Ok lets try and catch this up shall we? I’m just going  to post the rest of my makes from 2014 now. Here we go!

September, bag for Nona.

Denim lining.

Other side.

Trying to line up the pattern. I love the bottom right corner.

Sept/Oct, Black dress weight denim top. Started as a dress, didn’t work!

October, another one. Loving the contrast hem.

October, Love this black and white top.

November, made another black dress weight denim top. I do like multiples. Again I’d tried to make a dress with it! Just can’t get it to look right!

November, afternoon tea in London.

Wore one of my tops. CHEERS!

November, altered one of my jersey tunic tops. Think I like it at this length. Tough if I don’t really…..

November, this is the last thing I made in 2014. Liberty fabric top.

So there we have it. That was 2014. I made a lot of tops and quite a lot of bags. I thoroughly enjoyed my sewing. And learnt some new things. It was also interesting to see how different my very simple tops could look using different fabrics. Don’t think I ever need to buy another top again!

I’m just too damn excited not to post about this make today. I finished it today and seriously I can not believe I’ve done it, I really can’t! This is going to be long………

My friend Lucy gave me this for Christmas

Yep, its a pattern. But I have an irrational fear of patterns don’t I? Why, yes I do! But something about this pattern was calling to me. I’ve loved this top ever since I saw Tilly make it, on “The Great British Sewing Bee”in 2013. It was my dream top. And I hadn’t even started sewing then. I got very excited when I saw you could actually buy the pattern from TillyandtheButtons web site, and then got disappointed when it was only a digital pattern, don’t have a printer.  I then learnt how to sew, bought a pattern and didn’t like it. Didn’t understand it, couldn’t work it out, so I left it alone and stuck to drafting my own tops from two rectangle pieces of fabric( as you will be aware of by now, if you’ve been following this blog).

After making my OWN tops for over a year I started to get a little bored of the same shape. Although there were always slight variations on it and different fabrics meant a different outcome, but still I was feeling ready for a new challenge. I got very excited when I saw Tilly had started producing paper patterns, but when they first came out I still wasn’t ready. Back in November I went to London with Lucy and was going to buy the Mathilde pattern in Liberty, but they had sold out. So I was very happy that Lucy bought me one for Christmas.

Then I looked at it! Read some of the instructions and got scared again.  I decided the best way to tackle it was one step at a time, don’t look ahead, stay focused. I bought some fabric, (not the Liberty fabric I was going to order at £22 a metre) but some a little cheaper. Brought it home, put it straight into the washing machine. Next day I ironed it, then marked out the pattern for the size I wanted and cut it out, laid it out on the fabric and cut that out.

Can’t get over how much fabric the sleeves take up!

Some of the pieces

This took me about 3 hours to do, and by the time I finished my back was killing me so I took a break till the next day.

The next day was a first for me, I sewed darts and french seams.

French seam, attaching yoke to bodice.

Beautiful dart!

After sewing the bodice to the yoke and attaching the back to the front at the sides and shoulders I again called it a day. See I’m taking it slow ( I usually like to start and finish in one day), this had taken about 3 hours again.

Here it is so far….. I’m very bloody happy with myself!

Next was about facings for the neck line and inserting sleeves! GULP!! I have done facings for a neck line before but it was a long time ago and I have since found a way round having to do this( although I’m learning its actually quite nice to do these things). I didn’t line the facings with interfacing, as I don’t have any and didn’t really think it necessary. My finishing of the facing isn’t perfect and would probably have been better with interfacing, but hey ho! It still worked, and I’m still really pleased with it.

This also shows the neck line facing!

I put a little stitch in at the front to help hold it down. Otherwise it wants to roll back out!

Now inserting sleeves was a bit of a head fuck! After sewing the 3 lines of gather stitches at shoulders and bottom of sleeves, you then have to insert the sleeve. This takes a bit of reading of the instructions and I found the web site more useful than the instruction booklet. Once I got my head round it and understood what I was meant to do, it wasn’t too difficult.

showing the shoulder seam and sleeve attachment, sort of!

Sleeves without the cuffs. You can just about see the 3 rows of gather stitching on the bottom of the sleeves. Wish i’d taken better pictures of these.

I forgot to mention that I left off the beautiful tucks that are on the front of the Mathilde blouse and also the button fastening for the back. I just sewed a centre seam down the middle of the back

Bottom of back centre seam.

top of back centre seam.

I also hemmed it this day too. This all took me about 6 hours. So again I called it a day, although the temptation to just get it finished was strong, I resisted! And I’m flipping glad I did, as doing the cuffs was more complicated than I had anticipated.

Yep doing the cuffs took me way longer than I thought it would and was quite fiddly, but happily I completed them. Took about 2 hours!

one cuff

other cuff.

Finished!!! YAY!!!!

Cut head off as looked awful, and i am that vain!

How gorgeous is this? Top that is, not me!

I can’t tell you how happy I am that I’ve finally tackled a pattern. And inserted sleeves. I never in a million years thought I’d have the courage to do this without attending a class.  I didn’t think it was possible, but it is. I’ve obviously taught myself enough that working out what to do, wasn’t too much of a problem. I’m extremely happy with the results and its currently hanging up in my living room so I can look at it and admire it! I am slapping myself on the back big time people! Yes I am!

I have started on my next one already too……..

The beauty of this paper pattern is, the paper used is sturdy enough to use again and again! So here’s to many more Mathilde tops in many different fabrics……..

I thought I’d done a post about this fabric, but it would appear that I didn’t. I shall make up for it now.

Back in February my very lovely friend Amanda bought me this fabric

I just love the details.

I  planned to make a bag with it, but didn’t want to rush into it. At £55 a metre it was probably the most expensive fabric I’d got. I wanted to think about it and try to make the most of the gorgeous pattern. 7 months later and i was finally ready to take my scissors to it. Always quite scary cutting into good quality, expensive fabric.

Working out where i want my pattern to be.

The pieces cut out. This was the way I’d intended the pieces to be. I wanted the pattern to line up the best it could…….

I used my usual messenger bag template but I altered the dimensions a bit. I made the height shorter and the length wider and also made it width deeper. Which meant a wider strap.  I backed the fabric with calico, just to make it a bit sturdier, and I lined it in denim.

My pattern layout didn’t quite work out, got pieces the wrong way round, but still works I feel.

Bit more obvious here.

Lining inserted quite neatly.

Size comparison, not too different but just enough.

I’m very happy with it and have had some lovely compliments on it. Mainly due to the quality of the fabric I feel. I just love this pattern though and find it very appropriate for living by the sea.  I have enough fabric left over to make another bag, so although initially it  was expensive fabric, if I can make two bags out of it, it won’t seem so bad.

One of my work friends had recently had a baby, and she asked me if I could make a replacement cover for her V shape cushion. I of course said yes. And then started to panic, thinking, what the hell did you say yes for?! Aimee gave me the old cushion cover so I could take the measurements from that. I kept looking at it, sort of knowing what I wanted to do and how I wanted to do it, but not entirely sure if it would work.  I know I’ve made cushion covers before but they were regular shaped and had straight edges, non of this curved malarky! Aimee let me decide what fabric to use, having given me an idea of what she liked. I chose a spotty fabric in two different colours in a fairly robust thick cotton.

The cut out pieces.

I laid the old cushion cover inside out on top of the fabric and giving it 1cm SA I marked around the cover. Repeated this on the other colour fabric ( I hope this makes sense). Cut them out and pinned together .

Pinned together….. I don’t know why but this pic makes me happy. I love how it looks with the pins in!

Not forgetting to leave an opening. I then sewed it together. I decided I was going to use ties to close the opening. So I made 3 pairs of ribbon ties and attached.

Like so……

Lilac side.

Pink side.

I was really quite happy with this in the end, and it was fun to make. I delivered it to Aimee, I was a bit apprehensive when putting the cover onto the cushion that it might not fit, but it did, and looked pretty good too. I’m afraid i don’t have picture of it on the cushion, so you’ll just have to trust me.  I have to say that baby Amelia looked pretty comfortable on it too :0) So I’d like to say thank you to Aimee for giving me a bit of a challenge. I’m always really happy when I complete something I didn’t think I’d be able to do.

In August I went to visit Kristina in Fuerteventura where her and her partner had bought a home. Its a volcanic island, part of the Canary island group. The landscape is mostly volcanic rock and looks pretty bleak, but it does have some lovely beaches. Although a very windy area and the sea gets some pretty big waves which can make swimming in the sea a bit tricky. Having local knowledge Kristina knew of some areas that had a bay which made swimming a lot more comfortable. The town nearest to their house was Corralejo, once you get down to the water front its a very charming area, with lots of beachfront bars and restaurants.

Wearing jersey dress and carrying one of my bags. I love it when my outfit is all handmade!

Grey jersey dress. I love this one. Have to say these jersey dresses are so comfortable to wear.

I also took my Jersey T shirts, which went really well with shorts and a couple of the jersey tunics. And I took the long version of my Liberty print dress but definitely not showing the picture as my hair looked bloody awful. I think I wore something homemade everyday. YIPPEEEE!!

Now for some travel pics…….

Waterfront at Corralejo, lots of rocks.

A small harbour, can’t remember what its called.

Same harbour.

Another one. This was a really pretty, rustic harbour. Loved it.

This is my attempt at an artistic shot. The back of Kristina’s house. I just loved the colour of the walls against the colour of the sky.

I never took my camera to the beach so unfortunately I have no pics of any of the beaches. Sorry.

I wasn’t going to write about this having almost forgotten I’d done it! And that I’ve already made two woodland creatures bags, and that anyone ready this blog might not want to see another one, then I remembered this blog is mainly a diary for me of the things I’ve made. And this one is also slightly different from the other two in that it doesn’t have the multiple straps for different carrying options. I made this for my friend Kristina who no longer lives in the same country as me.

working out where I want the pattern to fall.

I love these trees……

The other side.

One of my most perfectly executed insertions of the lining I’ve ever done! Sometimes its a little tricky and can get a bit messy…….

So there you have it. This bag was taken to Fuerteventura, but is now possibly in Australia!

I made a top.

Here it is.

Wasn’t happy with it (can you see the look on my face?), felt it was too short, and simply not good value for money. At £22 a meter I thought it a bit expensive to be a short top. So whats a girl to do? Add some length,

length added.

thats what……..

I liked it better with the added length, but decided it was now too long, so I took a few inches off again……..

Now I’m very happy with it, although it might not look like it from my face! I finally settled on this length as being perfect for me after wearing  a beach dress that was this length and being really happy and comfortable in it. So there you have it. Three stages to the perfect length dress for me!

I bought the Merchant&Mills Trapeze dress pattern back when I first started sewing, thinking it looked plain and simple and that it would be easy to do. I was so very wrong. I sat and looked at the  instructions and didn’t know where to begin (probably largely because I didn’t know what the hell I was doing), so I didn’t. I put it on its little hanger and hung it on the back of my sewing room door! And thats where it stayed for about a year.

In july of this year I bought some black dress weight denim from my favourite M&M. Very reasonably priced at £6.75 a meter, I bought 2 meters.   And I once again looked at the Trapeze dress pattern, thinking this fabric could be perfect for it. I looked again at the instructions, understood them a little more this time. And decided I would have a go. I wasn’t particularly fond of the round neck shown in the pattern so I adapted it to fit my slash neck/boat neck style that I’m partial too (A: because its easy B: because its easy). So this is my version of the Trapeze dress.

One of the many things that put me off trying this pattern in the beginning, was for me the lack of space, my sewing room is basically the box room of a 3 bedroom semi, so not very big at all. I’m not complaining as I know how lucky I am to even have  a sewing room all to myself. But it means my cutting table is the same one the sewing machine sits on and I have to move it to  different places when I want to mark out and cut the fabric and then move it back again when I need to sew. So the table can’t be too big and bulky, and therefore its quite small and the amount of fabric needed for the Trapeze dress pattern is too much for my little table and indeed my little sewing room. I had to get creative. I ended up laying the fabric out on my living room floor and cutting out the pattern pieces there. This was not easy, but it worked.

Like so!

I don’t know if others find this, but one of my biggest problems is trying to get the fabric lined up evenly. I find more often than not, its not cut in a straight line when I buy it, which always makes lining up the edges interesting (headache inducing) not quite so much a problem with plain fabric, but when its patterned it can be a bloody nightmare!

I would like to take more pictures of the process when I make something, but I forget as I get so engrossed in thinking about what I’m doing and also I worry about it all going pear shape! So I take pictures when I think about it and I’m happy with something.

Once I’ve cut out the fabric I then marked out the seam allowances, zigzagged stitched the raw edges to help stop the fraying and then started to sew the pieces together. I really enjoyed making this dress. And was really really pleased with the out come.

Showing my adapted to suit my simple sewing neck line. Please excuse the wallpaper. Need to decorate……

This shows the hem and I was trying to do a contrast hem, sadly didn’t work. Think it would have looked amazing.

Inside out looking at the centre back seam. I was very pleased with this.

Here’s me wearing it. I love it and am so pleased I finally had a go. Look a bit like a psycho here. Sorry!

I was right about the fabric being perfect for this dress. It drapes beautifully and you get a lovely effect at the back when worn, I’m sorry I don’t have pictures of the back. Must try and enlist the Husband to take pics sometimes.

I had a wonderful complement while wearing this dress, a lady in a shop said she LOVED my dress and asked if I made it, and then proceeded to tell me I should make them to sell! I was very flattered and was on a high all day.

As a side note, I made this dress in the size 10, and I do believe I have enough fabric left over to make another one. The fabric was 2 meters in length and is 140cm wide.

Just for reference, here’s how it looks when the pattern is followed properly. I also cheated with the armholes. Picture taken from the paper pattern packet.

So where do I begin? I’ll begin by saying that although I’ve badly neglected my blog for the last 7 months, I haven’t neglected my sewing. So here I go with the start of my catch up.

Back in June my Husband and I went on holiday to Florence, Italy. I will show you some holiday pics, there are some photos of me wearing my hand made clothes so it is relevant.

I took lots and lots of photos throughout our trip but I won’t post them all by any means. Most of my pics don’t do the scenery any justice at all so its not worth it really. My Husbands are probably better but I haven’t seen them yet!

First up is me wearing one of the jersey dresses that I made specially for this holiday. You might remember the post I made about them and what I did with the sleeves/shoulders. Well I took the extra fabric off the shoulders and went back to how they were. Decided I preferred them that way. I’m so fickle sometimes I do my head in!

Its not the most flattering shot of me, but it will have to do. I took three of these dresses. Two in khaki and one in grey. I wore both the khaki ones but didn’t get round to wearing the grey one. Have to say they were very comfortable in the sometimes unbearable heat.

Next up grey jersey T-shirt

Loved this. Thats actually all for the clothing shots, now for some of Florence and Venice. I took quite a lot of my own sewn clothes and think I wore something I made at least 7 days of the ten.

View of the hills in Florence, from the Uffizi gallery.

Ponte Vecchio bridge, also from the Uffizi gallery.

We took a day trip to Venice on our last day. And OMG, what a truly beautiful, magical place. I loved it. I don’t just mean loved it. I mean L.O.V.E.D it! I didn’t want to leave and badly want to go back. I didn’t even mind all the tourists/crowds that much. I somehow managed to block them out and just enjoy being there. If you’ve never been, but fancy going I strongly advise it, you won’t be disappointed. The pictures that follow really don’t do it justice and you can’t get the sense of what its really like, but trust me, there’s nowhere else like it!

I took 194 photos on this day, be thankful I’m only showing a handful.

One of the many narrow canals. I think this represents Venice perfectly.

I love this. Look at the steps under the water.

This was nearly a tourist free shot! Well apart from all the ones on the bridge…..

I cropped one woman out of this shot. Considering how many people there were its amazing I got this. Looking out to the Grand Canal. See how the water laps onto the pavement.

Last one.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my little travel post. Posts about sewing to follow.

It would appear that my last post was way back in May. I. Do. Not. Know. Where. The. Time. Has. Gone. I really really don’t. Anyway I have completely forgotten how to upload pics and get them onto the blog so when my husband has time he will have a look and remind me, and then hopefully I’ll be up and running again. I do have a lot of stuff to post as I have been quite busy.