Such a busy week!

Lots of unselfish sewing and an impromptu trip to Haroggate (pronounced ‘Harrow-gate’ if you’re posh!).  And a big ball of fluff!!

My Auntie Kath, who taught me to knit, iron and bake when I was young lives in Harrogate. She had her birthday last week, 70 something I think (her age has always been something of an enigma!) and I forgot to post her card. This was a blessing in disguise as I’d not visited her for ages and I could also call into a couple of fabric shops that I’d found on the internet – Fine Fabrics of Harrogate and The Remenant House. 

FINE FABRICS OF HARROGATE – this little shop certainly lives up to it’s name! Not a very big shop, but bright and airy and the fabric is well organised and is a pleasure to browse. I was almost tempted to buy a couple of metres of 3 or 4 different fabrics that caught my eye, but as I intended to just go for ‘a look’ I would just be adding to my stash. So, with much restraint I made just a few small purchases from the remenant section. The remnants were neatly hung on hangers and clearly labelled with the fabric composition and the length. Much better than rummaging and guessing.  The prices were reasonable too. I bought 4 remenant pieces, some satin bias binding and a zip. Not a huge purchase, but they were lovingly wrapped for me to take home. 

 

 

Here are 3 of my purchases, not sure why I didn’t photograph the 4th – that was a mustard and grey hound tooth wool fabric which I think will be a fabulous bag for one of my nieces. 

 

Later in the week I needed a pressie for my hubby’s 3 year old god sons birthday. Like most children he has everything, and with Christmas only around the corner I thought I’d make him something unique – a pump bag with his name on.  

I used some fabric in my stash which I bought a while ago on eBay. Dark blue, light blue and red wide stripes in a sweat shirt material. I French seamed all the seams for added strength and it only took just over an hour to make. 

Here’s my progress:

For the cord casings I cut 2 pieces the width of the bag and turned the edges and stitched, then pressed them in half right sides together.

I then stitched them to the INSIDE of the bag, bent them over and stitched with right sides together, encasing all raw edges.

 

Now, for some bizarre reason I didn’t take a photo of the finished article, DOH!! But I have asked his mum if she will take one and email it to me. So one day, hopefully not too far away, there will be one.  

There, that’s bag number 1, here’s bag number 2 for my lovely niece (I have 4!) who was visiting us from America. They emigrated almost 5 years ago and it’s the first time they’ve been back home. Maddie is 11 this Friday. 

Originally I thought I’d knit her a scalf with some wool in my stash. It was going to be a jumper, but although I love the wool, I didn’t think once I’d started knitting that I’d get my wear out of it, so back in May it became a UFO. 

Here’s the front of the jumper and the label showing the wool:

Beautiful I know, and very girlie, but I could make 5 frocks in the time it would take to finish!

 

So, I cast on 42 stitches with 5 1/2 mm needles and proceeded to make a scarf. 

If anyone’s interested in the bobbly pattern, it’s really simple (can be made as wide as you want in multiples of four then add 2. Makes a fab blanket with super chunky wool and 15 mm needles which grows ridiculously fast!). 

Row 1

Purl

Row 2

Knit 1, (purl 3 together, knit into the front and back front of the next stitch) repeat bracketed bit to end the. Knit last stitch. 

Row 3

Purl

Row 4

Knit 1,  (knit into the front and back front of the next stitch, purl 3 together) repeat bracketed bit to the end. Knit last stitch. 

That’s it! Carry on until it’s long enough or you get bored (or run out of time like I did, then turn it into a bag!!) 

 

For the next bit I need to set the scene: 

it’s 9pm, the scarf is about 1/3 of usual scarf length and they’re heading down to the south of England at 9am the following morning. And I couldn’t make Maddie something without making something for her brother Oliver too (age 7). 

So, speedy seamstress takes over and casts off and sewing machine goes into overdrive:

I sandwiched the ‘scarf’ between 2 pieces of suedette fabric and held it together with clips. I’d no idea how it would sew together, but I was running out of options. I used my roller foot. The lower piece of fabric went a bit skewiff, but nothing really terrible. 

 

I turned over the lining top and bottom, and stitched some of the red fabric to the bag strap I’d quickly knitted (8 stitches knit 2 purl 2 moss stitch) to make it long enough. It was ok sewing with the woolly side face up if I took it steady and used longer stitch length – I used 4 mm. 

I wasn’t sure what to do next, maybe turn the top over and add a button or 2…..

I couldn’t decide, it was 11pm and my bed was calling. So I let Gertrude wear it and turned in for the night:

Bear with me, it’s the longest blog I’ve written but I’ve nearly finished. 

 

The next morning (at 7:30am) I decided that the sides would be simply sewn together with no flap and I’d best make a start on Oliver’s bag. 

I used the same technique as for Max’s bag and here is the finished article: 

With seconds to spare I arrived at my mums in time to catch them before they had to leave. I gave Maddie her bag, together with a darning needle, some wool and a pair of scissors.  She loved it.  I think she loved it more because she was allowed to finish it off herself!

 

One last thing, if you’ve never removed the bit of the machine which holds the bobbin in place and never had it serviced (like me), here’s what I found :

Yuck!!! What a mess! 

 

One last thing, (if you’re still here, well done!) as I’m writing this I’m planning a giveaway to celebrate 1,000 views. Only 20 something to go!  When i started my blog only a couple of months ago I was giddy when I hit 50! Never did I think so many of you would read what I had to say. So, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, and it would have to light as I’d like to be able to offer the giveaway to all my followers from around the globe. 

 

Whoops!! Just one last thing…..honest!!

In and amongst that lot I went shopping with my mum to Dunn Elm.  We found 2 separate curtains, different lengths but same fabric for £2.50 each in the remenant bin!!! So I shortened them for her, and made some tie backs with the spare fabric (tie backs not up yet….c’mon dad!!!).