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

Challenges and other projects

Recent makes have included this double sided apron. This was a challenge from the recently formed Moulton Sewing Group. The main fabric and pattern were provided, each member of the group just had to make and decorate their aprons. This was mine. The side I consider the "front" is grey and has crows appliqued to the pockets and a label stating the name of the group. The second side is blue.

As you can see, the pockets have a black feather printed using one of my thermofax screens. The main label is exactly the same as that on the "front". I drew out the original design and then copied and printed them onto cotton before stitching them in place. The apron is the Artisan Apron by Janet Clare. It has a crossover back which means that once put on it does not shift position. Rather a useful design.

I eventually got around to altering the sleeves on my silk blouse found in a charity shop. This has now been washed and is waiting to be ironed ready to wear. I have kept the inner layer of the sleeve for now, and will decide later whether or not to cut this away. The original sleeve had a double layer which was impossible to iron. It obviously had been intended to be a puffy sleeve, but the construction meant this was impossible to achieve once the blouse was washed. I'm happier with this design, but may need to adapt the cuff still further since I am not certain whether it is going to be tight enough around my arm.

Another thing I am working on at the moment is a pair of cushion covers. The machine embroidered pieces were discarded by their owner at the Sewing Group last week since she had merely used the pieces as an experiment. I felt they were too nice to throw away, so claimed them and used furnishing fabric from my stash to turn them into these cushion covers. The Group will be having a stall at a Craft Fair in a couple of months time, so they should find a new home quite easily.

The first cover is almost finished. It just needs the cord applying around the edges. This second one is pinned ready to sew together. The piping around the images uses some silky lining fabric I had in my stash which happened to be a useful match. The thread, furnishing fabric and cords all came from my various stashes.

The cord I will use is slightly darker than the furnishing fabric, but has a gorgeous sheen which should look good when I finish applying it. This will be attached by hand. I just hope that the person who discarded these pieces likes them once I take them to the Sewing Group's next meeting on Wednesday.

As usual I am prevaricating. I really should be getting on with a pair of trousers which I cut out last week. A light blue denim, I really could do with getting these made since I am rather short of decent trousers. I really need to get on with making another toile for the fitting course I am doing. This one should be finished in time for my next meeting with Eilene. Then there is the challenge from MEG. I really need to get on with making a quilt block for our next meeting later this month. It is a traditional block and I know I am putting this off because I really don't fancy making a traditional quilt....... There are ideas beginning to form in my head turning this first block into a more contemporary style without changing the design. It will be interesting to see if I can make that work. I know I would feel happier if I can.

So many things to do

Well, it has been rather busy here since I last posted. My brown jumper is now complete, although it is still too warm to wear it just yet. At least it will be ready and waiting for me when the cold weather does arrive.

There has been a lot of work done knitting the scrappy cardigan. I have completed the left sleeve , both fronts and am now working my way across the right shoulder. This will be a really cosy cardigan once it is complete.

I found these three stamps going very cheaply in a local charity shop a few days ago. I don't usually do any paper crafts, but these will be interesting to work with. I'm going to experiment and see if they will print on my collection of dyecatchers since are very similar in texture to paper.

These three pieces were completed at a recent NWCQ workshop where we were making postcard sized landscapes using scraps of fabric. These have been free machine embroidered using variegated threads. I am not sure exactly what I will use these for just yet, but will not be sending them through the post since I feel they are rather too dull. I will probably add to these to make larger pieces.

Walking into Aldi a few days ago, I discovered a series of these packs. There are five different dyes contained in applicator bottles ready to be filled with water and used. I couldn't resist, picking up this pack. It contains yellow, lime green, leaf green, brown and black. An interesting combination of colours.

Yesterday, I prepared 3m of calico. After washing the calico I tied rubber bands around sections of the fabric pleated other areas using bulldog clips. I had a lot of fun applying the dyes. This morning the fabric was ready for the next stage - rinsing out the excess dye and then a gentle washing and a final rinse. The fabric is now drying on my indoor washing rack.

The colours may well have been rather more intense had I added less water to each bottle, but I am rather pleased with the results.

I worried myself the other day by listing all the projects I would like to complete in the next week or so. There were fifteen in all. One needs to be completed by Wednesday so I really must get on with that first. 

Sewing, book pages and knitting

Messing around with images ready to put together as book pages

It has been quite a busy week with quite a lot of sewing done. The first two book pages have been completed for the Pinfold Book Challenge. 

These first two pages were for the "Feathers" themed book. I went back to the Crows for inspiration for this one. "Birds of a feather flock together". The Crow Fair took place recently and so the idea stuck.

I used my own rust dyed fabric on top of a piece of rough calico. The grey pieces are painted bondaweb. The pages have been free machine quilted to add texture. The figures of the birds and the dancers have been free machine embroidered.

I have now started work on the second pair of pages. These are for the "Leaves" themed book. I'll take photos to show next time once the stitching is finished.

Work did start on the third book pages too, but I wasn't happy with them and so a rethink is in progress.

I decided to start work with my collection of 4ply yarns. They are all either Debbie Bliss Rialto 4ply or Rowan Soft 4ply. Since the yarns are so similar, they work together very well and it is not possible to see where one make of yarn starts and the other type ends. Sadly, both yarns are now discontinued, so I am picking up extra Debbie Bliss skeins while I still can. I know the collection I have will only go so far since this is going to be a cardigan. I am adapting the old Phildar pattern you can see above. This was for double knitting yarn. I made the original cardigan back in the 1980s and wore it out long ago. The stripes on this new version will be narrower since I don't have a large amount of any of the colours. Chatting to the owner of our local yarn shop, I was able to pick up the last two skeins of cream and have a look at her collection of odd skeins which are also for sale, but not on display. I plan to save some of the cream so that the second cuff will be the same colour as the first. I will sort out the button bands, collar and ribbing for the waistline once I know which colours will be left.

 The brown jumper is still an ongoing project. I am working my way up through the decreases on the raglan at the front. Unfortunately, the colourful 4ply project is far more interesting to work on......

Sitting on my work table are the recently cut out pieces for my second pair of cargo pants. I intend to get on with these later today, but have the "Leaves" pages to finish first.

Not much to report this time

My Lilka test knit has been completed. Such a delightful beanie style hat to wear. It is slightly slouchy which means it is comfortable around the ears and will be perfect for walking the dogs when the weather gets chilly once more. I am still steadily working on my brown double knit jumper, but progress is slow since it has been too warm to knit recently. I am also planning a long sleeved cardigan using up my collection of 4ply Merino yarns (Debbie Bliss Rialto 4ply and Rowan 4ply Soft). These have been left over from various projects over the past few years, although I picked up the collection of Rowan yarns from a feltmaking group where there was a really interesting sales table. I really am drawn to sales tables at craft group meetings. You never know exactly what might be discarded by a fellow crafter. I'm planning a striped jumper knit from one cuff and ending up with the opposite cuff. More information later once I have got started.

Not a lot of sewing has been done since my last post. The trousers have now been completed and I am planning to get on with cutting out a second pair this week. This will probably have to wait until Wednesday when I can get to the Moulton Sewing Group and use a couple of their larger tables.

At present my mind is full of plans for the three Pinfold challenge books I intend to make before the next meeting. Their themes are: Round and Round; Leaves and Feathers. I really ought to use the time until I can get to cut out my next pair of trousers to get started on these pages rather than leave it all to the last minute as I usually do.

The past few days found me replacing the wings on a pair of old style Crow costumes. These will become spares ready for the Crow Fair in 2019. You can see the shapes of the wings in this post a couple of weeks back when I was making up two new costumes.

Ongoing projects - plenty of sewing and even a little knitting

Back pocket

Well, I had a bit of a disaster after my last post. I was well on my way to completing my cargo pants - see pattern photo below - when I ran out of thread!!! Well, that shouldn't have been too much of a problem had it not been for the fact that I was doing rather a lot of top stitching and even a slight change of thread colour would have been obvious. None of the local suppliers had this colour in stock - Gutermann 208.

Well, I had a long think about things and placed an order with Minerva. I had bought the fabric and thread from them some time ago to make a rather different pair of trousers. I bought some extra thread for the blue pair of cargo pants I intend to make next. Whilst waiting for the order to arrive, I set about making up the blue floral fabric I showed here. Making a second Elani tunic. I forgot to take photos of this once I'd made it and so now, of course, it is in the wash. Such a useful top.

I also made this blouse:

This really loose fitting blouse comes from this vintage Butterick pattern - 6301. If you recall, I made a toile after grading the pattern to fit me. It might not be the most flattering of styles, but is so comfy to wear in the hot weather we are having at the moment. I started cutting this out and sewing it together at a new sewing group which has started up in the village where I live. It was so useful to have access to a large flat table whilst chatting away to like minded new and familiar faces.

My order arrived on Thursday bringing with it some fabrics which I had ordered for the Marci and Katherine Tilton Craftsy course "The Artful T-Shirt". I can't wait to get started on this one. The fabrics are all medium weight jerseys.

Yes, there are four different fabrics here. All are based on a navy and ivory colourway. The pattern we will be using is the one shown below.

View D is the design we will be tackling for the course. I have just watched all the classes for the first time, but know that I will have to view the first three again at least once before cutting into a toile let alone the fabric shown above. I'm hoping the experience will make me brave enough to tackle a Marci Tilton jacket which has been in my possession for quite a few years now.

I really fancy making the long sleeved version on the left.

I also stitched one of the pieces made at one of the NWCQ meetings earlier this year. It needs a bit more work to make the whole thing more stable, but this is a start. I just need to get the second piece to this same stage before venturing further.

I'm also working on another test knit. This time for Maria Socha. An adult version of this lacy beanie. The colour I have chosen is a deep jade.

Northwich, Cheshire, my local town, is in the middle of an Arts Festival which will last all month. Last month we had an interesting Literary Festival. Part of the events is this Art Trail. It is well worth a walk around the shops seeing all the different pieces of work.

On Saturday it was Northwich Art Shop's Grand Day Out. This was a very interesting event with plenty to see, interesting demonstrations too. I hope it is repeated next year.

Such a range of techniques - from needle felt to acrylics, woven pieces to woodturning. It was so good to see three textile artists involved too. The hall was full of visitors when I came along. It was lovely to see a group of children having a wonderful time using alcohol inks.

Projects in the pipeline - part two

altering the pattern pieces

The cargo pants are now well under way. The first photo shows the pattern pieces which I was altering after completing the second toile. My first pair of these trousers is being made in a brown twill photos of which will be posted next time once they are complete. 

The fabric below is some bought the other day for my second pair of cargo pants. This fabric looks very similar to come bought a couple of months ago. I felt that that cobalt twill was a little too heavy for the trousers and so found this cotton linen-look which is rather lighter.

Linen look cotton

drawing round the wing pattern

I've recently completed an extra pair of crow costumes for the team ready for the Crow Fair which is to be held on the 14th July this year.

Suzette Smart workshop

Recently, I went to a Suzette Smart workshop. She was demonstrating her method of making fabric books. This is my piece under way. It still isn't quite finished.

Showing the stitching under way

We were at the Two Doors Studio in Alsager. A really nice workspace above the shop. The workshop was organised by Alsager Creative Stitchers. It was a delightful day in a well lit space with good company, a good tutor and some lovely cakes too. What more could I ask for? Bliss.

My piece is 34 inches long and 9 inches high. I don't intend turning this into a book, but I haven't decided just how to mount this yet.

Add caption

I recently started another handstitched piece in similar colours to the first one. This will also turn into a background for something or other. There is still rather a lot of stitching to be done before this one is ready for the next stage.

I bought this recently for an experiment I plan to make. I shall let you know how I get on. I had an interesting chat to the woman in the shop where I bought this. She had also bought some but hadn't yet used it. I also promised her that I would report back. I look forward to finding some time to have a go with this.

My latest vintage pattern finds. This first one, Simplicity 7048 is dated 1975. I intend to make versions one and two. The only issue being that I will have to grade the design to reflect my true size. Perhaps a bit ambitious, but I plan to give it a go.  It will be interesting to see how I get on with those darts. There are similar darts on the back too.......

This second pattern, Style 1756 is nearer to my size, but will also need some grading. However since this design is not fitted, it should be an easier task than the Simplicity design. I rather like version 3 and 5. The pattern dates from 1976.