chilli jam

Chilli jam made. Also marmalade but no photo of that x

Sew for victory!

Everywhere you look on vintage sewing Blogland you can see versions of Simplicity 3688.

Rochelle is hosting a 1940s themed sewalong, so you can play too!
Rochelle has asked us to be thrifty and resourceful in the spirits of the 1940s so I risked life and limb climbing on a rickety chair to look in my high stash cupboard and see if I had any fabric just hanging about.
I almost couldn't believe it when I found some suitable black fabric. I am slightly worried that I don't remember how it got there......
Have you made trousers? Any tips? Are you sewing anything 1940s just now?

Despite the dodgy brown and shiny flesh coloured styling sewists just love this pattern. I am going to use the trousers (pants) as my first ever trouser (pant) pattern and have a go. (No way am I getting into the whole Brits vs US trousers v pants debate again....) 

Am I a mad fool to try sewing trousers?

Map the sewintists

Another Sewing Scientist had a great idea, you can pin your location on her world map and see where other sewists, sewers, sewintists, seamstresses or anyone sewing and blogging can be found. So far I see one other in Lincolnshire.

Is there anyone near you?

Are you pinned?

"Did your mother make you do this too?" mittens

I have two strong memories of wearing mittens as a child.

1. They were always joined together with string or elastic threaded through the sleeves or your coat to prevent loss. If you weren't wearing them they would hang at your sides and flap about as you ran along.

2. In the winter when I went to church my Mum would give me 10p for the collection which I had to keep in the end of my mitten to stop me from losing it. When I put it on the collection plate it was lovely and warm.

Mia is always one glove away from a pair. This winter it seems every time we go out we are searching high and low for its partner. Finally, after much swearing under my breath I have given in and joined her mittens together. Modern parents don't seem to do this so I was a bit afraid she would be laughed at. I made these mittens using this 70s pattern I got from a Charity Shop for about 10p (exactly the money I would keep in my mittens 35 years ago!) and I attached them together with a crochet hooked cord. The yarn is left over from another project.

They are a bit big.....

Did you wear mittens as a child?....... Were they attached together like mine? Please say yes!

Tank top

Top tip:

Knitting in the round is excellent if you are a bit lazy (like me) and hate sewing up the seams (like me). Knitting for small people is also good because, of course, there is less to do. Ditto choosing a pattern without sleeves. This was the tank top I started during the Olympics. I really enjoyed putting the daisy chain motif around the hearts.

Posts are like buses.....

You wait for ages and then 3 come along at once....

This is a 3-in-one post.

I haven't blogged in months. To be honest, I didn't feel like it. So I didn't. When it's the holidays the pace of life slows down and I feel like I have time again. So here goes.

I have made 3 projects since I last blogged and although I completed two for sewweekly I didn't get around to putting them up and the moment has gone. They were both self drafted patterns, the first one was a copy of a Vivienne Westwood style skirt:

As it was self drafted I messed up the waistband and had to make a fix, in fact it turned out to be my favourite part.

Then I wanted to try out a pattern from Gertie's book but couldn't be faffed to trace the pattern so I just used my own but copied her waistband idea. This was my first attempt at boning:

 

 

The third project was for Mia, she was a shepherd in her Nativity play and although I could have bought a costume very cheaply they were all brown and "too boyish" so I made her one from gold lining fabric in my stash. I used the pattern on the right but left off the collar and made it floor length.

 

 

 

I was going to base the waistcoat on the one in the left but it was too big and in the end I just got some red fleece and winged it.

 

 

Finally I raided the teatowel drawer. Mia is in the middle. I was very proud and cried.

 

 

 

This post goes out with special love to Judy and Diane, who I have neglected abominably. Thanks for thinking of me even when I was not around, it meant a lot to me even if I didn't reply. xxxx





1920s nails

Flo-Jo; what a woman. And what nails! Although I am not quite ready for that level of manicure I do like a little fancy nail varnish. For my latest Gelish  I have opted for a moon manicure (sometimes I have seen this called a reverse French), as was popular with movie stars in 1920s Hollywood.

I know green and blue might not be everyone's cup of tea but I am thrilled with it.

Do you get your nails done? Do you have nail art? Would you have green and blue nails?