A tidy workroom at long last - sewing too!

 I have spent a couple of days getting my workroom rearranged and tidy. It has been well worth the effort since I now feel comfortable enough to get on with the sewing projects which are waiting for me.

Tailor's dummy and bookshelves beside my cupboard

The first of these you can see on Aggie2, my tailor's dummy. It is yet another toile for the "Sew the perfect fit" course which I am doing with my friend Eilene. This has been quite a learning curve to date, but it is good to learn a new skill and it will help my dressmaking skills. I look forward to feeling confident that any clothes I make will fit properly.

My sewing desk, cluttered as always

Speaking of sewing projects. I have a third pair of these cargo pants cut out and ready to sew. The pale blue light denim should make for a comfortable pair. I just need a bit of time to settle down to getting these started.

I bought some more fabric on Friday to get a couple of projects under way. The floral jersey was bought from the Fent Shop in Macclesfield. The last two and a half metres from the roll. It was a little more than I really needed, but I couldn't leave that extra length. This is intended for another long sleeved polo neck jumper to add to my collection for the autumn/winter. There should be sufficient fabric to make a second top, though I am not entirely sure which design to use.

Floral jersey fabric

Quilting cottons

The half metre lengths of quilting cottons will be used to help me repair a quilt I made for my mother a few years back. This has been loved and washed over the years and is definitely in need of some tender loving care. I'll share some photos another time once I have decided exactly how I am going to tackle this repair. The fabrics were bought from The Quilting Box in Macclesfield.

Walking through a couple of local charity shops I found these scarves. They are now washed and resting with my feltmaking supplies to help me with some nuno felt experiments. I really feel the need to get some felt made before too long. The loose woven piece might be better suited to some of my hand stitched projects, but since it is quietly unravelling itself as I watch, it might be better to felt it into something.

Mending pile

While tidying up my room, I found my pile of mending/alteration projects. These have been ignored for far too long. I have challenged myself to get ten of these pieces finished this week. I have already finished five of the easiest - replacing buttons, minor repairs to seams. The items concerned have already been ironed and are hanging up in my wardrobe ready to wear once more. I need to tackle some of the more demanding items next.

My scrappy cardigan is nearing completion. All the knitting has been finished, I am just stitching the ribbing sections into place. These were knitted separately, which is quite an unusual method. The sewing together may take some time yet since there are also quite a number of ends to sew in too!

Last week my copy of the latest book from the Contemporary Quilt group arrived. It is a record of the quilts which were selected for the "In print" exhibition. I have a quilt in this collection so it was rather a thrill to see my work in print, literally. You can see the previous posts where I blogged about my quilt here and here.

I haven't been able to see the exhibition for myself just yet, but will be able to see the quilts for myself early in 2019 when they are shown at the Quilters Exhibition and Fabric Sale in Nantwich in January. They then travel to Quiltfest in February.

In case you are interested, the remaining venues showing this exhibition are:

October 2nd to 30th, 2018
The Curve Gallery, Carnegie Library, Bangor, Northern Ireland, BT20 4LH

Sunday 20th January 2019
Quilters Exhibition and Fabric Sale, Nantwich Civic Hall, Market Street, Nantwich, CW5 5DG

February 7th to 15th 2019
Quiltfest 2019, Llangollen, Wales

March 26th to April 25th 2019
The Old Chapel Textile Centre,
Newbury, RG19 6HW

More building than stitching.

 The last couple of weeks have been crazy. First we finished building the garden shed, then the sections for the new workshop arrived. All 5.6m by 3m of it! So there has been very little time left for stitching or even knitting. so unusual for me. Yes, I was fully involved in the building, wielding a hammer or electric drill rather than my usual tools.......

So instead, here is an update for the items I was working on last time I posted here. First the penny rug now looks like this. The backing is a green felt. It is hard work to stitch, but satisfying. I shall be glad when I can get rid of all the pins. I don't mind the stems being a bit wobbly, after all most flower stems are not exactly straight, but I do need the flowers to stay in the positions they have been pinned into.

The knitting did get started and then got ripped back. I started off with a cabled pattern, but found that it made the body far too tight. Having ripped back and started again with a stocking stitch body as per the original design, I am now very bored and have dumped this jumper into a corner. It needs a rethink.

Thanks to a lovely friend at Sew Cool, the sewing group I go to in Chester, I have now got my toile for the cargo pants sorted out. The pattern has been altered too and I just need to complete these ready for dyeing a more sensible colour. Perhaps grey to match the zip? It would be a useful colour and I don't possess any trousers that are grey.

Whilst in Chester, I bought a gorgeous length of cobalt blue cotton ready to make my first pair of cargo pants now that the pattern has been altered to fit. The fabric has been washed and is sitting on my worktable ready to be cut out.

At the Sew Cool meeting, there was a pile of patterns which needed a new home. I got these two. Yes, I know the sizing is too small for me. The Style pattern is dated 1980 and the Butterick probably dates from the late 1970s. I was thinking of sizing up both patterns to fit. The shape of the Butterick pattern is really interesting and would be lovely in a soft crepe de chine.......

 A couple of days ago, I also managed to start work on this next pattern. This is the pattern I showed last time. Deciding that the shirt is really a bit short and needing an additional two or three inches in length. I completed a tissue fit rather than a toile since this isn't a fitted design. I will probably make the tunic length with the rolled up sleeves and the round neck rather than a collar.

This length of crepe de chine from my stash will be used for the tunic. It will be interesting to try to match the dye colour of the wearable toile cargo pants..... Again, this fabric sits on my worktable waiting to be cut out ready to start sewing.

I had to hand back the Pinfold challenge book today before even starting my pages for it. There just hasn't been enough time to start anything for the "Round and round" theme. I will have to get that ready for the next Pinfold meeting in four weeks time, taking some glue or double sided tape with me to stick it in. The photo above is the next theme, "Flowers". I am hoping there will be much more time available now that the garden shed is finished and the new workshop just needs the roofing felt before that too is complete. I'm itching to get on with some sewing projects, especially since there hasn't been much time over the past couple of weeks.

At Pinfold today we learnt about chalk paint and "gold" leaf. This was my sample. Not sure if I will use these techniques any time soon, but it made for an interesting workshop.

If you were wondering, that newly built workshop is for my husband. It will house his woodworking lathe and associated tools. I won't be having another workspace since I know very well that if I do, I will very quickly fill it. The workroom I have at present will do very well. I just need to reorganise and get rid of some of the bits and pieces I know I will never use.

Printing and knitting

My own blocks

My own blocks

Wooden print blocks

Wooden block prints

 Here are some of the pieces I have been printing over the past couple of days. I have also been experimenting with discharge printing, but photos will have to wait until after I have ironed and washed the pieces since I have no idea whether it will have worked. I did try the discharge paste with a piece of black fabric a few days ago, but nothing happened. Apparently this does happen with some fabrics even when they are cotton. I think it depends on the dye originally used. It probably doesn't help that I have had this paste for some little while...... For this second experiment I have used a piece of my own procian dyed fabric as well as a piece of painted fabric.

I really enjoy messing around with my collection of print blocks. I plan to have a further session this week using my gelliplate and screens. I'd like to have a go at using a resist. A friend showed some work she had done at a workshop using a resist. It has prompted me to have a go myself. I'd like to get some more printing done before I tidy up my workroom ready to get some sewing done.

Printboards ready for more printing.

My printboards are getting to look more interesting with all the work I have done over the past couple of days.

Experimental piece

 As you can see, my experimental piece of knitting is coming along nicely. I think this will probably end up being a cushion cover. Just four more of the small squares to knit and then knit onto the bigger section. I still have to decide what to do about a border.

Test knitting - Bronze Oxide

The shawl is coming along quite well. I am looking forward to seeing what the whole thing will look like. I did finish the little knitted skirt. It looks rather sweet. I added some little wooden flower buttons from my button collection. Yes, I have a large collection of buttons along with the fabric stash and the thread..........

More sewing, knitting and planning

Offcuts from the workshop packs

I'm still working on getting as many packs as I can prepared ready for the workshop in November. Yes, I am rather ahead of myself, but it takes rather a time to get all the fabric packs set up. There is a lot of ironing on bondaweb, cutting fabrics and so on. The collection above is my growing pile of scraps. All the bits that are just that little bit too small. All useful since they have been bondawebbed. Hence the growing collection of made fabrics where I am collecting the scraps together to make useable and useful pieces which could make something.

Green-yellow fabrics

Yellow - blue fabrics

The resulting fabrics are a little too stiff to use for much. project bags and bookcovers have been made before. Perhaps some cushion covers.  All of the three made so far need to be stitched to reinforce the surface. I think I will probably add some fusible wadding to add some texture when stitched.

Green - blue fabrics

 I must admit I really enjoy the stitching bit, although it does take rather a time to complete. Speaking of stitching. I finally completed the sketchbook cover which I mentioned last time. I chose a piece of fabric which I had painted, bonded to fusible wadding and then stitched,

Completed sketchbook cover

Almost completed Colibri jumper

 The Colibri jumper is now almost finished. I just have a few ends to sew in. Next, I shall need to find a young friend to wear it. One of the things to be completed after finishing a test knit is to complete a questionnaire to give the designer some feedback about the design and any errors before the design is finally published. It has been a really interesting process.

Almost complete Lanesplitter

 I've also been getting on with this skirt. It has languished in my project bag for a few weeks. I have never made a knitted skirt before, so it has been quite interesting making this one. The design is a free one from Knitty which you can find here.

The fabric pieces below belong to a challenge which I need to get on with. I still haven't decided what to make yet.

Getting ready to start more projects

Pinfold challenge

Yes, another challenge. The challenge is to make something out of these collections of five inch squares. There are twenty squares in each pack. I still haven't got round to washing and ironing the fabric, but I must think of something soon.

Colour challenge jacket

The completed jacket which I promised I would show you. It is really cosy to wear, just what I need. It caused a bit of a stir when I showed it last Thursday at the NWCQ meeting. It was wonderful to see the variety of pieces made by the other members of the group.

Back of the jacket

Label from inside the jacket

I've also been making a bed for Sasha. Very simple - two metres of polyester wadding folded inside one metre of fleece. I had already made one for Ella some months ago - she really loves her bed, so I thought it a good idea to make one for Sasha too.

Sasha's new bed

Ella's bed, made back in November

The Solar Dyeing experiment, back in July

You may remember my post about trying Solar Dyeing in July. Well, I finally got around to emptying out the jars and washing out the fabric.

The same jars this morning

As you can see, rather a lot has happened to the fabrics in the intervening months. I have not opened the jars, but left them to their own devices. The results are interesting. The Dyers Chamomile, the yellow flowers in the top photo have produced the fabrics below. All yellowy greens. Really interesting colours.

Dyers Chamomile

The second jar was the Medieval Solar collection. This has given a really fascinating collection of colours - from a light yellowy brown to a beautiful reddish brown.

Medieval Solar

At present the fabrics and fibres are still wet. I'm interested to see what they look like once they are dry.

New knitting project

I have another knitting project waiting for me to finish the tension square. It is a new hat. This will match a rather nice cowl which my elder daughter made me for Christmas. This is the same yarn which she used. The cowl already keeps my ears cosy, so having a hat to keep it in position will really help on those walks out with the dogs. The pattern, "Cogges", is designed by Jeni Hewlett and can be found in The Scrumptious Collection Volume one. The pattern is now available as a leaflet since the books is now out of print.

I just have the buttons to add to my waistcoat now. I am still trying to decide whether to go with the turquoise buttons, or whether to go with navy. I could use orange, but I really don't think that would look as nice.