Sunshine yellow skirt – finished

An amazingly sunny day, and instead of rushing out to the park to enjoy it, I finally completed the sunshine yellow skirt. I tried to sew quickly and efficiently, and sort of failed. Don’t get me wrong – the finished item is a good bit of sewing, but my thought processes were super-muddled and I did LOTS of staring into space.

My muddledness included: sewing on the yoke upside down. Three times. Sewing the faux pocket flaps on the back instead of the front, as per my design. Then realising they look better on the back and sewing them back in place. Cutting the waistband 10cm too short. And instead of focusing solely on drafting the pattern and making the skirt, getting sidetracked, halfway through, into a poorly executed and fruitless tidy-up of the hall cupboard – abandoned after 35 minutes, annoyingly.

But I’m happy with the finished item – it’s as I envisaged, pepped up a little with a contrast floral fabric on the pocket flaps and the waistband facing. The adjustable elastic on the waistband looks about right (see, I’m very scientific about these things. Measurements are for wimps).

Next step – seeing if Little Miss will wear it. The photographic evidence is….

Yes! She likes it – strikes a moody model pose!

Yes! She tries to put it on, voluntarily, before I’m quite ready with camera!

Hurrah! Selects coordinating shoes!

 Praises be! Wears it while washing hands!

Gadzooks! Confronts dinosaurs in it!

and finally, wears it in public at playgroup *sniffs*

To say I’m pleased is an understatement. Thanks Marina. I made your skirt, you made my day.

Stars and circles bath robe

Well, that was a project. From scratch, using a vintage towelling fabric from Chiswick Boot Fair (thanks Bridget from What the Butler Wore, for spotting it AND giving excellent directions across an ENORMOUS field full of car booters, to find it instantly), and some cotton spotty lining from John Lewis.

Pattern is Robot Dog bathrobe (style 33) from Ottobre magazine , which if you haven’t come across it yet, is a Finnish pattern magazine for children. Hubby bought me an annual subscription for Christmas and each issue has something like 30 patterns – amazing value and some really cute, inspirational styling.

Image from Craftymama.blogspot.co.uk. Thanks!

Tracing the patterns is a bit of a trip – 150-odd pattern pieces packed onto three double-sided pages, each pattern in approximately six different sizes and in different colours. See? But you just kind of focus in, and all the other lines just melt away and your get your tracing wheel and ruler out and follow your single little line. Probably best done when children are in bed, hubby’s Doing Something That Doesn’t Involve Talking To You Or Being Anywhere Nearby, and pets are outside. Useful pattern-tracing tutorial from Crafty Mamas here, if you’re inspired to try it yourself.

Construction method of the Robot Dog bathrobe (style 33) is straightforward, and it comes together so quickly and simply. I’m reminded why I love sewing, coming on the back of the fiddly, finger-pricking, and funk-inducing lunchbag project. Put it this way, I skipped meals to move on to each next step.

And got very precise, neat and detail-focused. Check out those clipped curves!

So I finished it, delighted with the colours, and really proud to have done such a neat job. 21-month-old daughter, however, NON-BLOODY-PLUSSED. The following photo records one of the nine or so seconds she’s kept this bathrobe on.

Will not wear it in the morning, evening, after bath, watching TV or reading a book. Not too downhearted, though. There will be a birthday, large toy or dressing up occasion that it will be PERFECT for.

Swan t-shirt

A train journey, some minor preparation and FINALLY I’ve put the broderie anglaise to use.

A few years ago, a friend spotted a skip full of ribbons and other adornments, allegedly outside Luella Bartley‘s workshop, post-bankruptcy. One of the spoils was a 6m length of beautiful broderie anglaise, about 4 inches wide. And she was kind enough to give it to me!

NB – the google suggests that this might not be broderie anglaise: it could be either the cambric and organdy shown on Juan Boluda’s website. I have to say, I wouldn’t know the difference. Any suggestions?

I’ve imagined a billion projects that it could adorn, but none of them felt right or came to fruition. Until I met a funky-dressed 18-month-old at my local children’s centre, sporting a swan-embellished t-shirt, tail feathers fashioned in net. Aha. My swan shall have Bartley tail feathers.

I drew the swan from a google picture, and cut it from a scrap of white fleece. Beak from a scrap of yellow dyed canvas (‘duck‘ actually, which pleases my pun-loving heart no end). Folded the tail feathers by eye. Both body, beak and tail feathers handstitched, using blanket stitch, on a train trip to Devon. Took over an hour to do, but afforded me some real satisfaction and quality thinking time… Sometimes handsewing gives you so much more than the finished article.

A little project with a big return on the effort, an effective way to use up scraps, and a most pleasing symmetry: the tshirt design that I ripped off  gave me inspiration, was H&M. Check the label and you’ll see….the black t-shirt I embellished is by…. H&M.

And the biggest bonus of all? My daughter WEARS it.

Four tea-towel lunchbags – warts and all

 

Everything starts somewhere. These four lunchbags started life because we had so many teatowels (and much other crap, truth be told) that the kitchen drawer wouldn’t close. So the drawer got a good overhaul and into the bin went four pretty tea towels that only dry one plate before becoming limp, damp rags. Pointless.

So, hating seeing textiles in a bin, I lifted them out and tucked them away in the stash. They seemed perfect for lunch sacks, and I have just the tutorial: Lemon squeezy’s lunch sack. I’ve have been dying to use it – it’s a brilliant tutorial, super clear instructions, a very simple construction method – and it looks great!

I adjusted the measurements to give them a wider base – that way they fit perfectly the plastic takeaway boxes I use for my leftover lunches. I used John Lewis’s shower curtain fabric for the lining – which means leaks are very water-proofed. The colours of the towels look pretty groovy and the finished bags are clearly not from Asda – or the same as anyone else’s.

I’m really pleased to have completed them – they will be put to good use, as I’m taking lunch into work more often these days (King’s Cross is not great for quick and satisfying snacking) and Marina needs snack bags when we’re out and about.

Why warts and all? I have to say, that they’re neither my proudest achievement nor most enjoyable sewing experience. Why? Because I found this simple project really hard. Working with stabiliser makes for really hard, manual sewing, because your fabric is really….stiff!

And even harder to apply bias binding to. I’ve not much experience working with bias binding, and this was my first experience of using my bias binding foot, which I found really fiddly to use. So I was disappointed that the ‘more finished look’ I was hoping for is actually the bit that looks the crappest: wrinkled, uneven stitching and very wonky in the inner corners by the lid.

And I stupidly used a different colour thread so all the non-smooth stitching, wrinkles and swerves missing the inner corners are very, very obvious.

BUT look. They are now off the to-do list, and hey, today, that’s the most important thing. I’m sure as I put them to use I’ll notice these things less, and be a bit more forgiving of myself and my less-than-perfect efforts. And, seriously, I’m not about writing blog posts that just present a perfect sheen of glossy gorgeousness. This was the result of some hard work!

M is for… marimekko

Snaffled a lovely child’s Marimekko t-shirt at the Chiswick Boot Sale last weekend, only to find small hole in the front. So rustle up plan to hide it in a reverse applique ‘M’. I get busy while the little one slumbers and take

• one vintage pillow-case, from a Secret Thrift Shop up north
• one reverse applique tutorial - gazillions out there!
• fusible interfacing from stash
• embroidery thread from Brick Lane

and …

• choose a design – I use a capital ‘M’ from the Eames stencil font. I measure out 10cm on a piece of paper, pull the ‘M’ up on screen and enlarge it until it is about 10cm wide, then trace directly from the screen.
• draw ‘M’ onto the WRONG side of interfacing. Note: I get this wrong so my final ‘M’ is actually the wrong way round. I realise this WELL past the point of no return – but am saved by M’s symmetry – phew!
• fuse the interfacing to the WRONG side of the applique fabric
• cut out ‘M’ +3-4mm
• pin to the WRONG side of the tshirt. Make sure I cover the hole!
• sew with a straight stitch around the ‘M’

• on the RIGHT side, handstitch a running stitch in embroidery floss along the machine stitch line

• snip out the tshirt fabric 3mm inside the embroidery line

Next time I do it I will

- make sure my letter/pattern is the right way round – FIRST time

- attach interfacing more carefully – it took me three goes because I ironed too vigorously and smooshed up the interfacing

- make sure my design actually COVERS the hole – I cut one ‘M’ way too small

- consider purchasing an embroidery hoop – it would make the handstitching easier.

Once done, grapple with the thorny challenge of a small, determined model, who is capable of wriggling, running and roaring independent movement.

Thanks Daddy for taking over on the camera!