No Sewing

I haven’t been sewing (or blogging!) and thought I ought to explain myself.

So here is the reason why

and here

and here

and here

and here

and here

and here

Oh no hang on that last one is the reason for all the other things I never do! Lol

But seriously folks if you had all that in your garden, the sun was shining and you lived in England and you knew there was very good chance this could actually be your entire summer, you wouldn’t waste it either!!!

Normal service will no doubt be resumed shortly when it inevitably rains.

P.S. All the best to those poor people stuck and unable to get home because of the Icelandic volcano.  Especially to my good friend Lucy who is stuck in Toronto visiting family…you poor thing, I hope you’re holding up! Lol

Clothes altering help needed please

I’ve almost finished the Keyka Lou Curvy Clutch bag but was less than impressed with my top stitching so have unpicked it all and am waiting until tomorrow to try again rested and with renewed enthusiasm.  It didn’t go so well but that was because of my rookie mistake when printing.  The scaling went a bit squiff and as a result an already small bag was marginally shrunk.

The cheap (and I’ve now discovered nasty) lining fabric I bought at £3.99 a metre shrunk when I pressed it which made for an even smaller bag and it all became very fiddly.  No representation at all of the pattern  just lessons I guess I need to learn.

I shall blog about it again when I have finished and I am overall less hacked off with myself and my silly mistakes.

Anyway. In true me fashion I am now deliberating on my next five projects and I need advice.

Whilst clearing out my spare room I came across a suitcase of summer clothes packed away from my last holiday (2008…time for another one Mr B!!!) and I came across an A-line skirt I bought in a sale which I have never worn, mainly due to the fact that I don’t really suit A-line skirts.  I have always known this…what was I thinking?

The fabric is very nice and I was looking at it and thinking ‘that would make a very nice pencil skirt’ and guess what readers…I do wear those!

Now I know this sounds rather ambitious for someone who’s only made one size fits all bags with no zippers so far but I’m thinking it only cost me 4 squids and I’m not going to be ruining anything I would be in actual danger of wearing so no harm no foul right???

So here’s what I need help with:

1. If I do this I’m going to (try and) do this right so I want to take the waist band in a smidge.  Does anyone have any pointers/tutorials on moving a zipper?
2. As I’m going to need to walk/sit/move in general in this skirt it’s going to need a slit at the back.  The back piece is currently two pieces sewn up the middle so I think this will be possible but perhaps someone with more experience than me can advise me/ tell me I don’t know what i’m talking about.

All comments and suggestions gratefully received…honest!

P.S. I hope you’ve all had a lovely weekend

Pigs do fly!

Well we’ve been back a few days and are just getting back in to the swing of things.  Little Eskimo has been poorly sick and has been taking herself off to bed super early but waking up a lot coughing and all bunged up.  Poor little princess.

Thank god it’s Friday tomorrow, I know it was a short week at work but my god I’ve had enough already.  Work hasn’t actually been too bad but the weather has been so amazing all I can do is stare wistfully out of the window, it’s not even my window, my desk is in the middle of the room…sob, and dream of being outside in the sunshine.

Anywho, here is a picture of some of the fabrics I will be using in my newly decorated lounge

We’re going for a muted grey, cream and olive affair with as many patterns as I can find in that particular colour scheme.  That’s about as exotic as Mr B will allow.  We have the decorating discussion all the time and his standard response to anything colour related is blue and yellow or white.  He’s a Tottenham Hotspur fan.  What can you do?

I’m still hoping to embark upon my Keyka Lou patterns shortly but have been having a bit of a fabric dilemma and just can’t decide on fabrics for a tote and I’m going out to a birthday bash Saturday night so am hoping to whip up a little clutch on Saturday while Little Eskimo is visiting her grandparents.

In the stash my sister gave me was this

which I was considering using for it but I think the pattern may be too big.  Oh well I may just have to mosey in to town and find something else then.  Damn.

And why Pigs do fly! you ask.  When I uploaded the fabric photos there were some left from Little Eskimo’s birthday and I had to share them

The costume is Peppa Pig who Little Eskimo absolutely adores.  She also got Stephanie from Lazy Town dress up and a nurse’s costume!!!  She is so spoiled.

Catch you later!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone!

I’ve had a lovely weekend with my family, apart from Mr B who I am missing a bit more than is probably necessary seen as it has only been a few days and I will be seeing him again tomorrow.

We got here late Friday afternoon and had an amazing picnic tea with the children.  My sisters idea of a picnic tea is nothing like mine would be.  Mine would be sandwiches, sausage rolls, crisps etc, hers was a delicious three cheese and filo pastry concoction (bit like a very posh quiche!), fresh bread and pate and a very nice chicken strudely type thingy.

Later once the children were all tucked up in bed my baby sister (24…not really a baby) decided we should engage in a drinking game.  I do not know why I agree to these things, or why she even suggests them tbh as we are both seriously lacking in the ability to drink much more than two drinks without telling everyone how much we love them.

Saturday morning was a very sorry state of affairs.

The weather was terrible Saturday so we spent it playing cards and snakes and ladders and reading.  I also raided my sisters fabric stash as she doesn’t really sew any more and I now have lots of nice bits and pieces to take home with me.

And then there was more amazing food.  Spiced Parsnip soup followed by Steak in a Gorgonzola sauce. OH…MY…GOD I wish she lived in my house and cooked for me all the time.

As a family we are not at all religious so really for us Easter is just an excuse to all spend time together, but I hope all of you, of whichever denomination have had a wonderful Easter.

I am now looking forward to going home to see Mr B, as is Little Eskimo who misses him terribly, seeing how he’s got on with the decorating and get started on my first ever attempt at curtains, blinds and cushions!

Easter Weekend

This weekend there will be no sewing (sob) as myself the Little Eskimo, my Mum and my baby sister will be visiting my other sister and her kiddiwinks in Oxfordshire (yay!).  During this outing Mr B will be staying at home to prep the lounge ready for a revamp (he says he will miss us but I think secretly he’s relieved to not have to put up with the increased progesterone levels and vast quantities of tea, apparently explained by the fact that we hail from Yorkshire, that will be consumed.

I’m packing my running gear and hoping to get at least one in over the long weekend so that the amazing food my sister will no doubt cook us and the copious amounts of vino that are always consumed don’t weigh too heavily on me.  I’m also hoping someone will manage to take a reasonable photo of me this weekend as I look horrendous in every photo I already have and would like something to show how much better I do actually look now that I’ve finally shed the baby weight…three years is about right to lose it yeah? (shifts uncomfortably from foot to foot)

I have totally the wrong complexion for photos, a trait shared by both Mum and baby sis, and never fail to look pasty even after a two week holiday in the med.  The other sister however shares her colouring with Dad, is a lovely olive colour and always photographs beautifully.  I hate her.

So I hope you all have fun plans for your Easter breaks and because I think we need a photo after all this wordiness here’s the Little Eskimo.

Have a great Easter everyone.

The Curtain Bag Completed

Yay I finished!

Amy Butler Birdie Sling made from a leftover curtain given to me by my lovely friend Mandy who has wonderful taste in home decoration but luckily for me changes her mind frequently (the treasures I have in my home thanks to this woman no longer being able to stand the sight of something!!!) made for my friend K for her birthday, and I’ve actually given it to her now so can blog about it.  GO ME!

It took me ages to unpick the curtain and turn it into three nice separate pieces but luckily Lost was on Saturday night, Flash Forward has restarted and of course there’s always Glee to plonk yourself in front of when such tasks are necessary.  After the unpicking I had this horrible feeling that there wasn’t going to be quite enough fabric but after some careful placing I managed to do it using the curtain lining for the lining of the bag.  I know I’m soooo original.

Now for those of you who have made an Amy Butler Birdie Sling before (says me with my vast experience of making the grand total of ONE before) you will know that the time consuming part is cutting and interfacing. I chose a medium weight iron on interfacing with my medium weight fabric because last time  used light weight after reading several recommendations and this just didn’t float my boat, I’ve found that now I’m using my bag it’s just too flimsy for my needs.

I have never used any other kind of interfacing other than iron on but did find with the ithinksew Amy bag (too many Amy’s!) that I must have done something wrong as the Heavy Weight iron on interfacing seemed to be on fast until I started stitching…when it started peeling away.

There’s me ironing the final bit of interfacing (yes Mr B I do iron sometimes!) and shortly after I’d finished I did a little jig around the kitchen because it meant I could FINALLY start sewing!

I’m not going to take you through every step because the instructions are so simple even I can do it, but you start with the pockets.

Slight modification here as I found the pockets in the pattern are just too damn big so I took the smallest pocket, decreased the height by 1/3 and voila…

For some reason this photo makes it look like the pocket isn’t central but I promise it is.

Next the pleats and then sewing to the bands to the main panels…

One too many pins maybe?

and then you sew it all together and you get the finished article.  THE END.

Okay, okay I may have got a bit too into the sewing bit and forgot to take any more photos.  Bad blogger (slaps back of own hand).

Now, they ran out of magnetic closures at my local fabric shop and that’s kind of the only place that sells stuff like that round here so I improvised, as one thing that K specified was that she would like to be able to close her bag.

Before you see the photo I want you to know I’m not 100% happy (or even 50% tbh) with the result but I can unpick it if K decides she she really cannot live with the shame.

Yes people that is a black button and a hair band. It was all I had and I searched the whole house (hangs head in shame and shuffles away from laptop before perfectionists everywhere hurl abuse at total lack of button coordination)

So there we have it chaps a finished (albeit flawed) Amy Butler Birdie Sling

P.S. You may have noticed I use exclamation marks a lot.  You’re going to have to get used to it, I’m told it’s something to do with not being hugged enough as a child

Equipment Issues

Today I have discovered that my scissors are not up to much.  They were fine with lighter weight material but have been found SERIOUSLY lacking when it comes to heavier weight fabric.  The scissors in question came from a multi pack purchased from Hobbycraft about a year ago and they haven’t really been used until I embarked upon this new obsession of mine so I was expecting more.

My questions are as follows (and excuse my ignorance but you’re dealing with a complete novice here)…

1. Does it matter what scissors you buy, obviously I’m not going to use nail scissors for cutting fabric but is a particular size better?
2. Is a certain brand better?  I don’t want to be buying a new pair every couple of months but I’m also on a bit of a budget.

I’m sure I could go to the local fabric shop and the wonderful lady there would be very nice and tell me exactly what I need but at the moment she thinks of me as that funny girl who wanders around the fabric with a silly happy grin for ages, she doesn’t need to know I’m stupid too!!!

All comments/suggestions gratefully received.