Love love love this one. 8oz washed denim from Merchant and Mills.

Not much to say, went together beautifully again, just have trouble getting the sleeves in smoothly but still looks good slightly puffy. hangs and drapes wonderfully in the denim, a little softer than the canvas.

Just adding a mod pic for reference. Cropped head out as had major bed head hair! I usually start sewing before I make myself presentable.

Or dress for that matter?

After the disappointment of the Top 64 I decided I was going to make the Merchant & Mills Trapeze dress, properly. I bought this pattern in the pre-cut cardboard, size 10, about 2 years ago, when I first started sewing as I thought it looked nice and easy. And after getting it home and reading the instructions I realised it was far from easy, got scared and put it away. And then I made a simpler version of it (although I don’t think I can remember how I did it).

Now, more than 2 years later i’m finally ready to give it a proper go. I’m using the cotton canvas I originally bought for the Top 64, I think it might be a little thick for it, but I just have to use it, I have a feeling it will work.

The pattern pieces laid out. I had to put the back on upside down to fit. Yes it does mean the nap on the back runs different to the front but its not too noticeable.

I loved how quickly this came together. I’m making the straight sleeve version, decided not to put the added bit in the sleeve which makes it flared, I think they’re a really lovely shape as it is. So there are only 4 pieces to cut out which is always a bonus. In the instructions they suggest laying out the pieces on the fabric and drawing round them but as I don’t have a large enough hard flat surface I’ve opted to just cut round them, using tins as weights.

Neck facing.

This came together so quickly, I reckon if I’d started at 9am I’d have had it finished by 5 or 6pm that day.

Looks a bit like a tent at the mo…

Even more so from the side.

The next day I put the sleeves in. They went in beautifully except they are supposed to be smooth and mine didn’t work out quite like that. The thread snapped when I tried to gather in the sleeve head so left me no choice but to make them puffy. But I quite like them like that.

Sleeves in.

Next came hemming of sleeves and skirt hem! Sleeves were painless, but the skirt hem was a little trickier, because of the curve and the amount of fabric you have to fold up. I looked up several different methods for doing it neatly, but ended up not using any of them. So whatever you do if you see me wearing this dress don’t look at the underside of the skirt hem, please.

I was a bit worried before I hemmed it that it was looking a bit too voluminous, but once hemmed it looked so much better and hangs beautifully. I love the structured shape the fabric gives it.

Pinned in place.

Finished.

Just look at that lovely neckline. One of the neatest facings I’ve ever done.

The fabric looks quite creased here, I have worn and washed it already.

I really really love the shape of this dress.

Happy happy me :0)

I thoroughly enjoyed making the Trapeze dress, the fabric was a dream to work with (am now thinking the Strand coat in this fabric would be divine) and the pattern was also a joy to put together. I needed a good project after my last disaster and this was perfect. I. Will. Be. Making. More.

Would like to attempt the sleeveless version sometime but that does look a bit complicated believe it or not. And even though M&M say this dress is good for beginners, there is an awful lot of fabric to handle which can be a bit daunting if you are new to sewing. Or maybe thats just me.

I suppose its not so much a sewing fail but a style fail.  I hate it, I really do!

I wanted to have a go at something different. So I bought the  Merchant & Mills Top 64, pattern. I also bought some top quality cotton canvas in blue for it. However I decided to make it up first in a dress weight denim also from M&M. And boy am I glad I did.

It wasn’t a complete fail I suppose, I enjoyed the making of it, and I learned some new things about construction. And this was completely different to my usual tops.

The pattern pieces all cut out and ready to go.

I cut out the size 12 after trying on the size 10 at M&M in rye and very nearly got stuck  in it. The size 10 in their shop is made up in a waxed cotton canvas and has no give whatsoever! I knew I shouldn’t have put it on but I really wanted to know how the 10 would look. After nearly dislocating my shoulders to get out of it, I talked to Michelle who works for M&M and she advised me to make it up in a size 12, even though I’m usually a size 10 in their patterns. As she said that is what she does and she’s usually a size 10 too. So thats what I did.

Pattern pieces laid out on fabric. And I now mostly use tins when I cut out.

Like I said I enjoyed the actual making process but I hate the finished product.

Inside of the front.

I decided against top stitching the seams, and I’m glad I did. Would have been a monumental waste of time and cotton.

Close up. Quite impressed with the straightness of my sewing.

This is what the front looks like before I attached it to the back.

Pins for the raglan sleeves.

front and back joined together.

Not used to doing the neckline facing after putting garment together. But it works really well and looks super neat.

Sleeves/shoulders.

Hangs much better on the dummy than me. I’m pleased with the quality of my sewing on this but it just looks awful on me. Hangs funny, the centre front sticks out and just looks wrong. Don’t know why? Could be that the fabric isn’t sturdy enough, I just don’t know.

Can you tell I’m not happy? Please excuse the nude in the background, its not as rude as it looks. Its from my life drawing days. 

I’ve put it down to experience, and like I said I’ve learnt new things. Who knows I might try it on again in a few months and decide I do like it. Never say never…

I do apologise, I haven’t done much sewing lately. One reason is that I’ve not long come back from a ten day trip to Barcelona. Now ten days might sound like a long time to stay in a city that is often a destination for hen and stag weekends but the hubby and I like to immerse ourselves in a place. Last year we had ten days in Florence. Florence is much smaller than Barcelona and we just about managed that. And I knew I’d cope better in Barcelona as its on the coast. I just can’t be far from the sea anymore, I get a bit weird if I am!

We had a fabulous time and totally immersed ourselves, eating where the Spanish ate drinking where the Spanish drank  and walking where the Spanish walked. Could really tell the difference when we wandered into the more touristy areas. Which on occasion we had to do.

We rented an apartment this time, and what a fabulous idea. So much better having the freedom to come and go as you please, stock the fridge with whatever you want, but best of all not having to get up really early in order to make it to breakfast before ten o’clock. As my husband has discovered after 24 years together, I like a slow start to my mornings. I have to get up very early when I’m working so on days off I like to take my time. I digress, what I was meaning to say before going off on a tangent was that the apartment was in a very busy side street with lots of locals living around us and going about their day to day activities. which means quite a lot of late night noise too. But it was great as we really felt like we got to see some Spanish life.

As this is a sewing blog I will tie some sewing in to this story. I have now made ten lovely short sleeved tops and I was very happy and proud to take all of them with me. Made packing so much easier as I knew what I was taking. I also took four dresses and a couple of jersey tunics for the traveling. I am a notorious overpacker, can’t help it.

Here are my tops and dresses in the wardrobe in Barcelona :0)

I pretty much wore everything, as I changed on two or three evenings before going out.

We did an awful lot of walking, which is really the only way to see a city. On one of our walks we explored the Gothic quarter and we found some quite interesting shops.

This figure was outside this shop. Its just a little bit creepy!

I loved these figures. Interesting shop with lots of unusual jewellery. some of which I think was made on site. Wanted to go back and have another look, but couldn’t find it again.

Loved this dress. Vintage shop, same street as the previous  shop. This area was a bit like the lanes in Brighton, which can be like a maze if you’re not familiar with the area. Hence not being able to find the street again…

Another gorgeous shop window. Jessica Rabbit springs to mind with that red sequinned dress.

Have to be honest here, neither my Husband or I were particularly keen on the Gaudi stuff, the unfinished temple, Segrada Familia is if you ask me a complete eyesore! It is truly grotesque. Sorry Barcelona, I think your favourite son actually went a bit bonkers when he came up with the idea and plans for that place. The only place of his we did like was this one Casa Mila, otherwise known as La Pedrera ( the stone quarry).

Visited on our second to last day, as thought we ought to see something of Gaudi’s.

We also rode Funiculars and Gondolas/Teleferic, or cable cars if you will.

Me in a cable car coming down from Montjuic. Fabulous views over the city.

Opposite our apartment was a tapas bar, not just any old tapas bar we were to discover but the TAPAS bar to end all tapas bars! When we first turned up at the apartment and I looked out from the balcony I saw this

And thought, well that looks interesting…

That evening when we came back from our first trip out, the place was buzzing with voices and the sounds of cutlery on plates,  bottles being opened and laughter. There were people milling about on the street outside and someone doing a piece to a camera about it. Boy was I intrigued. What was all the fuss? The next evening we were back at the apartment by about 6pm and we had a little rest before going out again, and I was sitting in my favourite place, the little balcony, and from about 6:30pm I watched as a queue formed outside, and by the time they opened at 7pm the area outside the tapas bar was full of people. So my curiosity could take it no more and I asked my husband to google it and we discovered that its a place you HAVE to visit if you are even remotely interested in food. Its called    “Quimet & Quimet”. Click on the link to read more about it. The place is tiny though and fills up quickly, it looked a little intimidating and we put off going there till the fourth day, when we managed to get in on the lunch time session. And O.M.G was it worth it or what. I’ve not really experienced proper tapas before and well this has ruined me. It was exquisite, I’m not what you would call a foodie as such, but I do appreciate when flavours and foods work together. It was a truly fabulous experience. We spoke to an American couple for whom this wasn’t their first time and they said it was legendary and they come every time they visit Barcelona. I still can’t believe how lucky it was that we were staying opposite this place, I don’t think we would have known about it otherwise, its not exactly on  a main street.

We had three plates of tapas each and then we had three puddings, one each and one to share. This was probably the most expensive meal we had out there but so worth every penny.

Me enjoying the ambience inside Quimet & Quimet.

This was after they closed the doors at about 4pm, if you’re already inside you can carry on eating and drinking but they let no more in. I promise you when we arrived it was packed and we had to wriggle our way in.

The festival of the saints or La Merce festival started while we were there and so we went to watch some of the opening ceremony. And found this little fella on our walk

Wouldn’t fancy the food bill for him!

Part of the opening ceremony are these giants. Very impressive.

The evening ended with a fabulous firework display on Barceloneta beach. I don’t have any pics of the fireworks, I’d rather watch and enjoy than try and get photos.

Barceloneta beach at dusk.

On our last day we took another cable car ride that comes down from Montjuic and takes you to Barceloneta beach. View from the cable car over one of the harbours.

Some of the yummiest Sangria I’ve ever had!

You can’t go to Spain and not have sangria, that would just be rude!

I had to get myself a souvenir, and found this beautiful handmade leather bag. Made in Barcelona, you could see the workshop at the back of the shop.

And so that concludes my holiday to Barcelona. I would totally recommend a visit, but take comfortable footwear as you will do a lot of walking.

Oh what a joy to sew with cotton again, what a joy what a joy what a joy!

Its good to go outside of ones comfort zone, but boy is it good to get back inside too. I can’t believe how much I enjoyed working with this 100% indian print cotton again, it was like saying hello to an old friend. However I have to add that I think I got a little too complacent and things went a bit pear shape on the sleeve insertion at the shoulders. So I had to do some unpicking on both shoulders, but even that was pleasant. So much easier to unpick on this fabric than it is to even try on the jersey stuff!

I picked this gorgeous fabric up from the wonderful La La Rookh workshop in St Leonards. Totally recommend a visit if you get a chance.

Always so difficult for me to capture the true colour.

A close up of the pattern.

I restrained myself and only bought a meter and a half instead of 3 meters as I was tempted to do. And of course I now wish I had bought 3m, oh well, hopefully I can still get more.

Picture taken in sunlight, don’t know if it helps with capturing the colour or not.

Its a sort of khaki’ish browny green. I used a fairly vibrant greenish thread which matches well with the little dots in the middle of the pattern. Its a good job I don’t have to describe colours to people on a daily basis!

Thats 10 short sleeve tops. I think thats probably enough for now. Keep your eyes peeled for something a little different in the near future…

As I love the last jersey top I made so much I decided to make another. You might remember though that I hated the making process very very much! But I decided it was worth the pain. And then I started making it and quickly decided I really really hated working with jersey and this better be worth it once more…

I’m using the last of the jersey I bought from Merchant & Mills some time last year. And I’m very glad they no longer sell jersey as it will stop me being tempted to buy more.

As you can see I’m using tins as weights to hold the pattern whilst I cut round it. This is proving to be the best method.

Once again some problems with puckering at the shoulders, but I really don’t care.

Both sides.

Looks a bit bad here at the shoulders. 

I’m not too happy with the bust darts either, they seem to sit a bit funny.

Doesn’t really show too much here. And doesn’t look too bad on. Its just that I know.

Side seams look a bit wonky, but once again doesn’t really show when being worn.

I think its safe to say I’m not overly impressed with it. I will wear it, and maybe I’ll grow to like it as much as I do the other one, but I’m not holding my breath!

(Sorry for the picture quality)

So I thought it would be a good idea to buy some more jersey fabric. I found some on Fabricgodmother.com, its a rather lovely jersey viscose, black with little white spots. I thought it might be nice to have a go at making one of my tops in a different type of fabric for a change. Thought it might be nice,  HA!

The making of this top was a bit of a nightmare to say the least. I knew it would be a bit of a challenge but little did I realise just how much of a challenge. After all, I’ve worked with jersey before, back in the day when I was making those rectangle tops. It wasn’t difficult and in fact they were pretty easy to whip up, could make one in about 5 hours or less.

Like this one.

So I set about laying out my pattern pieces. That was when I remembered  the first problem about working with jersey, the fact that when you fold it, the edges don’t usually line up nice and neat. If you try to get them to line up neatly you end up with a twisted fold. Not what you want. Once I finally got it to fold in a satisfactory manner, I set about placing the pattern pieces. As this fabric was 150cm wide I was able to get away with 1m of fabric, but only just.

Had to place the sleeve piece length ways. You can just about see at the bottom that there’s quite a bit of excess fabric, compared with whats underneath. And its the same at the top. Had to juggle with the layout a bit.

Instead of pinning the pattern to the fabric as I usually do, I weighted them down with tins. I found this to be the best method. Though I had to keep reminding myself to cut the notches, as to forget would have been a pain in the arse.

One of the things I hated about working with this fabric was its slipperiness. It just wanted to slip and slide all over the place, and once I had one of the back pieces attached to the front it made the fabric want to drape over the edge of the table and was pretty difficult to try to keep it on the table and not stretch the piece I was working on out. I hope that makes sense.

I encountered my first major headache with it though when I sewed the second bust dart. It would seem and you can correct me if I’m wrong, that a stretch stitch does a little back stitch as it sews. At least thats how it looks to me. When I did the first dart I did my usual back stitch and it was Ok, but when I sewed the second and attempted to back stitch well it went horribly wrong and my machine tried to chew up the fabric. It must’ve taken me at least twenty minutes to free it from its jaws. And then when I tried to unpick the stitches well nothing it would seem was going to prise those babies apart! In the end I decided I didn’t need to unpick and could just carry on where the stitching left off. This was after a lot of prolonged swearing and I’m ashamed to say having a major hissy fit at the fabric and chucking it on the floor. Yes I behaved like a two year old!

I was not going to let the fabric win though and was determined to make it into something wearable if it killed me. Lets just say though that this was one of the worst sewing experiences I’ve had so far. I hated every minute of working with it. And was pretty sure I was going to hate the finished garment as a result.

Here it is without sleeves but otherwise intact. and not loving it, as is usual at this point.

Look at how the armholes appear to be stretching out of all recognition. I decided to stay stitch round the armholes and I’m glad i did.

Really not loving how it looks at the moment.

I put off doing the sleeves for a few days as I knew it wasn’t going to be straight forward, but as it happens the sleeves went in relatively painless. They are by no means perfect and had I been using my usual cotton fabric I probably would have unpicked and done it again, but there was no way I was unpicking or even attempting to unpick here. So imperfections be damned!

I also had to do the hem a couple of a times. The first time I used the stretch stitch and it just didn’t look right and was too long.

first hem attempt.

And from the side. Sort of looks Ok looking at it now, but I wasn’t happy.

Here it is finished.

Doesn’t look too bad here but the neckline looked like it wouldn’t sit right either, but it actually looks Ok on.

Shorter now and I’m happy.

With the front tucked in, which is how i like to wear it.

Whilst this wasn’t my favourite sewing experience I am happy to say that I do like the top. Its very comfortable to wear in the jersey. And it doesn’t need ironing after washing either which is a big bonus in my opinion. So, once made up into the finished garment the jersey fabric is a delight, but the actual process is horrible. I must be a glutton for punishment though as I’ve just started another jersey top…

Most of the people that know me well, know I’m not a very sociable person, and I keep a pretty tight knit group of friends around me. I may not see them very often but we know we are there for each other.

The work I do, involves meeting and mixing with lots of different types of people and having the ability to get on with them. Which I think is why I’m mostly quite happy with my own company. On my days off its quite nice to just not have to talk. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s also nothing I like more than a nice piece of cake and a coffee and good old gossip with friends too. Just not every day.

Since starting my little sewing journey I’ve almost become more of a hermit than usual. Probably because for the most part sewing is a very individual activity, and I’m very happy being at home and making my tops.

I started blogging to document my sewing for myself, so I can see how far I’ve come and what I’ve been doing. A personal record of my work, and if anyone reads it thats great, but I write it for myself so I’m not worried if nobody else reads it.

Which is why I was quite surprised at how happy I was when I got a comment from Poppyinstitches,  she found my blog after searching for the Merchant and Mills Strand coat. It was nice to see a comment from someone I didn’t know from anywhere. So I hopped on over to her blog and found another lovely blog about all things sewing. I was ecstatic to find my blog added to her list of blogs she enjoys reading :0)

Well we exchanged comments on each others blogs and found we had a mutual love for Merchant and Mills, and one day she’d commented that she might be popping down to Rye to visit M&M. This comment floated round my little brain for a while and I wondered if she might like to meet me in Rye, I never so no to an excuse to visit. Eventually I plucked up the courage to ask her if she’d been to Rye yet and when she said “no” I took the plunge and offered to meet her if she did plan to visit. And she took me up on the offer.

About a week later I met up with her and her lovely daughter in Rye, and we went to M&M where she bought some lovely things (I’ll leave it up to her to say what she bought on her blog, can’t wait to see the finished result) and I of course also bought some more lovely fabric of which I didn’t need but couldn’t resist. We then went for lunch to one of my favourite places the Apothecary coffee house. Had a lovely chat, such a warm and friendly person. After that we had a another little wander and then parted ways. I’m so annoyed I forgot to take my camera and take any photos to share but trust me it was a lovely day.

And then blow me down during the following week I got a Tweet from the lovely “sewing parlour/La La Rookh workshop” (they changed their name the week after my visit to “La La Rookh” ) inviting me down to visit as they would love to meet me! Meet me! Well I was flattered beyond belief and of course said yes. and then self doubt crept in. why would they want to meet me? What on earth would I possibly say… and so on?

I went back and forth for the rest of week about whether I would go or not, but then on the Friday evening I made up my mind that I would go. Of course there was always time for me to change my mind, I wasn’t going till the following afternoon. Saturday came and I was still in the mind set that I was going. This was feeling good.

I decided I was going to wear the top I made from the fabric I bought from there last time I went. Thought it might be a nice gesture, and I love the top…

Here’s what I wore.

I was a little nervous, but I had a nice little walk along the seafront (not too far as I took the car, didn’t want to arrive all sweaty).

Had to take a pic of the sea and sky.

And then I arrived outside and thought it would be a good idea to take a photo of the shop front.

Of course it looks a little different now after the name change.

I walked in and was given the warmest of welcomes by two of the loveliest ladies you could ever wish to meet. Even though they were sort of in the middle of an informal meeting with a local entrepreneur and founder of Hastings Voice. I became included in their conversation. And very interesting it was too.

Afterwards I was invited into the workshop part of the shop and given coffee and cake. And we just sat around chatting about all sorts of lovely things. I would love to chat to Anna (owner of said workshop) more about her skills, I get the impression she’s a very talented lady but doesn’t really shout about it. And Lexie is a very talented lady too, take a look at her blog Those words she wrote, truly a gifted writer, she really has a way with the words. Together they are chatty and funny and I felt like I’d known them forever.  Time passed all too quickly and I had to leave. Of course I didn’t leave empty handed, always good to have a look at the fab array of fabrics she has.

Always so difficult for me to capture the true colour. Another gorgeous Indian print cotton. 

And here’s a pic of the two fabulous ladies themselves.

Anna on the right and Lexie on the left.

I can’t wait to go back again and hopefully get to know them a little better.

I think what I’m trying to say is, that sometimes its good to put in a little effort and meet new people. You just never know who you might come across. I’m still a mostly unsociable bugger but sometimes I come out of hiding!

So I now have 3 garments in the grey daisy fabric from Merchant & Mills. All based on the same pattern, Tilly and the Buttons “Mathilde”, but all quite different. The latest is the short sleeve top.

Here come the pics

This pic is just because I like seeing the pins.

I know I’ve said it before but I can’t believe how different it looks once I put the sleeves in. I’m never sure I’ll like it at this point.

Boom!

Looks so much better now.

And now here come the other two garments in the same fabric.

Dress.

Long sleeve top.

Loving them all.

I didn’t do much sewing in July, for a couple of reasons. I had some time away with my husband and I started exercising again. Its taken me a little while to get back in the swing of exercising and being able to sew on the same day, but I’m getting there.

However this post is about my little holiday with my Husband. I’ve lived by the sea all my life but its really only the last 10 or 15 years that I’ve truly learned to love it. I can’t be away from it for long, I get a bit antsy if I am. Last year we had 10 days in Florence, and whilst I loved it I couldn’t help but feel something was missing. I can just about see the sea from my house if I kneel on the back of my sofa and look out the side window. And I can see it whenever I leave my house, so long as there’s no mist/fog. I find it reassuring just knowing its there. So when I have a holiday I generally like it to be near the sea. Now don’t mistake this for beach loving, I’m not particularly fussed about lying on a beach and trying to tan ( I don’t). I do love walking along the beach and will love a paddle if its warm enough, but I also love a good stomp along the beach when its blowing and the seas rough. All in all I just love looking at it. Love it love it love it!

If you’ve been reading this blog from the beginning you’ll know we have a boat. Nothing fancy, but still its a boat.

Kooshty, our little boat.

Her name is Kooshty, which does not in any way resemble my sailing experiences! I tried it for a good 4 years before I chucked in the towel. I’d had one too many bad weather experiences and plenty of wind in the wrong direction (its just no damned good when its coming from the direction in which you wish to go, which is what it usually does). And I finally had to admit to myself that I didn’t enjoy it. The Husband was disappointed but understood.

I still love the boat and have no problem whatsoever sitting on her in a nice comfy marina. Marina life can still get lumpy (thats a sailing term for rough) and we had at least one night of strong winds howling through the rigging and the boat rolling around in its berth, so much so that we might as well have been at sea! However when my husband takes her away I still like to go and join him if I can.

In July he made his way down to the Solent and moored Kooshty in Gosport Premier marina. Its quite a nice train ride for me to Portsmouth harbour station and then a short ferry ride across the harbour entrance to Gosport. Takes about 3 hours (train journey not ferry) and I am reunited with my sailor hubby and our boat. I love the marina at Gosport, it has fabulous views and lovely little cafe/bistro which also has gorgeous views from its terrace.

Doesn’t get much better than this!

Or this. Great view of the Spinnaker tower.

My husband and I spend most of the time over the other side though in Portsmouth and particularly Old Portsmouth. Just love standing on the beach there and watching the coming and going of the big ferries and little yachts.

Big ferries like this Brittany ferry.

And taking pictures of dramatic sunset skies.

Like this.

And green rocks.

I won’t lie, there also happens to be a pub, the Still & West, with the best view in the world (Ok slight exaggeration ), and we do like to sit by a window and drink beer and watch the coming and going of the water vessels from there too.

Picture taken from Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth looking over to Spice Island in Old Portsmouth. You can just about see the Still & West on the right next to the ferry. when the big boats are coming out of the harbour they can sometimes look like they are heading straight for the pub. Fun!

sometimes the sky looks very dramatic, and I took an awful lot of pictures of it this time. Here’s just a few…

Look at those gorgeous clouds, and a Brittany ferry coming out of port.

Love it. I took loads more pictures of the clouds but they are all very similar, so I won’t bore you with them all!

Now for some of the sea views.

The colour is so vibrant.

Had to take a pic of this crazy lady standing in the middle of pier type platform. The sea was quite rough this day, lucky she wasn’t washed away!

I love this pic. Something about the bicycle and the lamp post.

Well I think thats about it for now. I spent 5 days with the boat and husband and loved it.