Vintage summer dress

My vintage sewing has slowed down a little. I have made a lot of my vintage pattern collection into wearable garments except for this one which I picked up before Christmas for 50p in an antique shop.

I bought the fabric back in February, a choice all of my own: not sponsored or thifted or given. Just me choosing and buying some fabric that I really liked.

The pattern is Butterick 4265. No date but you would have to take a punt at the late 1960's

It was so easy to make from two simple pattern pieces and some facings. It was already cut in my cupboard therefore the actual sewing and fitting time was only about an hour and twenty minutes.

I wore it on Bank Holiday Monday in the tropical heat we have experienced today on a walk around Hodnet Hall Gardens.

This is my second summer dress make for this year, the other is the Kalle Shirt dress. One of my summer dresses from last year is too small so two in and one out.

What did you do in the lovely sunshine this weekend?

Errata: I just remembered I made a spotty one too. Whoops! Three in one out, doesn't sound quite so puritanical. 

All done #20 Curtain Fabric

All done #20 has been a long time coming but today I can say that I have finally finished all of my curtain fabric scraps from the curtains I made in 2014! The fabric is 100% silk so I have been very careful with it. It was reduced from £37.99 to £7.50 a metre in a closing down sale.

Also a new bag of second hand goodies arrived this week which complimented it perfectly. It is from my friend who had the vintage blanket that I fixed for her. She used to work in the very posh upholstery/interiors shop where I bought the original fabric. She has some stuff to move on as she is moving house and she wanted to say thank you for my crochet job.

There was an unusual collection of bits and pieces. Some wonderful cotton ticking, upholstery fabric, full cotton reels, wooden flower buttons and much more...

 

I decided to spruce up the sofa a little. One of our cushions had burst which was fraying and there is always a bit of a bun fight for the one remaining cushion on a Friday night when we all watch TV for an hour together. I found a rectangle blank cushion behind the sofa waiting for a crochet cover but I used it for this project instead.

After a scruffy play around with my free motion applique foot to 'doodle' around the petal pieces, I had my final design.

The peacock fabric was in the bag along with some thick wadding: maybe some kind of thermal curtain lining?? It made the cushion really sturdy and steadied the applique. There was a zip in the bag so I went mad and added that too. I always do a fold over so a zip felt like a bit of a treat.

 The second one used nearly all of my curtain fabric left overs. I used up the last of the wadding with invisible thread to simply quilt the layers together. The linen piping was also in there; it was a like a lucky dip bag!

The last plain and simple one really did use the last square of fabric. It has all gone.

Two fold over cushions and a zipped one.

All done with my curtain fabric from 2014.

Jo xxxx

ing...May

Making - More of my WATG crochet dress

Eating -  Chicken turmeric and ginger kebabs with Salad

Cooking - A whole duck for the first time for friends eaten with cucumber strips and rice pancakes.

Wanting - A safe journey to France later in the month

Deciding - What to pack for our holidays. Bloke packs one bag, I pack three. Sound familiar?

Fixing - My favourite bracelet

Considering - How many more blocks to make on my crazy scraps quilt

Wearing - Sandals even if a little chilly. 

Enjoying - Our garden coming to life

Loving - returning to outdoor play and adventure

Disliking - World news events

Getting -  Really into quilt making, the possibilities are endless.

Buying - Some great things from the charity shop.

Wondering - What was happening in my local yarn shop at 8:20 at night? I am assuming it was a stock take and that they were not choosy yarn burglars.

Watching - All the sheep and lambs safely delivered on the farm

Thinking - About my dad

Feeling - Happy with our chosen life.

Style Arc Annika Top

My Minerva make this month is a mid season item trying out some different fabrics: ponte stretch with georgette. Style Arc patterns are new at Minerva. They are for the experienced sewer due to the scant instructions however the final garment has a great everyday feel. The whole collection is very wearable for all shapes and sizes which I think is very important.

The Annika top is made in two parts in two different fabrics. I chose a stretch ponte roma fabric for the top and a co-ordinating georgette for the bottom which is a challenging fabric to work with but you could use a light cotton lawn to make it easier.

These are the full instructions so you need to have sewn a few clothes in order to glide your way through them. 

One of my craft resolutions for 2018 is to use more of my sewing machine feet so I had a go with my rolled hem foot to finish the chiffon. It is good on a straight edge but needs a little more practise on my behalf for curves where the fabric sometimes slips away from the needle. 

Even when the weather picks up in the UK there are still days where a light sweatshirt is ideal so I am looking forward to wearing this right now. 

A job well done! A really wearable staple garment in my favourite colour green. Thanks Minerva.

I must say thank you for all of your wonderful comments about my quilt, I was bowled over. I am very proud of it and you have all made me smile with pride.

Jo xx

Meet Lucky my King Sized Quilt

I have named this quilt 'Lucky'. I like to name my quilts on their completion because they become part of me; they grow their own personality. This is called Lucky because I have been so lucky to have been given such lovely fabrics by some fantastic people.

I spy some fabrics from some great bloggers: Christina, Amy (formerly of Love Made My Home),CJ and Helen

I spy fabrics from my Auntie Shirley

I spy fabrics from a work colleague whose elderly mother went into a home and couldn't take it with her

I spy fabric from my neighbour who has carpol tunnel and is unable to sew anymore and another neighbour who was having a clear out from her 1980s Laura Ashley off cuts.

I spy fabric Bloke bought me for my birthday and some of his old shirts

I spy fabrics given to me by companies as samples at shows.

I spy little snippets of all the clothes I have made for us over the last few years: bits of Liberty, school gingham skirts, pump bags, skirts, dresses and so much more.

Lucky takes on a different look at different times of the day, I like popping my head round the door to take a peek in the early evening especially.

Details

It is made up of 252 dresden star blocks. You cut a rectangle 14cm X 20cm and then cut it on the diagonal. Next you use (or make out of card) a dresden template to make the shape in the middle plus seam allowances. 

There are 1008 pieces in this quilt. 252 x 3! 252 blocks with three pieces in each.

It is hand quilted with embroidery thread. It took four whole skeins in total split down the middle all from Helen Phillips. Time wise that is just over one week of evening hand sewing. The stitches are big to make it: a)possible, b)take out slack and ripples and c)look handmade.

The backing and wadding is the IKEA quilt that was already on our bed. The quilt topper was a few inches smaller all around so I sewed it on with the machine with the help of Bloke holding the weight of it before any hand quilting to keep it steady.I cut off the excess and original binding. The new binding is some I already had from Frumble, I went for the red. I used my binding foot which was a god send.

It is heavy. I don't know how heavy but trust me it is heavy. It keeps us very warm. I took this photo from some scaffolding in the farm yard (a long story) so the background is a dry muddy yard with my family holding it up. It was the only way to photograph such a heavy and large scale object.

Cost: it didn't cost me anything...just my time, love and patience. I did lots of thinking whilst doing it and that, to me, is priceless.

A mahoosive thank you to everyone who contributed, even if I missed you out on 'I spy' - if you did join in with this creation give us a little shout out. Can you see any of your fabrics?

One last thing - I TOTALLY LOVE IT!!!!!!!

Thanks for taking a look. Jo xxx

Longshaw Dress

I have picked a slightly maverick pattern to try and it has been a happy surprise. It comes from the new book 'A beginners guide to sewing knitted fabrics' by Wendy Ward.

My pal Christina sent me some unwanted viscose jersey. It is a drapey fabric with lots of stretch and movement in all directions - a tricky customer but I loved the navy blue spots especially as I can't get in my similarly patterned vintage tennis dress anymore :( 

You can see how inaccurate you could be with this fabric. I wanted to have a double layer on the front to avoid any knobbly bra texture on my frontage and this is what I thought would be two pieces the same! I used the cutting mat and my rotary cutter to trim the one on the back down to match.

I sewed the two front pieces together within the seam allowance and treated it as one front piece. My pinking shears chewed the fabric like toffee so I didn't even try to put this one through my over locker, it is just the kind of fabric is eats for dinner.

So what was so maverick about it? Well, this is one of the skirt pieces?? You cut two and join them together then the 'wings' at the side folded in to make integrated pockets and waterfall sides.

For the neckline and arm binding I went to my favourite technique. You sew the binding in a ring and pin it right side to wrong side of the dress which feels strange. Sew it on to secure it. Next bring the binding forward rolling it over the raw edges. Take the dress back through the machine with the right side showing so that you can neatly top stitch it in place.

It has a really neat finish and the fabric feel fabulous.

The pattern uses the Winnats tank top and the Longshaw skirt from the book to make a dress

I finished it on Wednesday night, had it on after work on Thursday for a try out then wore it with navy leggings to work on Friday for an office day. I really like wearing it, definitely worth trying something new for a change. Here is another beautiful version.

Enjoying the sunshine? A massive mood lift here as you can see.

Jo xxxx