Sewing and making plans

As you can see from these photos the hat has been completed. It has now been passed on to it's owner.

The size is toddler, so it is quite small. I made this to match a jumper I made some months ago. It should help keep this little person nice and cosy this winter.

This blouse, Butterick 6301, is now almost complete with just the buttonholes to be stitched and the buttons added. I'm rather pleased with this since I can easily wear it. This version, being made from a white cheesecloth, is rather sheer so will have to be worn under a top of some kind. The length is just right, so I can now cut out this same pattern from the blue fabric I have chosen for this project.

Over the past few days I have also made this toile. This is for the Simplicity pattern 8243. Again, I have used the same cheesecloth fabric as the Butterick blouse shown further up in this post. This second blouse is going to be a much more fitted affair. I'm looking forward to getting this one finished. I already have the fabric I am planning to use for the main version. I'm hoping that this one will, like the Butterick version, be a wearable toile. One I could use for everyday wear. Again, it is rather sheer so will have to be worn under a waistcoat or somesuch. Just as well I have quite a few in my wardrobe.

The new pin cushion has been so useful in making these two pieces. I wrote about making it in my last post here. 

As for planning. I still have to sort out what projects I want to get on with and the order in which I plan to do them. I have a number of dressmaking projects I would really love to make - another pair of culottes, the two blouses I have already mentioned, and a pinafore dress to my own design. I really need a couple of skirts and a couple of pairs of trousers for the autumn and winter. Other potential projects are a wallhanging I have in my head, but which I haven't started work on yet. The plans for it are nearly there. Then there is the felt. I really would love to get back to making some and starting work on the CiFT elements. I need to get it all planned out on paper and work out suitable time frames for it all. Ah well, I might become organised one of these days.

Dressmaking and some knitting.

Vintage pattern

I found this pattern in a charity shop some time ago. Butterick 6301 dating from the late seventies and early eighties. I did have a copy of this pattern when it first came out, making the waistcoat, skirt and blouse. That first version had the skirt and waistcoat in a light woolen suiting. The blouse was made from a light off white viscose. I wore them out. Sadly, that pattern got lost amidst the house moves.

This pattern is the junior size, 5. It was interesting making a version in my own size. I made the paper pattern first, and now have a version in cheesecloth under way. Hopefully it will work out without too much alteration.

Cheesecloth version of 6301 under way.

Burda culottes pattern from 1989

 This will be the next dressmaking challenge. I will be making a second version of these culottes from Burda Magazine. I wish I still had the magazine - another victim of the house moves over the years. However, I still have the pattern and the line drawings to go from.

These will be made from this viscose fabric found on the Northwich fabric stall. It is lovely and soft and will drape beautifully.

Yesterday I found myself frustrated by the lack of a pin cushion. All my dressmaking pins seemed to be clustered into one cushion. So I collected together some of my selvedge scraps and pinned them onto some leftover cheesecloth.

Not very long after this stage, I was merrily stitching using a two stage zigzag. With the remnants of a piece of wadding which had been languishing in a cupboard, and a 5 inch diameter pot found some time back in a charity shop, I had this pin cushion ready to use.

It is now helping me with the cheesecloth blouse. The pot is quite heavy, so is stable beside my sewing machine.

Wolf in sheeps clothing hat

This little hat for my grand daughter is nearing completion. The deadline for this is next week, so I am on time I am pleased to say.

The next two items are recently completed projects:

First, the orange dress which I dyed then printed. This has been washed and ironed ready for wearing again.

This second project is a pair of culottes which I started a few days ago. I made the classic mistake of cutting the pieces out without a seam allowance. Luckily, there is a deep leat on the front and and a long dart on the back. Reducing both of these meant that this pair of culottes now fits well. Again, the fabric is a lovely viscose from the market stall.

Making sure that I don't miss a deadline

Printed pinny

I printed this pinny a couple of weeks ago. A sample before starting work on my orange dress. The pinny was printed using three different thermofax screens from my collection. The flower and leaf designs are my own whilst the lovely bee image is a stock item from Thermofax Screens. I used calico (muslin) from my bolt of fabric. So useful to have a large amount of fabric to hand when needing to trial ideas. I won't be using the reverse side of this pinny since I have left it plain. However, now I come to think about it, that might be rather useful.......

Pinafore pattern

As you can see, the pattern is one of those really useful and practical ones. My only concern being that there is no pocket. Ah well, something to add to the next one?

My orange dress in the process of being printed. 

When printing the apron after I had made it - a deliberate act since my orange dress had already been sewn together - I quickly discovered that thermofax screens cannot cope with curves. So, for the dress I decided to use some of my collection of wooden print blocks. Drawing some chalk lines to help in keeping the prints an equal distance apart, I printed a quarter of the circle skirt at a time. It seemed to work well. My next project will be to print a length of fabric ready to make up into a dress or a skirt.

The dress has been worn and washed and has survived well. I did add a lining to the dress skirt section since I felt it needed a little more body. I bought some horsehair braid to attach to the hemline, but have not felt it needed that extra stiffening. I must get a photo of the dress once I have ironed it and it is ready to wear again.

Recent fabric purchases

I have been rather naughty lately and bought some fabric. Yes, I had planned to use up some of my fabric stash. Unfortunately, much of that stash isn't in the colours I really need for the clothing I plan to add to my wardrobe. The middle two fabrics here are denim. The upper one was bought from The Denim Company when I went to the Festival of Quilts last week. I just couldn't resist it. Such a pretty floral print.. The top fabric is a light lawn from the Fent Shop and I plan to make a blouse from this one. The green fabric at the bottom was a find in Abakhan and is a textured green jersey from which I plan to make a pair of culottes for the winter months. The plans for the two denim fabrics involve my making up a pinafore dress based on the design of a pair of dungarees seen at the International Model Aircraft Show at Weston Park in June. I managed to sketch the design on a page of my notebook. It will be quite a challenge to develop a pattern from a pencil drawing.......... One thing which troubles me, though is would this infringe copyright? I am not intending to make a pair of dungarees as seen at the show, but a pinafore dress with a similar top to the dungarees I saw.

There has been knitting. I have now completed this jumper and put it away for the cooler months. As you can see, it fits me perfectly. Since I am used to having rather boxy and loose fitting knitwear, this makes rather a nice change and will take quite a lot of getting used to. The design will not be available until the middle of next month since this was a test knit for the designer. I've now started another tes knit for the same designer. This time it is a hat for a toddler. A much quicker item.

I found these two books and the three metre length of muslin (cheesecloth) they are lying on last week on the sales table when I went to Pinfold. The fabric has now been washed and is waiting for different dyeing and printing projects. I quite fancy the idea of a long-sleeved cheesecloth shirt. A very seventies idea.

This last piece was finished a number of years ago and I had never done anything with it. The background is free machine embroidered onto calico with an embroidered paisley element held in place above it. The embroidered piece is stiffened with wire stitched into the outline. The whole was a challenge laid down some years ago by Sharon Boggon to use some of her paisley line drawings. It is quite a shock to realise that I had completed this piece back in January 2007! You can see the sequence of paisley designs I had worked at the time here. The others have not been mounted or framed either.

Those deadlines? Well, the jumper needed to be finished by September 17th. I am a month ahead of myself there. The hat needs to be completed by the end of the month, so I am on target with that. Just so long as I don't get sidetracked. 

I do have one deadline which I must not miss. I haven't yet started work on that. I need to complete my piece for the MEG Colour Challenge by September 25th. I have a diptych in mind for that one. However, I have a pair of culottes on my sewing table which must get finished first. Unfortunately, I made the really stupid mistake of cutting these out without a seam allowance. This has made sewing them a bit of an ongoing puzzle. What doesn't help is that I made exactly the same mistake the last time I used this pattern. Those culottes worked out quite well in the end and were worn a lot during last winter. I'm just hoping that I can make these work out too.

Speaking of deadlines, I really must get myself back and organised into posting here on the blog more regularly. I have got out of the habit and need to retrain myself back into posting weekly. This is one item on my to-do list which often gets overlooked. Apologies to anyone reading this.