Seamless update and a 20 minute skirt

The seamless pledge is going well. To recap: I pledged to not buy any new clothes in 2012. I can make them and I can buy second hand ones but I am supposed to avoid getting anything new. To be fair, this Boden cardigan in a sort of eggshell blue is sorely testing me. Well, I got a very nice jacket indeed yesterday for £3.90 in the charity shop.

It's velvet and lined. very nice, n'est-ce pas?

This afternoon Mia saw me doing a little more knitting for her doll:

It's the same pattern as before (hey, I managed it once...) but this time I am making a stripey version (no lace pattern) to use up some left over yarn.

Of course, Mia just said: baby needs a skirt like that one. :0S

So I made one. Actually I thought it showed how much more confident my sewing is. I didn't check online how to do it, or measure anything, or even think about it much. I cut a square of fabric, joined it to make a tube (using the overlocker!), hemmed it and made a casing at the top. Put in elastic. Bob's your uncle.

What do you get if you cross a kangaroo and a sheep?

A wooly jumper.

This joke only makes sense to British people apparently. This week I have sewn what Americans call a jumper. I call it a pinafore dress. I am not sure what people from other English speaking parts call their sweaters / jumpers / pinafores. I never knew there was jumper confusion until I joined sewweekly. Don't even get me started on the pants / trousers debate.

Whatever you call it I made this:

I made the green dress on the left. The pattern is from 1973. I got it in a job lot of unloved 1970s patterns from ebay (ie very cheap). I used a vintage zip (ie a cheap one off ebay) and some cotton that I got at last year's sewweekly meet up as part of the swap. There was only a metre of it and it seems to be quilting cotton. Mia likes it because of the butterflies. So she chose it for herself.

In this pic she is only trying it on for length before I hem it. As you can see (coincidentally) it has what my Aunty Peg used to call in the 1970s "room to grow". As most of my clothes in the 1970s were too big I decided to leave it like that for reasons of authenticity (and laziness). I hemmed it since but Mia refused to put it on.

So instead of the finished item here is a photo of my brother and I in the 1970s (about about a year or so after the pattern was made). My Aunty Peg has cut my hair herself (another thing that happened alot in the 1970s and no-one does now). She was not a hairdresser but a shop assistant. My brother is pulling that face because he knows she is going to cut his hair too one day.....

I made a skirt and it took forever

I have made a super pretty skirt with covered buttons and piping down the seams. I saved time (and bulk) by not doing pockets. I saved time by not doing a belt or belt loops (I thought it would detract from the piping). the inside of the skirt is a thing of beauty, finally. That's what took so long. That and the piping. You can see my challenge post on sewweekly here. It's a Colette Beignet, of course. 12 buttonholes, eep.

Felt making - fun and anyone can do it

At my sewing class I was saying I wanted craft to do with Mia (aged very nearly 4 - next month). My sewing teacher Kate suggested felt making and lovely Joanne who runs the classes said she had some kit I could use..... This is Mia holding the wool roving you need (you can buy this on ebay, it is quite cheap). You also need some net or calico or similar, hot water and washing up liquid. That's it really! I like a cheap and cheerful craft....

Basically you make 3 layers of the woll, use other colours to make a pattern then tack your felt-to-be into a couple of pieces of cloth. Squirt on some washing up, pour on warm water and pulverise, pummel and poke for about 20 minutes until all the fibres have felted together. Rinse and dry flat.

Volia!

Felt good

Today Mia and I have been making felt . So much fun ! Details soon but for now a rather poor photo from my phone .