I like it easy

So, as a new seamstress I like being able to have real results really quickly. Who am I kidding? Even if I was more experienced, I would still love it. But it is encouraging and helps me stick with things when I can sit down and work on something for an hour or so and have something that looks close to dress or whatever it is I am trying to make.

I had picked out some amazingly cute fabric at Whipstitch Fabrics when I was in Atlanta a month or so ago. This deep gray with a variety of teal and cream colored bicycles. I can't find it in their Etsy shop right now. But trust me, its cute.

I knew I wanted to work on making my daughter another dress from an Oliver + S pattern I had already completed once before because I wanted to try again now that I was more comfortable with it. And the dress is super cute, so why not have two? Its the ice cream dress. LOVE!

I got out the fabric and washed it last Wednesday and my daughter (I will use her nickname: Panda Bear) zeroed in on the bicycle "flabric" and couldn't wait for me to make her a new dress. So Thursday night resulted in . . .not a new dress and a very disappointed little girl on Friday morning. Which made me decide I was going to make sure the girl had a new dress to wear on Saturday. So I started at 9 and finished at 2.

I learned that I should have stopped earlier because looking at it Saturday morning I realized there a bunch of little things that you see when you get up close that could have been avoided if I had stopped around 11 or 12. Oh well. You live, you learn. And most people don't study clothes THAT closely, right?

I will get some good pictures tonight and post them.

Holiday stitching

.....just thought I had better upload the pics of things I made over the school holiday....

mainly a dress for 'my birthday' :)

It was fabric I had bought in November, the company were offering free postage, so how could I refuse!! It was from a rather lovely Scandanavian homewear company, hus and hem......just lovely.

When the fabric arrived, It was so much like clothkits, I was sooooo happy. :)

Clothkits were a uk company in the 70's, you ordered pre printed fabric and then made up your own clothes - dreamy - they have recently relaunched!! BEWARE - THIS IS VERY DANGEROUS FOR A MOTHER OF A YOUNG CHILD CATHEINE - YOUR HUSBAND WILL NOT LIKE ME FOR SHOWING YOU THIS LINK!!! :)

So.....this was the dress, I have made 4 versions over the last few months. There are more in my head. The pattern was from a fatface dress I had for a few years which finnally wore out last year and I needed more in my life. It has no zips and no buttons, so I can put it together in about 3 hours if pushed. Yippee!

The trim fabric is from a Liberty range, for the Victoria and Albert museum in London. There was THE most amazing exhibition last year of quilts from the last 300 years. They produced a range of repro quilt fabrics, I had to buy some, it was the law!!

......and then this morning, I had a quiet sewing class and decided to make a needle case for all those stray packets of needles hanging around in my various sewing boxes. The flowers were already stitched for another UFO so I borrowed them and put them on the needle book.

I am now thinking I could make some to sell perhaps?

Trumpet Fanfare Part Deux

Because I can't let Jane be the only face of stitching friends!

Craft Fayre

Some pics from Saturday and my day out in Bedfordshire......it was the first showing of some new pieces I have been working on and they went down well with the customers :-)

Trumpet fanfare........

I am here, hope you can join in soon Catherine!

Don't worry, I will remove this!!