New Campaign - New Kit Requests

Hurrah!  The new campaign has been announced and sounds very exciting (more on it and my planned character at a later date).

Of course, these days the new campaign brings a flurry of sewing for me as I get a lot of requests.  I think I have had six so far!  First up we have a waistcoat for a dapper gentleman.

In this case he's a slightly scruffy dapper gentleman, but this was a quick semi kit up rather than the full thing!

The waistcoat is a gold brocade with a leaf pattern (chosen and acquired by the wearer) and it's lined in brown lining fabric.

It is Simplicity 2346 and the only modifications I made were to add a second pocket and to line the pockets.  That was mostly so they were bigger, because in larp kit the bigger the pockets the better!

The buttons have a military style engraving on them and were chosen from my stash (mainly because that was apparently the only set of four gold buttons I had!).  This was a relatively easy sew and I enjoyed making it.  I do wish brocade was a bit less slippery and a bit less inclined to fray though...

More kit on Monday!

Birthday Present Part 2

So, having now uploaded the photos I can show you the other part of the present!

I ran up a project bag to go with the crochet hook roll, so that a certain Small Bean can't get her hands on mummies crochet!

It's made of cotton with a black outer and a red lining

The drawstring is a black satin ribbon and there's not a lot else to say! I think it's pretty, though not to my usual colour scheme.

And here are both presents together!  I do like coloured matched bits and bobs. 

On Thursday I might even have actual larp kit to share for once!

Birthday Present Part 1

I made two things for this present, but I've not uploaded the photos of the other bit yet, so you can see that on Monday!  For now, here's a crochet hook roll I made!

It's black needle cord on the outside and lined in red cotton.

The tie is a red satin ribbon and it's top stitched in red around the outside!

I think this turned out really neatly! 

Have a lovely weekend!  (I am busy working on my Magrat Garlick dress for Discworld Con).

Yellow Party

Sorry I missed Thursday, it was a big day at work (we had a goodbye party and I tend to go all out for my work parties) and I was so tired when I got home I had an accidental nap for the afternoon!

Still, yellow party!  The theme was yellow so we dressed in yellow, ate yellow cakes and had yellow decorations!  I wasn't too sure what I'd wear until I remember the yellow linen leftovers from the Frock Coat I made last year.  So I ran up another Simplicity 2886.

I made the other bodice variation this time, which needed a couple of bust darts to fit properly, but otherwise was fine.

 

I added a narrow gold ribbon trim to the hem and the neckline and I lined it with the very last of the linen.

 Please excuse my expression in these photos, they were taken on Thursday evening and I was tired!  This is also why the linen is so wrinkly, I'd been wearing it all day!

 I really like this dress, it's light, comfortable and looks super smart!  It's also a ridiculously quick and easy sew.  I suspect my future wardrobe may end up with more of these dresses.

I shall see you all on Thursday with another birthday present reveal!

Zip Pouches

We celebrated Ruth-who-is-not-a-blogger's birthday last week and what's a birthday without a handmade gift?

I got her a book of patchwork projects and made a coupled of zipped pouches to go with it, with the vague theory that she can keep hexie templates or something in them!

A rare 'in action' shot!  I was struck by how pretty and green and purple everything on my cutting mat was!  Incidentally, isn't my violet pincushion beautiful?  It was made by a good friend of mine, who knows how much I like violets!

These are my finished pouches, lined in the fabric of the other and trimmed with the prettiest ribbons I could locate in the stash boxes.

 I enjoyed making these and I hope they are a useful addition to the patch working arsenal that Ruth is acquiring. 

These weren't the only gifts I made, but the others will have to wait to be shown until their time to be given has come!

WIP Update

I'd love to show you what I'm working on at the moment, but I can't as it's a present!  So instead, here's a look at the two WIPs I've managed to do some work on.

First up, my crochet blanket.  Last time you saw it, it looked like this

Since then I've finished the cream and added a new colour, of which I am on my second ball. I'm not working on this very often though, not because I don't enjoy it, but more because it's now to big to be easily portable and I try to save it for days when I can't settle to anything else!

 The other WIP to have progressed is my lace knitting.  When you last saw it, it looked like this

Since then, I have been steadily plugging away whenever I get a minute or two and slowly, but surely it's lengthening.  I'm almost at half way. Not convinced I shall make my self imposed September deadline though!

Right, I'll be back on Monday to show you my present making.  In the meantime, have a lovely weekend!

Sandra the Real Seamstress Basket

As I mentioned a while ago, I am off to Discworld Con in August.  The time is drawing ever closer and so I have put some work and thought into my costumes.

I have completed my work basket for my Sandra kit.  I'm really pleased with it as it's largely hand sewn and it took a lot of effort!

I made two quilted pads to go on the top and a liner that matched to the rough inside of the basket doesn't catch on stuff (I'll use it as a hand bag).

The pads have English Paper Pieced Hexagons appliqued on and then hand quilted, with an embroidered mushroom in the centre of each pad.  I bound them with some cute bias trim I found and they have cotton tape underneath to tie them on to the basket.

 I have decided I loathe hand quilting.  It was not a fun experience but I'm glad I persevered!

 

 The inside is less exciting, but it's neat, it fits and it uses up the rest of the green linen nicely! I think Thursday is likely to be a WIP update so stay tuned!

Shorts

I made shorts!  Quite pleased with these, even though the waistband could use some work.

I used Butterick B4861 and this amazing tutorial to help me make sense of the fly.  Best tutorial going!

They are made of cotton drill scraps I had in my stash and a lilac zip because that was what I had to hand.

Still, I like them and I am thinking about using the pattern to run up some trousers, if only because once again Katrin has ruined hers...  I have no idea how I'm so hard on her clothes!