Crafternoon tea!

My fabulous sister Jessica has just called to make me aware of this event called Crafty Creatures Crafternoon that will be happening next weekend just a short walk from her place, we are definitely going!

The pillowcase that is also a night dress!

Yesterday at work I spent a vast portion of the day transported to the wonderful world of Anna Maria Horner and her creative endeavours, via her fantastic blog.

I was so delighted by all that I saw and read about that as soon as I got home I started making one of the projects on her blog, except with a twist...... the pattern that I chose to make was the Pillowcase dress, which I believe is actually meant for little girls, not big 30yr old girls like me!

It was a pretty huge pillowcase so it was perfect for its intended purpose - a nightdress!

I will try and take some piccies of it when I have a chance, it was way too tempting to wear it to bed last night, and it was super comfy!

Thanks to Anna Maria for the inspiration! :)

Summer Wardbrobe challenge!

I recently bought a copy of Heather Ross's new book Weekend Sewing.

I love this book, the simple and beautiful designs which are also printed patterns at the back and front of the book, really appeal to my idea of comfort sewing side (ie - not having to think about the drafting myself - laaaaaazy!) and are so inspiring, easy to adapt to your own style and enable you to easily add your own design details.

Heather launched a Weekend Sewing design challenge just after the launch of the book, and although I missed the deadline, it really inspired me to set a challenge of my own to design a completely handmade summer holiday wardrobe!

So far I have made 2 shirring sundresses, one in White cotton with big blue polka dots, and one in Navy blue jersey and last night I made a pretty cotton poplin top which I adapted from a 1970's dress pattern to suit the style I had in mind, it actually turned out exactly as i wanted it to - pretty unusual because there is usually some alteration to be made :)

I hope to post up a design sheet like the ones that Heather gave as a template to illustrate my ideas and give me a goal to work to!

I will post piccies as soon as i get a chance to photograph my bits and as soon as it stops raining....grrrrr the british weather!

Theramin

I am up at a ridiculous time for a Saturday morning, 8am. Normally this would be ok but i was woken at 5.30 by my boyfriend and then by relentless miaowing and nose rubbing by the kitty at 7, and he was not giving up.

So I gave in and came downstairs because it seemed that the boyfriend and the kitty were working as a team to keep me awake!

Anyway, I switched on the TV to keep me company and there was a programme on about early musical instruments and the rise of the electric guitar (surprisingly interesting for a saturday AM!) and suddenly a rather strange high pitched sound was coming from the TV and the cat seemed oddly freaked out by it, turns out it was a weird musical instrument known as a Theramin.

It is an electrically charged machine that is controlled by interrupting waves with your hand and therefore creating the sound, which is reminicent of a spooky horror movie soundtrack, very low budget BBC horror circa 1970's!

Murph was totally rigid and seemingly entranced by it, I suppose he thought it was another cat!

Gift bags

I found this lovely tutorial by 7 Layer Studio for making gift bags and whipped up 2 in an hour!

I made one especially for my friend Lara and her new baby, I hand-embroidered the birth date on a piece of the same fabric as the outside and then appliqued it onto the front, I thought this would make a much nicer wrapping 'paper' and is something they could use to keep memories in later on if they want.

I am officially useless at buying wrapping paper and greetings cards, especially for my family (bad daughter!) so i think I'll run up a batch of these in various sizes for that purpose in the future.

Card making is something else I need to get back on!

My best friend had a baby!

My best friend Lara has had a baby boy after 2 agonising days of labour and an eventual cesarian, but luckily she is ok and so is the baby, yet to be named!

A dress in under 2 hours......

I made a dress in under 2 hours.

I am officially obsessed with shirring fabric now, it just creates an instant perfect fit and can turn a rectangle of fabric into such a pretty dress!

I have had a large piece of Navy blue jersey in my stash for years and just didn't have the imagination or guts to do anything with it, mainly because I don't have an overlocker/serger and wasn't sure how to sew stretch fabrics on my regular sewing machine.

This is a total revelation for me, and I suspect that my summer wardrobe this year will consist of shirred dresses exclusively!

I will have to ask my boyfriend to take some photographs of me wearing the new creations to upload to the blog.

Its not quite warm enough yet to start wearing them so I will have to book a trip to Cyprus to get some good sundress weather, as good an excuse as any I think!

Weekend sewing - things I have made recently!

I have been pretty busy with work recently so have let the blog go a bit......but i now have a couple of days off in which to craft my socks off :)

So - over the last week or so i have made the following items..... for my best friend Lara who is giving birth as i write this (so exciting!) I have made a little denim bib which is bound with a light chambray, and a baby kimono from Weekend sewing by Heather Ross - in Chambray with bright orange binding and ties.

I have also made myself a green clutch bag - which is based on a pattern from the latest Burda World of Fashion magazine, having a few problems with figuring out a suitable closure for it though, I dont want everything falling out!

The favourite thing I have made so far is a lovely shirred sundress which I downloaded from the Weekend blog by Heather Ross, the Mendocino Sundress.

I plan on making a few more of these as tops for the summer, they are so easy to make and look so pretty!

Photos to follow soon, the camera is out of action at the moment....