Crazy Sew and Sew

2017 Q1 Finish-A-Long - Proposed Finishes

2017-01-11T20:36:00.000+00:00

Hello

It has been a while since I have been here but I have not stopped making things (check out my Instagram for what's been going on).

Over the last year I found I was feeling weighed down by all the projects I had to do but kept starting new ones (please tell me it's not just me who does this...). I wrote a list of all my projects and I want to finish half in each section before I start a new project. After writing I discovered another cross stitch lurking in a bag (a Tatty Teddy with blue flowers) so at the beginning of the year I had 19 WIPs on the go.

There were a couple of quick finishes in the Christmas ornaments....

....and the white baby cardie. But that leaves 17 projects still on the list.

I noticed that Charm About You is part of the team hosing the 2017 Finish-A-Long. So I have decided to take part. I have been a bit ambitious and want to get 8 (!) projects done this quarter.

First off I have a pair of socks in West Yorkshire Spinners Kingfisher yarn. Just need to turn the heel and finish off the foot of the second sock.

My baby girl sampler from Bothy Treads just needs the name, date, weight and time added to it and some embellishments and it is done.

Rocky coast cardigan - at the moment this needs a sleeve and a half knitted me the front band. However, it has been sitting in a bag since 2014 and I have a funny feeling I may need a bigger size now. Need to do some measuring before I decide if I want/need to frog it and if I have enough wool to knit it again.

Cross stitch advent calendar - this was from World of Cross Stitching Magazine last year and I have 9 days to finish before stitching up.

Christmas tree skirt - I really want to get this out of the way. I have had this extra fabric from my Christmas quilt lying about for ages and decided in December to start a tree skirt. Needless to say it didn't get finished before Christmas.

Typewriter cross stitch from issue 290 of Cross Stitcher Magazine. This has been on the go for a while (2015 I think) and quite far through so hopefully won't take too long. Although I think the problem with it was I was using two skeins of grey for the keyboard and they must have come from different dye lots so I may have some ripping out to do first....

Tatty Teddy kit - just needs the back stitch finished. I hate the back stitch on these, it's a complete pain. Which probably explains why it says that the rest of the stitching was finished in 2005.....

Lastly my RICO cushion kit I was given for Christmas. This stitches up quite quick but we will see how far I get....

Right that is a long list so I had better get off the computer and get started..... speak to you soon x

Simplicity Star Sewist Contest - Flamingo dress

2015-05-31T22:55:00.000+01:00

So way back in March I signed up for Simplicity's Star Sewist challenge. I decided to enter the dress making category and was kindly given a copy of the NewLook shift dress 6145 to get creative with.

I would like to say that I got really creative and made lots of fantastic alterations and adaptations to the dress....... Yeah well what can I say, life has been getting in the way of all things crafty over the last few months and I only got started yesterday. Oops!

Never the less, while it is unlikely to win any prizes (the standard and creativity out there is amazing, just check out #simplicitybloggerchallenge on twitter), I am really pleased with my finished dress.

I wanted something to get me in the mood for summer and this turquoise flamingo print cotton fabric, which I picked up from my local Remnant Kings, fitted the bill perfectly. It was lovely to sew with as well.

My only alteration I made to the pattern was to add in a set of in seam pockets - I do love a dress with pockets! (Note to self: don't shove your hands right in pockets when taking photos - it distorts the dress!!). I also used bias binding on the hem to keep as much of the length as possible.

In terms of sizing, the pattern has quite a bit of ease in it so I cut a 14 for the bust and graded to an 18 at the hips. Think I may go back and take it in slightly at the waist but for the moment I am really pleased with my flamingo dress.

Good luck to everyone who entered and thanks to Simplicity for hosting this challenge.

See you soon x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment!

A t-shirt and a lesson in patience!

2015-03-07T18:01:00.000+00:00

Ok so this post has been half written all week! A dose of the cold and the inability to look at a screen for longer than 5 minutes without my eyes streaming like crazy, meant I didn't want to look at a PC once I got home from work. Anyway.......

Last weekend we escaped the mess of the flat back to my parents house. I had bought the March issue of Sew Magazine through the week and decided that I wanted to make the t-shirt and kimono from the free New Look pattern 6217.

Keen to do some machine sewing at the weekend I toddled off to Remnant Kings during my Friday lunch wander for some fabric. I decided to just go for fabrics I liked rather than trying to get fabrics that matched as the likelihood of me wearing the two together is slim. They were only £2.99 per meter, 100% viscous and the tropical flower print can be found here .

I didn't get to the kimono due to an error with pattern placement when cutting (story for another day) but really pleased with how the t-shirt turned out. Excuse the lighting in the photos, it was getting late on Sunday and it was blooming freezing so I didn't want to venture far from the front door!!!

I was really keen to get back to sewing clothes and have something completed in one go. Unfortunately I ended up losing my patience with this top!

I had cut out a straight 16 as that corresponded best to my bust measurement and I figured that 4" ease would mean I would not have to grade the pattern. However, once I got the shoulder seams done I started to panic that I had made a mistake and that it would not fit round the tum!

This resulted in me getting frustrated and instead of trusting myself I rushed the seaming of the sides and one of the arm holes figuring 'what does it matter its going to be too tight anyway'. You don't notice it but I have a feeling it will unravel in the wash..... I tried tidying the seams after the fact but that just resulted in me putting a hole in one of the side seams (ahhhhh). Quickly sorted but highlights how frustrated I was.

When trying it on it also looked like it was going to be way too big at the neck line. It turned out ok when I put the button loop and button on but it is still wider than I normally wear.

My first ever hand made button loop - quite chuffed with that!

Overall I am actually really pleased with how it has turned out. Slightly disappointed in myself for getting frustrated and not finishing the seams properly, It is unlikely that it will hold up very well in the wash but we will see. It is a nice quick easy top and I can see myself making another one. Maybe take a bit more care and attention next time!

See you soon x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment!

A collapsed ceiling and some crochet

2015-03-01T20:16:00.000+00:00

We have had a bit of an odd February. At the beginning of the month we came home to find that our upstairs neighbours had flooded their bathroom which caused our bathroom ceiling to collapse! Not fun and a whole lot of mess.

This resulted in us being out of the flat for three weeks and living in a Premier Inn while they got round to clearing all the debris (insurance companies don't seem to move fast!).

To entertain myself I decided to try and learn crochet. It is something that I have never been able to master and I spent quite some time reading over online tutorials and youtube videos. Eventually I managed to figure it out using this really good tutorial from Bella Coco. It still took around two hours to make my first granny square mind you!

It also took me a while to get my tension right!

I had bought a couple of balls of Siddar Snuggly DK John Lewis on a whim and could not figure out what to do with them. I decided to just make a granny square, alternating the colours every two rounds and see what happened.

I ended up with a square which was around 18" square. I hummed and hawed about buying more to make it into a baby blanket but decided I could not be bothered and that a cushion would be a quicker make.

Another google and I had a couple of ideas as to how to make my big granny square into a cushion. I eventually settled on this tutorial by Bunny Mummy which meant I didn't have to crochet a back! (See told you I was being lazy!) I purchased some lovely snuggly white fleece and made a very simple envelope back. I then whip stitched the crochet square onto the cushion cover, inserted the pillow form and that was it!

Its something I could imagine cuddling into when not feeling great but I think it is destined to be a gift for my Gran. A granny square for my granny - quite apt really!

See you all soon x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment

A "woosh" quilt!

2015-01-30T19:35:00.000+00:00

I thought I would share another one of my Christmas makes which I am really pleased with.

I started this lone star quilt back in June 2013 (so not as bad as the dog cross stitch!) with the intention of it being a Christmas gift for my Aunt (other side of the family this time).

In the run up to the 2012 London Olympics I made my Aunt some bunting to hang in her garden. She was going to quite a lot of the games so it seemed only right that her garden was properly attired!

I decided that it would be nice to try and make a quilt for her with some of the remaining fabric and some other bits and pieces from my stash. Its always handy to have a blanket to throw over your legs when sitting in summer evenings when it starts to get a bit chilly!

I spotted this Scrappy Lone Star Quilt by Better off Thread and thought it would be perfect. Especially since i was working with scraps of fabric. I also liked how she had positioned it off center. The piecing and the cutting of the main star went really quickly and I finished that off in a day.

I then had to wait on the backing fabric for the quilt top arriving. Even though it was here quick the individual pieces sat in a drawer until I picked it back up in November 2014 and decided that it was definitely going to be done for Christmas 2014!

Now I'm not going to lie. I found piecing the triangles onto the background awful. For some reason I just could not figure out the correct way to get it all sewn together. This was not due to the tutorial but more just to me having a bit of a daft day! I did eventually get it all attached.

Needless to say there was much swearing when I was unpicking! Eventually it got to the point of squaring the star up and adding the rest of the background. Now I normally do all my trimming on the floor so I can step back and take a look at what I am doing (and there is load of room!). For some reason I didn't this time and we had a wee accident.......!

Thankfully it was very easy to solve and quickly mended!

My Aunt had recently purchased a 1970s VW campervan so I got this rather cool fabric for the back. Think it works well with the colours in the front and is a bit of fun (which quilts should be!). I decided to quilt it with variegated thread rather than picking a blue or red to blend in/stand out with the front/back and i was really pleased with the results (although don't actually have an up close shot....).

I decided to stitch in the ditch round the main seams of the pieced star (you can see that in the photo above) then mirror the outline of the piecing in the quilting. I think it looks like the star is going "woosh" across the quilt like one of those animations you get in powerpoint(!) and that is how it got its name.

I needed to get it all wrapped up for Christmas so here are a few photos I took of the finished article, sorry for the poor light taking decent photos in December in Scotland is tricky!! I was really pleased with how it turned out and more importantly so was my Aunt!

See you all soon x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment

Stalled works in progress!

2015-01-22T12:35:00.006+00:00

Sometimes you come across works in progress that are really just projects taking up space in a box, things which you had completely forgotten about and probably would not buy now.

Well that’s what happened with these two cross stitch kits which, according to the date I had written at the bottom of the paper pattern, I started in 1997!

I found them in a box at my folks along with a load of Country Companions kits, some Disney ones, some fish (no idea why I wanted to make these!) and a whole bunch of random wee kits. Yup I used to buy a LOT of Cross Stitch kits when I was wee.

These were supposed to be for a Christmas present for my Aunt with my mum working on one and me on the other. Neither of us got very far. All we had managed to do before they got shoved in the box was the Jack Russell's nose and a very small amount of the Westies chin!

Despite the 17 year gap from purchase to rediscovery (!) I thought my Aunt would still like them so decided to finish them up, as intended, for Christmas.

To be honest once I got started on them they really did not take long to complete. The Jack Russell was finished first.

Then the Westie, which was not as bad as feared - off white and grey does not make for exciting stitching!

I think they both turned out great. I also decided to try framing them myself as last time I got things framed I found it to be really expensive. So I got a couple of nice frames out of Debenhams, acid free mount board out of a local art shop, double sided acid free sticky dots and set to work.

Now I know you are supposed to lace the backs but I figure these are unlikely to be removed from their frames and I was being lazy! The glue dots worked really well and were so much easier to use than traditional double sided sticky tape.

Spot the sticky dots!

I was really pleased with the finished result and she absolutely loved them which is the main thing.

See you all soon x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment!

A (very) late New Year post!

2015-01-21T19:47:00.002+00:00

Happy New Year! Ok the year is not very new anymore but better late than never right?!

Like most people out there in blog land I have been doing quite a bit of reflection about 2014 and thinking about what 2015 may hold. Last year was absolutely fab and contained a number of big events (such as getting engaged and married in the same year) along with smaller things like participating in my first OWOP and making clothes that I actually wear outside of the house! Needless to say quite a lot of my original plans got put to one side. I also found that I began to get myself all stressed out about rather silly things, including the overwhelming feeling of having too many projects on the go/planned/on the wish list!

This year I am determined to not get myself in a tizz about having too much on (especially for those non essential projects on the to do list)! I know I am never going to get right to the bottom of the WIP list but (and here is the catch) I am going to make a concerted effort to rid my list of all those thing which I now feel a bit 'meh' about and not feel bad about it! I can't be the only one with projects on the list or started which were fashionable at the time but the moment has passed. Going to have a good old clear out of the stash and see what is there - may even share some photos!

I could also do with running down my craft/fabric supplies as well so unless it is a present or I need it to finish a project then I ain't buying till at least June!

In the mean time I have been doing a lot of fast finishes to start clearing the decks! Apologies if you are on Instagram as you will have already seen most of these.

More bunting for a work colleague.

A drawstring bag for my nephew to take on his holiday made using this tutorial. Its the same fabric as the drawstring bag (Michael Miller les monieurs en ville blue from the Bead and Button Company) as I bought extra - it was too cute not to!!

Napkins to go with our wedding china. I did wish we only had 6 place settings rather than 8 when I made these. I would also make them a bit bigger next time. I cut out squares of 45cm before hemming this time.

A I-pad mini cover for a friend using fabric I purchased from Remnant Kings on one of my lunchtime wanders.

A helicopter cross stitch - random gift for a friend who said they 'wanted a helicopter'... don't think this is what they had in mind though!

More lavender bags. I really wanted to finish the rest of the lavender as it was getting in the way so it had to be done. Some were gifted but most kept......!

Some more tissue holders. How cute is the princess one?!

I have also been progressing my wedding sampler (Love Blossoms by Bothy Threads which I purchased from Sew and So) and the Sew Crafty Sampler from issue 287 of Cross Stitcher Magazine. These have been good projects for doing while watching the TV and not wanting to create much mess (we have had a lot of guests round recently)!

You will notice from all the photos that there is a distinct lack of clothes being made at the moment. Like most people the last few months have been heavy on the eating/drinking and light on the exercise. This means I need to take some new measurements and not really feeling the love for that at the moment! Anyone else get that or is it just me? Hopefully that feeling will pass soon as I miss the challenge with making clothes.

Right that is enough from me for one day. I won't be away long this time as I have a few posts about some of my larger Christmas makes lined up.

See you all soon x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment!

Happy Holidays!

2014-12-24T16:04:00.001+00:00

It's Christmas Eve and I have a couple of finished projects to share before the festivities really start.

Doesn’t seem that long ago that I was hanging up the Advent Calendar and now the last sweet is about to be munched! This was actually a present I started making for the OH while we were busy with wedding prep.

I don’t get the chance to make things for my OH much. The only other things I have made him in the last three years are a Christmas Stocking and cover for a Kindle. That’s it. He is fine with that and is not spending the days claiming that I am neglecting him – although he would prefer if I made more cakes and less dressmaking/cross stitch!

It was relatively easy to put together, albeit a bit fiddly at times.

I could not decide how to quilt it for ages and settled on stitching round three sides of the pockets again so as to not interfear with the design. This worked fine until I realised that I now had 48 knots to bury in the quilt! Not such a bright idea after all- thats a lot of knots!

Quilting the top and adding the bias binding round the sides ended up taking a whole Saturday. Had a good few goes at adding the binding as I was trying to get rid of the green border on the original panel. No idea why it took so long to get right and I ended up just cutting the green border off.

The OH was really pleased with the result in the end though which is the main thing.

I also just managed to get my Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery Christmas Celebration Sampler finished in time for Christmas. Love how cute these patterns are and it will be good to get it framed and displayed ready for next Christmas.

That's all the crafting done for Christmas now too which is a relief. We are spending the day with family tomorrow so a nice relaxing evening with a bottle of bubbly before Santa arrives is in order! Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.

More curtains

2014-12-22T11:40:00.000+00:00

Before I start the Christmas crafting posts I just wanted to write a wee post about another pair of curtains that I made.

A couple of months ago I made a pair of bathroom curtains for my Gran which also featured in my very first blog post. Well once I had made them my other Gran started to hint that she needed a new pair of kitchen curtains! I should know by now that I can't make for one without the other but somehow I always forget.

I thought it would be a good idea to write down what I did to make the curtains. Now I am not really qualified to tell other people how to make curtains, and there are lots of tutorials out there, so this is really more of a note for my own future reference!

I started by measuring the curtains she already had up to get my finished measurements and then added 12cm to the length and made sure I had 8cm on the width for the hems. I started by checking that I had a straight edge for cutting the first curtain then lined up the pattern to ensure that I managed to match the pattern across the two curtains.

I then created a 2cm double fold hem for each of the sides.

I then stitched the sides down using the straight stitch on my machine. Actually I was very lazy and just used a strait stitch to do all my seams - no blind hemming for me! I know I was cutting corners here but to be honest the stitches vanish into the fabric and I think it looks fine.

I then folded the top down by 2cm and created a 5cm double hem at the bottom. I then struggled for ages as to how to miter the corners properly at the bottom, before settling for a mock mitered corner as per this tutorial! I think it looks ok.

The last set of curtains I made both my mum and Gran mentioned that when they have had curtains made for them before there was a small pocket for the extra hemming cord to sit when they are hung. So I pulled out a small strip of off white fabric from my stash and created this little pocket to include under the heading tape. I did this by eye and didn't take any measurements but its about 3" long and 2" wide.

I then added the header tape. I cut it to the correct width and ziz zag stitched down the two cut ends to stop it unraveling, making sure I didn't catch the cords, before attaching to the fabric. This went nice and quick, until I realised that I had sewn a pin in-between the tape and curtain fabric. Can you see the pink pin head? Oops!

Pinning the tape on the second curtain.

The only bit of hand sewing I did was to stitch down the mitered corners.

They then got folded up for a week until I went to visit my Gran.

In pride of place (sorry for rubbish photo - it was getting dark so the light is a bit off!)

See you all soon x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment!

Time flies

2014-12-21T17:28:00.000+00:00

Wow can’t believe how quick the last few months have gone and that it was September when I was last on here.

Life has certainly been busy in the meantime. We got married…

….went on honeymoon….

…got ready for Christmas….

…. and to be honest just life in general has just been a bit crazy. I have also managed to break the camera (both the camera and I got soaked by a wave on honeymoon – it didn’t survive!) and laptop (currently in the computer hospital) which has not helped.

I have, however, been managing to do some crafty stuff. Those of you who follow me on instagram will probably be bored of seeing the updates on the Christmas Celebration Sampler by Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. Fab wee pattern and I do love being involved in a stitch along but the border is taking an age and has had to be put on hold while the Christmas sewing takes place.

Stitching Christmas ornaments when I was supposed to be gift sewing (another Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery project – Cozy Gingerbread Snow Globe)

Despite promising not to do many crafty projects for Christmas I seem to have been very busy making gifts! I have a couple of posts lined up for after Christmas so I won’t share them just now. However, I have been making loads of lavender bags and tissue holders as gifts – an idea which I have stolen from Mrs King Sews!

I have also made some more bean bag chairs as a favour for a colleague at work (they looked a lot better in real life - and were very comfy).

While I have been doing a lot of crafting, I have not touched the dressmaking in months. The closest I have got was buying £45 dress for £8 out of Oasis as the seam had come away at the zip.

I know this seems very small but it is not something I would have even considered doing before. A little bit of interfacing to reinforce the seam where a wee hole had occurred and away I went.

It was a bit fiddly, and the OH was a bit amused that the night before we go on honeymoon I decide to fix a dress, but I think it was worth it (photo doesn't do it justice!).

That’s enough from me for one day I think!

Will be back soon x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment!

The week that was OWOP 2014

2014-09-13T22:48:00.000+01:00

Well that is it over, One Week One Pattern (OWOP) is done for 2014. This is the first one of these types of events I have participated in and I am so pleased I managed it. A big thanks must go to Handmade Jane for organising it as well.

For OWOP I decided to wear the Delphine skirt from Love at First Stitch by Tilly from Tilly and the Buttons.

Day 1 - OWOP did not start off too great as I was unexpectedly in the wrong city to my skirt! However, as soon as I got back to Glasgow it was off with the jeans and on with my botanical Ikea print Delphine with black top and cardie which I wore to go out for a meal with my OH.

Day 2 - Sunday morning was supposed to be a morning for making a second Delphine. However it didn't quite work out like that and it was back on with the Botanical Ikea print Delphine with white top and pink cardie to go shopping with my mum. (Please excuse the headless shot - the OH took it quickly when we were rushing out the door as we were late - and I was also insisting he got the new pink shoes in!)

Now at this point I still only had one skirt and was thinking that OWOP was not going to happen for me this year. I had managed to start my denim version of Delphine but decided to add in some pockets, which I had never done before so this had slowed down the process. However, as we ended up being out most of the day, by 11pm I still had a bit to go and was very frustrated after seam ripping the waist band off the skirt twice and remaking both waist sections from scratch. I was ready to give up and not bother, even though by this point I only had the waistband to sew down and to hem it. However, after some encouragement from people on Instagram and Twitter I got up early on Monday morning and finished it off.

Looking back I think the problem was I was tired and as there was no pattern I think I had been putting it on upside down!

Day 3 - I made it and wore the newly completed denim Delphine to work. It was a slightly odd top combo but I was running late by this point and just needed to get out the door!

I do love the pockets that I added in to this skirt. However, the fabric doesn't hold a crease very well as it has a wee bit of a stretch so I think the pockets sit a bit funny and could have done with being top stitched. No idea how to do that now without sewing them shut so if anyone has any suggestions please let me know!

Day 4 - Denim Delphine with orange top. I love how versatile this skirt is and I can see myself wearing it lots.

Day 5 - It was off to a work away day in my botanical Delphine with white lottie blouse and blue cardie. This was my best 'me made' day of the week and one of my favorite outfits which I know you have seen before. When I first made this Delphine I was really not sure of the pattern but it has really grown on me over the week and this week has helped me get over the fact that the pattern is a bit more bold than I am used to.

Day 6 - Wednesday night was spent making my red Delphine and I finished the hem on Thursday morning before going to work (recurring theme here!). For this one I decided to add in some belt loops. I do love the colour of the fabric, again from Ikea, but it creases like crazy. I am also not sure what I did during construction but it is also the tightest of the three. Never mind I still really like it and it got a lot of nice comments at work.

Day 7 - For the last day of OWOP I was torn between wearing the denim version again and my red one. The red one won in the end, figured given all the fuss I had making three this week that I should at least wear it twice! This time i teamed with with a white top, grey cardie and my hot air balloon scarf - which matched the red perfectly!

And that was my OWOP - featuring the three Delphines!

Reflecting back, starting OWOP with only one skirt was not the smartest move and I did get my self into a bit of a tizz trying to get the other two complete. However, the support out there on Instagram and Twitter was amazing - thank you ladies for all the encouragement. It was nice to feel part of the wider sewing community and I loved seeing all your makes. It has also added a few more patterns to my ever growing sewing to do list!

From reading other blogs I was slightly worried about my choice of a skirt for OWOP and while I didn't find it difficult wearing a skirt all week I did have a wee bit of trouble finding tops to go with it. I normally wear dresses to work and jeans at home so a lot of my tops just did not sit right with the Delphine skirt. I did however, like the change and it has encouraged me to make some more tops so that can only be a positive!

Would I do it again? Absolutely - roll on OWOP 2015!!

See you all soon x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment!

That doesn't look like a skirt.....

2014-09-04T14:00:00.000+01:00

In my last post I mentioned that I only have one skirt made for OWOP which starts on Saturday and that I was going to get sewing. Well I have had a week (and a bit) off work on holiday and I have made good progress ..... on knitting a cardie! Yup I still only have one skirt for OWOP...............Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

*disclamer: rambling excuses follow*

In my defence we have been out and about quite a bit, visiting relatives and organising things for our wedding and as the knitting was far more portable (and sociable) it won! However, I'm trying to figure out how to fit in making another two skirts in the next couple of days, since I am not in tonight and we have things planned for the weekend ....... suggestions welcome!!!!! Now I can get away on Saturday with my first Delphine skirt but let's face it work (and anyone with a sense of smell) are going to think I'm a bit odd if I wear the same skirt for 7 days in a row!

Now I could just give up, but I don't like doing that. I am hoping that a trip to the fabric store to get some more fabric for Delphine number 3 (yes somehow I only have enough fabric for one in my stash!) will give me inspiration. Also I could just set the alarm early on Saturday/Sunday and get cracking before we need to go visit people/have visitors

*end of ramble*

Anyway, what I have been knitting instead was the Rocky Coast Cardigan by Hannah Fettig from the Costal Knits book. I fell in love with this cardie way back in 2011 when the book was published and promptly purchased it. Since then it has just sat in my bookcase gathering dust! Figured it was about time that changed.

Now i have not done much knitting in the last couple of years, mostly because I started sewing, but this is knitting together really quick. I only started it last Wednesday and I am almost finished the back - very speedy progress by my standards!

I will talk a bit more about construction etc when it is complete but thought you may like to see progress so far.

Back soon x

P.S. I like to chat so feel free to leave a comment!

Delphine and Lottie take a trip to the seaside

2014-08-27T20:51:00.000+01:00

Its been a busy couple of weeks but in between a trip to the theater, catching up with friends and being bridesmaid at a wedding I managed to make a skirt! I used the Delphine pattern from Love at First Stitch, and some Blavinge fabric from Ikea.

We went to Maidens in Ayrshire today as it was a lovely and sunny and I thought it was perfect opportunity to wear my new skirt and actually take some photos. Not bad since its has been over a week since I made the skirt! I was not too sure about the fabric at first but when paired with my Lottie blouse I think it looks quite good.

I thought it fitted really well - and was perfect for paddling!

Even quite far out!

Anyway, back to the skirt! I cut a straight size 6 from the pattern - using my normal method of baking parchment and random objects from the living room to help trace it out!

The skirt panels went together really quickly and then it was onto the concealed zip. Now when I purchased my new machine a couple of months ago I decided to also invest in an invisible zipper foot. This project was ideal to give it a test run.

Here we go.......

It was really easy to use and I was very happy with how the skirt came together. I was even more pleased when I zipped it up and realised that I had managed to match the waistband seam first go!

I did, however, end up with a bit of a bump at the top of the zip once I had sewn in the waistband lining. I don't think I had trimmed the seam allowance back enough - hopefully I will manage to sort that for my next Delphine skirt.

I wanted to make this version of Delphine to see if the style suited me before I made some for OWOP. Given that it is only a couple of weeks away I had better get sewing and stop paddling in the sea!

Fly me to the moon!

2014-08-16T14:58:00.002+01:00

I have been making lots of baby bunting for friends and family lately (I am at that age where babies are appearing all over the shop!) and realised that I had not made any for the OH's nephew. Now I met the OH around the time his nephew was born, and before I had started sewing, so I think that is a valid excuse. I figured that it was about time I rectified this but that a two and a half year old energetic wee boy would not really want a string of bunting.

Now I had been mulling over what to make for a while and then I came across this fab tutorial for a beanbag chair by Project Nursery - Perfect!

The hunt for nice boy upholstery fabric took a while but when I stumbled across this amazing space rocket fabric from Frumble Fabrics I knew it would be perfect. It is a Japanese fabric and slightly heavier than ordinary quilting cotton so would be able to withstand a battering! I teamed it with some blue upholstery fabric that I had found in the John Lewis remnants bin.

I didn't make any changes except to cut the fabric 43" wide rather than 45" due to the width of my fabric. I also used more beanbag stuffing than suggested as well.

How cute is this selvage with the wee rockets? Not one for keeping my selvages but I think this may be an exception to that rule!

The sewing went quite quickly as the instructions were really easy to follow. It went so quick that I didn't even think to take photos. All I have is this, rather blurry, photo of the curve I had cut for the front of the bag.

Now the tutorial says this is a 30 minute make. Well it took me a bit longer as I managed to sew my zip on the wrong way and with a small stitch and a 22" zip a lot of swearing ensued!!! Even with this mistake I don't think it took over an hour. Not bad for a first attempt.

Now I was a bit too impatient to wait until my OH came home to fill it up. This was my ingenious (!) solution. That's what you are supposed to use airers for right?!

Going up!

Needless to say quite a few of the beads escaped but overall I was pretty happy with my contraption. That was until I realised that the beanbag liner I had purchased to keep all the beads inside would not mold to the shape of the bag! Not wanting to add to the 'snow' all over the kitchen floor, I just took my scissors and cut a hole in the bottom of the liner!

I zipped it all up and sewed a few stitches just under the zipper to stop my nephew from unzipping the seat and getting the filling all over the house it was done! Looks good I think.

Perfect for a spot of light reading

Best of all though my nephew loved it :) Job done!!

A first attempt at English Paper Piecing

2014-08-15T12:48:00.002+01:00

Gosh I can't believe that it was nearly a month since I wrote my last blog post. It is amazing how time zooms past sometimes!

I mentioned in my last post that we were about to have visitors. What I didn't mention was that the visitor was my Dad and that he was here to do up my bathroom. Needless to say the house was upside down and normality was well and truly disrupted. While I didn't have much time (or space) for doing any crafty things I had just received the first edition of Quilt Now Magazine and completely fell in love with the that Apple Sorbet quilt by Fiona Calvert from Poppy Makes.

However, I have never done any EPP before and thought it may be a bit ambitious for a first go. Fortunately the mag also had a quick tutorial on EPP at the back using Hexagons which I thought may be a better first project. Especially since my blog browsing over the last few years seems indicate that this is a go to craft for travelling. Perfect!

Thankfully this idea came to me the night before my Dad arrived so I was able to pop out to my local fabric store on my lunchbreak and pick up this Bartholo-meow's Reef mini charm pack by Moda. I had seen these pre-cuts a while back and thought they were very cute so this project was the perfect excuse to buy them!

It was then home to print my 1" hexagons and get basting!

It didn't take long before I had a pile of based hexagons.

I tried a few layouts before I settled on this one.

Then it was onto joining those hexis together, and my low tech method of keeping track what seams I was supposed to be sewing!

Which did not always go to plan - oops! Just as well the seam ripper was handy.

I also did my best to try and keep the stitches small and neat

I then realised that I didn't like the layout of the small red dotty hexagon in the top row so it was back out with the seam ripper to change the layout. This is what I ended up with and how the blocks were being joined together.

Finished!

Then it was onto removing the paper pieces. I used my seam ripper for this job as it helped the papers pop out of place.

I decided that I wanted to make this into a mini wall hanging and I found this fab tutorial by Cintia from My Poppet for a hexagon table runner which kept the nice zig zag shape at the edges.

I would recommend checking out her blog for exactly how to do it but here is how well I pinned my quilt sandwich before I started sewing round the edges. I don't normally pin that heavily but this project called for it!

I then cut a slit in the back pulled through the fabric and finished off the back with this small bit of ribbon

How cute is this! Not bad for my first EPP project and I would definitely do this again. Don't think I would manage to make a whole quilt using the 1" hexagons but I do think I would manage that Apple Sorbet quilt. :)

Strawberries and pins

2014-07-17T22:34:00.000+01:00

We have been really busy over the last week or so and it has meant that I have not had much time (or inclination) to do much crafty "stuff". I say "stuff" because I currently have some pillows, an iPhone case, a quilt top and a new skirt on my do now list. This is obviously quite a bit shorter that the to do list which covers things which I have most of the supplies for and a lot shorter than the want to make list...... (am I the only one who has multiple lists like this for their projects?).

Anyway I received the first issue of Quilt Now last weekend. It is really good and I love how fresh and modern it feels. I have been following the editor Katy's blog - I'm a Ginger Monkey - for a number of years and if you like the blog I'm sure you will love the magazine. I can't decide what to make first!

The magazine also came with materials to make up two strawberry pin cushions. Whenever I get a free gift with a magazine (or any gift for that matter) the first thing I do is open it up to have a wee nose. I was really impressed - you even got all the coordinating thread! However, as I started to devour the magazine the pack was left the pack on the coffee table....

However, we have visitors this week and I was doing the ironing the other night when I noticed the fabric and thought hmm could do with a wee press. Next thing I knew I was using the new gadget which I had been hemming the curtains with to draw my circle.....

.....cutting out the leaves.....

.....and sewing it together......

They came together really quickly, think it was just under an hour, which was good since I probably should not have started a new crafty project at 10.30pm on a work night! Just need to get the pins back out and start some more sewing now.

Good enough to eat?!

Getting to grips with blogging.....

2014-07-11T14:31:00.001+01:00

Starting to get the hang of this blogging malarkey. HMTL code and me are never going to be firm pals but I managed to add share buttons (which work!) last night mostly with the help of this tutorial by Blog Guidebook.com.

Oh and you can now also follow my blog with Bloglovin!

Signing up for OWOP!

2014-07-10T13:20:00.001+01:00

All excited! Just signed up for One Week One Pattern being run by Handmade Jane. You can sign up here if you fancy joining in too.

I have never participated in something like this before so I am really excited. Not sure what to make. Currently thinking the Delphine skirt from Love at First Stitch. Or maybe I should make some more variations of my Lottie blouse. Or maybe a dress......... far too many choices.

Thank goodness it is not until September so I have plenty of time to make up my mind.

Curtains

2014-07-10T09:20:00.001+01:00

Just realised that I never mentioned that the curtains were a success.

They fitted perfect, the bottom hem was not all wobbly and most importantly my Gran was really pleased.

I didn't actually take many photos - although my mum took this very bad one of me up the ladder hanging them up!

If I was making them again the only thing I would do differently would be to either create a pocket or not sew down one of the short sides of the curtain tape to hide the excess string. Quite happy for a first attempt though.

A lot of love for Lottie.......

2014-07-09T21:42:00.000+01:00

Hello again

As I mentioned in my previous post I have recently made the Lottie Blouse from Sew Simple Sews which came free with the second issue of Love Sewing Magazine. I decided that I wanted to make a version of the sleeveless blouse which i could wear over the summer. I usually go for crazy fabric which means when I finish a garment it just doesn't fit in with the rest of my wardrobe and I don't ever manage to wear it. This time I decided to play it safe and go with a white cotton lawn fabric with small dots from Favorite Fabrics on E-bay

I found the pattern really quite easy to follow and the only modification I made was to grade between the size 12 and 14 at the hips.

I have started tracing my patterns rather than just cutting away. I normally have to grade between the waist and hips so it gives me the reassurance that if I make a mistake I can always go back. I don't use anything fancy for the tracing paper just good old baking parchment from the kitchen!!

I decided to use french seams for this project as you can see through the fabric a wee bit. This all worked well and the top came together very quickly. That was until I tried to attach the collar...... big mistake. I just couldn't get it to work! Out came the seam ripper and then the top sat on the back of the chair for a couple of weeks until I managed to get the time to finish it off.

After getting the curtains finished I decided that I really should just get it done. It only took about an hour to finish and was ready for me to wear to work on Friday.

Here are a couple of photos of the finished article...... a late at night just finished photo....

...trying to be arty with the mirror at my Gran's house......

....outside in the sun.

If I made this project again (which is very likely) I think I would like to try it in a chiffon rather than a lawn to get a bit more drape. You could also have it as just a sleeveless top without the bow and put the bias binding all round the neck. I really liked the cut out section at the front so may have to make up a version like that.

Oh and just to prove I will show you when things go wrong. Looks like my stitching never quite caught on part of the bias round the neck. A wee fix required I think.

Quick project info

Fabric used: white cotton lawn with small white dots from favorite fabrics
Pattern: Lottie Blouse from Sew Simple Sews
Size:

Getting started

2014-07-02T23:49:00.002+01:00

So tonight I managed to finish two projects so I thought what next......well I have been thinking about starting a blog for a while and thought now is as good a time as any to get writing!

First off a little bit about me. Well my name is Susan and I live in Glasgow, Scotland and I am planning on writing about my adventures in sewing, knitting and cross stitch. I also intend to be honest and let you know what has worked along with what has gone wrong and what has been badly fudged!!

So what were the two projects I mentioned at the top of the post. Well the first is a pair of curtains for my Gran. Not my normal type of project but, having never made curtains before and being the good granddaughter that I am, this has been the project which has occupied my last few evenings.

The curtains are 2.2 meters long so hemming the sides was going to be a tedious process. Anyone who tells you that hemming 10 meters of fabric is fun is just plane old lying! It was however made easier with my new sewing gadget. That thing is awesome!

Getting the curtain tape on and trying desperately not to accidentally pull the strings.

As you can see the process took up the whole of my living room floor. I had to even get the big DIY tape measure out when creating the hem as none of my dressmaking ones were long enough.

All neatly folded and ready to go to its new home.

Hopefully I will get out to my Gran's to hang them at the weekend and that she likes them. I really like the fabric, its a light polycotton and I was sleekly hoping that there would be more left over!

My other project is far more exciting. It is the Lottie Blouse from Sew Simple Sews which came free with the second issue of Love Sewing Magazine. Still need to get a decent photo wearing it as the OH was out tonight (probably why I managed to get as much sewing done as I did) so I think that may have to wait for another day.