Dress making part 2

Most people probably enjoyed a nice relaxing bank holiday weekend in the UK (Well, not the leader who took some of our Guides on a county camp. I suspect she enjoyed a very tiring weekend) but I was stuck at work for 2 of the 3 days so didn't get much sewing done. That's the problem with starting at 4am. I can never be bothered to do much apart from sleep after an 8 hour shift!

Sunday was designated a sewing day though and instead of choosing the sensible option of just finishing something I decided to go for part 2 of making the dress.

I put all my pattern pieces on my fabric - very impressed because I bought too much fabric so I have some spare that I'm sure can be used for a bag or something.

I then wandered to my sewing machine and sewed all my darts in and my pleats. Easy! the hardest bit that seemed to take forever was transferring all the markings to the fabric from the pattern. I must find a better way to do this!

Then it was time to join the tops and bottoms together. At this point I realised why instructions always say 'seam ripper needed'. I sewed this seam 3 times! The first time I forgot I had it on a very long stitch for basting. The 2nd time I caught the material when sewing (see pic) and the 3rd time I finally managed it. Luckily the other 3 pieces were done without as much hassle.

And look at this! the back of my dress all sewn together. Not quite the way the pattern says because I'm an idiot and ordered supplies after watching the Great British Sewing Bee so I ordered an invisible zip instead of a normal one. Never mind, I found it rather easy to insert after a quick glance at a youtube video and I think the result is a rather invisible zip! I've now decided any more clothing I make will have an invisible zip.

And look! Here is the dress on me and it actually fits! It still isn't finished though. I've yet to do the neck facing or the armhole facing but that shouldn't be too bad after the trauma of the zip! It will be my first attempt at playing with interfacing but that will be a good practise for when I make a bag. Because I am determined that I will make a weekender bag at some point.

My only possible problem with this dress is the neck. It just seems to have a lot of fabric loose around it but maybe the neck facing will sort that out. I have a friend who's mum is a seamstress who has promised to look at the pattern for me to see if we can't just make it a V neck instead.

So now I get to look around and pick fabric to make the real thing. I'm rather torn between this, this and this. of course I have no idea which is the best fabric for a dress and they are all very different!

I've also discovered bloglovin' since the last post. What a handy way to read the blogs I follow when I'm on the go on my ipad or iPhone  So if anyone would like to follow me on there then I have a little linky button that hopefully will appear under here and will work!

Thanks for reading!

(Oh and yes, I did stay inside sewing on what was possible the nicest day we are going to see in the north east of England this year as you can see from the sun in my photos!)

1st May! Where has the year gone?

How is it May already? Where has the year gone? Will summer ever arrive?

I'm joining up with the small blog meet that Lily's quilts hosts because I'd love to think someone is actually reading my blog and I'm not talking to myself (which I'm fairly certain I am at the minute). hopefully with a few followers I'll remember to post more often on here although I've been good recently.

April has been a productive month for me, I finally finished quilting my friend's star quilt and I finished the tiny cathedral windows blocks I'd been working on. I made a bag out of a kit I bought from hobbycraft (you can never have too many bags!) And in the middle of all of that I managed to have 2 birthdays and a wedding anniversary happen!

I've yet to bind the star quilt, hopefully this weekend I can get that done. I'm also thinking of making a pincushion that's a cathedral window. I've found a blog with instructions so we'll see how that goes. Probably rather ambitious for the 1 day I have off. The joys of working in retail eh?

I've started work on a quilt for a friend's wedding and I have help from someone to make it although before last Sunday she'd never used a sewing machine before so we are having fun with me teaching her to sew.

Inspired by the Great British sewing bee I've started making a dress. Well, actually, I've traced and cut out a pattern to make a fake dress to get a practice run. I daren't make the real thing because I'm currently trying to do the Insanity workouts and hope to shift quite a few inches so I'll look good when I wear my dress I'll make :)

Oh, and yet again I gained some fabric... The tube map on and the apron one were a birthday present from my sister and the others were all acquisitions in the hobbycraft fabric sale. Amy Butler fabric at half price is too good to pass up and I'll find something to do with the rest.

Oh I've also spent most of this week being attacked by spiders. I've pulled one live one out my hair (dunno how that got in there at work), had one drop infront of my face when eating breakfast at work and had one fun at me in our house. I'm beginning to feel there is a spider conspiracy against me. I thought they were meant to go outside when the weather got warmer not appear near me?

Oh well. Hopefully I'll be posting next time with either a finished pincushion or a quilt that's finally been bound!

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Alex attempts a dress part 1...

Well I'm back and I've started my dress making attempt. The pattern I'm using is Simplicity pattern 2444 which I got free with a magazine.
All of the goodies I'd ordered for my dress making have arrived over the past few days and I've gathered all my supplies together. I bought an invisible zip foot for my sewing machine (before noticing the pattern doesn't call for an invisible zip - just a normal one. Oh well...) and some fabric and a zip. Everything else I had hanging around all ready. (excuse the Christmas table cloth that apparently never made it off our dining room table!)

My goodies - the great British Sewing Bee book, some calico for my first attempt at a dress, some tracing paper so i don't ruin my pattern, and my pattern I got free.

I decided to lay out my pattern on the floor of our lounge and to trace over the pieces I needed so that I could use the pattern again (not that I plan to get any bigger with doing this insanity workout) just in case I made any mistakes. Of course I had to gain some cans to weigh it all down. For future reference this tracing paper was awful to see through. I think next time I must find something much thinner.

all laid out to be traced

I also quickly discovered that my ability to trace objects and draw in a straight line is almost non existent so I'll have to work on that. Tracing all the bit i needed took 2.5 sheets of tracing paper. I suspect with a bit of fiddling I could of used less, although this is just the very basic version of the dress with no fancy collar or sleeves or belt.

1st few pieces all traced

Luckily although i can't draw in a straight line I can cut in one so I managed to save the templates with my wonderful cutting skills. I'm pleased I remembered to write all the pattern numbers on and the names when I added the markings of I suspect I'd be baffled next time.

All cut out and ready to pin to fabric

That's me done for the day. Unlike in the Great British Sewing bee I'm not about to make a dress in a crazy amount of time (although I suspect I could have this done in a day if I really put my mind to it).

Next time around pinning and cutting my fabric then I finally get to sew! yay!

Back again and inspired by great British sewing bee

Well yet again I'm back. I'm awful at this blogging thing. I suspect this is because I only have 1 follower and so I doubt that anyone actually reads these! Although who knows. Maybe if I posted more I would get more followers?

Well onto a catch up of what I've been doing.

Remember those hexagons I was hoping to turn into a tablemat for Christmas? Here they are all finished.

Yay! I do like them and I think they work well with the linen.

That starry quilt I was making for my friend? That's been free motion quilted too. I finally plucked up the courage to do it and managed to do the whole thing in a day. It isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination but for a 1st attempt it's OK  It looks really good from afar. The quilt just needs binding now and I've cheated and bought some binding to do that.

Since my last post I've also gained more fabric (oops) including some very funky tube map fabric that I got for my birthday, rather a lot of Amy butler fabric that was on sale in hobby craft for £6 a meter (silly to pass up that chance) and some home dec fabric from ikea to make a bag. I would to to make Amy butler's weekend bag but I suspect that's a little beyond my skill level so I'm going to limit myself to something from the bag making bible instead.

I've also for some reason agreed to make a quilt for my friends wedding which is in October. Plenty of time right? The theme for the wedding is a vintage tea party and so I've had to buy a lot of fabric to match this theme. I had nothing in my funky stash that would work. It's a basic quilt with lots of squares for people to sign and we ate hoping to transfer some photos on too. I've put my friend who is one of the bridesmaids in charge of gaining photos. It's all a secret from the bride and groom so I'm having to be very careful what I say on Facebook.

my newly gained fabric. lots of flowers

I'm not alone in making this quilt though. I have help! The friend who is a bridesmaid is helping me make it. She's never used a sewing machine before which is just a tiny problem so last weekend I spent a Sunday afternoon letting her loose sewing straight lines and we got a few blocks made. She loved her time using the sewing machine and is really looking forward to our next sewing get together in a few weeks.

7 of 66...

And then we get to the great British sewing bee TV show. For those who don't know what it is... If you've ever seen great British bake off its the same thing but sewing. Lol. Basically a group of very talented people complete challenges to make items every week with people being knocked out every week until the finale. I have no idea how they are making those things in that time. I mean seriously I takes me months to make anything. Never mind making an evening dress of a tailored jacket in 8 hours from start to finish! Utter madness.
I was given the book for my birthday last week and I also magically at the same time managed to gain a dress pattern from as magazine. It's a sign I tell you! I've always quite liked slightly vintage dresses (not so much the flowers. Kath kidston flowers make me cry so you can imagine how I'm feeling about that wedding quilt) and with my recent (and hopefully continuing weight loss) I've decided now is the time to try and make a dress! You never know. Summer may appear yet. I'm also aware that making a dress may be a stupid and expensive thing to so when I'm still loosing weight and planning on starting the insanity workout DVDs so I've opted to just have a trial run and see how it goes since its the first item of clothing I will ever of made and will be only the 2nd zip I've put in (everyone has to start somewhere right).
The fabric has been ordered, the invisible zippers and zipper foot for my sewing machine have been ordered, the book will give me hints, and the pattern gives me basic instructions. How wrong can it go? I'm hoping to blog the lot so you (dear reader who has done very well to get this far) can see. If I can make a dress anyone can.

The pattern. Can I do it?

Coincidently the woman who won the sewing bee had never made a quilt before. At least I've done that even if I've never worn anything I've made! lol. Hopefully next time I post I'll have started making that dress. Or have more of the quilt made... I'm rather excited about the dress option tbh...

I'm back and I"ve been busy!

Well it's been a while since I've posted (I know I'm such a bad blogger) but it's been crazy busy at work and I've been a busy bee in General! I've been on holiday to Devon (where I'm fairly certain the country's population of VW camper vans are!). On a sad note I've also been to Southampton to visit my gran who isn't very well. She had a few stokes and is now very ill. I was hoping to show her some pictures of my sewing but she was asleep the whole time we were there.

So onto what I've been doing! I started making the bag from 'make'and just have the button holes left to put on the straps so I can use the bag. It was nice to make the bag but it's a little smaller than I'd like. Can't fit much in there!

The next thing I made was actually another project from 'make' and it was the jewellery roll. I made this for a friend's birthday and just dug some fabric out of my stash to make it. I think she liked it but I'm always a worrier when I give people gifts that I've made. I did rather like it though and may get around to making myself one at some point. I was so proud of myself because this is the first time I've sewn a zip into anything!

And then the olympics started. I was persuaded by my sister to go see a football match at St James' park in Newcastle and we saw the New Zealand and USA woman's quarter final. It was the first football game I've been to but it was actually good fun and the crowd were all in a good mood. Not what I imagine from a normal football match!

After the Olympics and hours spent glued to the TV and computer when not at work it was the turn of the paralympics. I'd spotted some Christmas fabric in a sale (the Blitzen by basic grey charm pack infact) and had bougt that. I'd also been rather taken by a table mat I'd seen somewhere and so decided to make that. Back to my dreaded nemesis of hexagons! I had no idea where I saw the pattern or what size hexagon to make so I just cut my charms into 4 and made my hexagons from there (They turned out to be 1 inch hexagon). A few days after I started I saw a review of a book called hex-a-go-go and lo and behold there was the pattern I'd seen! I bought the book and luckily for me I've made the right size hexagons. I say 'made' because all I've done so far it cut out hundreds of hexagon shaped bits of paper, and basted about half of them so far. Will it be done by this xmas? Only time will tell!

Carrying on with my hexagon obsession I decided to make a case for my new phone - an iPhone5! This case was made out of small scraps of fabric I had left over from the 2nd quilt I ever made and they are 1/2 inch hexagons. How tiny! I lined the case with a microfible cloth which was a bit of a faff to sew. It's a little shorter than I wanted but the phone fits in so long as it's not in another cover.

So with that we move onto this week. We are getting people in to do our windows and doors so my lovely stash of fabric has to move to a new home as I'm no longer allowed to store it in boxes on the dining room table. We bought a Beno cd holder from Ikea to store it all in our spare room/office. The family had joked would it hold all my fabric and I've given them evil glares. I don't have that much you know...

Well as you can see from these pictures above and below I actually do have rather a lot of fabric. Oops. I see a lot of fabric from my stash having to be used in quilts in the future. It's all just too pretty to cut though. You may also be able to tell that I spent the time to organise it by colour with all the xmas ones together, the batiks together, the novelty prints together.... Me obsessive? never...

  

Looking at it I also feel like some colours are missing. I hardly have any blender type fabrics. most of them are bold and bright prints.

  

And look at the extra space that has no fabric in it. That means I'm allowed to buy more right?

Hopefully I'll post another update soon. I'm currently trying to persuade myself that I don't REALLY need to but the oh deer jelly roll that's on sale at Simply solids...it sure is pretty though

   

Productive week!

Well my week off work was rather productive as far as sewing goes! Pity that the weather was awful so i didn't get a change to go out for a wander in Northumberland somewhere and go geocaching but I did manage to get all this sewing done - a lot for me!

The first thing I work on was this cute bag that came with Patch! by Cath Kidston that I got at Christmas. Making it revealed to me that I have NO patience whatsoever for paper piecing things. i hated having to cut out fabric with scissors and then loads of paper templates then having to baste it all and then sew it together. What a faff! I much prefer using my Dresden ruler I have which cuts half these steps out and means I can rotary cut it all. Another leader from our Guide unit also had the book and made her bag about the same time as me on her new cheap sewing machine. We both had hours of fun making the puff for the middle. She managed to make her's too small and I made mine too big and as you can see had to pop an extra bit of fabric in the middle because the fabric supplied only had the print on 1 side. Oh well...

I also made myself chuckle as I sewed all the seams inside and I blindly followed the book which said to do a zig zag stitch on the seam to make it stronger. just as I turned the bag the right way around I realised not only do I have a hemming foot with my sewing machine (doh!) but it also has a pre set stitch for it! (double doh!). I'll have to remember that for my next project which is the bag fro the Make! book that I was given for my birthday by a friend.

My bag

Project number 2 was the starry quilt (yes, the one I started earlier this year that is a birthday pressie for someone who's birthday was in feb). I FINALLY got all the stars made and spent a good hour with my twin sister working out the best layout so we didn't have groups of colours or collections of the same type of star together. I guess a lot could be said for planning and not being spontaneous but where's the fun in that! My sister is  huge fan of the grey/pink/yellow star that's in the middle column 2nd down. She's requested a whole quilt of it (not demanding at all!). I on the other hand am a fan of the purple and green one in the top left corner and the green and grey one in the bottom centre. I love the idea of making a quilt with a grey background and using bright colours to really add some 'wow' to it.

As much as I love this quilt and will be proud of it when I've finished I still would have preferred it on a black background but the recipient wanted it on a creamy one. I think black would of looked fab. This quilt is all pinned now and just needs to be quilted which leads me to project number 3...

Starry Quilt - top all pieced!

Project 3 - learn to fmq on my new(ish...) sewing machine so i can quilt this quilt with stars - it seems only right for it. I sat myself down one afternoon with a couple of large quilt sandwiches and just sat playing with the tension and everything to try and get it right. It would appear that changing the stitch length to 0 has a huge impact and once I managed to get the tension right for a straight line (I have to loosen the bobbin tension every time I put a new bobbin in because my sewing machine hates me lol) I was whizzing around and actually getting rather good results fro my first attempt. The tension was perfect even around corners although my stitch length was a tad dodgy in places - all in all i think I could get the hang of it easily because it just seemed like such a natural thing to do. I bought a couple of star templates and some air vanishing pens to mark the quilt so hopefully if i get a chance this weekend I may get the quilt done. I'm so excited!

As for my other project of the week - Herman - he worked OK but not brilliantly. I blame it on the instructions I was given being in American (I have no idea what a cup is when baking - obv in real life it's what holds my tea). This time around I used a recipe that had English measurements and he looks a lot happier. I'm due to cook him this weekend so we'll see how he goes!

hopefully next time I write I'll have a quilt that just needs binding (or is finished!)

Herman the house guest

On Friday last week I gained a new friend who wanted to go home with me. His name? Herman. And he's not a real person - he's a German friendship cake yeasty mix that's doing the rounds.
Luckily for me he's not that demanding and as he was already rather old when I got him I've only had to stir him so far and don't need to feed him until tomorrow when I also have to split him up! In theory I give 2 portions of him to friends, keep 1 for myself and eat the other. I think my dad and I are going to have big arguments about what we add to him but I may struggle to give him away so we may make a few cakes!

The best news this week though is that I have a week off work so I'm intending on relaxing and finishing that star quilt I started for my friend (yes, I am a bad person who hasn't finished it yet)

I have managed to do some sewing today and I made a bag that came with a book I got. In making this bag I have discovered that I have no patience for paper templates and basting things then hand seeing. Yawn. What a faff. I like rotary cutting and making a nice fast quilt.