A new bag for a trip to Paris!

From the title of this post you might be fooled into thinking that I had made luggage, I haven't!  However, I do have a new satchel which I am very pleased with, perfect for carting all my junk around on a weekend in Paris.

I used the Kennedy satchel pattern which is a free pattern from Sew Sweetness.  It was made entirely from materials I had in my stash. The exterior is made from a polyester pleather (is this a thing?  It's what it said on the label) that I bought at the coupons de St Pierre in Montmartre a while ago.  The interior is a furnishing fabric which came from my granny's house, I think it was a leftover from some curtains, (upcycling win!). The trim is some genuine leather scraps that I had in my stash.  The real leather is so lovely and buttery feeling that I kinda want to make myself a leather blanket to wrap myself in but I don't have enough of it, boo! God, I'm such a bad vegetarian!  Unusually even the the notions were from my stash. I don't really stockpile notion in the same way I do fabric, they're just not as exciting to me. 

I have made this satchel before, documented here. But this one was for me! The construction was really simple and the instructions are great. The only part I have difficulty following is the dividing pocket which I didn't want in this version anyway. Instead I wanted a large section for carting my knitting around maximum storage.

 With a daffodil in my garden, just to prove that it is Spring!

I did create myself a little Oyster card pocket, for speedy access (much needed on London transport). I used the last of the fabric for this pocket and used the selvedge as the top edge, I love that I can still see the name of the fabric creator, it's like a little signature inside my bag. This fabric was made by Sanderson who a quick google search reveal to be fabric makers/designers since 1919.  I have no idea when my fabric dates from but safe to say it isn't that old.  However, another little google of Sanderson fabrics makes me glad I didn't know the prices of this stuff before I chopped it up to make into a bag!  
  

I deviated from the construction details in some other areas too because of the materials I was using. The pattern asks you to sew double layers of the accents together so that the raw edges are enclosed, since my accents were made of leather which didn't fray so I didn't bother sewing multiple layers together, I simply top stitched them to my main fabric. I had to stitch the strap to the lobster clasp by hand as the the layers of fabric were too thick. 

My new satchel holds lots of stuff, an essential in my book.  Perfect for a site seeing trip on the first weekend when it really felt like spring might be in the air!  I used to live in Paris so it's been a while since I did the tourist tour but it was really fun to see them in new company and to wander the Paris streets. As ever I'm terrible at remembering to take photos but here are a few for your enjoyment.

Sacre Coeur in the first properly sunny and vaguely warm day of the year.
  

 Pont Alexandre.  Remember this from that final scene in 'Sex and the city'?

 Musee d'Orsay

Notre Dame

 Cheesy photo with the Eiffel tower and a sunset in the background.  Selfie win!

So pretty but in my book London still wins!  I really must do a similar tour of London and take some pictures to let you guys compare for yourselves, however I should warn you I've found myself in the minority with this opinion so many times that I'm used to staunchly defending it!  Now I'm off to have a much less fun weekend of working on assignments.  Hope your weekends are more fun filled.   

A day out with Nettie

When the Nettie dress and bodysuit pattern was released I really loved it however, I was on a pattern diet and resisted buying it.  I'm always on a pattern diet, like most diets it usually fails, however, this time I didn't need to buy it.  I won it as a prize in the repurpose, reuse, refashion challenge!  Winning a prize itself was very exciting but winning a pattern I'd been lusting after was even more amazing.

I made a muslin of this back in November, in a gorgeous deep red. the remnants of which made the ruffle for my refashioned skirt. It was a 'wearable muslin', in that I wore it as part of a fancy dress costume for a 7 deadly sins party, and then never again!

I seem to remember there being more to this costume but by this stage it was probably fairly late and several glasses of wine down. Also it's now months on so my memory isn't as reliable as it might be.  I was meant to be wrath.  I really recommend 7 deadly sins as a theme, it was a lot of fun and people came in some really epic costumes!

However, I made my Nettie muslin up in a very non-stretchy ponte so it was much too tight, and made me look like all my body fat was trying to escape, not a good look.  So this time I used a slightly stretchier knit (although still a fairly stable ponte) and went up a size.

I'm happy enough with the result and I love the colour but a stretchier knit would be a lot more forgiving, I guess I should really pay a bit more attention to the recommended fabric guidelines!  However, I do really like the shape of this dress and am sure that I will make more.  Also I love sewing with knits, they're so fast.  I'm all about the instant gratification at the moment!  I've just purchased the Sew over it cowl neck dress so watch this space for some more instant gratification knit dresses!

I wore my lovely blue Nettie on a day out to Highgate with my mother and sister.

Highgate cemetery has lots of famous people (and non famous people) buried there, including Karl Marx.

 To be honest I'm not sure Karl would approve of the frivolity of this photo, I'm not sure useless, pretty dresses had a place in his manifesto!  By the way, we have not had a heatwave in London, these photos were totally staged, I had my coat firmly on for the rest of the day.  Although it's nice to have sun even if it isn't warm yet.

 I really love old English cemeterys and this one is really beautiful.  It's a non-religiously affiliated graveyard and there are a mix of graves from all religions and non-religions which I find really lovely as it feels really inclusive and it is great to see what people of different backgrounds do to remember their dead.

Anyone else a massive fan of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?  

As well as a visit to the cemetery, we also had lunch and hit the charity shops.  While I wouldn't say that the Highgate charity shops are the cheapest, they have some real quality stuff, I got some great finds:

This has been on my amazon wish list for a while but at £25 I was holding off on buying it.  I got this in the Oxfam bookshop for £15.  While this isn't super cheap, it's still a saving on £10 on the original.   I have just checked and actually this is currently selling on Amazon for £20.40, however, a) i've still saved money and b) my money has gone to a really good cause.  I might do a snapshot or review of this at some point in the future.

I got this lovely fitted Hawes and Curtis cotton shirt.  You should have heard the comments from my family in relation to this shirt, they are not fans of crazy florals. However, I don't care, I'm a bit excited about this very floral shirt and it will definitely fit into my wardrobe.  This was £8.00 from the Cancer research shop.

More florals!  This is an amazing boat necked jumper.  It's made from silk and cashmere which I'm very excited about.  It's lovely and soft and I think it's going to be super warm.  I'm not a fan of the bow, however that will be a super easy job to unpick, maybe my task for in front of the Great British Sewing Bee this week.  This was £14.99 from the Oxfam shop.

This photo is very rubbish I'm afraid!  This is actually a really cute olive cardigan, from White Stuff, which also came from the Oxfam store for £8.99.

All in all a lovely day out, with photo posing, fun company, some charity support and wardrobe renewal, what more could you ask from a Sunday really?

Cheap notions are a false economy

Hi folks, I'm suffering with a horrible cold at the moment and for some reason this is making me more wordy, it must be all that time I'm spending watching 'the Good Wife'.  So here is a wordy post on notions.

I've been sewing for a while now and have started to put more thought and money into the fabrics that I use.  However, when buying notions I only think about quality control when buying thread.  I think about it because I have had some fails with rubbish thread snapping and snarling up my machine.  For anyone who is interested, I like gutermann threads. However, I've now realised I should be applying these same standards when buying notions.  Look at what happened to the zip on my pink New Look 6873 skirt:

This was particularly distressing for 3 reasons, firstly I had done what, for me, was a meticulous job on this skirt and I was pleased with my lapped zipper.  Secondly, the fabric used was a gorgeous quality wool which I had spent more than my average spend when purchasing this fabric and it was now being let down by the zip!  Thirdly and super embarrassingly, I had been staying at my boyfriends the day it broke and when getting dressed in the morning found myself with nothing to wear!!!! Luckily I managed to find a dress I had left behind otherwise I would have had to spend the whole day in a skirt that was safety pinned to me!

So its pretty unusual (in my experience at least) for zips to come apart like this.  I may have used too fragile a zip for the weight of the fabric (this is a hefty wool) however, I wonder if a zip that cost me 25p was the best idea on an item that I'd bought quality fabric for?  Can anyone weigh in with some recommendations of zip brands or types that I should look out for?  How much of a false economy do you think cheap zips are?  Did I just get unlucky?

Jumper to skirt refashion

Happy Thursday people! This week has been really shitty but now the bad bits are done (hopefully, although I kinda feel like I'm tempting fate) and I'm off for a couple of cocktails with friends and tomorrow I am working from home, yay! For your pre-weekend enjoyment, I have a refashion post to show you.

I had this jumper in my stash that my boyfriend had donated last time he moved house.

I have no idea why he had it as it must have been really big on him. However, bigger size equals more fabric, so I'm not complaining and I have been wanting some more skirts which are work appropriate.

So I chopped off the arms, ribbing and cut across the shoulders below the neck line.  This left me with a (wonky) tube which I was then able to fit to Rosie.

I created an elastic waistband. I've just noticed that Lauren has put up a tutorial for the method I used so I won't bother elaborating further.  The length of elastic I used was 2cm shorter than my waist with a 2cm over lap (so finished length of elastic is 4cm smaller than my waist size). 

This left me with something that was technically a skirt but was very short so was not going to cut it as a work skirt. Inspired by the Capital Chic champagne skirt I decided to add a ruffle to the bottom .

I used some burgundy ponte scraps, left over from a nettie muslin, and pleated them the whole way along the bottom of the skirt, to create a lovely swishy bottom section. I haven't hemmed this, partly because I'm still deciding if I like this length, so far I think yes, but please chip in with opinions, but largely because I didn't have any matching thread left and having placed it firmly in the finished item pile I'm very reluctant to put it back into the WIP pile. 

Swishy ruffle!

I have worn this a few times already and had lots of compliments on it which is always nice. It works well for work too, however, a couple of things I've realised when wearing it: I should probably wear a slip with this as the jersey and ponte cling to tights (and every lump and bump).  Also I have very few tops that go with this, time to think about some work appropriate tops too I guess. 

One success for stash busting and refashioning goals!  How are you all getting on with your sewing goals?

Owl jumper finally finished!

It has taken me an embarrassingly long time to finish, but my Kate Davies Owl jumper is finally done!!!

When Kat announced she and Sabs were running a knit along for the owl jumper which I had seen popping up everywhere, I jumped on board.  However having started it, knit half the body, realised it was going to be too small, frogging it and starting over, I totally missed the knit along deadline and so gave up on it for a bit. However I'm so glad I took it up again as the finished jumper is making me happy and is going to fit so well into my wardrobe.  It goes well with this strawberry circle skirt (pre blog), my kilt and a host of other unblogged items.

I wore this on a recent day trip to york with my friend Elizabeth. We had lots of fun visiting the railway museum and taking silly photos *Warning* there are lots of irreverent and irrelevant photos coming up so those who are just here for the knitting, feel free to scroll to the end.  I make no apologies for us loving trains!

 Lovely old train destination ads.

 Luggage for going off to school.

 Milk delivery by train, how cool is that.

 I fell off the train and Elizabeth caught it on camera, hilarious!

To put into perspective how long this jumper was in the making, on our last fun trip away (to Leeds) when I took the trio of skirt photos, I had started the jumper and when I spotted this statue of an owl and took a snap with a 'look at how owl themed my life is' type comment planned. 

It has just occurred to me that although I've done a fair amount of knitting this year and learnt loads (quite a chunk of that learning was linked to this jumper), this is the first knitted item I have ever made for me.  Yay, for selfish knitting!

This was actually a surprisingly easy make (YouTube tutorials are my friends). I used Wendy merino wool which is lovely and soft and I LOVE the colour which is going to be a perfect addition to my wardrobe. However I have a suspicion that the wool is going to pile quite a bit. 

I had some surprises when I had finished this. It came out quite a bit shorter on me than the other versions I have seen on the net, even though the pattern states it is designed for someone xxx. It may be because I have a long body as my swatch said I was knitting to the correct gauge. However for me this was a happy accident as really I wanted a cropped sweater but at the time was too lazy to do the maths to create it. Also both sleeves could do with being a little longer (long body and monkey arms!)  The left one is fine but the right one leaves a 1-2cm gap exposed which my wrist is not living in this cold weather. 

Have any of you been thinking of knitting this?  I would really recommend it as a pattern for someone who is just beyond beginner stage (or beyond).  Also at the end you get a lovely, warm, snuggly jumper with owls!!!

Pretty in pink-New look 6873

My last New Look 6873 skirt was one of my hits of last year. When doing my hits of 2014 round up post I promised another one would not be long in arriving, and here it is:

Construction details: As before I made version C.  My first version of this skirt fits perfectly but is a bit short to wear to work so on this version I added some length (it's been a while since I cut this out so I don't remember exactly how much). In the first version of this skirt I added an invisible zipper as a) I like the invisible nature of invisible zippers on all garments and b) sewing them is my most mastered zipper technique. However I wanted to push myself this time to sew a lapped zipper. 

It's not too bad as a first attempt. It does actually shut better than it seems in this photo but I couldn't fasten the hook and eye on Rosie. Inserting the lapped zipper was made more difficult by the thickness of this wool. I must have torn it out and redone it at least 3 times. It is now not perfect but I can live with it. One of my aims for this year is to get better at sewing in zips.

The main body is made from a really gorgeous soft wool which I bought at sayeeds on a trip to Walthamstow a few months ago. Although I wear my previous version of this skirt all the time, each time I do, I wish it was lined so as part of my bid to create a wearable wardrobe, I fully lined this version. The waistband is faced with a scrap of cotton which I used to make my Nicola blouse. The lining of the skirt is a cheap satin which was bought on the same trip as the wool. I hemmed it using some bias tape from my stash. It in no way matches but this does not bother me for an invisible hem. What do you think? Are non matching interiors ok or a sewing crime? 

This skirt has been worn lots already and I can count as a first success in terms of my goal for 2015, of making a wearable wardrobe.

I'm sorry about the photo quality in this post (again).  It's official, I am the hand of death for all camera's, so despite being given a lovely new camera for Christmas, I have had to take these on my iphone while my less than 2 week old camera goes off to be repaired!  This is the point where I ask for your advice, does anyone have any good recommendations of camera cases?  The same thing keeps happening to my cameras, the lens attempts to extend when it's inside the case, hits the side of the case, can't go any further and spontaneously combusts!  So it's time to invest in a handbag proof case!  Any recommendations welcomed.

Stash busting

Having spent some time over the weekend tidying my house, I have come to the conclusion that my nearest and dearest might be correct when they assert that my fabric stash is taking over the house!  No amount of 'tidying' has been able to hide this fact.  Specifically I have accumulated a stash which contains a large number of wovens and many, many buttons.  Therefore in addition to the goals set last week I must add stash busting to my goals. This is particularly important as I may be moving house later in the year and will not have as much space as I do now.

Crazy isn't it?  And this isn't even it all!

However this is not just straight forward stash busting for a number of reasons

1) I think I have a stash of fabrics I don't actually want to use. I'm not certain about this but I need to take this year/time until the summer to work out what it is have and why I'm not using it.  I need to decide whether I can find a use for my stash or if I should recycle/gift/donate it . 

2) Part of my stash is clothes which have been donated for refashioning and although this fits with my more refashioning in 2015 goal, I find refashioning some things more difficult than other, so need to decide what I'm likely to ever refashion and what should be recycled in another way. 

3) some of my stash has been gifts from sentimental sources and I'm reluctant to get rid of them so need to find a use for them. 

However, I do need to get a handle on my fabric stash so, therefore, I pledge to not buy any more fabrics until Easter when I will re-assess, the exception to this is if I need a lining fabric or similar to finish a project that is mainly made from stash fabric.  At this stage I need to have used, or disposed of a chunk of my fabric and I can set myself a new stash busting goal.

I do not have an out of control stash of patterns, however I could do with using a few more of them, particularly the vintage ones.  I get lured in by the call of new shiny ones and I really need to stop buying patterns.  So to help with this I have signed up to the Vintage pattern pledge again.  Last year I committed to making 4 items from vintage patterns and I only actually managed 1!  This year I signed up to make 4 again and I vow to do better this year.  

Please tell me some of the rest of you have let your stash get this out of control!  I'm not alone in my fabric hoarding am I?