Spring Sewing Swap

I've just taken part in the Spring Sewing Swap organised by Kerry at Kestrel Makes. Now, I love choosing things for other people, especially sewing goodies, and I love getting things through the post - so my taking part was a no-brainer. I was paired with Denise from Dottie Doodle and I had a wonderful time reading through her blog and trying to work out what she might like.  She'd obviously done the same with me as my swap parcel contained some blinders:

Vintage 1970's patterns - a fitted blouse and a shirt dress.

Floral cotton lawn, which would actually look good as a fitted blouse (see above!)

Vintage buttons and trim. I like the unusual colour of those coat buttons.

And the piece de resistance - vintage Habitat fabric featuring birds and cherries! 

I'll have to think very carefully about what I make with this as it's so, so lovely. My friend Emma would have plenty of ideas but she's not having it, it's MINE. The fabric is more of a decor weight so I'm thinking along the lines of a very special bag. 

AND, because Denise is so lovely, she also sent me one of her handmade notebook covers that she sells at craft fairs. 

Red polka dots? Yes please. I've been pondering whether to make a few of these for my xmas craft fairs, so it was really good to see one up close. They look easy peasy to make too - find out how in Dottie Doodle's tutorial here.

Thanks Denise, for such a fab, thoughtful parcel and to Kerry for organising the swap. Happy Wednesday. x

Vintage Tea Party

I gave my Blue rose shirt dress its first official outing on Friday when I hosted a Vintage Tea Party at home. 

Getting ready to pounce on those cakes

Remember my friend Lucy who I made a Cake Bag for earlier in the year? Well, she also runs a Vintage Tea Party service, where she brings beautiful vintage crockery to your home and supplies you with a never-ending stash of DELICIOUS home baked cakes and sandwiches. So if you have a hankering to pretend you're in a Merchant Ivory film or, like me, just want an excuse to get a few friends together for a chat and to stuff your faces with cake, then I can highly recommend it.

She only currently offers the service in West London, but I just wanted to mention it here because we had such a wonderful day. It was a really lovely way to catch up with seven of my bestest friends and it gave me a perfect excuse to wear a flowery dress. Plus the cakes were absolutely mouth watering.

The washing machine spoils the vintage picture somewhat, but never mind...!

Nom, nom, nom. Happy Sunday. x

Strange but true sewing tip

Right at the final stage of making my Juniper trousers a few weeks ago, a funny old sewing tip came magically to my rescue. I had occasion to use this tip again yesterday, which reminded me to share it.... As I was sewing the last cream button onto the waistband, I suddenly noticed that the button and thread were turning pink. I'd only gone and pricked my finger on the needle and was bleeding all over the button and thread. Doh! I used two metres of bright red fabric, red thread, even red interfacing, but I had to go and bleed on the one tiny non-red area of my trousers. What are the chances?! Now I know what you're thinking, it wasn't an absolute disaster. The button was plastic and could wipe clean and I could have easily removed the now pink thread and re-sewn the button on. But it was the very last stage, almost the last stitch on my make and I was desperate to get them on and photographed whilst the sun was out. So without even stopping to think what I was doing, I found myself repeatedly spitting on the button thread. Oh my god!!! 

Apologies if you're easily offended, but that's what I did folks. I was putting into practice a sewing tip I'd read on a sewing blog yonks ago and filed away in my subconscious waiting for just the right moment. Apparently it has to be your own er spit (sorry), something to do with the enzymes in the saliva breaking down the proteins in the blood. Anyway, I'm delighted to report it worked like magic - it was pretty amazing seeing the thread turning colour from pink back to white right before my very eyes!!

I discovered this tip on Sherry's blog - Pattern, Scissors, Cloth*. Apparently, a more experienced seamstress colleague taught her the trick when she worked in the garment industry and she's been good enough to pass it on in turn. And despite the grossness, this sewing tip actually worked like a dream for me. Have you ever found yourself automatically putting into practice a weirdo sewing tip you've read about and stored in your brain? And did it work?? I'd love to know!

That's it for now, I have an urgent appointment with some piping and a pair of PJ bottoms. x

* As an aside, does anybody know what the story is with Sherry and her blog? She suddenly stopped blogging last summer and I for one have missed her dearly. Her blog was one of my favourites, absolutely packed to the gills with wonderful tips and tutorials as well as her own beautifully stitched wardrobe. Whatever the reason for the blog break, I hope you're well and happy Sherry, we miss you! 

Blue rose shirt dress

My big news for today is that my blue rose shirt dress is finished. Hoorah! A few stumbling blocks were flung across my path during the making of it, including half term holidays and a serious buttonhole foot malfunction. But now it's finally completed, I'm glad I made it at my own pace and didn't try to rush the making of this lovely dress.

This is the second time I've used McCall's 4769 (the first being my Jubilee dress), so I knew I didn't need to make any further adjustments to the pattern. In fact I didn't have to make any the first time round, just shortening the skirt using the petite lines on the pattern. 

For fabric I used my all time favourite Liberty print - Carline - which is a fab blue rose print on a cream background. It was a tight squeeze cutting out all the pattern pieces as I only had two metres, but omitting the pockets and sleeve bands seemed to just about swing it. It's fully underlined with silk cotton (apart from the sleeves), which makes a massive difference both in opacity and feel. The blue of the roses really pops with the white underlining and the dress now has a luxurious weightiness to it that I love.

Inside...

..and outside

My first version of this dress only has six buttons and buttonholes, and with hindsight, I think a couple of extra ones wouldn't have gone amiss. So this time round I made eight buttonholes, which gives the dress that extra bit of security! 

And finally, I managed to use the last scraps of my Watch this Lace trimming on the hem. It's a perfect colour match too - don't you just love it when that happens?!

For those of you who were interested in a tutorial on attaching the collar and facings, I think I have enough photos and will put something together over the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, here I am prancing around in my new dress...

I love how it looks with a waspie belt

Can my cheeks possibly look any more hamster like?

Yes, they can!

I just love shirt dresses - they're so easy to wear and manage to effortlessly travel that difficult path between casual and dressed up. I know I'm going to love wearing this dress over the summer. x

Pin it Forward UK

For the past month or so, Pinterest has been running its Pin It Forward campaign to help spread the word about its official UK launch.  Small armies of bloggers have been waxing lyrical about what it is they like about Pinterest, and today it's my turn.

The idea behind Pinterest is that you can collect (or 'pin') images and pictures you find online onto a virtual pin board. You can then organise your images onto different subject boards and refer back to them whenever you want. It's as simple as that. It works brilliantly for me because I work much better with visual references, but I do have to ration myself severely, otherwise I'd be on there all day. And I mean literally. All. Day.

I don't actually have a pin board at home, which is a shame because I'd love to be able to see and be inspired by pictures of lovely things whilst I work. But the good news is that I can really make Pinterest work for me as a reference tool. I can pin the images I like and order them by theme - as many as I like too as there's no limit to the number of pins or boards you want to create! The other big advantage is that you can follow other people, check out what they've pinned to their boards and repin any images that take your fancy. I love discovering new boards and pinners, especially if they have a taste for the same kinds of things as me. And that's exactly why it's so addictive! 

It's a fabulous resource for dressmakers. One of my favourite boards is my Sewing Inspiration board.

This is where I pin outfits or garments I like the look of. It needn't necessarily be something I want to make, I might just like the look of it, the colour, the shape, the skirt, the buttons, the collar. Anything. It just needs to catch my eye. I also like to pin things by colour. Red....

Or yellow.

Or by pattern. I have a polka dots board...and a gingham one... and a stripes one. And one of handsome men ….

Sometimes just scrolling through my boards will give me the inspiration I need for a certain project. Remember my lace trimmed collar and placket for Marie's Watch this Lace project?

That was totally inspired by this dress I'd pinned to my yellow board.

And my Sew for Victory dress?

The pattern was one I'd pinned to my patterns board and was able to track down.

I think I can safely say I'm a fan! If you haven't joined Pinterest already, you can do so here. The next blogger in the campaign who will be spreading the Pinterest love is Kim Dellow. She'll be sharing her blog post tomorrow and you can find her Pinterest boards here. 

Happy pinning everybody! x 

Knicker making - my first and last attempt

Sometimes in life, we just have to hold our hands up and admit we're rubbish at something. And sadly for me, that something is knicker making. I gave it my best shot but I'm clearly not destined to be one of life's knicker makers. Which is a shame really as I was getting well and truly carried away thinking up endless ways of incorporating gingham and polka dots into my frillies!   

First, I made a test pair from the Grace pattern by Ohhh Lulu, and although I really like the style, they were, as I suspected, way too low cut for my liking. Plus I wasn't too keen on the woven fabric sections - I've come to realise that I like my pants to have a good bit of stretch to them. 

Next I tried the Granny Pannie free downloadable pattern from Sew Vera Venus, which a kind reader alerted me to after this post. I was happier with the style and cut and the pattern is easy peasy to sew, but I just couldn't get to grips with the fold over elastic. Instead of sexy and retro glamorous, I ended up with baggy school knickers, fit only to be worn under a netball skirt. When I started this blog, I vowed to share with you all my sewing efforts: the good, the bad and the ugly. Well, what's about to be revealed is both bad AND ugly. Avert your eyes if you don't think you can bear it.

Ginormo pants from hell

By this point, my passion was waning and I just wasn't feeling it. To be honest, I think I was more in love with the idea of making myself some gorgeous, vintage style knickers than the actual reality of making them. It all boils down to my intrinsic laziness - at the end of the day I just can't be bothered. Especially when I can buy some instead …

Yes, my cunning plan involved downing my knicker making tools and purchasing my own handmade frillies from Ohhh Lulu. I had some craft fair money squirrelled away so I decided to treat myself for my birthday. 

These gorgeous, high waisted pants are handmade to your measurements and work out at about £15 a pair (excluding postage) which is what I would pay normally for a special pair. I chose the Pin-Up trio and they're so lovely and glamorous, exactly the sort of knickers I was envisaging when I embarked on this particular path.

In summary, you win some, you lose some. I think I'll draw a line under my knicker making escapade and move on! x

A sewing room of my own

My sewing room: January 2011

First things first - I'm a featured blogger on Ragbags and Gladrags this week as part of the Share a Creative Life series. Hoorah!  If you have a burning desire to know what inspires me, how I like to work and what my favourite colour is (that's an easy one!) then you can read the post here. When Claire from Ragbags and Gladrags was putting the post together, she asked for a photo of my work space. Now the last time I went into any detail about my workspace was in this post two years ago, when it was brand spanking new. 

My sewing room: January 2011

None of the shots from that post are particularly up to date any longer, so I thought I'd use the opportunity to take a few more pictures and see if anything much has changed in my sewing den.

My sewing room: May 2013

The main difference between then and now is that my sewing room is now far more 'lived in' and well used. I hadn't been sewing for long when I did the original post, so I had fewer patterns and even fewer bits of sewing paraphernalia. Amazingly, my fabric stash has remained pretty much the same size since then. Here's my current grand total:

One box of quilting cottons which I use for making things to sell at craft fairs. 

One box of lining fabrics

One box of ginghams and polka dots.

One box of dressmaking fabrics.

One box of heavier weight fabrics such as denim and thicker jerseys and decor weight fabrics for making bags. 

That's it, not too terrible really and it's good to be able to stash it all under the bed and out of sight. It's a different story however, when it comes to patterns and haberdashery supplies. I find it almost unbelievable that the few patterns on the shelf in this shot totalled my entire collection two years ago. 

The tailor's ham and seam roll set stopped acting as bookends a LONG time ago!

Things have changed since then… 

Obviously the shelves above the desk were never going to be large enough to comfortably hold all my sewing crap for long, so my superstar husband made me another long shelving unit which is fab. It's a bit boring to photograph, but you can just see it to the left of the main desk in the following shot. 

It has four cubbyholes which house my overlocker, a lovely old Singer machine which my father-in-law gave me, files of sewing magazines and PDF patterns, plus boxes and boxes of patterns, ribbons, zips, trimmings and (more recently) knicker elastic!  

As it doubles up as a guest room, my sewing room has to stay reasonably tidy, which is a good discipline. But I'm also a great believer in having the stuff I work with on display in a room where I'm trying to be creative. You don't have to work in a rubbish tip, but it definitely inspires me to be surrounded by vintage patterns, lovely fabrics and buttons on a daily basis. Looking back on these photos, I much prefer how it looks now. Yes, it looks neater and less stuffed full in the original shots, but it now looks much more interesting and well loved. Which is exactly what it is!  It's made me realise just how lucky I am having a room of my own to be creative in. How about you? Do you like working in pristine surroundings? Or are you more of an 'organised chaos' kind of worker? Do tell! x