September- a month of finishing and planning

Hello! Hope you all had a lovely summer? I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your blogs, in between jumping up and down at the tv (Olympics), bbqing between the rain, painting, buying a bathroom and knitting. You know, just normal life. I needed a blogging break, I was getting "stressed" because I didn't post every day, didn't have great photos, and didn't have anything of any interest to say about anything other than sewing.  So I turned a corner - isn't blogging supposed to be "fun"?  I'll blog a minimum of once a month, not stress about how many hits, followers or page views I've had.  For me it has to be about good quality sewing, not chasing numbers.

I have decided that September should be the month to finish up a few projects:

1) casual shirt in a beautiful Liberty print lawn,

McCalls 6401 view D

Liberty Lawn from Sewbox (UK)

2)  2 cardigans (4 sleeves to complete!)

3)  a linen dress in a lovely plum colour with bias strips



Butterick 4443 view C (just love this pattern!)



There are a few projects I would like to tackle over the coming months, the first being a shirt for Ian and the second being a winter coat.

Vogue 1083

There was lots of discussion this summer around how many items of clothing a woman buys in a 12 month period so thought I should keep a track of what I make and end each month with a brief summary. Some months I'm on fire, others I'm just not!  I will commence from 1st October as we head truly into Autumn. Oh, and I hope to overcome my IT phobia and get to grips with my camera - I may even consider buying a new one....

Calling it a Blogging Day

I've decided to stop blogging. The technology is driving me crazy, and to be totally honest If I get any more than 2 comments at the end of a post, I'm lucky. There are some great bloggers out there and a fair few who are really talented and I look forward to reading your future projects. Thank you to those of you who followed me and left comments, past and present. I won't be giving up sewing, my stash is big enough to see me through to the end of my days, and I get twitchy if I haven't had the sewing pedal under my foot for a couple of days! In true Tim Gunn style "carry on"!

Random pictures of past and more recent makes

Thought I'd post some pictures of items I have made over the last year, but didn't blog about.  My sisters wedding was 3 years ago though and I came across the pictures on my old laptop...

Bolero, corset and skirt "Cherry Bakewell" 
The corset and bolero lining is cherry printed cotton

I made the little hat too....  The corset and skirt are not meant
to be worn together....

Butterflies!

I wear this shirt on a weekly basis to work.

I gave this shirt to Mum

Lemon silk interlined eyelet cotton skirt with black lace edged lining 

A good reason to insist your bride wears her wedding bra to dress fittings!

What to do when away from home

No sewing over the Jubilee weekend - Ian decided it would be a good opportunity to lay a wooden floor downstairs so being the good girlfriend that I am, I left him to it and escaped to Mums! I couldn't bring my machine, overlocker, cutting mat, fabric, patterns etc with me so I quickly grabbed some fabric, pins, scissors and a couple of patterns.

Here is what I cut out
http://sewing.patternreview.com/patterns/33227 and
http://sewing.patternreview.com/patterns/8063 Both for work wear


Poor Mum, I really made myself at home didn't I?

 Mum lives in Dorset and it was their annual Arts Festival this weekend, along with the Jubilee.  We had a lovely time. 

We had tea on a bus

 And watched the swans and their signets go up the stream passed the house (later 2 signets were on their Mummy's back, but I couldn't get that picture quick enough)

And when I got home, this is the progress that had been made over the weekend on the floor (he had painted the skirting boards....)


I'm thinking darling.....

 Blue linen jacket is done, pictures to follow shortly!

Fuss-free fusing

Fusing can be troublesome, particularly if you have a lot to do and haven't got the luxury of a pressing table for block fusing.  Here's how I coped with fusing interfacing to the linen of my Vogue 8620 Jacket.

1 Be patient!  It can't be rushed. It took me about 3 hours over 2 days preparing my pieces

2 I use 2 pressing cloths made from an old white cotton sheet which I have marked "this side up" on all pieces.  I lay one over the ironing board (I have a nice wide one) to protect it from any sticky residue and use the other to cover the pieces I'm fusing

3  Press the fabric so it's wrinkle-free being careful not to move it off grain.  Lay the interfacing over your fabric - glue side down (ha, made that mistake once and wrote off a new iron!)  On a piece as big as this I place a few pins right through the fabric and ironing board.

4  Cover with second pressing cloth (this side up) and press.  I use a hot iron without steam as my pressing cloth is 100% cotton and I press from the centre out, leaving the iron in place for about 5 to 8 seconds.   Pressing - no ironing!

5  Remove press cloth once cool and trim away an stray pieces of interfacing.

6  Place your pattern pieces back onto the fused fabric in readiness for tailors tacks / marking

Marking up next and then ready to sew.  In the meantime I'm really looking forward to the Jubilee weekend - lots of lovely traditional afternoon tea, great celebrations at home and in London plus an extra sewing day!

More later.

Vogue 8620

Also entitled - where have you been?!

Sorry it's been a while.  I have been sewing, just not blogging - no excuses, life just gets in the way sometimes and I really have not got to grips with my ipad for anything other than listening to music and reading sewing blogs.

So here is my sewing related post of the year.  As I've mainly been sewing work clothes I wanted to make something completely different and, unusually for me, not tailored.  It's Vogue 8620 a Marcy Tilton Jacket. 

 I am using a denim cloured linen with a flowery cotton print for the binding and a chunky contrast zip.  The white interfacing to the right of the photo is to prevent the linen from creasing - as far as possible.  I've used this a lot recently, including a raw silk skirt I wear on a regular basis to work - It really works a treat and doesn't alter the weight or feel of the outer fabric.

Yesterday, in 28 degrees, (that's HOT for the UK) I began cutting and fusing the interfacing.  After around an hour I gave up - it was way too hot in the sewing room.  I had to cool down outside with a medicinal G&T!

Not much further progress this evening - I've been blogging!

And on a parting note, here is a picture of a creative genius and a gentleman.

RIP

Back soon!

Happy New Year. Here's to 2012!

Okay, this post is my third attempt on this retched iPad... Not a good start this morning.

Any way, Happy New Year to you all! I hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year? We spent it with family, although both Ian and I really weren't very well. Everyone has a cold or nasty cough at the moment, mind you it's so mild (12 degrees yesterday!) there's no wonder.

I have really enjoyed reading everyone's end of year rounds ups and reviews, and it's spurred me on to make a plan fo 2012. A realistic, manageable plan. Non of this shirt or jacket a month, or 10 items to mix and match. Just my own, nice simple plan. After all I sew to relax and want to be able to enjoy the process.

Step one of the 2012 plan is sew from the stash whenever possible. I have an shameful amount of fabric that needs to be used, donated to charity or just given away, so I will be working through 2 boxes per month - look out for some giveaways!

So here is January's plan:
1. Finish current shirt working toile
2. Make black work skirt
3. Make black work shirt
4. A simple knit top - this depends if there is a place left a Gill Arnold's class running on the 14th
5. Jeans. A real challenge so I'm signed up for the Pattern Review class stating 19th and one which will carry over to February.

Sounds a lot I know, but my TNT skirt pattern really doesn't take me long and my shirt making skills have improved now I have cracked the bust fitting issues (simple, buy the patterns for C and D cup sizes - doh!!)

I also intend to stop using the ipad to blog as i just can't add any pictures and a sewing blog with no pictures would be very dull indeed!

What are your sewing plans for this year?