Update

I don't have a lot of sewing news to update with. Life seems to be taken up with work, going places and doing things and generally hanging out with my mum and dad.
I'm doing a lot better in myself which has to be positive.

I've been buying Burda magazine and planning what I would sew and although I did go to the fabric stalls on Leeds market this week I didn't buy anything as none of the fabric really spoke to me, and having packed all my fabric up around Christmas I knew full well how much of it I already have.

Interestingly my mum, who these days is mostly a knitter and not much of a sewer refashioned a large tunic shirt I was passing on into a blouse which fits her nicely and is very pleased with, so maybe some of my sewingness has rubbed off on her.

I have some things I want to sew, but I hardly dare mention them as I don't seem to follow through at all at the moment.

I've put a few more things in the charity bag.  Yesterday I went to the Meadowhall centre (a shopping centre) and met up with my friend E (slightly nearer to me than half way). Mostly we just chatted first over lunch then later over coffee which was really good, but we also did a bit of shopping, for ourselves and for her little girl who is having a birthday soon.

I brought home two wide elastic belts in black, one with a black buckle and the other with a leaf clasp. Both great for comfortably showing you have a waist, whilst still allowing the ability to breath which can't be overrated.
I also was quite pleased to buy myself a navy striped trouser suit in the Next sale for less than half the original price. Very smart for work, though needs the trousers shortening slightly as there were only Long length left and I'm pretty standard in leg length.

Off this afternoon to get a few final bits from the old house. Hopefully there will be some actual sewing, crafting etc stuff to share in a bit.

Wardrobe Advice

A quote taken from http://www.insideoutstyleblog.com/ in an interview with Pauline from http://englishorganizer.com/

The one piece of advice most women need but don’t get?
We all have far too many clothes, most of which we don't love, or don't flatter us.  Weed out your wardrobe to include only items you love, and you'll be surprised how much easier it is to get dressed and how much better you feel.

I did get rid of a few things the other day for the latest charity bag, but still have a long way to go.

I have been wearing my new boots, and as a Clear Spring since very dark brown is one of my key colours,  have loads of things in the wardrobe to wear with them. Yesterday was the brown and orange 70s floral print knit dress, today is one with broken vertical stripes in black bown and gold. All worn with tights and a lined jacket, and this being me a big chunky necklace.

I unpacked all my necklaces yesterday, and pinned them up on two large cork boards so I can see them all.
2 were sent off to the charity shop, and another 5 were more mum than me and went in her direction, but all the rest are there waiting for me to choose one each morning. I do love my necklaces and they are one of the Ruth things in an outfit. I am enjoying also wearing some of my own sewn pieces. Knit dresses are so very comfortable, and the less crazy prints are OK with a jacket for work.

Planning to Sew

Life has calmed down a little now I am living full time at my parents, and having sorted a box today I am hoping to do some sewing this evening. (I have a target of a box a day to work through unsorted boxes I brought with me).
I'd quite like to make the Hot Patterns drape neck top in ivory viscose (rayon) knit, but its dependant on finding all the bits - pattern, fabric etc.
I also have a week to make 3 cushion covers with the initials M, R and T on for my nieces and nephew for their various birthdays.
Oh and work full time obviously. That might involve going into the office though as I have mislaid my non standard Blackberry charger! If I could find the charger I could WFH tomorrow which would be nice..... so its depends, perhaps that should be my first activity this evening.

I don't know about the rest of the sewing community but if I go too long between sewing sessions I start to get a bit twitchy.
I am not going to be able to do SWAP this year, and frankly I probably have enough clothes already anyway, but I might they and do a small capsule either as part of the PR contest or the Spring Sew Along on SG.

I also hope to intersperse the posts with a few pictures of the sewing related goodies I was given as gifts for Christmas/Birthday, though that is dependant on me finding everything!

Classic brown boots

You may recall that after Christmas I ordered some classic brown boots. There was sadly quite a bit of confusion and they arrived this week, unfortunately sent to the wrong address, so I had to head back to the old house to get them.
I tried them on this evening and they are a snug fit at the moment, but I think will be a fabulous addition to the wardrobe for many years to come.

I have several brown based dresses which will be great with these boots.

Simple quilts?

I have quite a lot of fabric scraps, cotton fabrics which could be made into something like a quilt.
I'm not a quilter though, so don't want to do anything really complex.
Suggestions?

I like the idea of a simple quilt, or a duvet cover for a single bed sized duvet.
Shopping bags and drawstring bags also appeal.
Any good links?

Valentine's Day

Dear lovely readers of the blog, I'd like to wish you a happy Valentine's day and thank you for the times when you stop by and write nice comments. Its always appreciated.

I'm separated and going through divorce right now so the romantic side of things doesn't do much for me at the moment as I am sure you can imagine. However I'm taking a few minutes out to think about my great family and wonderful friends and be happy that people care for me. And to all those others who are not part of a happy couple (whether by choice or not) please don't be downhearted, you have family and friends who love and care for you, and you can still be whole even if you are not part of a couple.

I don't write about my religious beliefs much here, as its a sewing blog, but I am a Christian and my relationship with God is very important to me.
Knowing that I am a precious and loved child of Father God has been essential for my well being over the last few months.

Update

I have sewn nothing at all so far in 2011 which is a shame, but life and work have overtaken sewing at the moment.
Moving all my clothes and packing to store or move all my sewing stuff has shown that I don't really need another 11 pieces in my wardrobe at this point in time, so SWAP is out for this year as far as I can see due to both time constraints and actually needing those items.
Instead I am going to sew individual pieces to enhance what I've already got in the wardrobe, so will do a small collection but not a whole SWAP.
I'm back for a week to the old house to clear out the garage, freezer etc. and then I'll be able to properly settle in at my parents and start to review my wardrobe needs.
I'm back to wearing either a matching trouser suit (all purchased) or a top/ trousers which match with a contrasting brighter jacket as my work outfits. I do feel comfortable in these, so need to make sure I have total outfits which work together to make getting dressed easy.


The stay with my parents is only for a few months, and after that I'll be renting a little house for myself a bit nearer to the office. There I'll be able to have a sewing room and get all my stuff back together, so I can shop from my own fabric and haberdashery departments in house!


I think I've been so hung up on churning out Collections the last year or two that I've not looked hard enough at what I actaully wear and whether the sewing meets my needs.
Of course there is the other side to sewing which is the creative part, the colours, prints, textures and details - the stuff which makes sewing fun.


So at a point where I am re-evaluating lots of things in my life and experiencing many changes, I am sure my approach to sewing will change as well.

Moving

I move to my parents tomorrow, and might even sew something on Sunday/Monday if I can find the fabric, pattern, some scissors and the right colour thread. That might be beyond me, but we'll see. My mum used to sew though she's really a knitter now, so I might be able to borrow bits from her if I've not unpacked/can't find things.
I've been moving stuff over there since Christmas and unpacking each trip so its not too chaotic in my new room, if quite full. Apparently I have a lot of stuff and maybe I've been compensating. Ah well.

I'm promising nothing though OK, but have some hope, and a party Wednesday evening which could do with a new dress, and a simple knit dress isn't much harder than a tee to sew (just a bit longer).

:-)

P.S. My parents moved a few times in the 20+ years since I last lived with them, so I've only visited this house as a guest and its in an area that I don't know.

Packing

Sorry nothing sewing related to share really, though if I manage to take some photos, I DO have some lovely gifts I have received on a sewing/crafty nature, but am not producing anything myself due to packing, travelling and working.

I am trying to embrace the William Morris quote as I pack up to move at the end of the month,

Have nothing in your house that you do not believe to be beautiful or know to be useful.

New Year, New Start

I'm moving in 4 to 6 weeks time, first of all to live with my parents and then hopefully into a little rented house of my own. At the moment I am packing which is rather interfering with my sewing and therefore not very interesting on a sewing blog.

I have spent some time over the last few days (with phone encouragement from Jenni aka YorkshireLass) sorting through my scraps, cut out and gone wrong projects and getting rid of quite a few of them. Its been hard but good. People seem to vary in their ability to keep their lives decluttered and I'm not that great at it, but I've been making some choices about what I do want to keep (nice fabric, sewing books, Burda and Threads magazines) and what I can get rid of (gone wrong projects, old generic women's magazines) and whilst I still have quite a bit of stuff its more managable than it seemed to start with.

I've packed up some of the unfinished and refashioning projects to keep and will take them with the sewing machines to my parents and over the couple of months I am there plan to do them all, and then either keep or release the results depending on how they come out. Then I'll hopefully be going to my new place with no UFOs, which would be a really great new start.

I have signed up for SWAP and 12 jackets on Stitchers Guild, but I think the timing is just all wrong for me on SWAP and I probably won't be able to do it all (especially not with the new techniques twist this year) so we'll see how things work out there. The 12 jackets runs for the whole year so I might well be able to do more later in the year when my moving is over.

Anyway re SWAP, never say never, and I may well be able to do some sewing in the gaps between other things, and use all of the permitted 3 purchased/premade items slots by pulling existing stuff from my wardrobe. This would avoid buying new garments (something I am also trying to do) but still allow me to create the collection. I have the SWAP fabrics put to one side so they are accessible when I have the time and sewing buzz to attack them. The collection colours are Chocolate Brown, Teal, Turquoise and Cream, and a tentative approach would be for it to be an easy to pack travel wardrobe entitled 'Moving On' to reflect all the moving done whilst sewing it! On that basis I should try to sew a few pieces in each location I live in 2011.

Musings

Having just emptied my sewing room prior to moving in February, I found a lot of UFOs, half done projects, things I want to recut etc, and I wonder if this should be the season of doing that stuff rather than the SWAP and 12 jackets......
I love sewing new stuff, but maybe this year I should finish some old projects off.

Shearling update

I've finished my little faux shearling jacket though it needs hooks and eyes or some other sort of closure that works on an edge to edge jacket.
In the end I edged it with strips of the fur side removed from the backing as the raw edges didn't look too nice. I like the furry edges, but it does need some of those jacket clips or something to do the front up nicely. Its very warm and if nothing else will be great for late night surfing or reading.
It's rather late here tonight, so I'll do a photo of it tomorrow.
I'd like to lightly press it, but no idea what that would do to the shearling, quite possibly not anything good. Perhaps the edges will flatten out with wear?

Shearling dilemma

I have a dilemma, I can't decide if the piece of coral pink embroidered faux shearling should be a waistcoat or cropped jacket.
As a casual fabric I'm unlikely to wear it over dresses, and I'm not sure I'd wear a bolero length jacket with a longer top and trousers and feel comfortable. But I don't wear sleeveless jackets at all as my arms get cold.
I do only have one metre of fabric though......
My latest thoughts are to change the front to a two piece shaped style and see if I can get a longer body and still keep the sleeves. Some little patch pockets would be cute too and would not need much fabric.
Let me see what I can come up with. I do love the sleeves on the bolero jacket from Burda, the shaped two piece gives a really nice sleeve.

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edited to add I morphed the sleeve of the Burda with the bodice of a favourite waistcoat pattern and have a little short jacket. Just need to insert the sleeves, trim the edges neatly and topstitch the edges and I'm done!

Classic brown boots

I was given some money for Christmas and decided to use it to buy these lovely classic brown boots.
They are the 'Grace' brown leather boots from The Bootmakers and I was very happy that they had my size (foot and calf width) in the sale.  As you can see they are a very plain classic style, and have a low heel so practical for actually walking about the place. (P.S. I know heels look great, but hey my knees hurt if I wear even a mid heel all day so I've gone for wearability!).
I'm a 'Clear Spring' in colouring and the signature neutral for a Clear spring is apparently a very dark brown, so I try to pick up dark brown leather goods when I see them, as anything which doesn't work with black seems to work with brown instead.

The sewing I have planned for the Spring is also based around brown, so I will have some boots to wear with any new creations!
(I ordered online, so they've not actually come yet, I hope they are as lovely in person as the pictures. I am pleased with the simple lines, lots of other boots had buckles and faux brogue detailing and other nonsense, I just wanted PLAIN boots!)

A Jacket a Month for 2011: January Burda

I'd like to participate in 'A Jacket a Month for 2011' but I'll need to see how life works out over the next year or so.

January Burda is great and has a lot of very wearable clothes, which makes a nice change.
I was so entralled that I traced off the little bolero jacket 117 this evening and made a muslin.
The muslin showed it needed to be longer (if fabric allowed) and have the back neck taken in at the top for my forward head.
My fabric will be a coral embroidered faux shearling (From last year's Harrogate show), but I am not quite sure what to do about the edges. I could just cut them raw and then top stitch the edges to stop the layers separating too much.
I think I got my layout sorted this evening, but I'll save the cutting for when I am a bit fresher.
Pictures below show the bolero