A successful day with the sewing machine...

Finally finished the bathroom Roman blind this morning.  Spent a little while hand sewing the curtain rings on and sticking the velcro to the baton and the blind (I also ran a quick line of machine sewing to the velcro on the fabric...just to be extra sure!)

Threading the cord through the curtain rings and eyelets wasn't nearly as fiddly as the instructions would have you believe - although this might have something to do with it not being a particularly large blind.

I impressed myself even more by drilling two holes into the wall (wall plugs and everything!) for the cleat.

Its not quite perfect, but for a first go, I'm very impressed with myself!!! and it doesn't block out too much daylight - which is handy! Should've done it years ago!

I'm hoping that it will 'settle' into its hang and the little mistakes won't be too visible.

Once I'd finished, I got started on my next project - an apron for my middle Niece, who is going to be 21 on Tuesday - she mentioned the other week that she liked the apron I made my mum for her birthday ... don't worry, a homemade apron isn't the only thing she'll be getting for her 21st!!! She also wanted some sewing patters (which were delivered today!!!) and I'll be giving her cash too (as requested).

She had mentioned wanting a 'patchwork' apron - not too sure I had time for that, but I had bought a selection of cotton fabric from the Fabric stall man at Canterbury Market yesterday, so made up a fully 'reversible' half apron(s) - had to plan it out, and it went surprisingly well - love it so much that I don't really want to give it up!!! 

the more colourful side - for when your feeling that you need more colour in your house-work routine!

see...fully reversible....

and a more 'gentler' side - for when you just need to get the job done :-)

just hope she likes it!!! 

How do you make a Roman blind...

"Poke him in the eye with a stick".... is my Mum and Dad's reply...they like the old and obvious favourites!!! :-)

But seriously, I had no clue how to make one and had made a purchase from the the lovely fabric man at Canterbury market some weeks ago of 2 metres of perfect Roman blind material (and at £5 per metre, bargin!).

I scoured the internet for some easy to follow instructions (thank you Channel4 - 4Homes website) and last weekend, found myself with a few spare hours to measure up, cut out, pin and stitch together my first ever blind.

bought 2 metres of this lovely fabric, but only needed about 1.5 metres...

there is a very slight 'tilt' in the pattern (a laying out and cutting error) but I don't 'think' its very obvious!)

all lined, pressed and marked up for the dowel pockets to be sewn on...

A quick trip to B&Q for the dowels, eyelets, cord and curtain rings (for just under £20) and hey presto...I'm nearly done.

Had to borrow my dad and his masonry drill bit to put the baton up...which was an epic event in itself....the language got as a blue as some of the beach huts on the fabric....what with my 'dodgy walls...Dad: "what is that anyway??? its not brick dust thats falling out of the 3 ENORMOUS holes I've just made...maybe cement...oh, and by the way...I've just got to pop back home for a different drill, some 'no nails' glue, some filler and some other 'bits'"

still, 2 hours later and I finally have a wooden baton fixed to wall (Darling, its screwed n glued in place...its going nowhere)....lets hope so, there's 3 craters behind it!!! 

Now all I have to do is buy 1 metre of stick n sew velcro and I'll be good to go - I had a 'trial hang' last night and its perfect.  Got to say...I'm more than a little bit impressed with myself...and it seems to have paid off to measure twice, thrice, heck half a dozen times, to make sure I was getting everything just right :-)

My bathroom was completely re-fitted about 6 years ago and other than paint the walls and wood work, this is the first bit of 'finishing/decorating' I've done to it....and I wish I'd done it sooner....now to make grand plans for the rest of the house ....seeing as I can't afford to move, I may as well embrace the whole 'improve' theory instead :-)

bathroom mid-re-fit

I still physically shudder when I look at the bathroom I put up with for the first 4 years I lived in this house!

its lovely a 'white' now, and has been for the last 6 years - here is a picture of the 'baton' that is now 'hiding' 3 excessively large drilled holes!!!

Fingers crossed and with any luck, it will hung and looking fab by Saturday evening :-)

My new work shirt..

Well, I had some spare time at the weekend so thought I'd have a go at a new work shirt pattern - and make my first ever collar.

Oh my word, what a palaver that turned out to be.  I used a 'quick sew' Simplicity pattern (2255) and in my case 'quick' was a bit optimistic!  Lessons learned from this:

1. When learning a new sewing 'thing/skill/technique' - read the instructions more than once

2. Once you've read the instructions, double-check that you UNDERSTAND the instructions

3. After you've understood the instructions - follow them!!

4. Before you 'trim seams and clip curves', make sure you've sewn there correct pieces together!

5. Do you really need a collar?

Still, after a spot of unpicking and re-sewing...and re-reading the instructions and fully understanding what is required...I have a rather nice work shirt - even if the collar isn't 'quite' right. 

I especially like my faux pearl buttons - a nice touch I thought - and I wouldn't have thought of selecting them if I hadn't read 'The Little Tailoress' blog a few days earlier.

All joking aside though, like most things in life, now that I've had hands-on experience and realised where I went wrong, I now feel confident to do more 'collars' -- and also learnt that its perfectly ok to write additional notes/instructions on the one given - I do it on cooking recipes so I don't know why its never occurred to me to do the same on sewing patterns?!

So, here's my new work shirt (and although its not shown in this photo - I have now hemmed the shirt sleeves...in fact, I hand stitched the shirt sleeves and bottom hems...got a real thing for hand stitching these bits of garments, I think it gives a much more 'finished' feel)

just can't seem to help myself at the moment...

Decided it was time to invest in a curve ruler - no real clue how to use them, but hey give it a go!

So off i popped at lunchtime today to the fabric shop in good ole Canterbury, and had to eventually ask one of the lovely assistants in there as to where I might find one...needless to say I was standing right in front of them!

and while I was in there, I had a little browse around their 'remnant' table.  I have a few top/shirt/blouse patterns that I'm quite liking at the moment and my hand came to rest on 1.6 metres of this lovely dotty blue cotton:

I've spent the evening cutting out the pattern I want to use:  Simplicity 2255 - I'm going for view D...but knowing me, I'll see if I can make a couple of 'tweaks' to it!

Tomorrow I shall pop along to see the lovely Jim at The Sewing Centre in Ashford to see if I can lay my grubby little mitts on some faux pearl buttons (the little ball type things...they probably have a far more technical/haberdasheryesque name but I'll be jingo-ed if I can think what they might be called!).

I probably won't start sewing it up until Tuesday when I'll be having another sneaky day off work...and the weather is forecast to be a little less pleasant than what we're due to be in store for over the weekend!

When I left said fabric shop (and received a little £5 gift voucher for filling up my loyalty card - bonus!!) and happened to stroll passed a fabric stall at Canterbury Market.

I've bought from them in the past (the spotty and butterfly fabrics that I made some half aprons out of)...and there, tucked under some other rolls, was the most perfect fabric I seen for a roman blind I've been wanting to make for my bathroom!  Completely perfect in everyway! cheap (£5 per metre) and matches both the little tea light lanterns I was given as a gift some years ago and keep in my bathroom, and the fused-glass beach huts I made back in September 2013 with my friend Jane at the lovely Alma Caira beginners workshop in Whitstable ( https://www.facebook.com/AlmaCairaFusedGlass?ref=profile )

lovely new sea-side fabric - waiting to be turned into a roman blind (note how well they go with the little tea light lanterns)

my fishermans net hut and beach huts - fused glass

now all I need to do is find out how to make the blind!!! :-)

the diet begins again....

I had a cheeky little day off today.

I had two days off last week (Thursday and Friday), but they don't really count as Thursday was taken up with taking the car to the garage for a 'major' service and MOT and a tiny bit of baby sitting my gorgeous Godson, and had I not already had a days annual leave booked for Friday, I probably would've called in sick - woke up at 4am with the room spinning and feeling very nauseous, and again at 5am...anyway...I felt rough as all day and when I could lift my head off the sofa, I had to go food shopping as I was hosting my come dine with me...anyhoooooo this is all a lot of blah blah blah, as to why, today, I finally felt like I was have a day off work to do something 'fun'.

I had big plans - a trip to a local fabric shop that has recently opened for a bit of a spend up (one of my guests yesterday gave me a Lisette pattern - how cool is that!!!, but then she is a fellow sewer).

So I was more than a little disappointed when I discovered that it doesn't open on a Monday?!?!?!  aarrrrghhhhh

So, instead, I trawled my patterns to make a straight forward work skirt (I already had some black fabric knocking about and a zip to go) and spent a few hours this afternoon, with intermittent sunshine bursting through the window:;

practising darts:

vents:

waistbands, zip insertions and a little bit of top-stitching:

a few niggles, and bits that didn't go quite to plan (I've never been very good at inserting zips, and this one has a few 'iffy' bits - I really ought to learn the different 'feet' I have for the sewing machine!)

but, ultimately, I was very pleased with the final result :-)  yayyy go me!!!!

Thought I'd give it a quick 'try on' to check the hem length....and disaster!!!....its far too small !!! 

:-(  I can get it on, and I can just about do the zip up...but I don't fancy its chances of surviving a sneezing fit...or walking...let alone sitting down!

It's a pattern I've used before, so can only presume that the diet I was on last summer has been well and truly forgotten! and I'm NOT buying bigger pattern sizes...I can't, my tailors dummy is only a few months old and its already set to its 'maximum'!!!!

So it looks like I'll be back on the healthy eating/diet as of today...  well, maybe in a couple of days, once I've eaten the Victoria Sponge cake I made this morning!!!!  :-)  (at least I'll have a nice selection of handmade work clothes to wear once I've shifted the excess)  :-D

and at the end of the day - its been a fabulous sneaky domestic day off!!!

'Come Eurovision Dine with me'....

So, our little gang are having semi-regular 'Come Dine with Me' evenings and last night was my turn.

I'd specifically picked last night so we could all 'enjoy' the Eurovision Song Contest too :-) (I know its uber-trashy, but I just can't help myself!)

Starter was in honour of Ireland - lots and lots of Potato and Sweet Potato wedges with home made hummus, sour cream and chive, tzatziki and hot n spicy BBQ dips, with a little side salad.

Main course continued in a European theme - Slowed cooked Greek kleftico with olives, tomatoes, carrots, couscous and more salad

Dessert was pure Eurovision! - homemade Bucks Fizz grown up jelly!

was all very scrumptious and well received - had a little panic an hour before everyone was due to turn up as one of my guests tipped me off that I was going to have an additional guest! (no matter I thought, 1 of the guests had called me earlier in the week to say that she'd still love to come along, but was on a strict diet (impending hospital appointment) so would be bringing her own food...I'd cooked enough for her - just in case - and now I was to have the additional guest (no problem) other than only have 6 dining chairs...so sister to the rescue, and bought one of her own dining chairs with her!  Things got a bit iffy though as my 'I'll bring my own 'diet' food with me' guest decided not to eat her 'diet' food, and instead tucked in to the 'Come dine with me' menu! ooops...not too much of a problem for the starter and main, but dessert was a bit of a problem as I'd only made 6 and 7 people were there to eat!...
muddled through so no drama there!

Had bought some 'Aquavit' minitures for everybody to enjoy while playing Eurovision Bingo as the results were announced, so all was well !!!

I even embellished an old Monsoon dress especially for the occasion - Eurovision was coming from wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen...so added some trim in honour of the Danish flag....but not before initially making it in honour of the Norwegian flag by mistake!!! Geography clearly isn't my strong point!!!

take 1 plain red dress from Monsoon

add a little white and blue trim (for the Norwegian flag)....

remove the blue ribbon as Copenhagen is in Denmark not Norway!!! (to be honest, I think I prefer the 'Norwegian' version - this 'Denmark' version looks a little too much like a Virgin Airways trolley-dolly outfit!!!

nice 'flags of Europe' tablecloth - purchased especially for the occasion!

everybody left just after midnight...I was like a modern day Cinderella cleaning the kitchen up!...I'd already done a fair amount of washing up and putting away at this point!

the other half of the kitchen!

It took me just over 2 hours to tidy up! but a very large cup of tea and some iffy programming on BBC 4 kept me going!  I collapsed on the sofa at 2.45am for a tiny little sit down and finally crawled into bed at 4am (it was actually beginning to get a bit light on the eastern horizon at that time in the morning!), so it was a bit of a shock when I woke up not quite so bright n breezy at 7.30am! still, it was lovely to come downstairs to a beautifully clean and tidy kitchen .... and I've pretty well done nothing much else all day today other than drink tea and lay on the sofa - perfect!

It was a lovely evening, with lovely guests - even the 'surprise' one! - and even though I say it myself, some lovely food was devoured!  (next year ... all things Austrian! - beard n sparkly dress combo and all!!!)

let there be light...

So, popped along to the local sewing machine shop and bought a replacement light bulb for my trusty old machine (can't believe I virtually took the whole machine apart just to get the bulb in, when a simple 'push n twist' would have sufficed - still, gave me a chance to give it a little clean!)

With a new light and a fresh day (and being a gorgeous Bank Hoilday too), I set about finishing off the short sleeved blouse I'd started.

Very pleased with the end result - not exactly the 'trendiest' thing that will ever be worn, but will be a fine addition to the 'Work' wardrobe!

all finished and pressed

Spurred on with my success, I also thought I'd quickly finish my 70's fancy dress outfit - an hour or so, just to pop some 'ruffles' on a pair of unworn 'wet look' black leggings...

6 very frustrating HOURS later (lord alone knows why it took me sooooooooo long!) ...

70's disco-diva-dancing fancy dress outfit

and its finally finished!!!, got some black/cream wedges that I shall be wearing with...got to somehow get to my sisters house (she lives approx 1 minute walk away!) without any of the neighbours seeing me!  still, thats something to worry about in a couple of weeks!

And today, as the weather was sooooooo nice, thought I'd finally tackle re-making/adapting/re-constructing a top I've had for a couple of years.  I love the fabric, but the style was awful - so I only wore it once (an empire line cut that I think always makes me look like I'm pregnant!).  So I grabbed the seam ripper to de-construct it.  Then remembering my 'jeans to skirt' adaption, I thought I'd utilise the the left over legs...

Worked a treat, and I've spent the whole afternoon gathering, tacking, and hand sewing a bit of left over trim to the hem, while Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (parts 1 and 2) played in the background...slightly pink arms now and a sore, needle indented thumb, but worth it - just got to decide it wearing this 'new' top with a pair of jeans, counts a 'double-denim'!!! 

the end of 'enlightenment'

Thought I'd use some of my recently purchased 'remnant' bundle and whip up a little short sleeved blouse for work next week - actually, there's a bit of a sub-plot to this story that started at the beginning of the week...

I finished tweaking my 70's inspired tunic with ruffles at the weekend and was about to start ruffling up the 'wet look' leggings I had (to go with) when it struck me that adding some circular polyester fabric to elasticated leggings possibly wasn't going to be as straight forward as I thought (surely I can't just sew them straight on as they'll need to 'stretch' with the leggings so I can get my leg in...yes???...is this right??)

So I thought the solution may lie in sewing the ruffles on not with ordinary thread, but with elastic thread...shearing elastic or something similar... and being unsure I popped off to the nearby fabric/haberdashers close to where I work and sort out some advise.

After spending a few minutes trying to explain myself to the ever so helpful shop assistant, and with her looking at me as if I had at least 4 heads...she guided me over the the shearing elastic selection (pretty poor actually...black or a dirty grey colour...no white??? and told me I could only hand sew it...you must be joking!!! so, I was then taken to the sewing machine needles where I was told I would need a 'stretch' needle ... but could use ordinary thread, so long as I remembered to 'pull' the fabric as I sewed.

I purchased the needles (for the life of me I can't tell ANY difference between them and any other machine needle I have?!?!) and I'm still not convinced that this is the appropriate solution to my sewing predicament - we'll just have to see I suppose.

But while I was there, I stumbled almost literally, into the 'remnant' table....

£38 later (and with not one single centimetre of elastic...which I went in there for!) off I trotted back to work.

Anyyyyyhoooooo - tonight I thought I'd get started on my new blouse....laid the pattern out, pinned it, cut it out, tacks put in, darts sewn in & pressed, attached front to back at shoulders...and 'POP' !!!!

After 35 years of trusted service, the lightbulb on my cranking ole sewing machine finally died!

Fingers crossed I can find a replacement on Saturday...can't sew black on black without a decent light source!

This is my current favourite fabric...

This will make a lovely light summer blouse...

This is the current fabric I'm working on...

but now I'm having to stop...until I get a replacement sewing machine bulb!