A busy few days

1972 - The Miner's Strike

As promised, here is the completed piece. The Miner's strike from 1972. This is now ready to be added to the panel. 

Magazine article detailing the sweatshirt design.

The past few days have been rather busy with a lot of sewing. I have been getting on with some dressmaking which I first wrote about here.

Sweatshirt with lace insert - my version.

I started off with the sweatshirt you see here. Found in Love Sewing Magazine, issue 34, it really is nice and cosy, and can be worn with thin polo neck tops underneath. My version has a slightly different neckline to the original design since I wanted the cuffs and neck to match. The lace fabric came out of my stash since I didn't need very much.

Vest

After this, I started making up some patterns of my own. I hadn't been very pleased with my first attempts at making polo neck tops out of jersey fabric, so decided to make a pattern from a top I already own. It fits much more snugly than anything I had previously made and I rather liked the style. I also made a pattern from a useful vest I also already have. I added some length to the sleeves which were rather short on the original and made it out of some cotton interlock remaining in my stash. I must admit that I am not very pleased with the neckline since I should have slightly stretched the fabric as I was sewing. Still, it is a really nice and warm addition to my winter wardrobe.

Grey stripe polo neck - neckline

Striped polo neck

The first polo neck made from my own pattern was this grey striped one and I must say I was really pleased with the stripes on the shoulder line. This worked really well, so I went on to make two further tops, completing the last of these this evening. As I write, I am wearing the flying birds top.

Leafy polo neck

Flying Birds polo neck

Tomorrow, I really must get on and get my cocoon coat sewn up ready to wear. It has been sitting beside my chair, waiting rather patiently for me to get other projects out of the way. The weather forecast doesn't sound very nice tomorrow, so a day spent indoors sewing, sounds rather pleasant. The pattern is one I bought at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate back in November. You can the pattern here. I bought some lovely woolen fabric some time back, a bright red on one side and a tartan pattern on the reverse. I fancy playing around with the possibilities offered by the different sides of the fabric.

Oh yes, the "1001 Nights" quilts are now safely back at home with me after their exhibition at Quiltfest. They will soon be heading off to Bramble Patch for their next outing.