Simplicity Star Sewist Contest - Flamingo dress

So way back in March I signed up for Simplicity's Star Sewist challenge.  I decided to enter the dress making category and was kindly given a copy of  the NewLook shift dress 6145 to get creative with.

I would like to say that I got really creative and made lots of fantastic alterations and adaptations to the dress....... Yeah well what can I say, life has been getting in the way of all things crafty over the last few months and I only got started yesterday.  Oops!

Never the less, while it is unlikely to win any prizes (the standard and creativity out there is amazing, just check out #simplicitybloggerchallenge on twitter), I am really pleased with my finished dress.

I wanted something to get me in the mood for summer and this turquoise flamingo print cotton fabric, which I picked up from my local Remnant Kings, fitted the bill perfectly.  It was lovely to sew with as well.

My only alteration I made to the pattern was to add in a set of in seam pockets -  I do love a dress with pockets! (Note to self: don't shove your hands right in pockets when taking photos - it distorts the dress!!).  I also used bias binding on the hem to keep as much of the length as possible.

In terms of sizing, the pattern has quite a bit of ease in it so I cut a 14 for the bust and graded to an 18 at the hips.  Think I may go back and take it in slightly at the waist but for the moment I am really pleased with my flamingo dress.

Good luck to everyone who entered and thanks to Simplicity for hosting this challenge.

See you soon x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment!

A "woosh" quilt!

I thought I would share another one of my Christmas makes which I am really pleased with.

I started this lone star quilt back in June 2013 (so not as bad as the dog cross stitch!) with the intention of it being a Christmas gift for my Aunt (other side of the family this time).

In the run up to the 2012 London Olympics I made my Aunt some bunting to hang in her garden.  She was going to quite a lot of the games so it seemed only right that her garden was properly attired! 

I decided that it would be nice to try and make a quilt for her with some of the remaining fabric and some other bits and pieces from my stash.  Its always handy to have a blanket to throw over your legs when sitting in summer evenings when it starts to get a bit chilly!

I spotted this Scrappy Lone Star Quilt by Better off Thread and thought it would be perfect.  Especially since i was working with scraps of fabric.  I also liked how she had positioned it off center.  The piecing and the cutting of the main star went really quickly and I finished that off in a day. 

I then had to wait on the backing fabric for the quilt top arriving.  Even though it was here quick the individual pieces sat in a drawer until I picked it back up in November 2014 and decided that it was definitely going to be done for Christmas 2014!

Now I'm not going to lie.  I found piecing the triangles onto the background awful.  For some reason I just could not figure out the correct way to get it all sewn together.  This was not due to the tutorial but more just to me having a bit of a daft day!  I did eventually get it all attached.

Needless to say there was much swearing when I was unpicking!  Eventually it got to the point of squaring the star up and adding the rest of the background.  Now I normally do all my trimming on the floor so I can step back and take a look at what I am doing (and there is load of room!).  For some reason I didn't this time and we had a wee accident.......!

Thankfully it was very easy to solve and quickly mended!

My Aunt had recently purchased a 1970s VW campervan so I got this rather cool fabric for the back.  Think it works well with the colours in the front and is a bit of fun (which quilts should be!). I decided to quilt it with variegated thread rather than picking a blue or red to blend in/stand out with the front/back  and i was really pleased with the results (although don't actually have an up close shot....).

I decided to stitch in the ditch round the main seams of the pieced star (you can see that in the photo above) then mirror the outline of the piecing in the quilting.  I think it looks like the star is going "woosh" across the quilt like one of those animations you get in powerpoint(!) and that is how it got its name.

I needed to get it all wrapped up for Christmas so here are a few photos I took of the finished article, sorry for the poor light taking decent photos in December in Scotland is tricky!!  I was really pleased with how it turned out and more importantly so was my Aunt!

See you all soon x

P.S.  I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment

A (very) late New Year post!

Happy New Year!  Ok the year is not very new anymore but better late than never right?!

Like most people out there in blog land I have been doing quite a bit of reflection about 2014 and thinking about what 2015 may hold.   Last year was absolutely fab and contained a number of big events (such as getting engaged and married in the same year) along with smaller things like participating in my first OWOP and making clothes that I actually wear outside of the house!  Needless to say quite a lot of my original plans got put to one side.  I also found that I began to get myself all stressed out about rather silly things, including the overwhelming feeling of having too many projects on the go/planned/on the wish list!

This year I am determined to not get myself in a tizz about having too much on (especially for those non essential projects on the to do list)!  I know I am never going to get right to the bottom of the WIP list but (and here is the catch) I am going to make a concerted effort to rid my list of all those thing which I now feel a bit 'meh' about and not feel bad about it!  I can't be the only one with projects on the list or started which were fashionable at the time but the moment has passed.  Going to have a good old clear out of the stash and see what is there - may even share some photos!

I could also do with running down my craft/fabric supplies as well so unless it is a present or I need it to finish a project then I ain't buying till at least June! 

In the mean time I have been doing a lot of fast finishes to start clearing the decks!  Apologies if you are on Instagram as you will have already seen most of these.

More bunting for a work colleague.

A drawstring bag for my nephew to take on his holiday made using this tutorial. Its the same fabric as the drawstring bag (Michael Miller les monieurs en ville blue from the Bead and Button Company) as I bought extra - it was too cute not to!!

Napkins to go with our wedding china.  I did wish we only had 6 place settings rather than 8 when I made these.  I would also make them a bit bigger next time.  I cut out squares of 45cm before hemming this time.

A I-pad mini cover for a friend using fabric I purchased from Remnant Kings on one of my lunchtime wanders.

A helicopter cross stitch - random gift for a friend who said they 'wanted a helicopter'... don't think this is what they had in mind though!

More lavender bags.  I really wanted to finish the rest of the lavender as it was getting in the way so it had to be done. Some were gifted but most kept......!

Some more tissue holders.  How cute is the princess one?!

I have also been progressing my wedding sampler (Love Blossoms by Bothy Threads which I purchased from Sew and So) and the Sew Crafty Sampler from issue 287 of Cross Stitcher Magazine.  These have been good projects for doing while watching the TV and not wanting to create much mess (we have had a lot of guests round recently)!

You will notice from all the photos that there is a distinct lack of clothes being made at the moment.  Like most people the last few months have been heavy on the eating/drinking and light on the exercise.  This means I need to take some new measurements and not really feeling the love for that at the moment! Anyone else get that or is it just me?  Hopefully that feeling will pass soon as I miss the challenge with making clothes.

Right that is enough from me for one day.  I won't be away long this time as I have a few posts about some of my larger Christmas makes lined up.

See you all soon x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment!

Time flies

Wow can’t believe how quick the last few months have gone and that it was September when I was last on here. 

Life has certainly been busy in the meantime. We got married…

….went on honeymoon….

…got ready for Christmas….

…. and to be honest just life in general has just been a bit crazy.  I have also managed to break the camera (both the camera and I got soaked by a wave on honeymoon – it didn’t survive!) and laptop (currently in the computer hospital) which has not helped.

I have, however, been managing to do some crafty stuff.  Those of you who follow me on instagram will probably be bored of seeing the updates on the Christmas Celebration Sampler by Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery.  Fab wee pattern and I do love being involved in a stitch along but the border is taking an age and has had to be put on hold while the Christmas sewing takes place.

Stitching Christmas ornaments when I was supposed to be gift sewing (another Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery project – Cozy Gingerbread Snow Globe)

Despite promising not to do many crafty projects for Christmas I seem to have been very busy making gifts!  I have a couple of posts lined up for after Christmas so I won’t share them just now.  However, I have been making loads of lavender bags and tissue holders as gifts – an idea which I have stolen from Mrs King Sews!

I have also made some more bean bag chairs as a favour for a colleague at work (they looked a lot better in real life - and were very comfy).

While I have been doing a lot of crafting, I have not touched the dressmaking in months.  The closest I have got was buying £45 dress for £8 out of Oasis as the seam had come away at the zip.

I know this seems very small but it is not something I would have even considered doing before.  A little bit of interfacing to reinforce the seam where a wee hole had occurred and away I went.

It was a bit fiddly, and the OH was a bit amused that the night before we go on honeymoon I decide to fix a dress, but I think it was worth it (photo doesn't do it justice!).

That’s enough from me for one day I think! 

Will be back soon  x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment!

The week that was OWOP 2014

Well that is it over, One Week One Pattern (OWOP) is done for 2014. This is the first one of these types of events I have participated in and I am so pleased I managed it.  A big thanks must go to Handmade Jane for organising it as well.

For OWOP I decided to wear the Delphine skirt from Love at First Stitch by Tilly from Tilly and the Buttons.

Day 1 - OWOP did not start off too great as I was unexpectedly in the wrong city to my skirt!  However, as soon as I got back to Glasgow it was off with the jeans and on with my botanical Ikea print Delphine with black top and cardie which I wore to go out for a meal with my OH.

Day 2 - Sunday morning was supposed to be a morning for making a second Delphine.  However it didn't quite work out like that and it was back on with the Botanical Ikea print Delphine with white top and pink cardie to go shopping with my mum.  (Please excuse the headless shot - the OH took it quickly when we were rushing out the door as we were late - and I was also insisting he got the new pink shoes in!)

Now at this point I still only had one skirt and was thinking that OWOP was not going to happen for me this year.  I had managed to start my denim version of Delphine but decided to add in some pockets, which I had never done before so this had slowed down the process. However, as we ended up being out most of the day, by 11pm I still had a bit to go and was very frustrated after seam ripping the waist band off the skirt twice and remaking both waist sections from scratch.  I was ready to give up and not bother, even though by this point I only had the waistband to sew down and to hem it.   However,  after some encouragement from people on Instagram and Twitter I got up early on Monday morning and finished it off.

Looking back I think the problem was I was tired and as there was no pattern I think I had been putting it on upside down!

Day 3 -  I made it and wore the newly completed denim Delphine  to work.  It was a slightly odd top combo but I was running late by this point and just needed to get out the door!

I do love the pockets that I added in to this skirt.  However, the fabric doesn't hold a crease very well as it has a wee bit of a stretch so I think the pockets sit a bit funny and could have done with being top stitched.  No idea how to do that now without sewing them shut so if anyone has any suggestions please let me know!

Day 4 - Denim Delphine with orange top.  I love how versatile this skirt is and I can see myself wearing it lots.

Day 5 - It was off to a work away day in my botanical Delphine with white lottie blouse and blue cardie.  This was my best 'me made' day of the week and one of my favorite outfits which I know you have seen before. When I first made this Delphine I was really not sure of the pattern but it has really grown on me over the week and this week has helped me get over the fact that the pattern is a bit more bold than I am used to.

Day 6 -  Wednesday night was spent making my red Delphine and I finished the hem on Thursday morning before going to work (recurring theme here!).  For this one I decided to add in some belt loops.  I do love the colour of the fabric, again from Ikea, but it creases like crazy.  I am also not sure what I did during construction but it is also the tightest of the three.  Never mind I still really like it and it got a lot of nice comments at work.

Day 7 - For the last day of OWOP I was torn between wearing the denim version again and my red one.  The red one won in the end, figured given all the fuss I had making three this week that I should at least wear it twice!  This time i teamed with with a white top, grey cardie and my hot air balloon scarf - which matched the red perfectly!

And that was my OWOP - featuring the three Delphines! 

Reflecting back, starting OWOP with only one skirt was not the smartest move and I did get my self into a bit of a tizz trying to get the other two complete.  However, the support out there on Instagram and Twitter was amazing - thank you ladies for all the encouragement.  It was nice to feel part of the wider sewing community and I loved seeing all your makes.  It has also added a few more patterns to my ever growing sewing to do list!

From reading other blogs I was slightly worried about my choice of a skirt for OWOP and while I didn't find it difficult wearing a skirt all week I did have a wee bit of trouble finding tops to go with it.  I normally wear dresses to work and jeans at home so a lot of my tops just did not sit right with the Delphine skirt.  I did however, like the change and it has encouraged me to make some more tops so that can only be a positive!

Would I do it again?  Absolutely - roll on OWOP 2015!!

See you all soon x

P.S. I love to chat so feel free to leave a comment!

Delphine and Lottie take a trip to the seaside

Its been a busy couple of weeks but in between a trip to the theater, catching up with friends and being bridesmaid at a wedding I managed to make a skirt! I used the Delphine pattern from Love at First Stitch, and some Blavinge fabric from Ikea.

We went to Maidens in Ayrshire today as it was a lovely and sunny and I thought it was perfect opportunity to wear my new skirt and actually take some photos.  Not bad since its has been over a week since I made the skirt!  I was not too sure about the fabric at first but when paired with my Lottie blouse I think it looks quite good.

I thought it fitted really well - and was perfect for paddling!

Even quite far out!

Anyway, back to the skirt! I cut a straight size 6 from the pattern - using my normal method of baking parchment and random objects from the living room to help trace it out! 

The skirt panels went together really quickly and then it was onto the concealed zip.  Now when I purchased my new machine a couple of months ago I decided to also invest in an invisible zipper foot.  This project was ideal to give it a test run.

Here we go.......

It was really easy to use and I was very happy with how the skirt came together.  I was even more pleased when I zipped it up and realised that I had managed to match the waistband seam first go!

I did, however, end up with a bit of a bump at the top of the zip once I had sewn in the waistband lining. I don't think I had trimmed the seam allowance back enough - hopefully I will manage to sort that for my next Delphine skirt.  

I wanted to make this version of Delphine to see if the style suited me before I made some for OWOP. Given that it is only a couple of weeks away I had better get sewing and stop paddling in the sea!