On the wild side and getting wilder...

 

I thought I would bring you an update on the wild jeans. They came about because I needed a new pair of jeans before lockdown March 2020 and hadn't got round to going shopping for some. Then of course there were consecutive lockdowns. I will not buy a pair of jeans unless I can try them on and all changing rooms have been closed even when visiting shops became available. I have momentously bought new jeans in the M&S sale this week.

The patching started with a little weak spot on the knee and progressed every month for sixteen months. Sometimes they just needed a little embroidery and other times they needed a full patch. This is where they are now. You can see the front crotch patch which is not the prettiest but it had to be done to save them. I have also made a severe dent in all the little iron patches I bought when the children were small but never used. That is how I came to have a water melon on my bum!

I always get comments about them when I wear them - all good so for, or maybe that is just my inflated sense of self-esteem! Anyway the journey continues. My new fabric belt looks well alongside them and I will be making more of these. If anyone is interested, the top is a super easy pattern from Maria Denmark called the day to night drape top perfect for the summer sunshine.

Have you got any visible mending achievements, do tell? 

Emma, Dianne and Michelle

 A seasonal make for you today, a warm lined pinafore with a more formal edge than the usual bib and braces pinafore style.

The pattern is called Emma from a Simply sewing magazine and it has a lovely fit straight from the packet. Dianne from Sew,Create and  Recycle did a swap with me towards the end of lockdown. I sent her some bag-making fabric then she sent me some patterns she didn't want. She definitely lives up to her blog name.

The top has an empire line with gathers under the bust. This was a thick brocade fabric so extra special attention had to be paid to the gathers. If the truth be told, I did the lower waistband seam twice because the first time I only used one row of gathering stitches and it was all bumpy and not spread evenly across the centre of the skirt. I used two rows of gathers to get it right which I knew I should have done in the first place! 

The fabric is a woven brocade given to me by my friend Michelle in my 'lockdown' fabric bag which she donated on my back doorstep as a surprise. Due to the thickness of the fabric, I made one side of the pocket out of lining to reduce bulk at the hips.

 

Thank you to all involved in my free pinafore: Dianne, Michelle and of course Emma. I would definitely make it again. I would love a red  or patterned cord one.

Thanks for dropping by. I appear not to be disguising the fact that it is cold by the strained looks on my face! 

What are you making this Autumn/Winter?

Jo xxx

Needles and Thread

 She is good, very, very good. I have realised of late that I am no longer as good at embroidery as I used to be because my eyes are not so sharp. My ten year old however is a demon stitcher. Look at this beauty.

Her first attempt was actually this unicorn on a rainbow but as my youngest goes against the grain of most fashion imagery, she shows a contempt for unicorns that would never ever be necessary in her future life. She was adamant - it was a horse on a rainbow because unicorns aren't real! You go for it girl.

She has persevered with french knots and now has that safely under her belt along with splitting off strands from the main thread which she found tricky at first. She also learnt the hard way about cutting the tail off too short when she got to the end of her thread.

She is off again with a new design featuring a hedgehog.

My eldest daughter, who is thirteen, has taken her stitching to a different place. I returned from work last week to find she had covered a snag on her jeans with some freestyle embroidery. How cool is that? She says it isn't finished yet but I was most impressed.

She returned to them another day to enhance the pockets. 

I have ANOTHER hole in my jeans. This week I decided to use a ready made patch I bought in Italy on holiday last year along with a little homemade applique. The lace covers the long rip repair and the owls strengthen the repair vertically.

Thanks for popping in, I am off to make an appointment at the opticians. Can I do that yet I wonder? These girls have made my eyes feel old and worn out!

Jo xxx

Maxing Out

We get a great deal of our clothes from my network of friends. Every season or so a bag of clothes arrives from either my friend who has three girls older than mine or from another two friends who send us stuff too. Eventually when we have finished with them, we pass them on to younger children. It works for us all: it is cheap, sustainable and fun.

In a bag that came to us this summer was an M&S maxi dress aged 9/10yrs. Megan will not wear spagetti straps or a full length dress but she loved the butterfly fabric so we popped it on the refashion pile 2 months ago.

Firstly, I made a skirt using the shirring chest as a comfy waistband. I cut off the straps and folded it over to make two layers. Make sure you use a stretch stitch to sew this down to allow the shirring to continue doing its job. I used a zig zag on 0.5 width and 3.0 length. Hemmed, there was a skirt before my very eyes!

With the remaining piece I really wanted to use the maximum amount of fabric so I made a peasant top. Megan loves these and wears them on their own or with a long sleeved T-shirt underneath.

I squeezed one out using pattern pieces from an Ottobre pattern. I managed to get the length by using the original maxi dress hem. Recycling to the very end, I used one spagetti strap to make a bow for the front.

I don't know if she will ever get to wear them together but as two pieces from one unwanted dress it was very successful.

That left over fabric pile is getting smaller. The spare room of a crazed sewing woman!

 Have a good week whatever you are up to. Jo xx

That Annie Sloan Thing

My good friends went to a show/exhibition somewhere - the details are vague, it was a while ago, but as a thank you for having them to stay for a weekend they gave me an Annie Sloan press pack kit. This  was at least two years ago. The kit has been in the cupboard under the stairs. It was one of those boxes of goodies that was almost too lovely to use, a bit like my post office set when I was a child.

It encouraged you to go on their website and use their inspirational tutorials but I think you might know me well enough by now to predict that I just started painting!

I bought a bathroom cabinet for £10 on a DIY store clearance shelf. It said it had a dirty mark on it, which it did, but that was the epiphany moment when I thought about the paint kit.

Firstly we painted the whole cabinet green after sanding it to enable the paint to key in. Andy looked a little alarmed - I could see him thinking 'why has she ruined that white cabinet with streaky green paint? Meg helped to do this first coat.

Secondly, Heidi added coats of grey after the green had dried. Not much of an improvement but the layers were building up.

Next you have to sand it on the edges revealing the green and in some areas the original white. Anywhere there is a pool of paint needs a smooth finish too. You have to be brave at this point. Too little sanding and it looks grubby, not enough and it looks like it needs another coat. The distressed look is a fine line to find.

The next stage is to use gilding paste to add metallic highlights. I have never used this before but on the tube it warned the user to add tiny amounts at a time. 

The top one had paste and the lower one does not have paste. It does add another dimension I feel.

The final part is to add a layer of clear wax. This stops the chalky finish from rubbing off. I have never done this on any furniture I have painted in the past and the paint has gradually worn off.I once asked a man in a second hand shop how he stopped the paint coming off and he said he always waxed it at the end.

I am really pleased with it and although I can't show it you in situ, for we do not have a bathroom yet, I can imagine it with a little trailing plant on the top. I was lucky because the mirror was removable avoiding any unsightly paint smudges. I mean for £10 - what is not to love? It is lovely paint but I know it is pricey stuff if I had to buy it myself. A dirty mark on the front, what dirty mark?

Ever tried anything like this? Any future tips?

Jo xxxx

In and Out of Love

I have been slowly falling out of love with my fabric cupboard. It has become a pile of off cuts - many are too big to throw in the patchwork box but not enough to immediately think of what to make with them. Mixed within this pile of scraps are some clothing items I thought I could refashion but haven't got around to. 

I have some new pieces of fabric but there is not enough room to put them up neatly. The dross is hogging the shelf. Hmmmm...

The first thing I attacked out of the pile was a vintage handmade sundress given to me by a friend. I tried it on as a dress but it was pretty huge on me. I decided to hack it off into a skirt.

The fabric pattern and quality of the cotton was wonderful which is why I was hanging on to it. I am a sucker for ric rac too.

I normally make pencil skirts or A line skirts but I chose to go with the fabric within the skirt and add some front pleats. 

I added a waistband and an invisible zip. It already had pockets in it (bonus!) so I made sure they would still be functional.

All in all I like the skirt even though it is not my normal style - definitely a hot day skirt. I may turn it up a little bit more as I feel this length looks a little frumpy on me...

It is crying out for a white T-shirt but can you believe it, I haven't got one! I will give it a whirl for a few days while I sew something else from my nearly scraps pile. It is definitely better shorter...

Have you refashioned anything lately?

Jo xxx