Nice weather for ducks

View from the dining room - not the weeding weather I was banking on

Hello there, long time no speak, I'm not entirely certain how we got to mid October this quickly ... I think it's my age, my Nainy always said the years whizz by as you get older ... moving on ...

All the lamps on at 10 o'clock this morning - not a bright and sunny day

I've been beavering away with my cross-stitch projects but I'm officially working on Secret Santa stuff so (just in case family members stumble across the blog) I can't share photos.
I am loving rediscovering cross-stitch, very satisfying - and perfect to complete in front of Strictly Come Dancing.

Dave Myers and Karen Hauer - Photo - BBC

 

Speaking of which, I'm usually all about the dancing, smarting when a good dancer goes because a "people's favourite" is kept in by the viewers.  But laughter is good for you - that's official.  I think Dave Myers' paso doble might be the funniest thing I have ever seen (and I sat through lots and lots of dance competitions when my DD was younger - there were some interesting routines). 

I so hope he doesn't go out too soon, I'm not sure how he'd top the paso but I'd like to see him try!  You can see it here - enjoy!

Right, enough of Strictly (with which I am very slightly obsessed - I think it's the costumes) ... I actually did some crafting today ... well preparation for sewing but as I can't abide ironing, pinning and cutting out are my least favourite bits of the whole process I thought I'd do a batch and get it out of the way. 

Plus I need to cut out on the dining table otherwise I have no end of bother with my back (getting hit by a car will do that to you) - doing a whole heap of cutting out in one go means the table won't be out of action for months days - I'm so considerate!

I'm also testing to see if it means I'll manage to sew in the short timeslots I seem to have available to me lately.  I think it's worth a try, I'm conducting a very scientific experiment - I'm looking at my productivity over the last month (practically zero) and seeing if it improves, shouldn't be hard to measure - I like simple maths :)

Revisiting an old friend - in case you've been under a rock somewhere for about 3 years,
the free pattern is available here

I spent last weekend sorting out my wardrobe and identifying gaps.  I'm not a keen clothes shopper so decided to see if I could make as many outfits as possible with what I have.  It's glaringly obvious I need some simple shell tops to go with skirts for work.  I like sleeveless tops under cardigans (and I love cardigans).  I laid my skirts out, raided my stash for the fabulously small amounts of fabric a Sorbetto will take and got the scissors out.

I love this print and I think it will go brilliantly with a couple of grey skirts I have.
I have 75 cm length, it's 145 cm wide and I paid £6 for it at a craft fair last September

So this is the first one ready to go.  I just about squeezed out self-drafted neck facings (I'm not that keen on bias necklines unless it's made from the main fabric).  Not a scrap left for sleeves (that's fine) but I did manage to make it 2" longer, which I prefer.  So all cut out and ready to go when I move on to 'sewing up' phase.

This is the second Sorbetto I've cut out.  I got this remnant at a craft fair in June 2012 (pre-blog),
It was £4, I have a paltry 65cm of 145 cm wide fabric - again it's a lawn

I tell you this one was very tight for fabric, I couldn't even squeeze the neck facings out of matching fabric, I'll use a plain scrap of something else.  I did get the all important extra 2" length in though. I love all the different colours in this one, lends itself to different accessories, shoes and most importantly cardigans.

I had planned a Sorbetto out of this one but I don't have nearly enough

Despite the fact that the Sorbetto is so brilliant and will squeeze out of tiny amounts of fabric, I couldn't manage it this time.

I love this fabric, lots of my favourite shades in it. 
However, whilst I have just over a metre in length it is a vintage piece,
consequently only 36" wide

I bought this at the same craft fair in June 2012 where I picked up the blue piece above.  This was £4 too.  As I can't manage a top I had a rethink and this is my plan ...

The plain black is from my stash too so I'm going to make a dress,
with patterned top and plain skirt.

Having searched through my patterns, given the amounts I have to play with, I'm going to use Butterick B5450 again, as I did for my Autumn in Tokyo dress.  I love the fact that the dress will contain black and brown - I think it's going to be easy to mix and match with different accessories to vary the look.  I'm hoping it will look different enough because of the 2 fabric combo.  So a dress cut out and ready to go too.

With that in mind, I decided to tackle a refashion too.  Yonks ago (when I first started to try and sew clothes in early 2012) I tackled the free Coffee Date dress that I found at Burdastyle.  Now, I have seen some brilliant versions of this dress but mine wasn't one of them - total disaster just about sums it up!

I was gutted because I'd wasted some of my favourite fabric that I bought in Swansea at Lee Mills Fabrics - I love this shop and my DS is at Uni up the road - very handy!  Because the Butterick pattern above takes so little fabric I hoped I might be able to recut and rescue my mess.  Brilliantly, it worked, with a bit of juggling and a bit of a 'free and easy' approach to the grainline!

The 2 top back pieces from the Coffee Date Dress skirt backs

I've had to do away with the centre front pleat but that
means I can squeeze this out of the previously cut Coffee Date Dress skirt front

And because, not having decided on a pattern when I bought it, I had 3 metres of this gorgeous green polka dot fabric, I have managed to cut the skirt from the untouched leftovers.  So this will be version 3 of the same pattern but, without the centre pleat it's not a direct copy cat - I have my fingers crossed I don't start looking like I'm wearing a uniform!

This is what's left of the Coffee Date Dress - I'll take it to pieces and use it
for patchwork.  Poor dress :(



So that's 4 garments cut out - I guess I'd better get on and sew something in the near future.   I'll let you know how I get on with my scientific experiment - perhaps an old dog can learn new tricks :)

Jacq

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