shoe heaven

my favourite shoes - from left to right - 1. pink strappy heels bought in a sale, great with jeans or a posh frock and guaranteed to get comments, 2. leopard print and patent ,£20 from new look - worn at work and play, 3 - the favourite pair - red patent bought in a sale, worn at work and play and always gets nice comments, 4. vivienne westwood jelly shoes, 5. black leather and £20 from new look, worn at work and playthe favourites in close up - yum, yum!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fixing my Venus de Milo

I've made Gladys an arm today from the instructions Geoff gave me. Unfortunately I didn't pay attention to which was the right side of the fabric so I appear to have made her a left arm (it was supposed to be a right arm) but I don't think it will matter too much. She obviously wanted to be left-handed like her owner who finds her own right-hand pretty useless but likes to think that being left-handed makes her more creative and adept at problem solving.

personal fitted toile

Last week I put together a personal dress block and toile using the classic 'metric pattern cutting for women's wear' book. After some fitting adjustments - lengthening and widening the bust point , an extra pair of back darts, extending the original back darts and some crookening at the neckline to reduce gape across the chest when I lean forward it was finished. So now I can start designing myself some well fitting clothes.

The toile is not overly attractive, bearing a resemblance to a straight jacket (appropriate some might say!) and before sewing the back up a hospital gown.

As I was making a personalised block using a size 16 as a starting point and that makes me feel a lot bigger than any dress size I'd buy in a shop I made myself feel better by wearing my size 8 abercrombie and fitch denim hotpants which are actually too big (bought in New York last year, and the US sizing system is more flattering).

Also got some tips on pinning the fabric before sewing. It had never occured to me to think about how it would go into the sewing machine before pinning and this made things much easier.

draping on the stand

Here's some of my attempts last week at draping on the stand (Elsie is a trim size 12) to make some dress/skirt/top patterns.

Nice skirt detail - 3 folds into a side dart on a pencil skirt

simple cowl neckline - just like a dress from Kookai I wore to my graduation 10 years ago and have kept in my wardrobe ever since (despite it not fitting for the last 8 years) as I've wanted to recreate it myself so I can carry on wearing it - well one like it

shoulder of mutton sleeve (don't think I'll offer to make Zoe's wedding dress!)

4 drapes (no bulk at the side seam) into a waterfall with 4 cascades to it designed to be a false wrap over a straight skirt foundation

I've been framed

I imagined I would be posting a picture in this posting of a large picture of Mecca framed by me and hanging on a wall I am instead writing how I had an unsuccessful attempt today at framing a rather large picture of Mecca (2.02 metres x 1.43 metres) and I thought it was all going so well when the weather happened to be nice enough for me to take the top down on my car (a great buy 5 years ago, now fully bought and paid for, remarkably well running and still attracting admiring glances from girls and boys alike - I read somewhere that England has the highest average number of days of rain per year of any country in Europe and also the highest percentage of car owners who own convertibles thus proving I and many others are nothing if not optimistic). Especially good fortune as taking the roof off was the only way to fit the wood in the car in order for it to make it's journey from Leeds to Manchester, extra good fortune that it wasn't raining on the Manchester side of the Pennines as would normally be the case. I also marvelled how I was travelling at 70 miles per hour with no roof on the care as I reached the summit of the M62 motorway (1221 feet above sea water for those pub quiz goers out there) and still felt remarkably warm and safe. The same could not have been said 6 years ago with the roof on when attempting the same journey (minus the wood) in my Ford Ka when I would have been holding my breath and hoping I didn't get blown by the ever present wind into a passing lorry. Only spotted one other brave sole attempting the same crossing with no roof - I assume their car was new and still a novelty but don't understand the car registration system these days so couldn't tell for sure.

Attempt 2 to frame 2 pictures of Mecca, same size should take place first full week of April with bigger moulding, more care and better communication between all involved (that's 2020mm not 2200mm for the length of mdf back board).

Unsuccessful framing exploits but great journey, great company and great curry.

I'm a 'frayed knot'

A piece of string walks into a bar and asks the bar man for a pint. "Aren't you a piece of string?" says the barman. "No", replies the piece of string, " I'm a frayed knot".

Must have learned that joke when I was about seven, and I still think it's funny. Actually it's not frayed not I'm blogging about but a french knot but I've not got a joke about one of those.

Spent last week therapeutically sewing french knots onto all the brown seeds in the design of a couple of metres of fabric I'd bought from America (designed by Anna Maria Horner for FreeSpirit). Had no actual purpose for the fabric in mind whilst I was doing it. Was going to use it to make up a dress but decided it was a bit bright, which given my general wardrobe collection probably sounds odd. I definately don't subscribe to Henry Ford's way of thinking - " any colour you like as long as it's black".

Some of the fabric, complete with french knots, has become a little clutch bag this week. It's lined with some of the linen I bought from the dark satanic mill I visited in Bradford last week along with the blackout lining and chocolate brown dupion silk for a couple of roman blinds, padded with fusible wadding and finished off with brown bias binding on the edges, even the inside seam is bound with the stuff. Snap fastener closure. It was supposed to be something else but I need to adjust the pattern I created as it wasn't quite fit for purpose.

Struggling to get fabric by Anna Maria and several other american designers (Heather Bailey, Tula Pink) I've been investigating how to go about becoming a Retailer for some of them. Becoming a retailer looks to be a bit of a heavy investment but I could dip my toe into the water buying fabric in bulk to use as a designer though.

spoonflower

My Spoonflower swatch has arrived from the US of A so if I get myself in gear and design some fabric for them to print I can colour match between what I want to see printed on the fabric and pick the appropriate colour on the computer. Something the pin to the noticeboard when I've customised it - an unbent board finally arrived at the end of last week. Also arriving last week from diyframing was my mount cutter, wood for frames, other smaller bits and bobs and some free mountboard I blagged. All ready to get doing framing for pleasure and for profit.

I've started sew I'll finish

Finished the bag for Mum - all nice and padded with wadding and with a magnetic snap closure. Made from some Anna Maria Horner fabric plus a lining of calico out of my bolt for making up toiles/mock ups.



I like the patterned inside pocket against the plain calico lining and the shape of the bag. The strap is padded with wadding to and I attached two decorative buttons to the strap ends which I covered myself in the patterned fabric. I got a big bag of self covering buttons and backs from Dewsbury for just £1.



Finished the pincushion caddy to - now I see why I should have gone back and inserted the interfacing on the innertube which I'd forgotten and perhaps been a bit more precise attaching the inner tube to the ball. But it does the job. I'll make a better go of it if I make another one.

glass half full

As ever I've started lots of projects but not finished any of them yet. Pretty good though that all of these have been started since last Tuesday's 'sewing night' where we actually for once did get some sewing done in between dinner and gossip.

So that's a half built hippo - from the pattern I fell in love with from Issue 3 of SewHip magazine (actually I fell in love with it in the sneek peek in issue 2 which is why I travelled to Harrogate to buy issue 3). The Laura Ashley fabric (as featured in my kitchen blind and 5o's apron) is still going strong with scraps remaining. Hippo needs 1) a leg seam resewing, 2) felt eyes and nostrils adding - black and white as per the pattern or pink and white as in my head - or will it make the hippo look poorly if it has pink eyes? 3) stuffing 4) blind stitch the opening.

A half built pincushion caddy from Anna Maria Horner's 'Seams to Me' book. Again the Laura Ashley fabric makes an appearance aswell as scraps left over from making Grace's Clothkit dress, both the clothkit fabric and the lining fabric I bought at the market. Missed out some interfacing which stiffens the inner tube but shouldn't matter. Needs stuffing and its bottom hand stitching on - to be finished at least in time for my London College of Fashion course so I don't keep losing all my bits - although it might possibly be a bit big to cart down there with me.

And a half-built handbag, complete with cute inner pocket using some of the yummy fabric I bought from Anna Maria Horner's website - her own design fabric. I'm waiting impatiently on the release of her dress pattern as featured on her blog, due for release this month. Found the free pattern on on australian sewer's blog and it's easy peasy. She is obsessed with fabric selvedges and has made the most amazing 50's style dress out of them. Still to do: 1) magnetic clasp (optional - if I can find my spare one), 2) strap, 3) close the inside opening, 4) go shopping with it.

Weekend Framing

Day 1 of the framing and mounting course and I finished the below piece. This is a screenprint I had done as a trial run at the Artsmix workshop. We planned and cut our mounts for size, cut and joined our frames, lime waxed the frames, cut glass to size, positioned and attached the print/photos to our back panel which we'd cut to size then after cleaning the glass put it all together, fixed it with a tab gun then finished the back with tape, fixings, and felt bumper pads. Very happy with the end results.

Day 2 was focussed on mountings, thinking about size and colour and layout for multiple pictures in a single mount. The below picture of a penguin in Antarctica courtesy of Andrew is double mounted with a main grey mount with a white core, the feature mount in black with a black core. This feature mount really brought out the penguin in the picture.
A couple of tools and techniques were then demonstrated such as circle and oval mounts and we created 2 smalls samples - a foam biseaux frame and another which had a more complicated pattern around the corners. Multiple mount was the order of the rest of the day - see further Antarctica pictures below considering colour and placement of the pictures and how to approach cutting the mount, especially avoiding reverse bevelling. Great fun and today I've ordered more equipment so I can really get going on this sort of thing now for me or others. Already got a commission for a large frame!

50's apron pattern

here's the apron I made using a 1950's apron pattern I bought from an online shop over in Canada. I ordered and paid for 3 patterns but only received 2 of them. Chased them up but got no response so will not be using them again unless I have to - I've found some other sites but they are all over in America, no English ones.

I made it up in the same Laura Ashley fabric as my kitchen blind and used lots of pink bias binding - I think its my new fabourite thing. Buttons nicely at the back. Bit gapey under the arms so won't make any more until I've been on my London College of Fashion course which should help me solve such pattern dilemas.

Modelled here by Gertrude my tailors dummy next to the roman blind in the kitchen.

baking

Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream made from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook by Allysa Torey - this is an american recipe where the cake mix is runnier than typical english fairy cake mix, with plenty of milk in the mix its a bit like an overly thick pancake mix so the cupcakes don't rise in their cases in the over but still taste nice, night and moist. Visited the Magnolia Bakery (or may be its rival) last February with Helen in New York as part of the Sex and the City tour on Helen's 30th birthday. In an episode of Sex and the City the girls bought and ate cupcakes like these from a bakery which at the time didn't really exist and as lots of New Yorkers wanted to know where they could get these cupcakes the Magnolia Bakery was creater. A fall out between the partners running the shop resulted in a rival shop opening baking cupcakes using the same recipe. I baked these for Helen's 31st birthday and gave her a copy of the Magnolia Bakery cookbook. Made over 2o cupcakes in all from the recipe so some were handed round the neighbours and other friends as I didn't think Helen would be able to eat them all!

Friday I baked a teabread from Mum's recipe she sent me to university with (good for baking on the cheap as no scales are required).

1 cup of sugar
1 cup of sultanas
soaked in 1 cup of tea (2 teabags)
added 2 cups of flour
and 1 egg
baked for 30-40 mins in a tin at 180 degrees C ish

Here's the sugar and sultanas stewing in the tea. Couldn't find my loaf tins, must have been binned during the kitchen re-vamp or left at someones house when baking 'offsite'. Used a round cake tin instead but I think the low shallow tin rather than the loaf tin meant it probably needed slightly less time than I gave it and it wasn't as moist as usual. Did the job though - lunches for both Saturday and Sunday whilst on my Framing Weekend course.

First pics - last weeks activities

so this is how the clothkit arrived, all wrapped up nicely in pink tissue paper - just like a lovely present and then when that was opened it was tied up with some lovely ribbon.

Clothkits were around in the 70's so no I'm not old enough to remember them the first time around but am old enough to perhaps have worn one.

Here's the pattern already marked out on the cloth for different sized ages 1-3. Good for a lazy sewer and a good chance for me to put something together with quicker results than an adult dress and no need for bust darts etc to get used to my new sewing machine, especially the 1 step button-hole function which was easy and had good results. I also successfully managed to rethread my overlocker for the first time from white to pink thread, all the mystery of the machine present at sewing classes being resolved from a one day overlocker course before I bought myself one. Had a nightmare sewing an unpicking about 5 or 6 times the placket (bit at the back the buttons are attached on) mainly due to me misunderstanding the instructions at that point - rest of the instructions were nice and clear though. Off to see Julie and Grace this afternoon - this is for Grace (bit small to fit me) so hope it fits and Julie likes it.

First Post

Having just created my blog this is a quick post before I do something more substantial tomorrow and post some photos of the bits I've been making this week - blueberry jam, pink cupcakes, a clothkits dress for baby Grace and an apron for me made out of the same laura ashley fabric I used for my kitchen blinds using an original 1950's pattern.

Today some fusible interfacing and fleecing arrived which I need to do my laptop envelope idea for the magazine commission.

A large noticeboard briefly arrived then went away again as it was damaged. It did occur to me, as the stranger in the UPS uniform beckoned me into his heavily fortified van to agree it was damaged (and not perhaps a strange piece of modern art), that I could be about to be abducted but this was largely the result of watching too many episodes of CSI. This is the one I want to cover with fabric and use as an ideas board - never thought it would be so difficult to get some low density board to do the job!

Tomorrow I need to sort out which pictures/photos/fabrics I take to my framing weekend course in Manchester. Will have to pop to CDS to get some photos printed especially as my new printer is producing poorer quality prints by the day (although I'm sure I'll be told its not properly calibrated).