Fabulous Auntie S & a little bit of shopping

I had a lovely day on Thursday as I had the day off work and took P's Auntie S to the Prima Homemade Craft Show at Bluewater. It's not far from where I live, and Auntie S is en route so it was a good venue for us.

Auntie S is special to me, she's always treated me with kindness and we have a crafting bond but when I wasn't feeling at my best earlier this year she was an absolute brick. She's taught me lots of new skills and I've tried crafts I would not have contemplated before, a lovely no-nonsense lady.

Here's Auntie S in her latest homemade skirt, finding out about The Knitted Garden

We enjoyed the Craft Show, it's on today and tomorrow too I think. We've been to other shows in the past that have been very paper craft focussed (not a problem as we both make cards) but there was a bit more variety here. There are some beautiful film costumes by the entrance on the upper floor, beautiful beading work. The Phantom of the Opera costume was my absolute favourite because of the hat.

My friend J gets married next May, I'm making the stationery so I know her colour is purple - too much do you think

Auntie S and I loved the knitted garden, there were lots of contributors and it had obviously taken a great deal of work. Auntie S has arthritis in her hands now and, having been a prolific knitter all her life, can only take on little projects now but she still appreciates the quality of work by others - in fact we saw a beautiful knitted bag on the WI stall, very delicate work. Her next project is to improve my knitting (dire!).

I was a very restrained shopper, knowing we fly to Japan next Saturday (still 'skipping level' excited!) and I have great fabric buying plans then. I bought a few card making bits but these are my sewing related purchases:

This is my favourite, although I'm going to have to invest in different underwear.

Planning to make view B for work although I think the photo is awful! My only concern, having checked it out on Pattern Review, is about bust fitting. I'll definitely have to make a muslin.

I'm planning to make the top first to hopefully sort out fitting issues.

I think both of these will be perfect work skirts

I got all 4 of these for £4.50 as they were discontinued patterns, I actually had about 20 patterns in my hand but Auntie S made me helped me sift ruthlessly.

The broiderie anglaise was £3 pm, I have enough for 2 tops (1 for me, 1 for my daughter A) - definitely room for more Bow Sorbettos in my life and I really liked the daisy style flowers.

This superfine lawn was £8 pm, I have enough for a blouse, I have a grey pencil skirt this will look great with.

And the irony, Japanese superfine cotton lawn, I have a dress length for £9, and am dithering between 2 patterns. I have shoes in the taupe colour already. I have an interview on the horizon, if I can do a good enough job I think this would make the perfect interview dress.

Right, off to think about packing - did I mention Japan?! :)

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'Just one Sorbetto, handmade by me' ...

I know everybody knows this already, I was late to the party as I only started sewing myself clothes this February, but the free Colette Sorbetto pattern is great. I went from 0 to 5 handmade tops in under 2 weeks, and wore them to take part in Tilly's OWOP in March. The sense of satisfaction was immense and it really encouraged me to think I'd be able to progress and make wearable things.

Me & my 'baby boy' - this is my absolute favourite Sorbetto, made from a Liberty lawn remnant, £9.74. It has sleeves & a pleated neckline, I have worn it repeatedly. The neckline shows up a bit better in the second photo

Not only is the pattern free it uses so little fabric, I can get away with about half a metre if the fabric is wide enough, and I don't want sleeves. I desperately wanted to wear my new skirt and had nothing suitable in my fabric stash, which is fairly modest ...

... but I have guilt about buying more fabric because:

(a) I'm going to a craft show on Thursday, there are bound to be some bargains

(b) P and I head off to Japan in less than a fortnight and I fully intend to stock up whilst I'm there (I am so excited, this is such an adventure for us, I'm not even going to pretend to be nonchalant, I'm proper, skipping about excited)

However, what I can justify is practising new techniques, can't put a price on improving one's skill set. So, this seemed like the perfect solution for my 'what can I wear with my red skirt?' dilemma, cheap as chips broiderie anglaise.

Just over half a metre of fabric, £3ish; thread from stash, bias binding from scraps of plain white cotton I used on skirt pockets (new skill), made the bow from scraps of main fabric (new skill) - DONE!

So a new outfit for just over £9, new skills, an excuse to wear my new red shoes, happy face!

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Out of the Dog House

Poor sewing machine, I've discovered my tension problems were thread related. No idea why, it was a new spool, not one of my bargain finds. Apology duly accepted by my machine, we had another go at my red skirt ...

 

Hurray, I'm really pleased with it, although it's not so orange in real life (which ironically would suit me better). Because of the thread issue it's been unnecessarily difficult but I got there in the end. This is the second go at my bargainous 50p charity shop A-line skirt pattern (circa 1971). I made a complete mess of following the instructions this time, no idea why.

The fabric was £5.38 from Ikea (I have enough left to make something for one of my little nieces), the zip was a gift, I think the buttons were 20p each, white fabric on the pockets were scraps, so about £6, excellent.

I followed Winnie's brilliant lapped zip instructions here, Scruffy Badger Time. This is by far the easiest method I have followed, I can't envisage ever doing it another way in future, I could hug her, I had previously put this in and ripped it out 4 times!

I remembered seeing the pocket idea some months ago. I couldn't remember where so winged it. I've now found the original source, and remembered them pretty much spot on, you can find them here at A Fashionable Stitch on a beautiful Ginger skirt.

As red doesn't suit me very much I had planned a Sorbetto from white fabric with navy polka dots for my top half. I temporarily forgot I'd used it to make a dress for my gorgeous girlie - the scraps won't stretch to a garment of any sort sadly but, as you can see from this photo the sacrifice was worth it ...

I have already apologised for taking this photo before A had done her hair or make-up and she gave me permission to use the photo. Of course, I'd like to look half as good after a make over!

And I have an excuse to buy some more fabric - I'm going to a Craft Show next Thursday with P's lovely, crafty Auntie S, I'm adding polka dot fabric to my list!

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