot.co.uk/
http://blah-blah-blog-and-so-on.blogspot.co.uk/
They are all sewing blogs, and I'm pretty sure all the bloggers are on Ravelry somewhere!! The Joyful Quilter has a lot of lovely and inspirational quilts, Sew Quine has some greta patchwork and cushions, Chez Roo (who I think is who gave the award to Rachel-Lou) makes very stylish items and has very cute kids! Ellie's Treasures makes lovely little brooches and ornaments and Blah-Blah-blog has lots of practical information about quilting. Do check them out, and enjoy!

It's a small, small world!

2012-04-18T14:05:00.002+01:00

The blog Angel in the North has featured Fabrication's bridal shoot which featured some of my headdresses. This is good news anyway, but i found out about it by my best friend e-mailing to say "do you know you are on Alex and Anna's blog?" To which I replied "I didn't know they had a blog"! Alex and Anna were at school with my best friend, and were at sixth form with me (actually Alex was also at junior school with me). I commented on the blog to thank them and it turns out they had no idea that I was the person behind Beauty in the Lonely! It's a small world indeed. If you are interested in fashion, it's worth following their blog as they selflessly buy clothes, look at clothes and think about clothes for your reading pleasure. There is also lots of wedding-y stuff on there as they also sell handmade table plans for wedding receptions. On a further nostalgia note, I'm off out to see an old uni mate, Jodie May, sing tonight! I feel young again!!!!

All change at the Etsy Shop

2012-04-11T18:01:00.001+01:00

If you go into my etsy shop, you will see a couple of changes. One, I'm afraid, is price rises. I made a custom corset and realised I wasn't making anything like minimum wage. And I don't want to be that person who undercuts everyone else because sewing is fun! A well made custom garment is something to be valued, and I think that people who make those garments should value their time, including me. The other, more exciting news is a whole bunch of custom listings. Just saying "I do custom stuff, convo me" doesn't really work, so I've put some of my finished garments in sale as samples, then added custom listings so there are obvious options. I will still create whatever is in your head, but if you are not sure hopefully the custom listings will give some inspiration. Coming soon-ish will be some more custom options involving organic cotton and natural dyeing - I'll let you know when I have pics!

A custom corset

2012-04-03T20:18:00.001+01:00

I was commissioned to make the Victorian riding corset in leather. It was considerably more work than I expected, but it was a lot of fun learning to work with leather. It's getting shipped tomorrow before the Bank Holiday weekend, so here are a few pictures!

Jelly Roll Race quilt

2012-03-27T20:55:00.000+01:00

Today I finished my jelly roll race quilt. The top is really quick and easy to make, if you google "jelly roll race quilt" there are lots of tutorials for it. The top took about two and a half hours, but came out much bigger than I was expecting (a friend told me it would be "lap sized" and I didn't double check this info!), and I'm not an experienced quilter!!
A few quick lessons from Craftsy later (Here is a link to the course) and I was ready to have a go. It is by no means perfect, there are quite a few tucks on the back and my quilting "design" was just scribbling really, but I did have fun making it and will definitely make a quilt again.
The backing is some calico that I tie dyed with Procion dyes. It is self-bound because I am lazy!
Here is the front

and here is the back (you can see a stray thread I had to snip)

Sewing for Pleasure catwalk show

2012-03-24T21:06:00.000+00:00

I went to the NEC in Birmingham today for the Sewing for Pleasure show, where my dress featured on the catwalk. I had already been told I was a runner up and had won a large amount of sewing thread, while obviously I wanted to win, the winner and all the top three were beautiful and very worthy winners.
It was exciting to see the dress on the catwalk - I had a very good model, and I think her hair really made the blues pop.
Here is my best picture from the day

My mum has a better camera than me and took a lot of pictures so I will put more up when she e-mails them to me.
EDIT - here is one of my mum's from her iPhone

You can see the whole album on my facebook page - and you can "like" me on there if you like!!!

Baby cardigan

2012-03-09T17:16:00.001+00:00

The pattern is Phazelia's mitered baby jacket, as you can see I used a frog fastening rather than knitting a ribbon, because I love frog fastenings!! The yarn is Lang Yarns Jawoll Magic. It is for a little girl who is one week old today - I started knitting when I got the txt that the mum had gone into labour. She is the newest addition to the Welsh branch of the family, and we are visiting Wales this weekend so I had to get it done on time. It's a quick and fun pattern to make, and as I'm at that age where lots of friends are going to start hearing the patter of tiny feet I'm sure I'll be making it again.

Chanel Jacket tutorial 5 - hems and finishing

2012-03-07T09:00:00.000+00:00

This is the home stretch of making the jacket! While there's still quite a bit of work to do we're nearly there!
There aren't any new concepts to worry about, I'm assuming you are an expert in fellstitching now - this will serve you well!
The hem, the cuff, the neckline and centre front are all finished in the same way - really it is the same way as the seams were, but with a hem! Press the hem of the fashion fabric. You might need to notch curved hems like the neckline.

Pin and press the lining to the hem allowance

Fellstitch the lining to the hem allowance

Chanel jackets have all sorts of finished, some have bias tape, others have selvedge of the fashion fabric as a trim. I chose braid. I did think about making my own hairpin lace braid, but you need a good 4-5 metres (depending on the size of the jacket, pockets etc.) so in the end I went out and bought some, Choose something that will ease round corners so you don't have to mitre it. I pinned the braid to the centre front/neckline/hem and to each of the cuffs and... fellstiched it on (of course)

I didn't go for pockets - they add bulk and I always carry a handbag. If you do want pockets the normal type is a patch pocket lined then fellstitched on. If you like, the top of the pocket can be trimmed with braid.
The final touch is the chain weight. The purpose of this is to counterbalance the heavy buttons and to make the jacket hang well. You need to choose a chain heavy enough for your fabric - I endee up getting one from the hardware store! I used upholstery thread to firmly attach each link to the top and the bottom.

And there we have it! It was hours of work, but the result is a jacket that is pretty versatile and comfortable. I hope you enjoyed reading this series of posts, and even if you don't jump in to making a jacket yourself that you have picked up some techniques that you might find useful.

My dress at Sewing for Pleasure show

2012-03-06T15:58:00.000+00:00

You might remember this post when I sent my dress off to Sew Hip's fashion designer of the year competition. Yesterday I got a letter from Sew Hip telling me it will be in the catwalk show at the Sewing for Pleasure show at the NEC in Birmingham 22nd-24th March (the show carries on onto the Sunday, but they are judging the dresses and announcing the winner after the 1pm show on Saturday). If you are going to the show please give my dress a little cheer! I am going to go on the Saturday - I am very excited to see my dress up on a catwalk, I am also looking forward to seeing the other entries, I have seen the sketches in the magazine and a few photos on twitter but it will be great to see everyone's hard work in real life!

Chanel Jacket tutorial 4 - buttonholes

2012-02-29T09:00:00.000+00:00

A good way to tell a real Chanel jacket from a knock off is to look at the buttonholes. Chanel jackets have embroidered buttonholes on the fashion fabric and bound buttonholes on the lining. This is very time consuming (and expensive) to do but creates a neat and durable buttonhole. Embroidered and bound buttonholes can be used on a variety of garments, so these techniques are well worth learning even if you never make a Chanel style jacket.
I have re-done an example buttonhole because it was very difficult to see the detail on the fabric I used for my jacket. I have used a fairly loosely woven wool. The first step is to mark your buttonholes - I have used chalk for convenience but I really recommend thread tracing them on your jacket. If you are confident of fit, it is a lot easier to do the buttonholes before attaching the centre fronts, but I like to do them on the almost finished garment so I can make sure I have a buttonhole right on the bustline (which helps prevent gaping)

Bound buttonholes are usually used on fashion fabric, so they are seen from the right side. They can be used on any garment where a lining or facing will hide the back of the buttonhole. On a Chanel jacket, it is the lining that has the bound buttonhole, and the wrong side of the buttonhole is hidden by the fashion fabric. You make a bound buttonhole with a patch of fabric. This can be straight grain or cut on the bias. Baste this to the right side (by which I mean the side that will be visible when the garment is finished)

Then carefully machine stitch approx 3mm (1/8") on each side of the marked buttonhole line. Do not add 3mm to the ends. It's best to start and finish somewhere in the middle of one of the long edges, where there will be less strain on the buttonhole.

Get your sharpest embroidery scissors and carefully cut along the marked buttonhole line - stopping about 5mm (1/4") from the ends. Then cut the to the corners of the rectangle you sewed

Push the patch through to the wrong side

Now the tricky part, you want to press your buttonhole so that the patch is wrapped around the "seam allowance" from the step where you sewed the rectangle. From the front it should look like two little lips that meet in the middle of the buttonhole

And from the back it should look like this

At each side there will be the triangle you cut at the end of the buttonhole, and the excess patch

Carefully machine sew the triangle to the patch

If you were using this buttonhole normally, you would stabstitch around the rectangle, and then slash the lining/facing behind it and carefully fellstitch the lining/facing to the buttonhole. But there's no need to do either of those things for the Chanel jacket.
Your next step is the embroidered buttonhole on the fashion fabric. This has fewer steps, but is, in my opinion, more fiddly. I have used contract thread so you can see what I've done, but using matching thread (and lining) are going to give a much better finished look. Embroidered buttonholes can be used on most fabrics and give a much neater and more durable finish than a machine buttonhole.
You start by machine stitching around the buttonhole line. Ideally this should be about 2 - 3mm from the line.

Carefully cut along the buttonhole line

This is the bit where the instruction is simple but the reality is difficult. Simply buttonhole stitch around the edges! Use a single thread of buttonhole silk - wax the thread with beeswax to prevent tangles and add strength (pull the thread through beeswax then press with a hot iron). You do not want to run out of thread halfway through. A handy guide is 1 yard of thread = 1 inch of buttonhole - it is worth using inches just for once to use this rule!

There's not much more instruction to give other than do it slowly and neatly. It really is worth practising a couple of times on scraps of your fabric. I find that when the stitch is pulled tight it helps to use my finger and thumb to just ease the purl/knot of the buttonhole stitch to sit on the top of the slash in the fabric.
When you get to the ends, you can make a few stitches across for strength

Go all the way around the buttonhole. As you can see,some threads still stick out. It is worth experimenting on scrap fabric to see how close to put the stitched

Baste the fashion fabric and lining wrong sides together then stabstitch along the rectangle of the bound buttonhole

You can see that the finished buttonhole would look considerably tidier if thread and lining matched fabric. If you want to have a contrast lining, consider making at least the patches of your bound buttonholes match the fashion fabric for a neater look.

Chanel Jacket tutorial - 3 Buttons

2012-02-22T09:00:00.000+00:00

The typical Chanel jacket has distinctive buttons. Although most people will never realise it, the buttonholes are even more distinvtive!
This week I'll show you how to trim metal buttons for that Chanel look - a technique you can use on any garment. Then next week I'll show you how to make the buttonholes. Chanel buttonholes are a combination of two buttonhole techniques - embroidered and bound. Each technique can be used individually on a variety of garments.

The typical Chanel button is an ornate metal button with a fabric covered ring around it. Much of the time the fabric covered ring will be black, but there's nothing to stop you using whatever fabric you like. Here's what you need to make your buttons

The ring is slightly bigger than the button so the button can pass through it. The button must have a shank. The small fabric circle is about the size of the interior of the ring, the larger one is about twice the size of the exterior of the ring. The fabric is some black linen. One problem I did have was that the linen was thick enough so the brass ring shone through the fabric. I fixed this by painting the rings with matt model paint (meant for a model spitfire!).
Step one is to sew a running stitch around the circumference of the large circle, as if you were making a yo-yo

Then, place the brass ring in the centre of the circle and gather the running stitches (again, as if you were making a yo-yo)

Stabstitch around the inside of the ring to define the ring part of the button

Whipstitch the small fabric circle to the rear of the button to cover the raw edges of the (now gathered) large circle.

You now have a linen button. Mine isn't very neat right now, but if the linen was tighter you could use it as a button as it is - lots of historical garments have buttons like this and it's great for matching fabric. However we are going to poke a hole in it with an awl. Do this by putting the covered ring over something soft like blu tack

Push the shank of the button through the hole you just made and secure with a few stitches. The button is complete!