There I was, full of plans and with a wonderful new fabric stash to play with courtesy of my friend who is moving to another country and BIFF. BANG. POW. No inlination, no spark, sewing room in darkness...WOE!
It felt like a long way back. And all the while I still had plans just...no actual doing. And I had promised a garment to my mum for her birthday which was...oh yes, three months ago. THE GUILT every time I did something else! She's very patient, my mum. Which is just as well really.
And she carried on being very patient without saying a word. But finally, a couple of weeks ago, I got the fabric out and traced the pattern and put the thing together and Hoorah, Mum's birthday kimono is done! I used Simplicity 1108, view D, lengthened a little, and made it in Liberty poplin, the floral print is called Paul, which I bought from Shaukat. As with all things Liberty the fabric is really lovely to cut and sew, and the colours are gorgeous. I edged it in plain blue poplin bias binding.
Have you ever made continuous bias binding? It's quite easy and way better than cutting endless strips and piecing them together. I had NO idea how much I needed so I cut a square and drew my lines and got snipping. About 30 minutes later I was still snipping. The square I cut was really quite big. Unnecessarily so. And I now have around THIRTY METRES of duck-egg blue poplin binding! It goes from the back of my house all the way to the front, twice.
You can avoid that by using this handy calculator. Which I had completely forgotten existed.
The pattern goes together pretty simply - except for the sleeve bits, I couldn't figure those out at all for some reason so that had some unpicking and redoing but we got there in the end. And I did french seams on all except the sleeves, and they do look very lovely and neat.
And then I forgot to photograph it before I handed it over, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
Since then it's been all go back in the sewing room.
I redid the tea-cosy I made last year as all the stuffing had slipped. So I bought new wadding and used some of the bias to do a new bound edge.
And then I got cracking on a second attempt at the Cashmerette Springfield - a nice top of the kind that goes with jeans or crops.
My first attempt last August was a complete fail. Luckily Jenny is a very good correspondent on social media and gave me some advice about the right size to cut, it just took me ages to get around to it. But I'm finally there!
This isn't a very drapy or flowy fabric, it's a straight cotton, but I do love the two together - the green is a Rose & Hubble and the pink is by Belleboo. I made a slight alteration to the arm and neck finishing - the patterns calls for a facing strip, but by the time I'd cut them they were too wide so I turned them into a bias-bound edge. My neckline isn't totally flat but I can live with it, especially as I hand-finished them all and don't intend doing them again! But it's a nice and quick sew, and took an afternoon to finish. I like the split side-seam and the contrast band.
Top - Cashmerette Springfield
Crops - cut down from charity shop jeans (50p!!) and taken in at the waist
Hair - drying
Toes - really in need of some varnish
Crops - cut down from charity shop jeans (50p!!) and taken in at the waist
Hair - drying
Toes - really in need of some varnish
And after that I tackled my mending basket and got to grips with popped seams and unlined waistbands and things that needed a bit of tinkering to get a better fit. I think I'm back, Back, BACK!
Now I'm going to play with t-shirt patterns. My most favourite, most perfect Gap one went into holes a couple of years ago and I'm going to try and recreate it...
"Phew, for a minute there I lost myself...."
