Author: Thimberlina

TMS – Pants Challenge

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Phew! Talk about Cutting it fine.  February’s challenge for The Monthly Stitch is to make pants. Or trousers, or slacks depending whereabouts in the world you might be. So here’s my moleskin Manhattan Skinny Bitch Curvy Chick trousers. I bought the PDF version of the pattern for $12 (about £7) as I didn’t want to wait for it to be shipped from the USA. This pattern company designs patterns for petites – I’m 5’4″ so not too small but not tall either. Neither am I a skinny bitch or a curvy chick, but hey ho, I loved the free Tonic T pattern that I made here, and here for my mum in law, so thought I’d given the Manhattan pants a whirl. Sticking together the PDF pattern pieces wasn’t the easiest of tasks. Not sure if it was my printer but I lost some of the lines near the edge of the paper and had to draw them in where I thought they might go….. Once I started sewing they were a dream to put together. The instructions …

Happy Birthday Mum!

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A little belated Birthday wish for my lovely mum, and introducing my niece to sewing! It was my mum’s birthday at the end of January but unfortunatley whilst my sewing mojo has been in overdrive I’ve had writers block with the blogging!   Think it’s due to a combination of finding the time candy crush saga and also having some decent photos to add to it. So here we are, I’ll share with you what I made for my mum: The scarf can be worn a few ways: The scarf who really easy.  The only challenging part was counting the chains for each length – over 100!!  I also made her a top which is on an earlier post here. Just after my mum’s birthday my brother and his family came up from Southampton for a long weekend.  It was great to see them, and I was able to spend some quality sewing time with Ebony, my niece. She loved the fabric I used for my 1950’s outfit and ‘we’ made her a zipper pouch with …

Meet Godzilla – a.k.a. Simplicity 2150

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A couple of weeks ago I stayed up late to make a start on my latest project Simplicity 2150.  I bought the black furry fabric last year and intended to use it to make the front and collar part of this Vogue 8757 jacket: I ummed and arh’ed about which other 2 fabric to use and never gotten round to making it.  I loved the black furry fabric and decided to use it to make something more straight forward that would be more useful, so went into town and bought this Simplicity 2150 pattern: I chose view D (top right).  It was one of the only patterns I could find that suggested a fur fabric and the simple style I thought would be purfect! I was between sizes so chose the larger size, tho there was no need to as this jacket has 7 inches of ease!!  This sound way too much, but when I’m wearing it it doesn’t feel so big, and it’s the only jacket I have that fits my favourite winter jumper …

Refashioning my Diesel Jeans – 2

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A couple of weeks ago I decided to refashion my diesel jeans, part 1 can be seen here. I’ve put so much thought into  doing them, more time thinking than sewing, as I wanted them to be just right. Eventually I decided to use the plain blue which had been dyed.  I spent a whole afternoon creating lots of stitches onto it with a twin needle and 2 colours – charcoal and a goldy colour – to give the fabric a bit more interest. Originally they were going to be pintucks, but then tension on my machine wasn’t behaving, hence going for just the parallel stitces, but suddenly in the middle of sewing unwanted pintucks began to form!! Rather annoying after many failed attempts to create them early. Once the bottom piece was ready I chopped the legs of my jeans and joined the crotch to form a skirt.  If you’re thinking about having a go at refashioning your own jeans, beware!! This part was way trickier than I thought it would be. I stitched …

Staying Up Late

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Think I should have gone to bed 2 hours ago with my hubby instead of staying up late with my latest project and a bottle of wine! I’m a bit rubbish at drinking, so after 2 glasses and struggling to pin this strange fabric (which would be better suited as a gorilla ccostume) I’m calling it a day! PS I’m making simpilicity 2150 view D

Christmas and other Pressies…final post, I hope!

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This is my second post (and last!) of Christmas gifts which I made.  All the ladies in my family received handmade gifts, mainly zipper pouches, peg bags or tote bags, oh and scarfs (no pictures, forgot to take some before they were wrapped but will pester the recipitants for one!).   Is it just me, or do you guys struggle to give things away when you’ve made them? I kinda get attached, and make things that I’d like, but will only make things for those who I think will appreciate them. I didn’t find it cheaper making things if I account for my time.  If I’d have spent the same amount of time at work working overtime I’d have been quids in!  But I wouldn’t have been as happy! Here’s one last pic, an after Christmas Pressie!  Oh, go one then, one more…… Edited with BlogPad Pro

Refashioning my Diesel Jeans #1

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I splashed out on a pair of Diesel Jeans around 5 years ago. They were quite low rise and at the time looked great. But over the last year or 2 my tummy has grown a couple of inches and the jeans are now not so flattering and have been laying dormant in my bottom drawer. During the last week I’ve given a lot of thought to my sewing plans for 2014.  As I have joined the RTW Fast I think I need to put more thought how I spend my sewing time.  Usually I’ll knock together something easy and quick but it won’t necesarily be a wardrobe staple. I’ve now decided that I will: Take my time planning every garment. Make a muslin (if it’s a new pattern). Try not to buy any fabric – use fabric and notions from my stash, or dye fabric/clothes. If I wake up with the urge to sew and have nothing planned and ready to sew, I will make a bag with scraps from my stash – hoping …