Author: Thimberlina

GBSB Fashion With Fabric – The Drapey Knit Dress

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I wasn’t going to write a blog post about this recent make.   I loved making it, I loved the challenging pattern matching with the strange looking pattern pieces.  I even matched up the inside of the pockets. I used this fabric which I bought when I was in Dewsbury taking photos for a recent Spoolette meet up. When I came to the big try on, just prior to hemming, there was an “oh no!” moment.   I wondered why I’d just wasted 3 or 4 hours of my life!  I don’t know why, but it just felt wrong.  Clothes are supposed to flatter, not make you look fatter!  I know I’m not a 36–24-36.  I feel fairly ‘normal’ for someone approaching their mid-forties, but I just felt huge in this!   My head seemed to shrink whilst my body appeared bigger.  It reminded me of something out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!!?? The dress was put aside, then Corinne from Appleby Makes mentioned in a comment that she was thinking of using some fabric purchased …

Sunday Sevens week 31 (me 6)

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I may be on a roll and getting into the swing of things with the Sunday Sevens, now I’m into week 6.   I have an app on my phone called Day One.  I’ve used it in the past and it’s kind of a diary, so this week I’ve decided to use it to keep track of what I’m up to and it’s worked out better for me. I’ve had a strange week.  H is away in Italy skiing with the school.  I wouldn’t say I’ve missed him, as in missed him and moping around all day with a long face, but I have been worried about him and constantly checking schools twitter for a glimpse of him on their regular feeds, so I s’pose I have missed him! MONDAY Not having H at home meant the pudding only had to be shared between the 2 of us!  It was some sort of toffee & banana loaf cake from M&S.  (and there’s me wondering why my clothes are shrinking!). TUESDAY Anyone who sort of knows …

Little (ish) Denim Dress aka Lekala 5963

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Ok, so it’s not that little, but it fits.  And it fits kinda well to say there’s not modifications to the pattern since printing it.  So I’m fairly pleased. Thanks for your help in deciding whether or not the Liberty bias trim should be hidden or on show.  Hidden won – mainly so I can wear my orange wedges (my favourites) and dress it up if needed. The trim was simple and I added it to all raw edges including the hem.  Here’s a few photos of how I did it in case you’re interested.  I used single folded bias binding (home made!).  Before pressing it was just less than 1 1/2 inches wide. I stitched it to the right side with a 3/8 inch seam allowance.  It needs to be less than what is left of the bias trim than will be turned to the inside. I pressed the bias tape on the hem but didn’t bother on any of the other edges and it made no difference.  It probably looks worse at the hem looks …

Lekala 5963 with a touch of Liberty

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Yesterday I really needed to sew! I’ve not made anything since the 30 draw string bags, and before that was the GBSB Drapey dress (unblogged as yet, due to being a failure!). It needed to be something that didn’t require a muslin.  My sewing soul was in need of some fairly instant gratification, so I decided to make up the Valentine dress in some stretch denim I’d bought (originally for the ginger jeans, but seen as my 2 pairs of jeans fit well, and despite printing out the pattern, buying the fabric and notions, the Gingers have been pushed down the list!).  I’d bought 2m of stretch denim online from Minerva.  It has polyester in  it which I think has made it ideal for this dress as it will crease less than if it was your 97% cotton 3% elastine type of denim. But oh no! I tried on the Valentine dress to check the fit and its a bit too big! (Oh yea for shrinking body!)  My measurents haven’t changed since Feb, but I have lost about …

The Spoolettes in Dewsbury 

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Thanks Ladies for a fab day!  It was a bit like organising a party and biting your nails until the first guests start to arrive! And arrive you did – we had a ball – and so did the fabric shop-keepers in Dewsbury.  I bet they closed early as I’m sure today’s takings must’ve been up on a normal Wednesday! We met in the coffee shop at around 10:30 (Fiona, Dee and Margaret joined us a little later).  Most of us were strangers to each other in ‘real life’, but not for long.  We were all chatting like long lost pals!  It was fab to finally meet up with everyone, especially Rachel and Amanda as I felt like i knew them anyway, we’d followed each others blogs for so long! Our first port of call was Lucky Fashions….. The lovely lady there had even got some water and cans of pop in case we needed refreshments! Then we headed down to the market and onto Fabworks.  I kept doing a head count to make sure we’d …

The Yorkshire Spoolettes Meet Up Tomorrow!

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Gosh, it’s only 1 sleep until our meet up in Dewsbury.  I can’t believe how fast the last month has gone when I first posted about it!  It came about originally as I’d been planning to meet up with Amanda from Sew Deputy and we decided to open it up to anyone who fancied a little fabric shopping and a natter in Dewsbury! And now there’s going to be 15 of us meeting up! Yay! Can’t wait to meet you all.  Here’s the roll call: Me Rachel from Is It Fitting? Fiona from Seams Straight Forward  Dee – Fiona’s friend Jeanie from Love That Sewing Hannah from Handmade by Hannah Margaret from The Crafty Creek Carol Amanda & her daughter Annice, from Sew Deputy Katrina from Rolling Eyeballs Neela from Sew Fusion Corrine from Appleby Makes Helen – my golfing and sewing buddy – no blog (YET!) Katharine – a keen sewer & final year Uni student who’s heard about our meet up and would like to feature it in her final year dissertation! Just a couple of …

Sunday Sevens #30 (me #5)

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Hi Everyone! Happy Easter!  This is going to be a quick one…… I’ve had wine and my bed is calling me! Monday The photo above was taken whilst at work – Marsden in Huddersfield.   What a gorgeous day and even more gorgeous view! Tuesday I took delivery of my first ever proper piece of Liberty Cotton.  I say proper because I’ve had remnants but new THREE whole yards!! Wednesday Harrison in the nets having his cricket coaching – he’s so excited as it’s only 2 weeks away to his first match of the season. Thursday Can’t decide what colour couch we want for the front room.  Spent hours looking and still unsure!  This colour was a strong possibility on Thursday but now it’s Sundays it a no-no! Friday Harrison walking down the school drive ready to board the coach for his 26 hour journey to Italy! Saturday Childless and sunny so we went to play golf.  And I won! It’s a rare treat to play together, the last time we did was over a year …

Draw String Bags & Production Line Sewing

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Pump bags… Party Bags…. Could even be made as a smaller version for a bridesmaid in pink….. They’re the good old draw string bag! I was asked by my bestie if I would make some party bags for her son’s 7th birthday party. They needed to be big enough to put a small Easter in, and a few other little goodies. ‘Course I will’ I heard myself saying before I’d asked how many.  30? ….’yeah, no worries’ (T-H-I-R-T-Y……my brain was shouting…..!)   …oh well. In for a penny in for a pound! So here’s how I made them. A little tutorial so to speak. This could be useful if your making 1, a hundred and 1, or any number in between. The secret is to be organised and do it in bite size stages I started with 5 metres of a stable Jersey knit (cotton, or any fabric t that presses well will do). It turned out there was 6 metres, and I did need the extra metre! I planned to make mine 10″ wide and 12″ …

The Singer Sews & She’s Got A Name!

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I threaded up my new Vintage Singer (with the help of this tutorial on You Tube) just to see if she would actually sew.   She’s still dirty, a bit smelly, and still has the same needle in as when she was last used.  Unfortunately I’ve no idea when this was. I did remove the fluff from around the feed dogs, but apart from that she’s as she was when I brought her home. I used a bobbin that was already wound and also brushed the dust off an old spool of thread.  I was stunned to find she sewed beatifully! I wish I’d have chosen some plain fabric so I could show off the stitches, but I didn’t expect this on my first go! Here’s a close up: I had googled ‘how to treadle’ and found this which was really funny (well, I thought it was, and if you’ve tried to treadle you might too!): Treadling is a very advanced and intricate procedure, when done properly…. here is a good, basic set of treadling instructions: 1. …

Introducing my 1938 Singer Sewing Machine

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I’m so excited, I feel like all my Christmas’s have come at once! At the beginning of the week I saw an old Singer on Ebay with a start price of £15.  There wasn’t much information, but the photo showed it in a cabinet and it looked promising and was only in Leeds so I bid £20 then forgot all about it.   Last night I received a message to say I’d ‘won’ it for only £18.   So tonight, armed with some muscle, aka The Husband, I headed off on the 8 mile journey to meet the new love of my life  collect my new sewing machine.   It was love at first sight!   She was very heavy, but we managed and my hubby even drove steadily home (this is unusual, I usually have a stiff neck and feel sick even after a short journey! Only kidding darling if you read this!!). We carried her into the front room.  My newly decorated front room.  Very dirty! But who cares! Here she is:  Here’s the original oil …