Planning Moneta

I have had my eye on Moneta by Colette patterns for some time, and so when they had a sale last week I decided to snap up a pdf copy. I have recently come round to liking pdf patterns. Although they can be a bit of a pain to stick together, there is no need to trace the pattern just cut out your size. Then if you want to make another size at a later date, you can just print it out again!

I am currently a bit snowed under with sewing projects! I started a pencil skirt from Freehand Fashion but then decided I should make a dress for my holiday instead. It turns out this was a good plan as we go away on Thursday, and the dress is not quite finished yet! So when I get back, I will finish off the pencil skirt and then get to work on my dress for the Outfit-along. Once those are all done, Moneta is next on my list. Jersey dresses are just so comfy yet still look like you’ve made an effort with your wardrobe. I hope it will quickly become one of my sewing staples! I have already been admiring lots of lovely jersey fabrics but am holding back from buying them until I am ready to make it!

Here are some of my top picks at the moment

I would love a good basic dress that can be worn with anything and I think a jersey dress is perfect for this. This grey jersey has just enough texture to it to make it interesting while still being versatile. I think I could make one in every sleeve length in this sort of fabric!

 

 I always love a good stripe fabric, and these two are just perfect. Monochrome for autumn and winter and a bright red and teal for summer. But which one to make first?

 And speaking of summer, I love this abstract palm tree print it would be perfect for strolling down the beach in.

 

 

So many potential Moneta dresses to make I don’t know where to begin. I hope this is an easy make so I can make them all in super quick speed!

Knit and Stitch Show

Last week I had to head up to Lancaster for a work meeting and so whilst I was there I paid a visit to my parents for the weekend. It just so happened that the Knit and Stitch show was on at Rheged in Penrith. So, of course, we went.

I had so much fun. There was lots of wonderful things on display. Mostly craft supplies, yarn and fabric but in amongst it all were some completed items to show off the supplies at their best.

I was having far too much fun to remember to take pictures but I did snap a few. Mostly of my purchases (which I was trying so hard not to buy but just couldn’t help myself).

This was one of the few creations I did manage to get a snap of. There were lots of beautiful woven rugs and blankets on one stall – i forgot to get the name. I particularly loved the colour combination in this one and hope to recreate it in fair isle one day!

 

 

 I found a great stall selling locally produced alpaca yarn. I couldnt resist buying a couple of balls of natural aran weight (despite the hefty price tag). It is just so soft! I hope to make a hat with this at some point but may have to practice which ever pattern I choose a few times before turning to this yarn!

 

 

Next I bought a couple of fabrics from Cool crafting. They had loads of gorgeous cotton poplins on display, so it was really hard to choose one. They also had a betty dress from Sew Over It stitched up to display one of their fabrics. My mum loved it so I decided I would make her one. The blue daisies on the top right was here choice and the monochrome flowers is for me.

There was also an exhibition about Harris tweed on at the centre with lots of beautiful photographs representing the famous fabric. One artist at the fair specialised in pieces made with Harris tweed. I really loved lots of the work on display so bought myself a card with a print of these puffins! The tweed is felted and then accentuated with felted yarn detailing.
Add featured image – close up of interest

 

I’d love to hear if you have any pattern suggestions for my new yarn or fabric purchases! Just let me know in the comments.

Goldhawk Road

A couple of weeks ago I took my first trip to Goldhawk road.

A quick trip around bloglamd and the sewing community will  have you realise that this is THE place to go for fabric shopping in London.

I wasn’t dissapointed we walked from Kensington gardens through Shephards Bush and arrived at Goldhawk Road. At first it just looked like any other street and I began to wonder what all the fuss was about. Once we started to walk down the street though I realised what an amazing place it really was. Pretty much every other shop was a fabric store and not only that some of them were like Aladdin’s caves which got bigger and bigger the more tiny archways or crooked stairwells you ventured down.

Unfortunately I don’t remember the names of the shops from which I made my purchases but the first purchase of the day was this aztec print jersey at just £6 a metre.

I bought 2 metres and hope to use it to make a slouchy cardigan with all the new skills I hope to learn in the new year as I work my way through the Colette book I won a few weeks ago.

My other purchases were all from the same shop, again I dont remember the name but they had all sorts of fun cotton prints. I checked and these 2 are 100% cotton, another bargain at £6 a metre. Again I got 2 metres of each.

I’m not sure what I will make from these but I am picturing spring/summer blouses or dresses.

All in all it was a great trip. I’m so glad I went and I got some great fabrics to play with in the new year when I am back home and can sew again!

H.

Secret WIPs

It’s that time of year where everything I am working on is toward a gift of some kind. So many of my friends and family are having birthdays, housewarmings, babies…and Christmas is just around the corner. So unfortunately there is a lot I am working on at the moment that I just cant share with you right now. However, I do promise that once gifts have been received I will show them to you in all their glory! I am also going to try and squeeze in a bit of selfish sewing this weekend so hopefully that will be something! In the meantime take a look at this sneaky little fabric purchase from today! I just couldn’t resist!

 

Stash sorting

This would normally be the time for my weekend WIPs post but this weekend has been full of things. Just not much crafting.

I did manage to get my Capri trousers finished but more on those another day once I have taken some photos. Other than that I managed a few rows of knitting but there’s not really much to report.

I did however, do some stash sorting. Now there’s nothing to get too excited about here I did not manage to get rid of anything! I just sorted fabric into two boxes: one of pieces large enough to make full items out of and another of old clothes and offcuts which can be used for smaller projects.

I also sorted my yarn out and kept all the balls that are for my current projects in an accessible place whilst those that are not needed went into a box to be kept out of the way. I even wrote a list of what’s in the box so that hopefully I can consult that first when choosing my next project!

H.

 

Waterfall Skirt

After all that blogging about knitting and crochet last week I was really excited to get on with some sewing last weekend so I made a good start on the next item on my ‘to-sew’ list. It was the Clemence skirt from the Tilly and the Buttons’ book. I have seen a few of these popping up all over blog loand for a while now and each one is so different so I couldnt wait to put my own spin on it!

One really great thing that I loved about making this skirt is you actually get to make your own pattern! This sounds really daunting at first but it turns out all you need is a few rectangles! You only even really need your waist measurement but your hip measurement can help get the fullness of the skirt more to your liking. It is a simple waistband cut twice and then a front piece cut on the fold and two back pieces. The length of the rectangles is simply your desired skirt length and the width is determined by some mathmatical trickery concerning your waist measurment. Although I did decided to make the width of my skirt panels a bit narrower to give a less full skirt.

I chose to make a midi skirt that would sit just a bit below the knee. However, it is now much longer than this on me as it sits quite a bit lower on my waist than I had hoped. I think I might have stretched the fabric slightly as I sewed the waistband. I thought about shortening it before hemming but I decided I actually really like this length so decided to stick with it!

The details:

Pattern: Clemence skirt from Tilly and the Buttons book: Love at first stitch

Fabric: Waterfall print quiliting cotton (unknown make) bought from Fashion Fabrics in st. Albans

Notions: YKK invisible zip in cream, Guterman thread in grey, lightweight interfacing.

Alterations: Midi length, reduced fullness from recomendation by taking 3.5 inches off the width of each pattern piece

I really love this skirt, infact I dont think theres much that I am disappointed with. The waist does not sit exactly where I planned but I am still happy with it. I was so happy that the sunny weather cam back yesterday so I got a chance to wear it straight away. In fact 4 separate people complemented me on it (yes 4!…cue smug face) and I even got asked where I had bought it from!

I think this is one I will definitely be making again!

H.

Weekend WIPs – Some sewing to round up a week of knitting and crochet!

After a great week of blogging about knitting and crochet last week for KCBW6 I thought I should get back to some actual crafting at the weekend rather than just writing about it! As I had been so focused on knitting and crochet in the week I thought it would be a great chance to get some sewing done.

Unfortunately I had to be at work on Sunday (and what a busy day it was!) so I didn’t manage to get much done but I can show you the gorgeous fabric I was using and some hints as to what the finished garment will look like!

Hopefully I will have more to show you soon!

H.

Delphine Skirt

After the fantastic success of my starry pajamas I decided to follow it up swiftly with another sewing project before I lost all confidence. This time I wanted to create something that I could wear outside the house.

Say hello to the Delphine skirt. This is another creation from Tilly and the Buttons.

Delphine skirt in burgundy cotton drill

I decided to play it safe and choose one of the suggested material types. So I searched on ebay for “drill” in the fabric section despite not knowing what that meant! I chose this lovely burgundy colour – again opting not to go for a pattern to play it safe.

I enjoyed making this skirt as I felt I had progressed so far from my pajamas but was not overwhelmed by a vast number of new skills needed to complete the task. In fact the only new skills required were interfacing and inserting an invisible zip. I had attempted some interfacing before for a bag, that time I just guessed my way through it using a few internet tutorials but I wasnt really satisfied with the result. However, this time I had specific instructions in my book to follow along with the pattern and in fact it was incredibly simple and I created a stiffened wasteband with only minor difficulty!

The second new skill required for this skirt was a little more daunting, the invisible zip. Once again, the step by step photo tutorial was amazing and this together with the instructions included with my new invisible zipper foot meant that in just over an hour I had a zip on my skirt!

Invisible zip on Delphine skirt

I was so proud of my creation I decided to wear it along to my craft club and tell everybody that I had made it. The response to which was a planned trip to the local fabric shop for me and my fellow crafters to purchase some more fabric so that we can have a sew-a-long and create a garment together!

Starry Pajamas

I would like to tell you about my first “proper” sewing project. My starry pajamas!

Starry Pajamas

Last year my mum gave me her old sewing machine, which was rather limited in its capabilities with only 2 stitches in its repertoire. However, it was enough for me to try a few things out. I even made a couple of tote bags although the seams are now coming apart where the machine struggled to cope with anything more than 2 layers of fabric.

So in the January sales I bit the bullet and bought myself a shiny new sewing machine. I decided to start out with something simple so I chose to do the pajamas from Tilly and the buttons book “Love at First Stitch”. First of all I need to tell you how amazing this book is. Everything is explained in a simple manner – no sewing jargon required – with beautiful pictures guiding you all the way.

Following the directions in the book I chose my measurements and cut out the pattern in the correct size from my chosen fabric

Red fabric with white stars

Sewing of the pajamas was pretty simple with straight stitching and then zigzag stitching over the edges to stop any unravelling.

I completed the pajamas with a drawstring mad from a complementary cream ribbon with the text “Handmade with love” printed on.

Ribbon on pajamas

 

Hopefully this will be the first of many sewing projects to come. I feel I was perhaps playing it safe with pajamas as I wont be leaving the house in them! However, the other patterns in the book all look so good that I am sure I will be creating more of them soon!

H.