Completed Project: New Look 6824

Hola!  I’m finally getting round to showing you one of the dresses I made back in March – New Look 6824.  It’s a lovely pattern, and very simple to do as it only has a few pattern pieces, and it’s fully lined.  It uses princess seams instead of darts, which I infinitely prefer because they are easier to sew.  Not that darts are difficult to sew, but they’re just a bit fiddly, and, given the opportunity, I like to be lazy.

I made this dress with some navy and white polka dot fabric from Boyes that was as cheap as chips.  Cheaper, in fact, and healthier, and longer-lasting.  But probably not as tasty.  I’ll stop comparing my new dress to chips now.  Sorry about that.

The fabric faded quite a lot when I prewashed it, which I shouldn’t complain about seeing as the fabric was so cheap, but I’m still going to complain because it makes fascinating reading: yes, it was cheap, but then again so was the gingham I used for my Gertie Shirtwaist dress, and so is the poplin I regularly use from Boyes, and yet both of these are significantly higher quality and neither fade.  I was a bit disappointed, but didn’t fancy buying new fabric, so I just decided to embrace the faded look!

I lined it with an old bed sheet that was going spare, so this dress cost next to nothing to make!  Hurray!  Add to that the fact that it was super-easy to sew, and you’ve got one very happy lady.  The dress has quite a 50s vibe going on, which means it’s flattering for big bums!  And as for boobies, one weird thing about this dress is how it seems to make me look flat chested: I say this is weird because there are some 32GGs lurking under there!

Anyway, that’s about all I have to say about this dress and pattern.  Onto the photos – and there are a lot of them as we got a bit carried away:

Front view

Back view. Unfortunately the polka dots don’t match up

The lining!

Thinking view: “What shall I sew next? Hmmm….”

The crazy lady view

I once got complimented on my arms, which was the strangest compliment I’ve ever been given, because my arms are pretty unremarkable. Here’s a picture of my arm, just in case.

The ‘Hooray for sunshine’ view!

Even if I try to make this dress indecent, my modesty is preserved!

I can’t remember why I thought this photo would be a good idea.

So there you have it, a bunch of photos of me looking silly but wearing a pretty dress, and pretty red shoes with a sparkly bow, which are made by Firetrap, by the way, just in case you wanted to track down a pair for yourself

Book review: Pearl Lowe’s Vintage Craft

A few weeks back we Thread Carefully girls were contacted by HarperCollins asking us to review a copy of Pearl Lowe’s forthcoming book Pearl Lowe’s Vintage Craft.  Being the book fiend that I am, I agreed to do so, and when the book arrived my husband James Zborowski, a university lecturer in film and television studies, expressed an interest in reviewing the book together, as it crosses over with some of his own research interests.  (For example, he recently published an article called ‘Can You See Yourself Living Here?’, focusing on British lifestyle television).  The review will also be published on his personal blog here.

I hope you enjoy our review!

Pearl Lowe’s Vintage Craft: Craft projects and styling advice for the modern vintage home

Ex-singer-turned- designer Pearl Lowe’s new book Pearl Lowe’s Vintage Craft: Craft projects and styling advice for the modern vintage home, due out 9^th May 2013, is a book aimed at vintage-loving crafty people who want to create a ‘unique’ and ‘vintage’ look for their home.  The book contains an abundance of projects divided into five main categories: ‘Heavenly Kitchen & Picture Perfect Dining’, ‘Dream Living Space’, ‘Bedroom Delights’, ‘Bathrooms & Small and Special Places’ and ‘Opulent Office’.  The book comes at a time when vintage style is all the rage, Kirstie’s Vintage Home being a good example of its popularity.

As the book’s title suggests, the book is about finding old items (‘vintage’) and modifying or combining them (‘craft’).  The word ‘vintage’, always a slippery one, is especially so here – a catch-all approbatory term for old stuff.  As in Kirstie’s Vintage Home, the word is overused, sometimes to the point of nonsensical concepts such as ‘vintage designer’ (Lowe, born in 1970 – does this mean she herself is vintage?!) and ‘vintage event’ (Allsopp, referring to a vintage-style, or perhaps ‘vintage-inspired’ wedding).  The introduction immediately stretches things yet further: the book is explained to be about the practice of creating a ‘vintage style’ – ie. the appearance of stylish oldness rather than its reality.  The ‘Vintage Christmas’ projects perfectly demonstrate this: lace and satin stockings, vintage wallpaper paper chains, vintage bauble place settings, lace Christmas crackers, lace bunting and lace-covered wooden heart and star baubles.  This is extreme vintage fetishism.  There is nothing ‘vintage’ about a modern Christmas with these items, nor does it hark back to a Christmas in the past where all of these items would be present.  One project in the book, for an ‘Antique ghost mirror’, reassures the reader: ‘you don’t have to wait years or spend lots of money on an antique to get the look.’  The tools required include heavy-duty chemical resistant rubber gloves, a paint stripper, and hydrochloric acid, and the method amounts to damaging a piece of furniture to make it look old (‘distressing’, of course, is nothing new, but the fact that this process involves dangerous chemicals and is at the expense of the item’s practical purpose serves to highlight its silliness).  The tensions between finding and making and between authenticity and appearance are perfectly captured in the blurb on the back of the book, with its perplexing but accurate promise: ‘Vintage designer Pearl Lowe shows you how to create the authentic vintage look in your own home with her expert advice and simple projects’ (italics added).

Lowe is determinedly eclectic in her aesthetic, embracing a range of different identities (‘I think I’ve always been a bit of a gypsy at heart’;  ‘Growing up I was a classic Goth’), and taking a similarly pick-and-mix approach to historical styles (though she favours Art Deco above all others).

The appeal of old things is interesting (and in some ways, a positive counter-current to a much more widespread social fascination with and worship for all things new).  Objects, like people, acquire experience, and often scars, the longer they stay in the world. There is, to quote Susan Sontag’s wonderful words, something enchanting about ‘used things, warm with generations of human touch.’ Unlike people, though, objects can’t tell you much about their lifetimes, and change less across the course of them.  A chair really has only one practical purpose, whether it was made yesterday or fifty years ago.  So on one level, Pearl Lowe’s statement that ‘anything I buy has to have character and history’ is understandable, but on another level it is phony.  It is unlikely that Lowe knows of or cares about the precise details of the history of the artefacts she acquires.  Rather, they are simply redolent with ‘pastness’; they are mute icons upon which one can project personal fantasies (of ‘hippiness’, ‘gothness’, ‘vintageness’, or whatever).  Objects, histories and identities are reduced to style, pure and simple – the question of whether it looks good.  Note, for example, how ‘the hippy gypsy look’ starts out as a tasteful way of decorating a caravan, but quickly moves away from even this minimal relationship to an appropriate place and becomes something that can ‘easily be recreated anywhere in a house’.  Sontag (again), writing about camp, suggested that it offered one solution to ‘the problem of how to be a dandy in the age of mass culture’.  Mass culture gives us all the same stuff to use in our lives, but one way in which we can distinguish ourselves is by taking an interest in older versions of the same stuff.  What Pearl Lowe adds to this is the eye of the designer.   To ‘Look at this old stuff’ is added ‘Look at the way I’ve put it all together.’

So much for the promises and fantasies the book offers in its words.  What about its images?  With very few exceptions, what we are offered is, to borrow Martin Lefebvre’s evocative phrase, ‘space freed from eventhood’.  Nothing is happening, and – with the partial exception of the ‘Entertaining Vintage Style’ section, where the tables of cupcakes (not vintage cupcakes, one hopes) are presumably awaiting guests – it does not look as though anything is about to happen.  Children appear only on a single spread in the book, and there only in their own rooms or the garden.  This sacrificing of functionality, or just plain living, to display, comes through in the impracticality of some of the design suggestions.  In the ‘Opulent Office’ section of the book, Lowe states ‘just because the room is dominated by technology and other modern necessities for work, that doesn’t mean it can’t have a vintage look too.’  The attempt to reconcile ‘technology’ and ‘a vintage look’ in the ‘Office in a wardrobe’ project results in the only piece of communications technology on display in the images being a (‘vintage’) telephone.

One striking thing about the photography in the book is the dullness of it all.  Most pictures seem dark and gloomy, with bold wallpapers, deep coloured lace and floral decorations dominating the spaces pictured.   Lowe has a penchant for mood lighting: tealights, chandeliers, standard lamps, and seems to prefer natural daylight to be filtered through lace panel curtains, which overall gives the impression of dimness, mustiness and dustiness – it’s a world away from the Ikea catalogue aesthetic where everything is clean, bright, organised and easy to keep clean.

Still, the book is all about how things look; as Lowe puts it, ‘aspirational living’.  I would venture that very few of the projects are actually useful or necessary – the focus is overwhelmingly upon making things look pretty: ‘Tailor’s dummies covered in pretty floral fabrics also look gorgeous standing in a dressing room and, if you like, you can even use them for their practical purpose’ (italics added).  Art Deco, Lowe’s preferred style, is ‘an indulgent style that is all about elegance and drama and less about practicality’ – and this love of indulgence, drama, elegance, glamour, grace and femininity – underlies every project in the book.

In her feature on cushions and quilts, Lowe says ‘Some old quilts can be a little marked or smelly […].  If you buy a slightly damaged vintage quilt, display it with its best face out’.  The photography may seem appealing, but it is worth wondering what it would smell like with all these old, mouldering, moth-eaten quilts draped on every available surface: ‘Quilts have traditionally been used as bedspreads, but why stop there?  They look beautiful draped over the ends of beds or over chairs or linen chests […] on the wall, hung up as they are or in frames, or thrown over a banister rail’.  This is one of the main four ideas behind the 60+ craft projects contained within the book: STICK A QUILT ON IT.  The other three are:

• PAINT IT – ‘painting glass Kilner jars is a quick and simple way to add a touch of vintage to your everyday kitchen items. You can also decorate jam jars, milk bottles or any glass containers you care to lay your paintbrush on’
• WALLPAPER IT – ‘With its wonderful range of patterns, colours and styles – vintage or new – I never throw away offcuts of wallpaper; they always come in handy.  It’s easy to attach wallpaper to just about any surface with craft glue or wallpaper paste, and it’s a simple and stylish way to transform your furniture.  Whoever said wallpaper was just for walls?’
• STICK LACE ON IT – ‘That’s the beauty of this fabric [lace]; you can use it anywhere you like; as tablecloths or runners, on furniture, on coffee tables, or draped over curtain poles or bedheads – wherever you think it looks good.  It doesn’t have to be obvious, either, just a fragment here and there adds femininity and grace to a room.’

So what of the projects themselves?  Practical use aside, are they easy to make?  How detailed are the instructions given?  The book contains all sorts of projects requiring a wide range of skills in needlework, re-upholstery, painting, decoupage, flower arranging, candle-making, screen printing… Each project includes written instructions, but no diagrams.  At the back of the book there are a mere five pages devoted to ‘Craft basics’ – two pages covering what a basic craft kit and an essential sewing kit ought to include,  two pages on basic hand sewing stitches (overstitching, running stitch, slip stitch, blanket stitch, back stitch and cross stitch), and half a page on preparing and painting wood.  Having read these five pages I certainly do not feel adequately prepared to tackle a reupholstery project, however, I get the feeling that one doesn’t actually need to be skilled or experienced in any of these areas to give it a go: Lowe appeals to a gung-ho, confident crafter who is willing to give anything a try.  As regards quilt-making – a difficult, time-consuming activity even for an experienced sewer – Lowe reassures the reader ‘If you aren’t the neatest sewer, don’t worry – wobbly stitching adds to the character of the quilt’.  In fact it seems any imperfection in a finished project just serves to tell a story, authenticate the project, make it ‘bespoke’, ‘personal’ and ‘unique’.

All the above could be summarised as ‘This is a book about design, written by a designer.’  It is unfair to criticise a book for being something it does not attempt or claim to be.  And of course, a desire to have a nice-looking house is not something to be scorned in itself, nor is indulgence always a bad thing.  ‘I believe we are all entitled to a bit of glamour in our lives’, Lowe opines in her introduction, and she is right.  But we can still ask whether the particular brand of style we are being offered is a positive one.  There is too much that is pretentious, impractical, false, excessive and, at bottom, illogical in Vintage Craft for it to be worth recommending.

Tabatha’s April Challenge 2013 – Week Four+

Hi there!  This is the last you’ll hear from me regarding this year’s April Challenge, which is now over.  Here’s a quick look at what sewing I did for the last week and a bit of April:

Monday 22nd April

Today my two hour slot I finished sewing up the lining for my Sewaholic Cambie dress and attached it.  I’m using a plain black poplin from Boyes (100% cotton): it’s a lovely fabric which I have worked with before – most notably for my red Colette Parfait dress which was featured on the Coletterie blog here.  Because my overlocker was threaded up with white cotton, I used some different finishes on the raw edges of my lining: the shoulder seams are pinked, the side seams are turned and stitched and the waistband is zigzagged!

Tuesday 23rd April

Today I finished my Cambie dress!  I attached the ‘sleeves’ (which I would call straps rather than sleeves), and ended up unpicking and reattaching them several times before I was happy.  When I had hemmed both the lining and the dress I took some photos to show you.  I LOVE IT!  It’s so cool, I cannot wait to wear it!  What do you think?  The fabric is designed by Emily Taylor for Riley Blake Designs and I bought it from Emma’s Fabric Studio.  I had 3.5m and used nearly all of it, so didn’t have enough for pattern matching at the seams, but nevermind eh!

Ahoy thar matey! Emily Taylor Design – Riley Blake – £12.50 per metre

Front view

Back view

Bodice/Lining/Zip view

Lining view

Tonight’s cocktail was an Atomic Dog – one of my favourites!

Atomic Dog

For 1 glass:

• 5 – 6 ice cubes
• 1/2 measure white Puerto Rican rum
• 1/2 measure rum flavoured with coconut
• 1/4 measure fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 measure green melon liqueur (Midori)
• 3 measures pure pineapple juice

Place the ice and all the ingredients in the lower part of the shaker.  Fit the upper part of the shaker and shake vigorously for 8 – 10 seconds.  Strain into a highball glass and serve.

Wednesday 24th April

Today’s two hours was spent pattern cutting at college again.  I sewed up the bodice after having done the FBA and hip adjustment and tried it on.  The FBA needed a little tweak, and I need to take it in at the side seams between the bust line and the waist line, but these are minor adjustments which I can make to the paper pattern without making another toile, so after I’ve adjusted the pattern, I can get on with designing my own dress!  I’m definitely thinking of something along the lines of the lovely Deer and Doe Belledonne dress, after falling in love with Amanda’s version, but I’d like the front to be different, and I might do it with a circle skirt.  Exciting!

Thursday 25th April

I didn’t do any sewing today.  Instead I went to a wine tasting in the evening with my friend Amy, where there were no less than 67 wines to try, plus about 20 spirits!!!  It was amazing!

Friday 26th April – Tuesday 30th April

Now this is where it all gets a bit hazy, because it’s coming to the end of the April Challenge and I stopped writing stuff down…

Basically, I’ve started sewing Julia’s Shirtwaist dress from Gertie’s book.  I’m currently working on the bound buttonholes, so you can expect to see the finished dress in about three hundred years….hahaha.

I did get some pics of me in my pirate dress though!  (Yes, that’s right, I’m distracting you with pictures of pretty dresses….):

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Ahoy there me hearties! (I did not have a boat nearby to pose upon, more’s the pity)

Windy Woo, and a pretty shoe (or two)

There.  Ooh: I did drink some nice cocktails as well… On Saturday night, I had a Gin Fizz, which is my ALL TIME FAVOURITE DRINK EVER.  Yes, that’s right.

Gin Fizz. Also my lovely new bag in the background!

For 1 glass (pictured above is double quantities!):

• 5 – 6 ice cubes
• 1 1/4 measures gin
• 1/2 measure fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons sugar cane syrup (Gomme)
• 2 1/2 measures soda water (club soda)
• 1 slice unwaxed lemon
• 1 maraschino cherry

Place the ice, gin, lemon juice and sugar cane syrup in the lower part of the shaker.  Fit the upper part of the shaker and shake vigorously for 8 – 10 seconds.  Pour the contents of the shaker into a highball glass.  Add the soda water and place the lemon slice and maraschino cherry in the glass.  Serve immediately.

And on Sunday night I had a Cassisina, which was basically like alcoholic Ribena:

Cassisina

For 1 glass:

• 1/8 unwaxed lime
• 3 – 4 crushed ice cubes
• 1 1/4 measures vodka
• 1/2 measure crème de cassis

Squeeze the lime segment into a rocks glass.  Fill the glass with crushed ice and add the other ingredients.  Stir with a mixing spoon for 8 – 10 seconds and serve.

And that’s it!  The end of my April Challenge.  Some might say I did better at drinking cocktails this month than making dresses, but nevermind!  This has been the hardest April Challenge I’ve done – with two kids to look after I have found it so hard to set aside the time.  I have mainly sewn when they were asleep, but it has had an impact on other leisure activities such as reading, and you know, sitting on the sofa, so although I’ll still be trying to sew whenever I can from now on, I will be able to do other things instead if I so choose!  Having said that, I’ve really enjoyed the sewing that I have done, even those bound buttonholes!  I often find that once I get in my sewing room and the machine is on, I’m happy.

How do you make time for sewing?  Do you do a little each day, or sew in long, uninterrupted bursts, or what?  I’m curious!

(By the way, those of you who follow me on twitter may have noticed that I have changed my name to my real name – Louise!)

Tabatha’s April Challenge 2013 – Week Three

Hiya!  It’s been another week and I’ve done another fourteen hours of sewing.  I hope you’ve all had a good week…

Monday 15th April

It only took me half an hour to finish my Sew Serendipity Monique dress today.  You guys, I LOVE IT!

Sew Serendipity Monique Dress -Front View

The fabric was a present from Mr Tweedie, which makes it all the nicer, especially seeing as it was £13 per metre (eek!).  I can’t remember which of the online fabric shops we ordered it from now, there are so many, but I do remember that the fabric is designed by Josephine Kimberling.  I used 2.5m of the main fabric and 0.5m of contrast.

Sew Serendipity Monique dress – back view

This is my second version of this dress.  I really like the pattern, it is well written and easy to follow.  The only criticism I have is that the facings are very narrow, and so instead of understitching on both my versions, I topstitched instead, which obviously means that the stitching lines are visible on the outside of the dress (even more so on this version as I used white thread), but the advantage is that those facings will never pop out!

The neckline facing, and topstitching to keep it (and the armhole facings) in place.

The other thing about this dress is that it’s pretty short, but being 5’10″ I often have to lengthen dresses to my taste.  With this dress, I added a 6″ contrast band to the bottom as a design feature but also to add a bit of extra length.

The contrast hem band from the inside, and overlocked raw edges.

Anyway, my remaining hour and a half today was spent cutting the calico for Julia’s toile of the Gertie Shirtwaist dress which I am making for her birthday.  Guess what fabric she has chosen?  Red gingham!  So we will be rocking co-ordinating gingham shirtwaist dresses at some point in the near future!

I also cut the calico for my new bodice block ready for my next pattern cutting class on Wednesday night.  Phew!  What a productive two hours!!!!

Tuesday 16th April

I got 45 minutes of sewing time in the morning, which was enough to transfer the markings to Julia’s shirtwaist toile and sew the bodice darts.  Later on whilst Baba Tweedie was napping and Little Tweedie was at nursery I got the rest of the toile sewn up and packaged ready to post to Julia, and that was my two hours done!

Julia’s toile. Obviously I omitted the collar, sleeves and facings as this is only to test fit and length.

In the evening I had a Grasshopper cocktail, mainly because it’s a pretty green colour and I thought it would make for a nice photograph:

Grasshopper

For 1 glass:

• 5 – 6 ice cubes
• 1/2 measure green crème de menthe
• 1/2 measure white crème de cacao
• 3/4 measure single cream

Place the ice and all the ingredients in the lower part of the shaker.  Fit the upper part of the shaker and shake vigorously for 8 – 10 seconds.  Strain into a martini glass using a cocktail strainer.

Wednesday 17th April

Time for my pattern cutting class again!  Conveniently it’s a two hour class, so that fills up my sewing quota nicely, although I do spend a large proportion of that time chatting to the other girls… but it still counts, right?  Tonight I sewed up my bodice block toile and my tutor told me what adjustments to make: a full bust adjustment and some extra room for my hips – all pretty predictable for a curvy lady, really.

When I got home, I had an Apple Martini:

Apple Martini

For 1 glass:

• 3/4 measure vodka
• 1/2 measure manzana verde liqueur
• 1/2 measure pure apple juice

Place the ice and all the ingredients in the lower part of the shaker.  Fit the upper part of the shaker and shake vigorously for 8 – 10 seconds.  Strain and serve immediately.

Thursday 18th April

In today’s two hours I traced the pattern for my next dress, the Sewaholic Cambie, and I prewashed my fabric, which is AWESOME!  I need to get some lining fabric before I can go ahead with this project though, so after I’d done that tracing, I altered my bodice block pattern in preparation for next week’s sewing class – so I did a full bust adjustment and widened the pattern at the hips, then cut the calico and transferred the markings ready to sew.

My cocktail tonight was a Treacle – which in my opinion is only drinkable if you add about three times as much apple juice as it says!

Treacle

For 1 glass:

• 2 – 3 drops Angostura bitters
• 1 lump sugar
• 3 – 4 ice cubes
• 1 1/4 measures dark Jamaican rum
• 1/2 measure pure apple juice
• 1 strip unwaxed lemon peel (zest)

Drop the Angostura bitters onto the sugar then place it in a rocks glass and crush it with a pestle.  Add the ice, rum and apple juice to the glass and stir with a mixing spoon for 10 seconds.  Cut the strip of lemon peel with a paring knife.  Over the glass, pinch it between the fingers to release the oils then drop into the cocktail and serve.

Friday 19th April

No sewing today: childcare duties took over and by the time they were in bed it was Friday night yo!  Friday nights are not for sewing.  But they are for cocktails!  I had a Killer Punch, because I liked the name:

Killer Punch

For 1 glass:

• 4 – 5 ice cubes
• 1 measure vodka
• 1 teaspoon green melon liqueur (I use Midori)
• 1 teaspoon amaretto
• 3 1/4 measures cranberry juice

Place the ice and all the ingredients in a highball glass.  Stir with a mixing spoon for 8 – 10 seconds, then serve.

Saturday 20th April

I did my sewing this morning whilst Mr Tweedie took both children to the park.  I cut out the main fabric for my Cambie and sewed the darts.  Inexplicably this took me two whole hours, although I did spend a good proportion of that two hours lamenting the fact that I wasn’t going to House of Pinheiro’s London meet-up to meet Sew Busy Lizzy and 45 other sewing people.  Living up in Hull and having just had a baby, it’s easy to just rule these things out automatically, but today I was genuinely gutted not to be there meeting everyone, so I decided I’ll definitely try to make it to both the Birmingham meet up in June and the London meet up in August.  I want to meet some of you guys!!!

My cocktail this evening was a Blue Bird – again, a choice dictated by the fact that it’s a pretty colour and would make a lovely photograph!

Blue Bird

For 1 glass:

• 5 – 6 ice cubes
• 1 measure gin
• 1/3 measure fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 measure curacao triple sec
• 1 teaspoon blue curacao

Place the ice, gin, lemon juice and both kinds of curacao in the lower part of the shaker.  Fit the upper part of the shaker and shake vigorously for 8 – 10 seconds.  Strain into a martini glass using a cocktail strainer and serve immediately.

Sunday 21st April

I did half an hour of sewing in the morning and then a further 3 1/2 hours in the evening when Mr Tweedie was out gallivanting, so I was able to get the majority of my Sewaholic Cambie sewn up, and I made up for Friday’s lack of sewing!  Woohoo!  In my next post I’ll be able to show you the finished garment – unless something goes horribly wrong…

I had a ‘Morning Glory Fizz’ today, and no, that’s not a euphemism!  I actually did have this cocktail before midday (just).  But you know, Sunday drinking rules are different.  Right?!

Morning Glory Fizz

For 1 glass:

• 1 egg white
• 5 – 6 ice cubes
• 1 measure Scotch whiskey
• 1/3 measure fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons sugar cane syrup (Gomme)
• 2 1/2 measures soda water

Place the egg white in a bowl and whisk until frothy.  Place the ice, 1 tablespoon of beaten egg white and all other ingredients except the soda water in the lower part of the shaker.  Fit the upper part of the shaker and shake vigorously for 8 – 10 seconds.  Pour the contents of the shaker into a highball glass.  Add the soda water and serve.

See you next week, my lovelies!

Julia joins in with Tabatha’s April Challenge. Weeks 1 and 2

Since I started teaching for a University a few years back the course has grown and grown. This year, I was responsible for not only one but two final year courses at separate universities (as well as working full time as a pharmacist!) so my free time has been, well, pretty non-existent or filled with guilt  about the fact I wasn’t doing work, well, when I wasn’t doing work. If you have been there you will know that it is not a good place to be at. Your work/life balance becomes non-existent and every waking minute becomes overrun with panic and plans for what’s going to happen next.

From http://www.healthyplace.com

Why am I telling you this? Well, I suppose it’s an explanation as to why I’ve not been around. And an explanation for why I haven’t done much sewing in the last 9 months. The courses started in September but, as anyone who teaches knows, it’s the preparation (and the marking which is mostly what I’ve been doing this weekend. 169 exam papers. Eurgh.) that takes up most of your time. My students sat their exams for the module last Friday, and the once almost-inevitable breakdown that was looming on my horizon has been sunk by my will to get a bit of my life back!

So, after spending a lovely weekend with the Family Tweedie and some other friends, and chatting to the wonderful Tabatha about how depressing it was not sewing, I decided to join in with her April challenge. I didn’t think I’d be able to match her two hours per day rule, so I settled on just the one hour per day (or, more accurately, an average of 7 per week), as I knew there were days I wouldn’t be able to fit any in. I’m glad to say that, so far, I’ve managed it ok and it’s been great! It’s so nice to take myself away from work for a while and just do something I actually want to!

So, rambling all done, here’s my breakdown of the first two weeks.
Total time sewing or preparing to sew: 16.5 hours. I beat my goal: yay!

April 1st – 2.5 hours
I actually did about 2.5 hours after returning from the Tweedie Weekend of Fun. I printed out, taped together and cut out the pieces for two patterns – the Sense and Sensibility swing dress and the Victory patterns Ava dress. I also remembered why I really detest printing out patterns at home…If I didn’t have a ridiculous amount of money on my university print account I would’ve just ordered paper patterns and traced them!

April 2nd – 1 hour
I cut out the pieces for my Amy Butler weekender bag. I don’t really have a good bag for hopping to visit someone for the weekend so I figured that, since I’ve had this pattern for many years, I should really do something with it.

Afterwards, the Great British Sewing Bee, of course! Who’s your favourite to win? Obviously now that we’ve had the second week the selection is whittled down a bit but still…tell!

April 3rd – nothing!

I went to the pub. I did no sewing or sewing preparation. I talked nonsense, ate seriously tasty food and crawled into bed about midnight. It was great.

April 4th – 1.5 hours

Today I pinned and cut out the pieces for my Swing dress toile, using some fabric left over from one of Jen’s wedding dress incarnations. I then transferred all the markings and notches and pinned the darts ready for sewing.

April 5th – 1.5 hours
I made the two peg bags below: one for me (after only 6 years of having lived here!)  and one for a friend at work who bought a house a few months ago. He specifically requested one, oddly enough. This would’ve been much quicker had I not had to make the bias binding too. It’s slightly too narrow and I wasn’t massively happy with it so I removed it later and replaced it with store bough bias. Sadly, I didn’t get a proper picture of it finished, but I used this lovely Liberty fabric for it.

With the brown bias binding attached the whole thing looked like something that would have fit in well in the 70s.

April 6th – 3 hours
I didn’t do as much as I wanted on Saturday but I made a good start on my swing dress. After swearing repeatedly at the directions and unpicking seams I eventually got the front yoke sewn. I had to refer to Casey’s tutorial to figure it out though, and a google search revealed I wasn’t the only one shouting at the pattern. If you ever come to sew this dress I thoroughly recommend following Casey instead of the pattern instructions.
I then added the waistbands – all good – and got to sew on the skirt and the pieces just didn’t match up. I wasn’t having a very good day already, and I wasn’t about to make it worse by getting annoyed with the pattern/my sticking together of the pattern (which is the most likely explanation, let’s be honest), so I put it to one side and had a cup of tea.

April 7th – 2 hours

One of the ward sisters where I work asked me to shorten one of her uniform dresses for her. Having fit it to her and pinned where she wanted it, I realised I’d have to take 4.5 inches off the hem! I chopped off two inches around the bottom (by the way, those uniforms are really shoddily finished at the bottom, even when done with an overlocker) after going ’round it twice to make sure it was straight. I then measure 2 inches, pressed, and another two inches and sewed the hem to leave a little bit of weight there. The dress is spectacularly white so J didn’t want hem weights in there, showing through.

I also stuck together and cut the pieces for my Liesl + Co Woodland Stroll Cape Pattern

Liesl + Co Woodland Stroll Cape pattern. From Oliverands.com

I’m making it in a sparkly red wool that I bought in The Remnant House in Harrogate a long time ago with the intention of making another Colette Lady Grey with it. I didn’t have quite enough, though, and so directed my attentions to the cape instead.

April 8th – 0 Hours
I had a retirement party to go to so managed zero sewing time. Good food was had, wine was drunk and one of the nurses described me as Batman. So there’s that.

April 9th – 0 hours
The lovely C’s birthday and a surprise Tabatha Tweedie meant no sewing today. Cocktails were drunk however. If you’re ever after a good cocktail in Warwickshire, may I recommend the Kenilworth. The cocktails were glorious, the waiter was lovely and we accidentally got the whole bar singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to C. One punter even threaten to strip for her.

He didn’t. Thankfully.

April 10th – 1 hour
Instead of buying each other presents C and I decided we should just go and do something fun together for our birthdays. So we did! We had a day of adventure visiting Dunnes and eating delicious food.

I also managed to cut out the pieces for my cape (red wool and grey silk lining I bought in Britex), transfer the markings and start sewing.

Check out the shadow of my hands and the camera!

 

April 11th – 0 hours
Yet another night out! This time with some of the old doctors from the ward. If you don’t know about junior doctors, they have to rotate jobs every 4 months and so we’re always losing them. It’s sad, actually, because you don’t really get time to get to know anyone really well in that sort of time frame. This lot, though, were amazing and none of us wanted to see them go. In fact, we’d all love them to come back. Also, can you imagine how horrible it must be having to move to a new place of work every 4 months? It must be massively stressful. Anyway, I digress!

April 12th – 2 hours
I almost finished the Cape today! It’s massively straightforward to do. There was a lot of pressing involved to get the wool shaped and sitting nicely. I had some difficulty with the thickness of the wool going under the presser foot so I stopped after an hour before it got too much. I’d been invigilating exams all day too and had to start marking them so I could get them to the second marker as soon as possible. 168 exams to mark. In a week. Yikes. I’m not going to be getting much done for the next few days!

April 13th -2 hours
I pretty much spent all day marking exams, but I did find time for the finishing touches to my cape. All I had to do today was add the buttonholes and the buttons themselves and sew up the gap in the seam where it was turned right side out. This shouldn’t have taken too long, apart from the old wool thickness issue. When it comes to doing buttonholes on wool, well, my buttonhole foot just didn’t like it. I had to unpick them all at least once and the two little prongs on the front of the foot just kept gathering up wool. I tried putting some crepe paper under the foot to see if it would improve things at all but it just didn’t. Anyway, I got there in the end, popped on some buttons and here it is!

Buttons from sewbox.co.uk. This is probably he best shot I could get to show the sparkles in the fabric.

It sort of makes me look like Little Red Riding Hood.

April 14th – 0 hours
I spent all day marking exam papers so got no sewing done at all. I’ll have to make it up next weekend!

There we have my first two weeks! The first, obviously much more successful than the second but I’m hoping to make up that lost time in the weeks to come.

And what about the Sense and Sensibility swing dress? Well, I’ve given up on it for now but I might go back to my toile in future. I’m not too upset about it: some times you just have to know when to quit! I still have plans for the Ava Pattern and the Amy Butler bag so keep watching!

 

Tabatha’s April Challenge 2013 – Week Two

I’m back after another week’s sewing!  Without further ado, here’s what I’ve been up to:

Monday 8th April

Baba Tweedie was extremely obliging today as he slept for about 40 minutes in the morning, and Little Tweedie played with my button collection whilst I sewed.  She doesn’t get to do this very often, and she really enjoys doing it, so it’s like a treat for her.  It’s a win/win situation because she becomes really engrossed in it, making up all sorts of scenarios about the buttons and who they are and what they are doing, which enables me to sew without being mithered by her!

Baba Tweedie had a proper sleep in the afternoon when Little Tweedie had gone to nursery, which gave me about an hour and a half of total peace!  Bliss!  I sewed the facings to the Gertie Shirtwaist dress and slipstitched the inner yoke in place.  The end is nigh!

Tuesday 9th April

No sewing today, and I’m not going to make the week difficult by trying to make up the time.  I spent today with the children up until 3pm when I set off on a 150 mile trip to surprise a dear friend who was celebrating her 30th birthday today.  It was a fabulous evening of dinner, cocktails and catching up, and I wore a new ‘me-made’ dress, which I haven’t gotten round to blogging yet…

Wednesday 10th April

Today my two hours of sewing was covered by the new course I’ve enrolled on.  For the third year running I’m taking a sewing class to keep building my knowledge on pattern cutting.  I’ve decided that seeing as my body shape has changed since my second pregnancy, now is not a good time to continue with my Vertigo dress, as I had already started sewing it up and it would be too small at the moment.  Instead I spent the time drafting a new block which will fit me for now and I’m plotting some design ideas for a new self-drafted dress.

Thursday 11th April

I managed half an hour of sewing this morning whilst Baba Tweedie was napping, but it meant leaving Little Tweedie watching TV in the next room during that time.  I feel like a terrible parent, but I guess half an hour of watching cBeebies on her own isn’t going to do any harm, and I could hear her if she needed me.  Still, I’d rather not make a habit of it!

I got the rest of my sewing done in the evening.  This time was spent making the windows for the bound buttonholes in the bodice and skirt front facings.  I didn’t have any white organza for the job, so just used some of what I had – this bright blue silk organza which I used for my Colette Crepe dress when I did Gertie’s Crepe sewalong in January 2011 - something tells me Gertie must be a fan of silk organza!  This is not the best colour for my Shirtwaist dress, but seeing as it will be mostly hidden away I just used it anyway!

Blue silk organza patches for the facing windows – (mid-construction photo)

Here is a photo of the bound buttonholes (you’ll have to look closely – I was able to do some good pattern-matching!), and their accompanying windows on the facing:

Bound buttonholes (left) and facing windows (right)

I’m pretty darn pleased with how neat this is!  This is how the facing looked once the windows had been slipstitched to the back of the bound buttonholes:

The facing windows, now slipstitched to the back of the bound buttonholes.

Tonight’s cocktail was a B-52.  We had run out of ice, so my choices were limited…

B-52

For 1 glass:

• 1/4 measure coffee liqueur (Tia Maria or Kahlua)
• 1/4 measure Irish cream (i.e. Baileys)
• 1/4 measure Grand Marnier Cordon Rouge

Place the coffee liqueur in a shot glass, then float the Irish cream on top using a spoon.  Add the Grand Marnier in the same way, making three layers in all.

Friday 12th April

In today’s sewing slot I finally finished the dress!  It feels as though it has taken FOREVER.  Here are some large photos of the details:

Front view

Back View

Bodice view

Innards view

Buttons and buttonholes

Back yoke

Shirring

What do you think?  I posted a front view photo on twitter and got so much love for this dress!  But do you want to know a secret?  I don’t love it as much as everyone else appears to!  I mean, it’s fine, but nothing special!  It is super-duper-comfortable though, and good for breastfeeding, so it will definitely get worn a lot this summer.

My cocktail this evening was the imaginatively titled ‘Bacardi Cocktail’:

Bacardi Cocktail

For 1 glass:

• 5 – 6 ice cubes
• 1 measure (50ml) white Puerto Rican rum (Bacardi)
• 1/2 measure fresh lime juice
• 1/4 measure Grenadine
• 1 strip unwaxed lime peel

Place the ice, rum, lime juice and grenadine in the lower part of the shaker.  Fit the upper part of the shaker and shake vigorously for 8 – 10 seconds.  Strain into a martini glass using a cocktail strainer.  Cut the strip of lime peel with a paring knife.  Over the glass, pinch it between the fingers to release the oils, then drop it into the cocktail and serve immediately.

Saturday 13th April

I only sewed for one hour today due to friends coming to visit, but during that time I made pretty swift progress with my Sew Serendipity Monique dress.  It certainly feels good to whip something up in a jiffy after slaving away over that shirtdress!

My cocktail this evening was a Long Island Iced Tea:

Long Island Iced Tea

For 1 glass:

• 8 – 10 ice cubes
• 1/3 measure vodka
• 1 measure fresh lemon juice
• 1/3 measure gin
• 1/3 measure Puerto Rican rum
• 1/3 measure curacao triple sec
• 1 measure cola
• 1/2 slice unwaxed lemon

Place 5 – 6 ice cubes and all the ingredients except the cola and lemon slice in the lower part of the shaker.  Fit the upper part of the shaker and shake vigorously for 8 – 10 seconds.  Place 3 – 4 ice cubes and the cola in a highball glass.  Slowly add the contents of the shaker, pouring them through a cocktail strainer so they form graduated layers with the cola.  Add the lemon slice and serve.

Sunday 14th April

I sewed for three hours today to make up for yesterday’s shorter slot, mainly during the day when Mr Tweedie was around to take care of the children (I’m still getting used to this – talking about ‘the children’ or ‘the kids’!!!).  I pretty much finished the Monique dress, so I envisage completing it tomorrow.  I had a slight hiccup with its construction – I had traced the darts incorrectly – so I had to unpick and restitch.

I only traced half of the dart by accident!!! Oops.

Aside from that the dress has come together gratifyingly quickly and easily.  Can’t wait to post photos of it – I just LOVE the fabrics!

Until next week…

Tabatha’s April Challenge 2013 – Week One

It’s that time of year again, folks!  In 2011 I set myself the challenge of sewing for two hours per day every day during the month of April, and I repeated the challenge in 2012, and I decided to give it a whirl for 2013 too.  Each year seems to get harder: this year my main difficulty in setting aside the time is due to having two children – a three year old and a 12 week old – and as a result, not much leisure time!  But where there’s a will, there’s a way, so they say… so here’s how it’s been going so far:

Monday 1st April

Today was Mr Tweedie’s birthday, so not an ideal day to begin the challenge, especially seeing as our friends were staying (including my co-blogger Julia!), but nonetheless I got an hour of sewing done after their departure whilst Baba Tweedie was napping, and another hour done once both kids were in bed.  But nevermind all that… what am I sewing?  Well, I am making the Shirtwaist Dress from Gertie’s book, which was a birthday gift from Julia.  I knew I wanted to make this dress, but I had been putting it off due to having to get to grips with a few new techniques.  However, upon asking Julia what dress she’d like me to make for her 30th birthday (she made this beautiful dress for my 30th), she requested the Shirtwaist Dress, so I’m making one for myself first as a way of practising the techniques and construction before I make hers.  I am a little apprehensive about making bound buttonholes and doing shirring, but it’s certainly good to be learning something new.

In my two hours today I cut my fabric and transferred the markings.  Despite having bought 3.5m of fabric, I didn’t have enough and will need to buy 80cm more in order to cut the final pattern piece – one of the skirt fronts.  I am a tad annoyed about this – has anyone else who has made this dress had a similar issue?

I have a feeling that this dress is going to be a time-consuming project, so I won’t have many photos to show you.  Therefore, I’m going to include photos of the cocktails I drink in the evenings, to make it more interesting!  I recently restocked my cocktail cabinet, and I am working my way through this book, which I would highly recommend to anyone who does not already have a cocktail book.  Even if you do, I bet it isn’t as good as this one!  It is really comprehensive and not only includes cocktail recipes, but also the history of cocktails, information about the different spirits and liqueurs, recipes for snacks which complement different groups of cocktails, and tips on the art of mixing drinks.  It’s brilliant!

So first up is the Pineapple and Ginger Martini:

Pineapple and Ginger Martini

For 1 Glass:

• 1 piece fresh root ginger
• 1/2 slice fresh pineapple 1cm thick
• 5 – 6 ice cubes
• 1 measure vodka (50ml)
• 1 tsp sugar cane syrup (aka Gomme)

Wash and peel the ginger and cut the pineapple into small pieces.  Crush them both with a pestle in the lower part of a cocktail shaker to obtain a puree.  Add the ice, vodka and sugar cane syrup.  Fit the upper part of the shaker and shake vigorously for 10 seconds.  Strain the mixture into a martini glass and serve.

Tuesday 2nd April

This morning I got half an hour of sewing done whilst Little Tweedie was at nursery and Baba Tweedie was asleep.  This was enough time to interface my fabric and have a go at shirring on a test bit of fabric.  Fortunately, it was just as easy as everyone makes out:

A small test area of shirring!

After watching The Great British Sewing Bee, I did my remaining hour and a half, working steadily through the pattern.  I can already surmise that this pattern in not suitable for a beginner.  The instructions are not quite as clear and explicit as some other patterns I am accustomed to.  I am glad to have a bit of experience behind me, particularly of sewing shirts!

Tonight’s cocktail was a Horse’s Neck:

Horse’s Neck

For 1 glass:

• 1 unwaxed lemon
• 4 – 5 ice cubes
• 1 measure Cognac (50ml)
• 3 – 4 Angostura bitters
• 3 1/2 measures ginger ale

Using a paring knife, cut the entire peel (zest) from the lemon in one long spiral and place this in a highball glass.  Add the ice and other ingredients, stir gently with a mixing spoon for 8 – 10 seconds and serve immediately.

Wednesday 3rd April

Today I got half an hour of sewing done whilst both children were napping, and the rest when they were in bed in the evening.  I used part of the time to have a go at making a bound buttonhole on a scrap of fabric, as I’ve never made one before!  It took me rather a long time, and the result is definitely imperfect, but as Mr Tweedie pointed out, the buttonhole itself will be mainly obscured from view when fastened anyway!

My first ever bound buttonhole!

My cocktail this evening is one of my all time favourites: a Moscow Mule – made and photographed by Mr Tweedie:

Moscow Mule

For 1 glass:

• 4 – 5 ice cubes
• 1 measure vodka (50ml)
• 1/4 measure fresh lime juice
• 2 – 3 drops Angostura bitters
• 3 1/4 measures ginger beer
• 1 slice unwaxed lime

Place the ice, vodka, lime juice and Angostura bitters in a highball glass.  Add the ginger beer and stir with a mixing spoon for 8 – 10 seconds.  Add the slice of lime before serving.

Thursday 4th April

Today I needed a break from the Shirtwaist dress as I still hadn’t gotten round to buying the extra fabric I need for the last skirt front piece, so when Little Tweedie was at nursery and Baba Tweedie was napping, I traced  out another Sew Serendipity Monique dress, this time in a large, and I pre-washed the fabric.  That took about half an hour, after which time I had to stop again to feed Baba Tweedie.  He seems determined to not let me sew for more than 30 minutes at a time during the day!  We then went out to get more fabric for the Shirtwaist dress, and when we got back he stayed asleep for another half hour which was an unexpected bonus!

In the evening I got a further twenty minutes done, at which point I realised my iron had broken!!!  Mr Tweedie tried changing the fuse but to no avail.  I could not proceed with the Shirtwaist dress without an iron, so instead I cut the fabric for my Monique dress, which fortunately had already dried and wasn’t too creased!

I had three cocktails this evening, but forgot to take a photo of any of them!

Friday 5th April

Today I planned to buy a new iron, but child-wise and time-wise it just didn’t work out, so I didn’t do any sewing today.  Instead, I’m going to attempt to do three hours per day over the weekend.  I did, however, drink some cocktails, one of which was an Alexander:

Alexander

For 1 glass:

• 5 – 6 ice cubes
• 3/4 measure gin
• 1/2 measure white crème de cacao
• 1/2 measure single cream
• 1 nutmeg

Place the ice, gin, crème de cacao and cream in the lower part of the shaker.  Fit the upper part of the shaker and shake vigorously for 8 – 10 seconds.  Strain into a martini glass and grate a pinch of nutmeg over the drink.

Saturday 6th April

Thanks to naptimes and Mr Tweedie taking the children out for a long walk in the afternoon, I was able to do three hours of sewing today.  I cut the contrast fabric for my Monique dress – here is a sneak peek of the contrast fabric, just to give you an idea:

Contrast fabric for my next Sew Serendipity Monique dress.

I also transferred all the markings on all of the other pieces, so this dress is ready to sew up as a nice quick project after the Shirtwaist dress.  (I still need to make Julia’s Shirtwaist of course, but I’m taking a break in between!).  I then made 6 of the 8 bound buttonholes.  I’m pleased with how they look, but they are ridiculously time  consuming and unless I was making a coat or jacket, I don’t think I would bother again!

My cocktail this evening was a Garibaldi.  I’ve only recently tried Campari, and to be honest I think it tastes like poison.  The orange juice in this cocktail obviously helps to dilute the taste, but really I’d rather have a Garibaldi biscuit than a Garibaldi cocktail!

Garibaldi

For 1 glass:

• 4 – 5 ice cubes
• 1 measure (50ml) Campari
• 3 1/2 measures orange juice

Place the ice and Campari in a highball glass.  Slowly pour in the orange juice and serve immediately without stirring.

Sunday 7th April

I convinced Mr Tweedie to take the children out for another long walk today, so I did 1 1/2 hours of sewing whilst they were gone and another 1 1/2 hours when they had gone to bed.  I finished the bound buttonholes, although I still have to make ‘windows’ in the facings.  I attached the sleeves and I’m not sure I like them.  In the picture in the book they look nowhere near as puffy as mine do, but I double checked the size of the pattern piece and the markings and I definitely cut them correctly.  I’ve attached the collar which was the usual faff and my next job is to attach the inner yoke and the facings.  I am getting there… hopefully I will finish this in the next few days!

Tonight’s cocktail was one of my favourites again, a Dark and Stormy:

Dark and Stormy

For 1 glass:

• 1/2 unwaxed lime
• 4 – 5 ice cubes
• 1 measure dark Jamaican rum (I use Captain Morgan)
• 1/2 measure fresh lime juice
• 2 tsp sugar cane syrup (aka Gomme)
• 2 3/4 measures ginger beer

Cut the lime half into two quarters, place them in a highball glass and crush them with a pestle.  Add the ice and the other ingredients to the glass.  Stir with a mixing spoon for 8 – 10 seconds and serve.

So there you have it – the first week of my April Challenge!  No finished projects to show you, but lots of cocktails drunk, a new iron purchased and some serious groundwork done for the Shirtwaist dress – all in all, a pretty successful start!

I’ll be back next week.  Until then, cheers!