I belong to Glasgow in Simplicity 1803

Last week Dan, Gemma and I had a day out in Glasgow.

There was a vintage fair...

 

.... and of course it was the Commonwealth Games, so the city was buzzing!

 



 
We booked afternoon tea at the famous Willow Tea Rooms, designed by MacIntosh

It was a real treat ...

Glasgow is a great place and there was lots to see that we just hadn't time for, so another visit is definitely called for.

On to the dress I was wearing. I've been taking part in Lauren and Andi's Outfit-a-long (OAL) and I have just made it as it finished on the end date, even had to blow dry my cardigan as I blocked it !  The idea was to make a dress and matching cardi.

The dress is Simplicity 1803 and it was quite a different style for me to make as the bodice is a little quirky.

I love the bodice, a really flattering fit and cute capped sleeves which just cover my arms a bit (don't like exposing my arms too much).  The pattern has a gathered skirt, but Lauren demonstrated how to make a pleated skirt and I thought that would be more flattering.  The inside isn't lined but it still looks nice, and with this thicker quilting cotton I thought a lining would be too much. 

 

 I used Lauren's excellent tutorials to help with the slightly complicated bodice construction.   The shoulders and facings are attached in quite an unusal manner (you may get the idea from the inside shot).

 
I was really pleased with how the facing went on, the understitching worked and the resultant neck shape is really neat.

Overall I like the dress, though I'm going to need to make bra strap holders (or use a safety pin) and the waist could do definitely do with about one inch taking out.  Generally the dress went together well until I got to the zip!  Then I managed to melt the first one, and had to unpick the next one 3 times!

The sleeve has a little pleat which is cute.

 
Just a word about this fabric.  I love it!  It's Amy Butler Tumble Roses which I bought at my local quilting shop.  It has a slight stretch and sews like a dream.  Unfortunately I don't think you can get it in this country any more or I would by some more for a wiggle style dress.  I do worry sometimes though that I am dressing too young for my age!  Hopefully someone would tell me, as you get older the "mutton dressed as lamb" label becomes a real worry.

The cardie is my third Andi Satterlund  pattern, Myrna.  I love the shape she designs with a tight little waist.  I love the duck egg blue colour.  Unfortunately I'm not in love with the wool which is  Rowan worsted in duck egg blue. It is really itchy and so I'm just not sure I'm going to get any real wear from it.  Also I think it does look homemade.  The stitches are pretty uneven, and there is a lot of picking up stitches (for the sleeves and button bands) which I'm not great at.  You can also see the button band pulling when its buttoned up.

Well all for now.  I don't know about you but I have also thoroughly enjoyed watching the Commonwealth Games and the Home Countries were superb!  The first time England has beaten Australia to lead the medal table in ages.  There were too many highlights to mention!  I'm enjoying a 2 week holiday at home at the moment, a fair bit of painting is going on in anticipation of a new carpet in a couple of weeks.  Shame the sun seems to have disappeared at the moment.

Butterick 6018 and happy July

Things got pretty much out of kilter in June.  It is the worst month of the year for me, Dan and Gemma moved out and I am getting reused to living alone, my hard drive packed up etc. etc., so that's why the posts have been few and far between.  However, things are getting back to normal.  A new 50s style dress is finished; Butterick 6018.

This has a definite 50s feel with its high, fitted bodice and wide skirt made from 8 panels.

There is a sweetheart neckline which was a little challenging to make it sit nicely, but I just about managed.   You can imagine how difficult it was to turn all that thickness of material into a neat little point.

The pattern had facings, but I decided to do a full lining (love the mint colour!).

 

The fabric was incredibly cheap, enough for two dresses and it only cost £15, and because of this it was a bit rough, it is a type of crepe but with a high synthetic content, and it was difficult to cut and sew, shifting everywhere, weighs a ton, but I just love this colour, duck egg blue is my absolute favourite.  I think this pattern would make a lovely evening dress, perhaps in a black silk, so I do hope to make it again. maybe a little more fitted around the waist.

I am working on lots of other projects; another dress, a slip, another dress cut out,  two sweaters to block and sew up and a new cardi on the go.  Actually I don't think I like having so many on the go, I really prefer having one sewing and one knitting project on the go until they are finished.  Why so many then?  Its the result of lots of sew and knit-alongs which I wanted to join in and then have found tricky to keep up with!  In future I won't do more than one at once.

The best part of June was an enjoyable day at the Minerva meet-up.  Starting with some bucks fizz it was heaving.  It was odd seeing people whose blogs I follow and feeling a bit like a stalker as you stared and thought that's "Scruffy Badger!"

I did pluck up the nerve to actually speak to Karen of "Did you Make That"  who gave a great talk.  I'm wearing my Cambie dress which could do with some adjustments since I've lost a bit of weight.  The rather oddly placed circles on my chest are where people were voting for my dress!  Very flattering, it was definitely the bright pink flamingos.

My favourite dress of the day was this one, doesn't she look lovely, it's the Betty dress, which I rather fancy in some caramel polkadot fabric.

So I had a great day, and of course didn't manage to leave without spending rather a lot of money!  As you can see there is a definitely duck egg and teal thing going on here.

 

Other good bits have been a working lunch at Lakeside Hotel!  How lovely is this, and how lucky am I to live in such a beautiful part of the world?

Last night I went to the annual village dance and I had a great time; danced for ages and did not feel my age at all ... I was back in the 70s and I won the raffle, a bottle of Glenfiddich.  The band included some amazing facial hair and a great guest appearance by a very young drummer.

 

... today was glorious and what a gorgeous sight this old railway signal covered with roses was.

Finally I leave you with this very cute pic of my lovely cats, being very sweet with each other, that's certainly not always the case.

Plum Anna dress

I held off blogging this week in the hope I could photograph my finished dress on, but due to the absence of my photographer (Dan) and lack of ability to work out the self-timer function on my camera I'm afraid I'll have to make due with shots on my dummy.  Anyway here it is my finished Anna Dress

 

It does look better on, but as you can probably tell it fits like a glove.   No opportunity for any large meals in here!

 
I was really chuffed with the invisible zip, which you can hardly see at all.

 
A shot of the inside, the bodice has a facing rather than being lined.

 

 

 For the hem, I just turned under a 1/2 inch hem.

Overall the pattern is pretty straightforward.   It is Handmade by London's Anna Pattern.  I cut a size 12 which is my usual bought dress size, but it could probably do with a little more ease.   I didn't make any other changes   The instructions are really clear and comprehensive, and with a cotton fabric I think it would be pretty straightforward.  However, this  fabric wasn't easy to sew, its silk satin charmeuse.  I bought 3 metres for £21 and I have at least a metre left to make a blouse.  It feels gorgeous, but as you can guess slipped around a lot!  So although the dress isn't my usual style I do like it and it should be quite versatile.

I've also been making bound button holes on the New Look jacket I'm making.  I enjoyed making these, quite therapeutic.

 
I followed Gertie's instructions and the pattern for the jacket is also from the book.

 

 
Can't believe I didn't photograph the finished button holes, but I will show them when the jacket is completed, I'm quite excited with it so far.

Like a lot of the country Cumbria is raining nearly every day, but when we did get some sun over half term (one day) it was lovely.

 

 

 

 

I just had three days off at half term and didn't really do much other than some sewing, knitting and watching a few films etc.  Lets hope we get a lot more cold but sunny days!

pleating away!

First thank you so much for your lovely comments.  I just want to repeat that I am definitely a crafty beginner; sewing - my fourth zip this week, crochet, only on my second project, cross-stitch started 2 years ago, knitting probably my most proficient craft but still early days.  I mention this because anything I try I think most people could have a go!

Oh what a lovely three days off!  Lots of crafty time and such glorious sun today that I even felt too hot at one time.  It was lovely in Morecambe.

First the answer to the questions posed last time, a) yes the "Anne scarf" kit was in, and b) yes I bought it ..... and intriguing it is.  There are 75 colours and a 27 page instruction books, which really means that I can't yet answer c) will I be able to crocthet it!  I'll give it a try though.  The colours are lovely.

                               

I hope to start soon but I have unfinished crotchet project and in order for things not to get out of hand I do try to only have 1 crochet, 1 knitting, 1 cross stitch and 1 sewing project on the go at one.  So this weekend I've been working on my crotchet cushion (more next week) and I've got to the blocking stage of the grey striped jumper

Most of the weekend I've been sewing again.   Enter skirt no. 2.  I'm pretty pleased with this one.  (Excuse all the photos on a dummy - but Dan isn't home at the moment).

When the fabric arrived I could see it as a block pleated skirt.  I read a few blogs and watched some youtube tutorials and got the hang of how to do it (you don't need a pattern).  If you are interested in finding out how to make one read on - if not skip my rather confused explanation below.

You need one or two rectangles of material totalling 3 x your waist size.  I used 2 rectangles (side seams), so 3 x my waist size 84"  then divide by 2.  So each piece was 42" and add your seam allowance, my length was about 27" to allow for a 23" length.  I wanted 5 pleats on each side and so I spent some time trying the pleats out before I trimmed my fabric to the right size.  You need to make the pleats even - so if your waist is 29" and you want 10 pleats in total each one needs to be 2.9"

This is where you also need to take your pattern into account.  My pattern repeat was 3" (which did mean my skirt ended up a little loose).  It is worth the time to try and match everything up. to make the pleats  I used the method on this youtube tutorial as it seemed to make a very strong pleat.  So I folded the material at where the middle of my pleat would be, wrong sides together, then sewed a line 4 1/2" from this fold aboutt 3 inches long.

You can see on the wrong side how this works (and also whether you have matched your pattern correctly).

Then on the right side you squash down the tube you have created.

You have made a blox pleat!  Do this with all the tubes taking care to keep matching the pattern (You can see there are 2 pleats here).

 

Repeat this on your other rectangle.  Now you need to join the two rectangles.  I do the zip side first so you can spread the material out.  I used an invisible zip - I'm no expert on zips, pesky things.  I can't work out how to zip up or down mid sew without raising the needle, so I'll just suggest you look for an internet tutorial but will just say you need to get really close to the teeth!

 

It turned out OK, almost invisible and actually your pleats virtually cover the zip

 

 

Then sew up the other side.  Next you need to add a wait band.  Just a rectangle about 5" by your waist size plus 2" for overlap.  I fused some interfacing to half to give a bit of stability.  There is a lot of advice on adding a waitband - I just used the instructions and pattern from one of my skirt patterns.  Then just machine the hem and you are done.  I'll definitely make another of these.  I'm sure these instructions aren't anywhere near good enough!  But just to say I did enjoy making this skirt and it is pretty easy once you have worked out the measurements to make a wearable skirt.  This one would even do for work with a jacket.

 

So all in all I have enjoyed my quiet, solitary crafting long weekend!  I need to get back to the cushion to finish it!  See you soon I hope.