Sailing boat shopping bag

I just finished off this sailing boat themed shopping bag, which is a hostess gift for a lady who loves sailing boats. I hope she likes it.

It is based on an idea from the book "Freehand Machine Embroidery" by Poppy Treffry which was featured in the August Prima Magazine.
I adapted the design to suit my fabric and style, but I think it worked out OK.

I must admit I have not followed the instructions, instead making the bag from a piece of fabric 100cm by 50cm and applying the motif where I thought appropriate. I've also gone for a dark bag with a pale boat rather than the other way around due to the fabric I had.

I constructed my bag flat. I measured some existing purchased shopping bags and drew elements I liked from each checking the motif would fit OK. I then measured my fabric and worked out the 1m of 150cm wide would make 3 bags. I cut out the bag and overlocked all the edges first.
Then I cut the boat elements from scrap fabric and sewed on with ivory thread. Then I sewed the top hem, attached the handles whilst the bag was flat and gave it all a press.
Only after this did I sew up the side seams, and square off the bottom.
To give support in the bottom I cut a piece from a plastic food preparation mat I bought in the supermarket. It was a set of four in different colours, but the dark blue one seemed to work OK so I have not covered it in lining as planned, just put it loose in the bottom.

The boat motif would make a nice cushion design also, and if you don't like the raw edges you can always add a small seam allowance and tuck it under when sewing.

Abstract seascapes

I fancied some blue pictures in my living room, but am no artist, so decided to use three lots of leftover emulsion and a tester pot in a darker blue to create some abstract seascapes. Here are the finished pictures.
More Sea

 More Sky

 Wide Sky

All 3 in one room might be overkill! Maybe some will go to the next Craft Fayre.

Red ponte dress rescued

I made up this red ponte dress quite a while ago (apparently March 2012!) and it was too big. It sat in a pile for quite a long time until I took with me it a few weekends ago when I went to see Yorkshire Lass.

We've taken the centre back seam in from just below the waist right through to the top of the neck by an inch and three quarters each side - ie by 3 and a half inches. This does make the back narrower than the front, but it was the simplest way to get it to sort of fit.

The pattern is new look 6751. If I made this again maybe I would go down a size. It may be the ponte fabric or just the pattern, I am not sure since I've only made this dress the once. It can apparently be made from knits or wovens and should have a zip down the back which I have omitted.

Anyway it is now wearable rather than a wadder, and works well with an existing purchased jacket which is white with red and black print.

I am making a concerted effort to deal with the wadders by fixing them, donating them or recutting them into something else. This definitely helps the sewing room feel less cluttered which is good.

Red tee

At the end of June I posted a red knit dress which I had made as the first (and it was looking like only) item in my Summer 6PAC. Today I decided that the remnants could become a short sleeved tee, since I have had a lot of wear out of the pale blue one. I cut it out carefully leaving a reasonable piece on the fold for some future Mix-It tee!

So a basic, but in one of my favourite colours so should get lots of summer wear.

Goodies from Bonds

When I visited Yorkshire Lass a few weekends ago, we agreed NOT to go fabric shopping as we both have a lot of fabric (and I have way more than Yorkshire Lass), however we thought it would be entirely justifiable to go to Bond's in Farsley which is an old fashioned haberdashery shop.

top left to right
2 navy blue metal zips, these are for when I recover the armchair, I will use these for the new cushion covers.
a reel of blue webbing type trim, this will be bag handles
invisible zips, various lengths
and some ecru cotton canvas for making bags
bottom left to right
many metres of fine cord, for use on drawstring bags
red darning wool, to try to mend sweetheart's woollen sweater
buttons

Button themed Rug and Fabric

Apparently available from August (when the new catalogue comes out), though not yet on the website, I was hugely excited to see this button themed rug (I think called Tastrup) when I was in my local Ikea for something else.

I didn't buy it as it wasn't on my list, but I may have to purchase on a future occasion, because it is just fabulous for a sewing room. In the UK the rug is £35.00.
There is also matching fabric, though I didn't see that in store, and from the pictures it does not appeal as much as it does not have the same random arrangement of the buttons as the rug.

I may be back in Ikea in August!

Test garments - jacket muslin fitted

Yorkshire Lass and I had a very successful sewing weekend, and long overdue as it has been ages!
I wasn't quite sure what to mention first, but I think the muslin of the jacket was pretty good once we added some back darts (not on the pattern), let out all of the seams below the waist and gave me one shoulder pad one side and two the other, since I'm a bit wonky.
This is what it looked like afterwards

Looks pretty good for something quickly run up out of some upholstery fabric remnants doesn't it?
I can definitely go on and make up a jacket with this pattern now.

Below are some of the during fitting shots

I am basically the next size up from the waist down and just need to remember that as we found it was the case on knit tops too.
So this jacket has
- forward head alteration (wedge removed from the front)
- round back alteration (wedge added to the back, and removed from the neckline at centre back)
- sway back alteration (shaping in centre back seam plus two back darts)
- additional ease added for full tummy/bottom
- extra shoulder pad for uneven shoulders.

I have used New Look 6082, which has process seams at the front and a centre back seam.

I am washing bedding and throws etc whilst the weather is warm enough to dry outside, plus painting tatty furniture in the garage so not managed to implement any of this yet, but I was very happy how productive this session was.

Thank you Yorkshire Lass!

Test garments

I'm generally not a fan of making test garments becuase it seems like a waste, but sometimes even I have to admit that when I'm trying a new pattern, or need to fix an obvious fitting problem, its often the best approach.
Once I had finally figured out how to alter for my forward head/rounded upper back, my knit tops just fit so much better. So I've used two remnants of burgundy uphostery fabric to make up the jacket from
New look 6082 which I used to make the knit jacket for the SWAP. I've already made the forward head/rounded back alterations to the pattern, but want to tweak a bit for sway back plus check out how it works in a woven rather than a knit.

I may get YorkshireLass to take a picture as she's going to help me a bit with some fitting this weekend (woo hoo). Once we have the fit nailed, I will probably do a Ruthie and make about six of them (to match existing skirts/trousers) and then will have suits. Then I'll roll in into making up some boiled wool for the winter (soo warm and comfy).

Anyway I'm completely pooped from sewing up the test jacket, so need to pop off to bed now.

P.S. I tried on the red dress I made recently and the fit is spot on. Neat through the shoulders, neck and bust, slightly looser through the tummy but with the suggestion of a waist at sides and back and then the skirt flaring out and skimming over the peary lower parts. I already prewashed the fabric so hopefully won't get any shrinkage, and it works great with the RTW jacket I planned it to go with.

I wonder if I would get any wear out of a white below knee length short sleeved version of the dress for when I want to feel fresh at the weekend..... I have some fabric, but have trouble keeping white clean. It would looks cute with red/navy or turquoise/fresh green.

Bunting embellished tee

You may recall I made some geometric print red knit into PJ pants, they now have a top.

I found an old plain black RTW tee in the wardrobe and customised it with bunting flags cuts from the scraps left from the pants.
Each flag is 2.5" high and 1.5" wide. The 'rope' was created by stitching with the cover hem from the wrong side. I then spaced the 'flags' out along it and coverhemmed right side up, and then zigzagged on the top of that, so it is all nice and stretchy and should be comfortable to sleep in.
Here's the PJ pants the top goes with.

Wouldn't be able to buy these in the Mark and Spencer nightwear department!!!!
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These were a little challenge for my upcoming sewing weekend, so you might even get a  photo of me wearing them ;-)

Fabric Shopping

On Saturday I had a trip to the local discount fabric store and raided their remnant bin. I was pleased to find a few tubes of knit fabric, but as usual there, not quite what I went in for.

Top row
Top left - grey/burgundy/white striped tubular knit remnant - destined for winter PJs, prob as the top, with burgundy rib bottoms.
Top centre - salmon pink rib tubular remnant - either a turtleneck top or more winter PJs.
Top right - cream twill for bags with blue webbing for bag handles - neither quite the colour I was looking for but close. (off the roll, not a remnant).
Bottom row
Bottom left - 2 remnants of tubular sweater knit, black with cream, will have to see which side I like better. For a sweater.
Bottom centre - self stripe black knit, black is always handy.
Bottom right - grey and white stripe tubular knit, probably a turtleneck top.

Other than the bag components, this is all more winter stuff, so will not get sewn up for a while. We are having a heat wave here so I have got my box of summer clothes out, but do fancy a multiple fabric gored skirt - think plain red/red polka dots and red paiselys would be too much???

Red Dress

Well the red dress is finished and it is now dark, so the photo is a pretty bad flash hanger shot.

Usual pattern, only with the sleeves to just below the elbow. This is so the dress can be worn with a particular RTW jacket (white/red/black linen with 3/4 sleeves) and I want the sleeves not to show beyond the jacket.
Flared A line skirt cut to just below mid calf, so definitely work appropriate in the summer.

A note on skirt lengths.
I have quite chunky calves and have concluded that in the winter my best look is a hem stopping just below the knee worn with dark opaque hose and often knee high boots.
In the summer it is better to have the skirts much longer - below mid calf, and wear with sandals and no leg covering.
So accordingly my knit dresses for winter have a cowl neck, long sleeves and a knee length hem, but for summer 3/4 or short sleeves, and scoop neckline and a much longer skirt.
I'm planning on shortening sleeves or hems and/or adding collars etc to match these paramenters now I have worked out this is my best look as not all the dresses I have made in the past get worn.

Style vs fashion

I love this little video from
insideoutstyleblog
and agree the ladies are spot on.

I am unable to buy trousers in fashion shops at the moment (I can still buy walking gear from Craghoppers if I stick with certain cuts) but can wear my old ones or sew from some of my older sewing patterns.

However after a recent fruitless shopping trip with my mother, I did explain to the store manager that the reason we were not buying much was because none of the trousers fitted us. (I bought a zip up hoody from the men's department but for me).

I love making knit tops and knit dresses which fit me - forward head, rounded upper back, sway back and hips a size larger than upper body - I'm glad I can sew!

Red knit dress in progress, and may appear tomorrow.

Red PJ pants

I think I must have been having a bad day at work and 'needed' to buy fabric when I bought this several years ago. It is a very thin cotton knit with not much stretch in a scarily 1980s print from a discount rack on a stall at Leeds market. It was cheap and obviously gave me the comfort I needed at the time, but then it came home and went into the fabric stash. Its only reasonable use was for PJ pants, though what the heck kind of top it needs I have no idea.

Anyway they are constructed and the fit isn't too bad. They are oneseam pants from a Burda magazine patterm with elastic waist in a narrow casing and machine sewn hems.
I have fished out a skirt which needs shortening, 3 semi-wadders and some other red fabric,so should be able to sew a few things whilst the machines are threaded up in red.
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The pattern I used was the non one-seam PJ pants #127 from Burda December 2007. I made them into one seams by overlapping the sideseams so they fit on my fabric and cutting out as a single piece. I appeared to have about a metre which wasn't long enough so I have teeny hems and a narrow elastic casing.

Matching thread

As you know I like sewing knits, and it is a joke with my sewing friends that I like the thread to match and I sew multiple garments with the same matching thread to avoid rethreading my machines.

Last night I was chatting about sewing and life with YorkshireLass and saying I really wanted to make a red tee shirt dress next but sadly the machines were all threaded with white thread. I forget the exact words, but she pointed out that this was probably a poor excuse and I should just get on with rethreading, and the whole exercise should take me 10 minutes tops.

So I looked in the relevant thread drawer and found I had something like 13 spools of red thread - I like to have 8 of my popular colours so I can have the sewing machine x 1 + bobbin, the overlocker (serger) x 4 and the coverhem x 3 all matching. So no excuses there, and I wedged the phone in the crook of my neck and threaded whilst chatting.

So expect a whole load of red stuff coming up!!!

BTW I do understand that because overlocking is on the inside of a garment you could use almost any colour, but I like it to match even if only I see it.

One colour scraps tee

This tee is again made from scraps, but as there were enough of the same fabric for the whole tee, its perhaps not too obvious.

Careful cutting was required with both back pieces and each sleeve all cut out separately. Carefully check you have a left and right of each!
This was leftover fabric from making this top

which was part of my SWAP in 2009. The boat neck style coupled with a lack of forward head alteration meant I always felt like I was choking in this top and it was donated long ago.
The sponge print fabric reminds me of a blue sky filled with fluffy clouds and should be fun to wear with casual outfits.