Day in the Garden

I do have new shorts to show you, but I haven't taken photos of them yet, so they might have to wait until Thursday!

In the meantime, no shorts photo's because I have picked some of these

And these

And a few of these!

I also made some of this!

Hopefully I'll be back to sewing on Thursday.

Sun Hat

These days I need to keep the sun out of my eyes so I am always on the look out for hats.  Sadly I apparently have a very large head so I can rarely find any in the shops that fit.  Which has lead to me trying my hand at hat making again.

I used this tutorial which was fairly easy to follow (I did end up the  brim way larger than the crown, but that was fixable) and here's my end result.

It's not perfect, but it'll certainly do for lounging in my garden!  The outer layer is a stretch cotton, that is all the scraps from my ruffled denim skirt.

It's lined in gold/yellow linen (scraps from the wedding frock coat).

It's not amazing, but I'm happy enough.  If I make another one I shall make the brim a fraction less floppy and work harder on getting the brim and hat band to play nicely.

This was fun to make though and didn't take all that long!

Teeny Tiny Zipper Pouch

Ever see a tutorial and think, goodness I have to make that it's so cute?  I do fairly frequently and when I saw Deby Coles Teeny Tiny Zipper Pouch I knew I needed to make one for me and one for my lovely ex-lodger as a belated 'yay you passed your driving test' present.

The tutorial has a wonderfully helpful video to go with it and it was such a simple sew.  I adore the results!

The pink one is mine and the blue one was the gift.  I want to make more of these, but I don't have a use for more so I am trying to restrain myself...

Sam was impressed that they were lined despite their diddy size!

I just love the colours and the shape and the size and well...  Everything really!

In other news, this is apparently my 200th post!  It's been a good sewing journey so far, let's see where the next 200 posts take us...

Ruffle Frock

As I mentioned, I had a birthday a while ago and I was spoilt by being gifted a large number of craft books (all awesome, all different, I have the best friends...).  One of them was Alabama Sewing Studio and Design by Natalie Chanin.

It's a gorgeous book full of floaty, pretty clothing in muted colours and all made out of stretch knits (which have long been a fabric fear of mine) and it was so inspiring I could hardly wait to start.  Luckily I had some stretch knit in the stash and so I carefully traced the pattern out.

Then I realised it was all meant to be hand sewn.  Only...  I'm not patient at the best of times and I wanted to sew with the machine.  So I cheated and mine is entirely overlocked or maching stretch zigzagged!

I adore this dress!  I'm wearing it right now, I've been wearing it frequently since it was finished (I wait impatiently for it to dry on the line so I can wear it again) and I am planning at least another one!

 The skirt is a gathered rectangle attached to a vest top style top, which is bound in strips of the same fabric.

 The only thing I'd like to change is it's lack of pockets.  I'm debating pockets in the skirt side seams next time...

 I can't wait to make the rest of the patterns in this book!

The Potential Attack of the Moths!

We had a scare a week ago, in that I thought we had moths in the linen cupboard.  Luckily we don't (my awesome husband went through every bit of fabric going to check) but I'm still feeling paranoid.

So I ran up some very quick lavender sachets, to ward off all moths!

It turns out pale blue organza is a pig to photograph, so please excuse the extremely shoddy nature of these photos!

As you can see, they are quite utilitarian in nature, the most exciting thing about them being that I grew and dried the lavender myself.  Which is not something I recommend.  It's a heck of a lot of work for not that much gain.

It does make me feel kind of proud though.  Because I can do this sort of thing if I want! 

See you on Thursday when I have a new frock to show off!

Ruffled Denim Skirt

I'm back!  Late for today, but one post earlier than I'd planned, so hurrah!

Today I am showing of the results of a tutorial I beta tested (if nagging your friend until she lets you have a sneak peak because you lack patience counts as beta testing anyway...).

This is an excellent way to turn a ripped pair of jeans into a really cute skirt!  You can find the tutorial here

I love this skirt!  Because the waistband is my old jeans I didn't need to worry about the fit and the rest was easy!

I did modify the pattern slightly in that I reapplied my back pockets.  I adore these pockets in my jeans so I wanted to keep them!

I also made my middle ruffle quite long (I'm pretty tall so there's a lot of me to cover!  Next time I think I might make it a bit shorter) and I added trim.

I over locked the bottom edge, then stitched the tiniest lace you ever saw onto to the top of it. I always feel that lace on top looks messy though, so I neatened it with a narrow gold ribbon.  Fun fact about the ribbon - this is the second one I stitched on as I was about 2 inches too short on the first one and I couldn't get a colour match.  Let that be a lesson to you to always measure first!

It was worth it though.  Love this skirt!

I know!

Sadly, I have to write and organise half a 36hr.  Normally blogging will return in 2 weeks I think.  In the meantime, look!  I grew radishes!