Latest Posts

#SundaySevens 51

Published by Thimberlina

Yup, I’m late again, but I’m only just catching up with Tuesday and really don’t know what day it is! Those nights shifts again playing havoc with my world!

Sunday Sevens is the brain child of the lovely Natalie over at Threads and Bobbins. I think there’s quite a few of us now going in, I wonder if he thought it would take off like it has when she first thought it up??

1 A late entry from the week before. I was looking for a pic of me at my BIL wedding and this was the best I could find! My dress was a bargain at House of Frazer – £10.50! More than what a pattern would cost! think my niece’s dress on the right might have costed a bit more!

2 Rory our cheeky cat – I didn’t know she drank out of glasses!

3 The first pop of colour in the garden.

4 A trip to Harrogate meant I could go to one of my favourite real life fabric shops Fine Fabrics of Harrogate. I’m not sure what the owners name is but she’s lovely and I always end up spending ages chatting to her. I bought some blue silky fabric and 3 jersey remnants. I’ll show you another time. If you’re ever over this way call in. A different shopping experience to Dewsbury but equally as enjoyable! And she stocks Indie Patterns!

5 At just over 5’10” H nearly went head first over the post when attempting a leap frog!

6 A UFO that I’ve unearthed. I’m hoping to get it finished for this months challenge over at the Monthly Stitch. It only needs the edges finishing and the neckline lowering, so fingers crossed I’ll get chance.

7 My mums doing really well after her knee surgery 3 weeks ago today. She’s still in pain but is keeping herself busy with the crochet hook.

8 On Sunday I woke up about 45 minutes before I had to set off for work. And I had 2 parcels!! All the way from Del in the USA! Thankyou Del!! I’d left my phone at work so couldn’t take any photos, but H took some for me. It was like an early birthday pressies!!

The feature photo is of a cute little crocheted heart that wrapped the attached card. Love it loads – I’m going to hang it I’m my sewing room!

Home

Published by Thimberlina

It’s 20 years this year’s since I ‘left home’ properly. Properly, as in I had a narrow escape and came back after the first attempt!

It’s still home when I’m there, and I get roped into stuff just the same and i love it!

Thanks mum & dad!

Linking in with the weekly photo challenge from:

The Brooklyn Hoodie by SBCC

Published by Thimberlina

In January I took park in a Giveaway on Instagram hosted by Skinny Bitch Curvy Chick to win their latest pattern – The Brooklyn Hoodie.

I’m a big fan of their patterns so was over the moon when I discovered I’d won. It did take a few days for me to notice the PM in Instagram as I’d never had one before!

Their patterns are drafted for petites. At 5’4″ I always feels I’m somewhere in between – not quite a petite but not tall either.

Previously I’m made their Lemoncello Cardigan (unblogged for some crazy unknown reason) so here it is at a Presentation Night when I was Lady Captain (the second time!):

I’ve also made the Manhattan Pants and the Cabernet Cardigan. Oh, and I’ve made a few of their free tonic t shirts too! All the other patterns I’ve bought (except the free one of course!!). The paper patterns come printed on proper paper in a plastic A4 folder which is really neat.

As soon as I won the hoodie pattern I was on the look out for fabric. I have some grey in my stash but wanted something a bit more special.

I stumbled across this when I was out and about in Dewsbury sorting things out for the recent Spoolette meet up.

I must’ve been distracted as I never bought any at the time, but aptly named Lucky Fashions still had some in stock when I returned with the Spoolettes.

I cut out the fabric quite quickly after the meet – pre-washing it first at 40 degrees. After all a white hoodie was going to be having regular washes at that heat I should imagine!

It took me quite a while then to get round to making it up. Partly because I was undecided about which zip to use and whether or not to use a contrasting top stitching thread. It was this Hoodie on the Prolific Project Starter’s blog that got me going with the fancy top stitching!

I did a ridiculous amount of practicing and testing which stitch, colour and even got to grips with using a twin needle.

Eventually I decided that it was all going to be cream with no contrasting. As I’ve said before I’ve loads of clothes that don’t really go with each other, and I didn’t want this to be another casualty!

The fabric was a dream to sew and all the pieces went together really easily. Some of the seams were quite bulky, but trimming back the seam allowances meant top stitching wasn’t such an ordeal.

When preparing the pockets I basted the short edges before stitching them to the front. The intention was to remove these stitches but once finished they were hardly noticable.

I used loads of pins when attaching the pockets. Wonky pockets were not going to be an option!

This is the stitch I eventually chose for all my topstitching – everywhere – number 16 below. It was wide enough to cover most of the raw edge inside the hoodie, and the tiny bits it missed I was able to trim off.

A few more constructions pics:

didn’t bother using the zipper foot. I sewed a row of stitched with the walking foot as I needed it not to shift at all. I intended to run another row of stitched with the walking foot but didn’t need to. Once I turned the zip inside it was fine and I was able to top stitch it with my fancy stitch.

All in all this was a really satisfying make. It’s gone along with my small plan in my head to make more wearable clothes and to try and stick to solid colours.

I finished it yesterday morning, just in time for a stroll around Harrogate in the afternoon. Hubby’s getting less embarrassed about taking photos in public, but as we were just in the town centre the back drops aren’t the best!

So that’s my first garment from the Spoolette’s recent trip. We’re all hoping to complete a garment within 4 weeks of the trip and I’ll be linking them all together.

Cheerio for now!

Competition Results & #SundaySevens 50

Published by Thimberlina

Sunday Sevens is late as we were at a wedding yesterday, so I thought instead of writing 2 posts, which seemed I bit daft, I’d announce the winner of the competition with this week’s Sunday Sevens.

If there’s anyone who’s not heard of Sunday Sevens – it’s 7 ish photos of your week showing a bit more about what goes when you’re not sewing. Generally for me I’m either eating or working! Invented by the lovely Natalie from Threads & Bobbins if you want to read more.

Without further ado………….

The total mileage travelled by all the ladies from their Home to Fabworks Dewsbury was 671 miles!

The evening of the meet up I totted up the mileage and sent my mum a text of how far all the ladies had travelled. I was quite amazed at the final total, and so was mum! And even more amazed that some of you got quite close the the figure.

The winner of the £25 voucher plus free P&P donated by Fabworks is Sam who guessed 666 miles. Sam – I’ll drop you an email about how to claim your prize. Sorry Beth, you guessed the same but Sam had already said 666.

The winner of the mystery parcel donated by me is Tialys who guessed 655 miles. If you could email me your address I’ll pop your prize in the post!

Well done ladies and thanks to all of you who entered.

I was just looking on Fabworks Facebook page the other day and they’ve released their first video. Click on the link if you want to have a wander around their store, and listen to a Yorkshire Accent – not quite as broad as mine I don’t think!

Now onto Sunday Sevens. I thought as I was only working 3 days I’d have a productive week. I ended up working 2 extra shifts (girls golfing holiday is on the horizon) so not as productive a week as I hoped.

1 Look at this for a view! Looking over Halifax and into Happy Valley territory. The patient didn’t need to go to hospital and when I explained about Sunday Sevens they were happy to share their amazing view with my readers.

2 Pancake Day! I felt quite stuffed after eating 4. I think H lost count of how many he’d had!

3 Mum’s recovering well from her knee op and can move quite fast when the camera comes out!!

4 I bought her a couple of balls of yarn, a crochet hook and got her started on a blanket.

5 Finally got my Brooklyn Hoodie cut out. I’m hoping to start sewing it up today.

6 Now that’s what you call a Yorkshire Pudding!

7 At the wedding yesterday – the brother in laws 3rd (someone asked if he could keep the ball as it was a hat trick!). H decided to see if he could use the bubble mixture on the table to blow bubbles from his mouth.

8 He managed a few….. much to everyone’s (and mostly his) amusement! I wouldn’t recommend having a go unless you’ve some lip salve handy – after a couple of hours rubbing the bubble mix onto your lips they get a bit sore. Clean, but sore!

So that’s my week! Hope yours has been a good one too, and wishing you happy holidays if like us you’re on 1/2 term holidays this week.

Cheerio x

Don’t Forget To Enter The Comp’!

Published by Thimberlina

Seventeen Yorkshire Spoolettes gathered last Saturday in Dewsbury. Did you manage to come up with a guesstimate of how far we all travelled?

If you’ve not why not have a complete random guess or have a look around the blogs for some clues.

There are 2 prizes up for grabs.

The person with the closest answer in the UK will will receive a £25 voucher to spend at Fabworks, with free P&P. Thankyou Fabworks!

The person with the closest answer outside the UK will receive a surprise parcel from me.

Leave your answer (in miles) below in comments – the total we all travelled to Dewsbury.

Please state if your are inside or outside the UK.

Closing date is midnight GMT 14th February 2016

I’m sure you’ve all read lots of posts about our meet-up, but in case you didn’t here are links to my follow spoolettes blog posts about the day.

Amanda from Sew Deputy

Karen from Wakey Makes – Karen’s First Ever Blog Post!!

Hila from Saturday Night Stitch

Margaret from The Crafty Creek

Teresa from Navy Blue Threads

Corrine from Appleby Makes

Lucie from Love Lucie

Anne from Sew Anne Uk

Karen from The Sewing Miserablist

Manju from SewManju

Ruth from Ruth Creates 247

Camilla from Making and Marking

It wasn’t a prerequisite that you had to blog about the day. Here’s links to the other Spoolettes if you want to catch up with them and maybe look for clues as to how far they travelled on the day.

Hannah from Handmade by Hannah

Jeanie from Love That Sewing

Margaret from Sew-n-Style

Catherine from Cattern Lace

A big thankyou to all the Spoolettes who joined me! My future shopping trips are going to be dull in comparison.

This photo (thanks Lucie!) really sums up our day….

There are 3 guesses so far that I’m bringing over from my post about the meet up.

Heather – 480 miles

French Fancy – 525 miles

Claire Sutherland – 347 miles (in the UK)

Good Luck Everyone!!

Brooklyn Preparation and a BIG ‘Thankyou’

Published by Thimberlina

Remember my photo challenge ‘stitch‘ last week? I happened to mention how I’ve struggled to master the twin needle, to the point that I was planning smuggling a coverstitch machine into the house. You guys gave me so much advice!

Tonight I’ve been experimenting with stitch selection for my next project – The Brooklyn Hoodie from SBCC.

I was looking for a stitch to flatten down the seams and give more of a rtw feel to it.

I preferred the left had stitch. Here’s the wrong side – I’d trimmed back the SA back as far as possible.

Just as I was pressing a few buttons, I saw IT!!!!

You could’ve knocked me down with a feather!!!

Where did that come from????

Had it just appeared, or had it been hidden amongst this little lot all the time??

Well that was it. I pressed the button, found a twin needle and another spool and in no time at all I produced this little lot!!

How pretty!! And neat!! And easy!! Everything ran smoothly, I just threaded it up, no really special way except not tangling the threads.

I really don’t know how I missed this hidden gem of a button.

Anyone who knows me in real life will know that I’m a bit OCD about reading instructions. To the point I downloaded the full manual for my washing machine and read it before it was installed. I did the same for this sewing machine before it was delivered! At least I thought I did!

So thanks again for all your comments!

Does anyone else have that button on their machine? Have a look, you might have!

Edited!

I’ve just stumbled across some fantastic tips that I’ve not heard before from Oliver and S. Definitely worth a read….and no mention of the button either!!

http://oliverands.com/community/blog/2016/02/tips-and-tricks-for-twin-needle-hemming.html

Zero

Published by Thimberlina

The Definition of a Duck in Cricket – when a batsman is out without scoring a run.

Photo from a camping trip a couple of years ago at Rudding Park Harrogate

. We had to share out breakfast with the residents!

A Golden Duck – The term used for the score of zero when a batsman is out on his first ball without scoring a run.

It’s usually a very long walk back to the changing room after scoring any sort of duck!

(scoreboard at the top – When Yorkshire Under 13B thrashed beat Lancashire last summer and batsman number 6 scored a duck).

Head over to Wild Daffodil’s blog where she’s joined forces with 3 other lovely bloggers who’ve created this weekly photo challenge.

#Sunday Sevens 49

Published by Thimberlina

And sleep…….!

What a week it’s been! Last night I had the best night’s sleep I’ve had in ages. I don’t know about you, but whenever I’ve something on my mind, or when I’m planning something, my mind plays tricks on me and I have the weirdest of dreams. When I was at training school (almost 20 years ago) studying to be a paramedic they fed us well. I dreamt I got so fat my (small) tattoo grew so big is spread and covered the whole of my body!!

So you can imagine what I’ve been like this week with the Spoolettes meet up going round my head! I wouldn’t mind if I was a worrier. I’m not when I’m awake. But it’s crazy what our subconscious minds gets up to behind our backs!

Anyway, apart from having an amazing Saturday! The best ever!! I did have a few other moments this week worthy of a photograph, so here we are, my Sunday Sevens as thought up by the lovely Natalie over at Threads and Bobbins…..

1 Not the best start to the working week – 2 hours late off after already working a 12 hour shift. A slice of birthday cake and a large baileys eased me back into a relaxed state!

2 Cyber mom I imagine isn’t going to be too pleased with this photo but as it’s quite a significant part of our family history it has to be included – sorry mum! Mum’s had a new knee. Well half a one. They call it a partial knee replacement as it’s not quite totally knackered, only a bit. Watch this space. She’ll be doing the couch to 5k in no time at all! She’ll also be able to drive in 6 weeks, which will be a bloody miracle as she can’t now!

3 We’ve had some foul weather as usual this week but we’ve also had blue sky! I had to pull over to take this so I could share the view. (the broken white line isn’t the middle of the road btw, it’s the edge – it looks like i’ve just abandoned my car!). It was taken near Scapegoat Hill, only 5 miles out of Huddersfield town centre but it really is in the middle of nowhere!

4 Another gorgeous view to share. This is the first time I’ve ever been here though I’ve driven past it 100s of times. Since Elland Bridge was damaged during the Boxing Day floods I needed to find somewhere else to stand by as there’s no point parking up next to a closed road bridge! This is only 200m from the main road between Huddersfield and Halifax but a true hidden gem. I think this will be one of my favourite spots to stand by in the summer!

5 You might think I’ve gone a bit crazy posting a photo of a fuel pump, especially if you’re outside the UK, but it’s donkeys years since fuel has been below £1 a litre. It used to cost me £70 to fit my car! I’ll show this photo to my grandkids in years to come!!

6 My Jungle January parcel arrived from America with a £12.97 customs charge!! Has this happened to anyone else before!? I really feel like complaining to someone as Katherine had ticked it was a gift so I was a bit baffled! Hopefully I’ll make a belated jungle january garment – H is fancying a shortie-onesie! I might even have enough fabric for us to have matching!!

7 As soon as I got in from the Spoolette’s meet up I got stuck into writing my blog post. I totally lost track of time and the hubby brought me up a pasta bake. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I’d had scampi and chips in the pub!

8 Footie was on this morning and it was my turn to do the tuck shop and sell raffle tickets. Luckily we share it out and only have to do it once or twice a season. It was freeeeezing! They won 7-1 so the 2 hour thaw-out afterwards was worth it. H plays in goal and conceded a penalty but was fearless and had a great game! H has just looked over my should and stated “you cud’ve looked a bit more lively in that photo!” I assure you I couldn’t!!

Feature photo: very cute earrings – a pressies from the lovely Karen at Wakey Makes! I love them thankyou!! If you click on her name you can see her lovely fabric on her IG page!

So that’s another week gone and we’re into February already! I managed only one run this week, but with the nights starting to get lighter there should be more opportunities to get out there. Also I had some fab new this week. I’ll be on 10 hour shifts in April instead of 12!! Yippee! I’ll have to work an extra day every other week but I’ll have a bit more time for me and the family on work days.

So until next time, cheerio!

The Yorkshire Spoolette’s 2nd Meet-Up

Published by Thimberlina

Well, I needn’t have worried!

All those restless nights were worth it!

I even dreamt one night that I couldn’t even blog about today because I forgot to go!

It wasn’t just me who was a bit nervous. I mean, we hear it all the time on the news. The dangers of meeting strangers online that might not be who you think they are!! Gosh, if our kids had known what we’d been up to today!!

So at 10:30am I met with a lovely bunch of ladies, who did not feel like strangers at all, and we didn’t stop talking or shopping until 4pm tonight!

We gathered together at Kenny’s Bistro – a newly opened cafe that’s done out lovely and very reasonable – 85p for a toasted currant tea cake!! More money to be spent on fabric!!

The staff were lovely and didn’t mind us rearranging the table and chairs so we could all gather round.

We had a little fabric and pattern swap whilst I worked out some of the milages how far those on the train had travelled.

And as usual when we get together ~~Amanda and I~~ me ‘n’ Amanda (we’re in Yorkshire!) had a selfie! We were missing Nee, hopefully we’ll catch up soon.

If you’re a non-blogger and fancy coming next time, don’t be shy! Jeanie (my real life sewing friend) doesn’t blog and still fitted in and was like a long lost sewing buddy!

Once we’d refuelled (one lady had travelled 135 miles!!!!!!) we headed for the market.

There’s a stall that sells really cheap elastic, threads, bias trim,zips and all sorts of fancy stuff!

I think we all bought a little bit of something here!

I bought 4 open ended zips, they were £1 each. I need one for the Brooklyn hoodie and 3 more just in case! They had the same at Fabworks for only 25p! But I’d already bought these:

There’s quite a few fabric stalls on the market, but as the weather was pretty miserable we headed over to Fabworks.

A bit damp but still smiling! Note Anne’s empty green holdall – it was full to bursting when she left!!

Everyone loved Fabworks. It was busy already when we got there, but there was plenty of staff about so we didn’t have to wait long to be served. Not that it mattered, we’d got all day!

Whilst there we had a couple of “here’s one I prepared earlier” moments which was funny.

First up Karen with one of her latest makes…

And then Lucie with her recently blogged Coco…. Hila was soon off to the til with the remaining bolt, can’t wait to see what she makes with it!

Between us we scoured every shelf of the delicious fabric, and with heavy bags crossed back over the road and headed up to Lucky Fashions. Just a note, if you go to Fabworks on a Saturday it closes at 2pm. So don’t leave your car there and go shopping elsewhere!!

You wouldn’t have thought the ladies were up for more shopping but there was a spring in their steps and a cup of tea waiting for them at our next port of call. And biscuits!

And lucky for me the winter white embossed double knit i NEED for my Brooklyn Hoodie was still in stock!

So glad Camilla could go. It was a last minute decision yesterday, so if you were adding up the mileage you’d best head over to her blog and see if there’s any clues!! As a fellow Sunday Sevener you get to know fellow sewistas a bit more than when only reading about their makes

We also squeezed in a visit to the £1 a yard shop. This is just around the corner from Lucky Fashions.

Now don’t let looks be deceiving. There’s some real bargains to be had here. So much so that Hila feels to have been well and truly ripped off at Leeds market for buying the same fabric for double the price! There’s 3 rooms full of fabric downstairs and more upstairs. It’s not a place for small children or the infirm, but if you like a bargain it’s the place to go!

Our bags were full to bursting and getting heavy. Our tummies were rumbling too so we headed for Weatherspoons (or Spoons if your a regular!) and killed 2 birds with 1 stone.

We met some friendly locals who offered to take a picture for us! We stood out a bit in here being the only women in there this side of the bar! …Margaret with Rod!

I’d wished I’d left the car at home and got the bus. I’d forgotten just how cheap it is in Spoons!

So, from left-ish to right-ish who made it to the end (sadly Jeanie had to get off to go celebrate a special birthday, Amanda needed to get up north for the blog manager, and Karen from WakeyMakes is missing from the photo! – sorry I should have taken a team photo in the cafe!

Hannah, Camilla, Corrine, Me

Margaret, Catherine, Hila

Margaret, Teresa, Ruth

Lucie, Anne, Karen and Manju (who incidentally travelled the furthest – 135 miles!! I know that there’s a competition on to work out how far we all travelled, but I couldn’t help myself and just had to tell someone!!)

Click on their names to be taken to their blogs/IG/FB.

Karen you was missed off the main photo (big sorry) but you did have your picture taken with Sewing Royalty, our own GBSB star, Amanda!

So that was our day – a fab day spent with lovely like minded lovely ladies!

There’ll be more in the future – I’m planning another Wednesday and Saturday one when the weather picks up, and our stashes reduce.

If you want to know more about the Spoolettes click on the link in the header at the top of the page. There’s useful info on shopping in Dewsbury too. The main thing to remember is that Market days are Wednesday and Saturday. Fabworks is open 6 days a week, but Lucky Fashions only open on market days.

Oh!! The Competition!!

Only for those who’ve read on to the very end!!

If you would like to win a £25 gift voucher which has kindly been donated by Fabworks to be spent at their online shop all you have to do is guess the total mileage travelled by the 17 ladies who attended today’s meet up.

For those readers outside of the UK there will be a little goodie bag up for grabs for you, donated by me! So there’ll be 2 prizes!

Unfortunately 4 ladies couldn’t make it, (hope you’re all feeling better, and Holly – break a leg!!) so if you’ve all ready done some workings out you may need to do a little more maths!

To enter, please ‘like’ the Fabworks Facebook page AND enter your answer below in comments. If you’re not on Facebook don’t worry, you can still enter! Please leave a contact email if your name doesn’t direct me to your blog, or a means of contacting you.

You have to midnight on Valentines Day to submit your ~~guess~~ answer!

Good luck!!

Links to fellow Spoolettes blog posts about our day out:

Sew Deputy

Navy Blue Threads

Making and Marking

Sew Anne Uk

Ruth Creates 247

Appleby Makes

Sewmanju

The Sewing Miserablist

The Crafty Creek

Love Lucie

Saturday Night Stitch

Stitch

Published by Thimberlina

One of the things I’ve yet to master…… The twin needle! I’ve had success on scraps of fabric when practising, but it’s the threading of the needles that I struggle with. I’d rather re-thread my overlocker!

Every time I give it a go I can’t make the 2 spools behave nicely and generally the in the seconds one jerks and snaps the thread. I have read the instruction manual 17 times and made several on observations on You Tube, but no no avail.

If you would like to add a link below, or any words of wisdom they would be greatly appreciated.

Feature photo (because as usual I am unable to just share one photo):

Does anyone else keep all their sample stitches when trying something new?

Head over to Wild Daffodil’s blog where she’s joined forces with 3 other lovely bloggers who’ve created this weekly challenge.