Dress phase…
Posted on | May 15, 2010 | No Comments
Summer isn’t here yet (in fact it’s really really cold) but I’m determined to not let that dampen my search for the perfect dress. After I completed my Rooibos this week I’ve decided that I can’t wait any longer before making another dress so I’ve ordered the pattern for the Eclair dress.
I’m hoping to make this dress for a wedding later in the year but I’m still searching for the perfect fabric, here is the dress – it has a lovely sash detail round the waist.
The next dress after that will be another gorgeous Colette pattern, here is Ceylon and this lovely version is made in Blue linen:
(and yes that’s Teegs for those of you who know Ink and Spindle!)
This particular pattern looks very 40′s which is why I’d like to make it, I wish I could find a lovely linen fabric but I’ve struggled in find any in the shops. I think I’ll probably make it out of a cotton but nothing too outlandish. I do like patterns on dresses but then I find it really difficult to find anything to match them. I’m not a big spender when it comes to clothes (in fact I only buy clothes about twice a year) so if I’m making a new dress I have to at least have some shoes or maybe a cardigan to go with it.
There are some fabulous dresses out there though if you’re not handy with a sewing machine, I found this today and instantly fell in love:
This is the Temporary Secretary dress (one of my favourite McCartney songs as a child!) and it’s on the fabulous Modcloth site.
Laura Lees dresses are another passion of mine, I have a few of the Topshop ones that are machine embroidered but I and am lucky enough to have an original tennis dress too. Here is a recent Laura Lees dress in collaboration with Little Miss Sew, isn’t it adorable?
So many patterns, so little time…
Posted on | May 11, 2010 | 9 Comments
I had an extremely productive morning today – I made the Rooibos dress! I was so excited through the whole process, I just couldn’t wait to see the finished product. I also had that slightly apprehensive feeling about whether the bugger will fit or not! No worries on that front though – it fits really well, here she is in all her glory.
And here is the collar detail at the top:
I bought the chocolate spotty fabric from Patchwork Direct in Darley Dale and managed to find a perfect match blue fabric for the pockets and facing, it’s spot on!
Here is the Sencha top I made last week too, I kept forgetting to take a picture but I finally got around to it today:
I love this top, it’s such a fantastic vintage style pattern, the fabric I used is called Antique Treasures, I also bought that from Patchwork Direct. This is the only good thing about being signed off work – you have time to sew! I haven’t made any clothes in so long that it’s been really nice to get back into the swing of it. Now I just need to buy all the other patterns from Colette and make even more clothes!
Craftsville…
Posted on | May 10, 2010 | No Comments
There is a wonderful new site in the lovely land of the internet – Craftsville. It’s run by the very fabulous Michelle and Helen (Hello Memo) and looks like it’ll be a great place to champion all that’s good about indie design.
I was lucky enough to get a mention today on their Good Finds section, which today is all about textile lust. Thanks ladies!
Can you spot my Forest Green Birdcage print in the middle?
The fantastic illustrations on the site are by the supremely talented Helen of Hello Memo, I love her work, in fact whenever she has a stall at our Craft Candy fairs I try to buy at least one thing (it’s more like about 5 things though by the time I’ve finished!)
I love Colette and Kiss Prudence…
Posted on | May 5, 2010 | 2 Comments
I have a new pattern obsession – Colette patterns. My patterns arrived yesterday and I couldn’t wait to start them. My back is very bad this week so I can’t do much of anything but I can sit at a sewing machine so that’s what I did!
Here is the gorgeous fabric I used, it’s from Coles (or John Lewis to be exact!) and is part of the Antique treasures range (pattern 9829) Apologies for the crap photos, they were taken with my phone! All the fabrics in this range are gorgeous and the prints are so vintage looking, the Sencha top was just screaming to be made out of one of them!
All I have to do now is sew the snaps on the back and then take some photos, I’ll do that tomorrow!
Yesterday when I wasn’t sewing I was cutting up pieces of fabric to send to Kiss Prudence. Kiss Prudence is based in Leeds and I met Helen (the lady behind the name) at one of the Craft Candy fairs. She makes the most gorgeous toys, here is one of her elephants:
Helen asked if she could use some of my fabrics for the ears of these wonderful elephants so of course I said yes! I cut up 30 pieces in a variety of different prints and colours and posted them off, here is the little collection (again sorry for the hideous image!)
I can’t wait to the see the finished elephants, don’t worry I’ll be linking to them when Helen has finished making them!
House decoration musings…
Posted on | May 4, 2010 | No Comments
As you know I moved house 4 weeks ago and in an effort to ‘get excited’ about owning my own house I’ve decided to start looking at how I can decorate the rooms. I’ve mentioned this before but I don’t have the ‘house buying gene’ as I haven’t as yet got excited about the prospect of owning my own house, hubby loves it though and it’s given him such a sense of security which is fabulous. I keep thinking that maybe I’ll start feeling more excited once I can get my hands on the place and start making it ours.
The house is fairly unoffensive in it’s decoration so it’s not urgent although there is some nasty wood chip wallpaper which will need dealing with – urgh! The only major structural work that needs doing is downstairs, we have a small kitchen with a shower room next door as a disabled lady lived here some years ago. The plan for that is to eventually knock the wall down in between and make a kitchen/dining room. That can wait though as it means getting a new kitchen and the one that’s in is pretty nice it seems a shame to rip it out. We’ve decided to start with the rest of the house first so I’ve been hunting for inspiration, here are some of the lovely images I’ve found:
I have one of those Cath Kidston home ideas journals, they are really handy and I used it to start collecting together images I like such as the ones above.
You can write about everything you’d like to do and it makes you start off by writing about the bad points in the room, where do you start!?!?! One of the best things about the journal is that it’s got this fabulous stickers at the back that you can use to plan out your rooms. There are cute little sofa’s, beds, chairs and kitchen sink! Too sweet!
I had thought it’d be one of those fabulous things that I keep and never write in but I’ve decided life is too short for that so why not enjoy using it!
Bank holiday blues…
Posted on | May 3, 2010 | No Comments
I had a sewing disaster today, let me say now that I hate rubbish sewing patterns! I borrowed a book from a friend which has lots of lovely looking patterns in it, including the strappy top which I wanted to make but today I tried and it was a disaster. Let’s forget for a second that I had to blow it up by scanning the pattern and then increasing the size on photoshop and tile printing it – that was the relatively easy bit. The hard bit was following the flippin’ pattern! How can they get it so wrong? The pieces were labelled wrongly, they don’t match up and the instructions make no sense, needless to say I gave up in the end.
Thankfully I’m happy to say that my Colette patterns will be here tomorrow and I know I wont be disappointed by them. I’ve heard so many great reviews about how easy they are to follow and the designs themselves are amazing.
I showed you the Rooibos dress the other day but I also bought the Sencha top, here it is:
Yesterday I bought some fabric in Coles to make this with, it’s a lovely vintage looking fabric and it’s only been in a few weeks. I was hoping to find something to use it for and I think this pattern is perfect!
I think that’s me spent up for the month but this is what is on my list for next month:
This is San Francisco by Miroslav Sasek is a work of art. It’s one of a series of ‘This is’ books which show Sasek’s wonderful illustration. I’ve had my eye on This is London and This is San Francisco for a while, in fact I ordered them on Amazon a few weeks ago but had to cancel them as I’d spent up that month! I will get one next month though and I’m going to start with this one.
I miss sewing…
Posted on | May 1, 2010 | No Comments
I had a fabulous day planned today – a mega sewing day with 2 strappy tops made with my lovely new fabric but it didn’t happen, boo hoo. Instead me and the hubby spent all day tidying the spare room which more or less hasn’t been touched since we moved in a month ago. The only furniture we have in the room is a desk which has had both our computers squeezed on it, my mac and hubby’s ugly PC! Everything else in the room is (or should say was) piled on the floor. My parents are giving us a shelving unit but in the meantime we decided we couldn’t stand it any more and we had to do something about it. Plus my sewing machine was literally buried at the bottom of it all. Yes you’ve guessed it, all this started as a way of getting my machine out! I am happy as I have a room I can actually get in now (and find things) but the sewing will have to wait for another day.
Here is the lovely fabric waiting to be made in to a lovely top:
This is one fabric from a range by Henry Glass & Co. called Polly Goes to Paris and everything in the range is gorgeous! Here is a link to a post on True Up which shows all the available prints. There is a fabulous quilt pattern available at Patchwork Direct using 5 fabrics from the range and when one of the helpful ladies there showed it me I just wanted to buy all the fabrics and run home and make it! Instead I decided to be good and wait until my next visit, hopefully by then all the clothes I want to make with the fabrics I bought on my last visit will be made and so I’ll be ‘allowed’ to start another project!
Lucky me…
Posted on | April 30, 2010 | 2 Comments
I’ve had a great week this week, I’ve been featured on Cuteable again and also on one of my favourite sites – True Up. I’ve also been in two treasuries – lucky me! True up is a fantastic site dedicated to the love of fabric, I was absolutely chuffed to bits to be mentioned!
I’ve been in a lot of pain again this week so have had to take it easy with the printing. I decided to print up smaller panels of the English Insults as they are easier to print when I’m in pain – not so much reaching across the table! Here is that new colour of English Insults which has had a lot of interest this week, I love this teal colour:
Today I’m going to rest and take the day off, what better way to spend it then a trip to Bakewell with one of my friends? We’re going to call in at Patchwork Direct in Darley Dale too as it’s our favourite fabric stop. I’m really wanting to make this dress by Colette so I might see if I can pick up some suitable fabric whilst I’m there.
Photography day…
Posted on | April 26, 2010 | 2 Comments
Today was a photography day, I did have something else planned but unfortunately that didn’t work out so instead of twiddling my thumbs I took lots of photos! I’ve had a lot of fabrics and products sat around for quite a while but as I hadn’t taken any pictures I haven’t been able to list them in my Etsy shop so I put a stop to that today. I listed my new colour of my Birdcage print in a lovely Forest Green, here are the photos:
More photos tomorrow of a new colour of English Insults, bye for now!
And the winner is…
Posted on | April 25, 2010 | 1 Comment
And the winner is…Comment no’ 3 – Christine! Congratulations Christine, I’ll be in touch soon to get your address! Thank you to all of you who left a comment!
The English Insults fabric is now available to buy in my Etsy shop, the pieces are approximately 36 x 53cm (14″ x 21″). I really love this print, it’s got some great words on it such as ninny, cad, bounder and my personal favourite – Piggery!
Look out for more designs coming soon!
