Little Christmas Dresses

I'm so happy I finished the girls' Christmas dresses! I wasn't sure I'd get them finished in time (I'm pretty slow at sewing actually) but I got them done with about a week to spare before Christmas. These actually went a lot faster than I was expecting. Since I've made the pattern once before for the girls for Easter, I was already familiar with it so I knew they wouldn't be too challenging but they do have a lot of steps, and I needed to make two, so there was that to consider time-wise.

Sewing Jeans!

My head is a flurry of Christmas to-dos and excitement right now. So much to do, so little time! This week I want mail our Christmas cards, most of which go to the US so need to be mailed soon, make stockings, start the the girls Christmas dresses, which will be a Christmas version of the Oliver + S fairytale dresses I made a while back, and wrap lots of presents. The girls and I have been having fun making some Christmas crafts and are looking forward to getting our tree this weekend as well. Soon I'll post photos of our merry making. But now, I'm happy to have finished my most ambitious sewing project that I tackled solo, which is a pair of jeans! They are Jamie Jeans, a pattern by Named Clothing. When I saw the the pattern on the web site, I thought, woah, those are some great looking jeans! And how amazing do they look on their model? I love the contrasting piping on the pockets and the shape is great too. I wanted to step it up this year and challenge myself with some more ambitious sewing patterns and this was one of them.

Back to Sewing

For the last few months my sewing machine has been collecting dust. That's not to say my head wasn't completely immersed in sewing. I was actually more involved with sewing more than ever while working on London Stitch and Knit. I have never been to so many great fabric and haberdashery shops in such a short amount of time or written about so many all at once. My head has definitely been deep in fabric, thread, needles, patterns... I've just not been on the actual sewing machine again until last week. I really have not had any extra time. I completed photos in more than 45 shops and wrote features on all the shops, including chapter introductions and a resources section for my book in 3 months, mostly working on it after our girls went to bed and on the weekends (when I wasn't visiting the shops taking photos). If Ellie had been in school full-time that would have been a bit easier, but I had her two full days a week and she can't watch Peppa Pig all day after all. But now the book is just about finished and I've had time to do some actual sewing. One project that's been on my list for about a year is the Sew Over It Betty dress. I have some vintage curtain fabric that used to be in Lois's room that reminded me of fabric I saw on Mad Men, so I thought it would make a good Betty. It was really easy to make. I didn't get the zip to the top well the first time, though, so I re-did it. Other than that, the fit was good and I didn't need to do too many adjustments. Here's to getting back to sewing!

Pretty In Pink

Right now we're in Cornwall with some friends in a beautiful rental. More on that soon! It's a nice little break from life at home. I'm happy to be away from our own house to escape our daily routine and to have some time with friends.

A Hint of Spring

Spring is in the air! At least it's visible here and there in little blossoms peeking out of the grey days, which are often the backdrop of winter here. And green! I'm noticing much more vibrant green lately. The promise of spring has me feeling buzzy and energetic so I'm getting a lot done. Well, I'm getting more of some things done than I planned, like sewing, and almost nothing done of other things I need to do (sorting and filing paperwork, blah). But I wouldn't want to miss all this spring action sitting beside the filing cabinet. This week included a really nice walk in the park with Ellie, making some valentine's heart garland, sewing a few Oliver + S ice cream tops for Lois and making a tooth fairy pillow for Lois.

Sewing Goals

Sew many patterns, sew little time! In my last post I didn't mention just how many things I want to sew this year. I had a goal in mind of 2 wearable garments a month, either for myself or for our girls, but now I'm thinking that was quite ambitions with all the other things in life I need and want to do, and I don't want the pressure of the goal to take the fun out of it. So now I'm thinking 1 wearable garment per month is more realistic for me. I know some people are able to knock out more than a few projects a month, amazing sewists like Fiona and Katie, for example, whose blogs always inspire me. With the two little ones dangling from me half the time, I'm not sure I can devote enough time to two garments with life's other commitments, but I will still try!

Cambie Dress

Since we've sort of turned our house upside down re-arranging some rooms, I haven't sewn anything in a few months, but I'm looking forward to hearing the hum of the sewing machine again soon. The last thing I made was the Sewaholic Cambie dress. I've stolen Ellie's room as my craft room since we turned my craft room into our grown-up sitting room / library / game room (not sure what to call it really!). But our old dining table that I wanted to use as a desk wouldn't fit up the stairs and the legs don't come off, so rather than chopping it up to fit, I ordered a simple table from IKEA to use as a sewing table and will accessorize it with some cute things. I have quite a few patterns in mind to make on my new sewing table, including making another Sewaholic Cambie dress. I made this dress in the summer and I love it.

Workshop Update

I've only just realized how long it's been since I wrote a blog post! But here I am again now. We've packed a lot into these last weeks of summer. After my mom's visit, we went to Cornwall for a week, then after coming home just a few days, we went to San Francisco for two weeks and Baltimore for one week. I also managed to do a good bit of sewing before we left to go to the US. I made another pair of trousers and two dresses. But more on all those subjects later! Before it's a distant memory, I wanted to share some photos from the food styling and photography I assisted Béatrice Peltre with at Hawthbush Farm in June. We had a wonderful time, and all the students did as well. We could not have asked for better weather! I was soooo happy the weather was beautiful. And Hawthbush Farm is amazing. It's a beautiful glamping destination on an organic farm about an hour and a half from London in East Sussex.

Oliver + S Happiness

So here are the girls in their cute Easter Dresses! I'm really happy I finished in time for Easter. The pattern, as I mentioned before, was really clear and easy to follow.

An Easter Dress for Little Miss

Here is Ellie's finished Easter dress! I'm so happy with it! I think after this dress I can now consider myself an intermediate sewist. I've been sewing since 2006 but only recently pushed myself in garment sewing. When I've gotten frustrated in the past, Andrew reminded me that sewing is not a linear learning process and not to be so hard on myself, which I've probably mentioned before. One thing at a time! For this pattern, I did just that. I took it one step at a time and tried not to read ahead and get overwhelmed by the two separate huge pages of instructions front and back. The pattern was actually very clear and easy to follow despite the lengthy number of steps.

Shift Top

Yay, I made a top I like! I don't think the Sencha blouse suits me very well (or maybe I've just sewn it poorly), so I thought I'd try another top using my shift dress pattern from Sew Over It. I loved the dress I made in class and thought it would make a cute top. It was really easy to sew. My darts are a tad bit pointier than I'd like, though I did knot them rather than backing up, but other than that, I really like it.

Stitching up a Storm

The last few days my sewing machine has been humming away during most of my free time. Ellie naps well and goes to nursery part-time a few days each week, so I have a bit more time to do some fun things, and I love it. Of course I always feel like I have a million other things to do as well (I feel a bit like the Tasmanian devil, uh sort of like this, when my children aren't around and can barely focus for all the things buzzing in my head that I want to do), but I've mostly been inspired to sew so I manage to make time for it lately. I finished my miette skirt and almost finished a sencha blouse. First though, the skirt...

Motivation

Lately I've had the urge to hit the fabric store, but then I look at my pile of unfinished projects and tell myself I have no business buying anything new! In general I'm much better at starting something than finishing and it often drives me crazy. Last week my desire for new fabric for a new project thrusted me into sewing mode. Before setting foot in a fabric store I was determined to finish at least one thing. I made a round cushion that I started a while back and now I'm finishing the Miette skirt, which I started last fall. I only need to finish the waistband and hem so I hope to post that next. It's looking really cute! But until then I thought I'd show you the little cushion.

Tote Sewing

Last week I made a tote bag for a friend. I used a grain sack I bought from the flea market from Trinovante Trading. They are the vendors who have piles and piles of amazing grain sacks and bolts of grain sack fabric at Kempton Park. Scroll down on this post to see part of their space. Heaven in a grain sack! I wanted to use some Liberty fabric for the trim, but I only had a small strip and not enough to make proper bias tape, but I managed to make it work well enough.

A Cardboard Stampeed

One really fun thing Lois and I made a while back with a little friend of hers were some of Ann Wood's cardboard horses. In 2006 Ann Wood created a cardboard stampede of horses as a daily creative exercise. She made one a day until she reached 100 of them. She has the template and instructions here if you'd like to make them as well. Lois recently asked to make them again, and I was also reminded of them earlier this week when I saw that Ann Wood has listed a few of the original collection of 100 horses in her shop.

Crafty with 91Magazine

In other related magazine news, I'm also really happy to have two pieces in the recent craft edition of 91 Magazine. Actually, one is a craft project I did, this doll who I've named Frances, and the other is a piece on our little abode which Caroline, the editor, wrote. I'm really happy with the way my dolly turned out, so I thought I'd share that first. This issue of 91 is really great! It has quite a few craft project features like how to make an origami vase and upholster a chair cushion, it includes a helpful guide to haberdasheries, and there's an informative Q&A piece on some of the makers from the London Renegade Craft fair. But back to Miss Frances for now...

Birthday Dress!

This week I made Ellie a birthday dress to celebrate her upcoming first birthday. Already one! I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. I've had the Oliver + S Family Reunion pattern for a while now and have been meaning to make one for Ellie and Lois. I finally got motivated with her birthday coming up and got to cutting and sewing. I was tempted to buy some nice, new fabric, but really I have plenty to work with, and especially for such a wee dress, you don't need much fabric. I used some navy stripe shirt fabric my mom gave me a while back and some Liberty fabric for the neck facing and buttons. I've been looking around for a while now at what sorts of fabrics I like for this dress (lots of ideas here on pinterest), and found I like simpler fabrics for the base with a bit of contrast. It was so much fun to make!

Notes from the Craft Room

Ah, getting back to crafting has been nice! Last week I made a little clutch-pouch type purse for a friend for her birthday. There are some cute envelope pouch type purses in The Art of Handmade Living that I've been wanting to make and thought my friend would like one. I had some vintage fabrics I thought would work well with the style and used a button and ribbon a that another friend recently gave me for my birthday (so hard to part with those gems sometimes but also great to use them and pass them along). Here are some photos of it.

Wowzer Trousers!

I've still been stitching up a storm. My blog seems to be turning into a sewing blog. But that's mostly what I've been up to, so that's what I have to share with you! Recently I took another class at Sew Over It, their ultimate trouser class (still a little odd and formal-sounding to refer to what I think of as "pants" as trousers, but, well, pants here are underwear, so I'll stick to trousers). My instructor was Dominique, the same instructor I had last time. I decided to use some vintage fabric I already had since I figured the first pair wouldn't be perfect (if wearable at all!) but they turned out really well! The class was fun and these trousers were easy to make.

For Father's Day

Andrew doesn't wear suits often, but he recently bought a new one, and a new dress shirt. But he didn't get a new tie so I thought I'd try to make one for him for Father's day. Yes, it's a bit of a lame Father's day gift. It might be the least original idea for a Father's day gift! But if it's handmade, that is something else all together, isn't it? I've been looking around for a tie pattern lately and found a few, like this one from the Coletterie blog, which I was planning on trying out until I saw that Sew Over It had a tie kit. It came with a nice dark floral print, but I decided to use some Liberty fabric I received in a bundle. I like the Liberty fabric but wasn't sure what I'd use this particular bit for. It looks nice with his new shirt, which has similar colors. It was sooooo easy to make this tie!