Crescent skirt fabric

Are you going to be participating in the Crescent Skirt Sewalong? I am! I've just ordered my fabric :)

It's a cotton poplin from Croft Mill. I can't wait for it to arrive! I'm really looking forward to my first Sewalong too :)
Will you be sewing along with Tasia?
Jellybean x

Sneak peak - Mother's Day Present (don't look mum!)

My mum asked me to make her a necklace that had something to do with her kids. So we looked around and she found these cute little girl and boy charms! There are three girl charms and two boy charms, a charm for each of us :) I also know she likes red, so to add some colour in there I used some red beads. I'll post photo's of the full things as soon as Mum has her presents! :)
Also, we did another muslin of Becky's dress. The back variation has changed again! But this time it can't change any more as I'm going to cut out today! :D
Jellybean x

Lady Cherry's chocolate give-away!

Yum, Lady Cherry is holding a give-away! And the prize? Chocolate of course! Yum :) Head on over to enter! Good luck!
Jellybean x

Finished cable bag and a peek at my next project

I've had this finished for ages now, and have only just got round to taking photos. I had to play with the photos a bit to make the cabling show up a bit better, the flash just drowned all detail and its not the sunniest day today. This is project 7 from the book Knitty Gritty. I'm really enjoying using it, I keep my current project (more on that later!) and the attached ball of yarn in the bag, with my scrap of paper and pencil that I use to record rows. It really helps protect my project and yarn from picking bits of fluff from the carpet (I keep my knitting down the side of the armchair). So here are a couple of photos!

I'm really happy to have finished another knitting project other than a scarf! I haven't forgotten about my socks, which I now realise were quite an achievement for a beginner, but I had lots of help from you tube videos. And of course there were the booties too, but they were small and simple. For this bag, I followed the pattern, with a few tips from the book and actually persevered and finished it instead of getting bored!
As I finished this ages ago, I also have another work-in-progress to show you! Its project 8 in the Knitty Gritty book, and I'm using the colour changing twisted yarn that I showed you in this post which I think looks pretty amazing knitted up!

Aren't those eyelets pretty? I am loving how a lot of the projects in this book are quite simple patterns but look much more complicated! It really makes you feel like you've achieved something when you look at the finished thing or the work-in-progress.
Right, after tea I think its time that I start on the second round of pattern alteration for Becky's dress. We've changed our minds about the bow back, we're now going for a corset back, but with the straight bit at the top placed right over her bra strap to hide it! She wants to have the ribbon extra long so it'll flow down the back of the dress. Ooh, I'm excited! :D
Jellybean x

Evening gown fabric!

The colour is somewhere in between these two photos :) And those specks aren't dirt on the fabric, its dirt on the camera lens! When the fabric was delivered, the envelope was ripped! I expected the worst, but luckily Fabricland put their fabric in a carrier bag as well, which is what the fabric is leaning on. I daren't leave it out of its bag for fear it'll get ruined! I also upped the contrast of these photos so you can see the lovely subtle shine it has! The satin I've worked with before has been thin and reeeeally shiney cheap looking, but this?! This is something else! Duchesse satin . . .wow. Its just lovely. I just want to stroke it all the time. Its lovely and thick, and has a beautiful drape! I'm excited to work with it, I'm imagining it being a dream to sew!
Also, I haven't worked on the next muslin or any alterations to the paper pattern at all! :( Why? Because I am clumsy and nearly sliced the end of my thumb off last night! It hurts like a bugger, so I'm trying to let the resultant flap of skin heal down so it doesn't flap around like a flappy thing!
More soon :)
Jellybean x

Evening gown muslin!

The pattern arrived today! I spent the day doing the adjustments :) Here are some photos:

I think the fit in the chest is great, though there wont be a seam in the middle of the real thing. I'll cut it on the fold for the real thing :)
We'll get to the photos of the back in a minute. First of all its a smidge too tight in the hips, and the front armhole is too big. Easy enough fixes. Second of all, we were playing around with the back. Becky really liked the back dipped lower.

The only problem was her bra strap. How to hide it? I had a brainwave! Here's what we came up with:

Rather messily done, but you get the idea! A cute bow back! With a strategically placed bow to hide the bra strap! Cute and practical :D Becky would also like the bottom bow to be a real bow with tails that flow down the back of the dress. I think this will look amazing. We decided that the bows will be cream, as we thought this would be a lovely contrast to the sky blue fabric (when it gets here!). Oh, and the zip will be moved to the side seam, so the bows can be sewn in properly instead of using poppers which was our first idea. Then moving the zip hit me! lol
I'll spend tomorrow working on the adjustments and making another muslin, though this time only to the hip to save on fabric :)
More soon!
Jellybean x

There be an evening dress in the works. . .

One of my friends has a ball to attend on the 8th of April, and has asked me to make her a dress!! We've chosen New Look 6401 as the base. The reason she asked me in the first place is because she can't find anything to fit her chest! So of course there will be heavy modifications to the bust to make it fit. She hasn't decided on the colour yet, but we're thinking a satiny fabric. She's coming round tomorrow so I can measure her up to find out her size (upper bust measurement obviously as she's waaay bigger than a B cup!) and then we can find out how much fabric to order! We're ordering from Fabricland I think, as its cheap :) I'm looking forward to plotting and scheming! lol
I'm really excited!!! I've always wanted to try an evening dress, but never had the need to. Now I do! :D I just hope it turns out ok and that I can get it finished on time. I think now that we've found a pattern (we were thinking of draping it on her at first!) it shouldn't be too difficult or take forever. But I suppose we'll see. More later :)
Jellybean x

Smart skirt - V8603

I've decided to use the black cotton fabric to make V8603! And I'll use the left over lining fabric from the slip to line it. I think I should just have enough. I think it's going to end up quite a smart skirt, but I also think it can be dressed down with a less smart top :) I've decided on view A. I just love those gathers! I'm kinda hoping the gathers will help balance my top half, but I suppose we'll see :)

I seem to have a pretty standard bottom half, so I'm cutting straight into this pattern. I might do 1 inch seam allowances on the side though, just in case! :)
Jellybean x

Simple slip

When I first wore my Beignet skirt I encountered a problem. The fabric I had lined it with wasn't slippy, so when I wore it with my woollen tights the lining rode up at the back which in turn pulled up the front! Most embarrassing! So I decided it was finally time to use Gertie's tutorial for a vintage inspired half slip!

I haven't tried it out yet, but I'm hoping it'll help. It'll also come in handy for unlined skirts. Ooh, I'm looking forward to summer!! :D
Here are some close ups:

The lace peeks out at the bottom.

I attached the lace at the same time as finishing the hem.

I made this last night in about an hour and a half. So a nice quick and easy project! I'll let you know if it helps with the skirt riding up thing :)
Jellybean x

Fabric purchases!

I found out from a member on The Sewing Forum that there is a fabric shop at the top of Steep Hill (if you've ever been to Lincoln you can't miss Steep Hill!) It must have opened during the winter, as we didn't really bother going all the way up the hill in the cold! I was ridiculously excited about a new fabric shop, so we puffed our way up the hill. It's called CallyCo, and it was lovely! Lots of lovely good quality designer fabrics. I eventually settled on 2 fabrics, I think the first was £12.90 pm and the second was £10.90 pm. So pretty expensive (for me at least!).

I bought 3.5m of this one, I plan on using it for making the Ceylon! I love this print! I just hope it isn't too big for a dress.

I love this cutesy print! I bought 2m of this one, and I plan on making a blouse from it. I haven't quite decided on the pattern yet, I'll let you know when I do :)
I also bought these:

They're so pretty, and were only £1.80 so I just had to have some! I can't wait to make these fabrics up :)
Next door to the fabric shop is a lovely whiskey shop. Dom treated himself to a bottle, which we sampled it when we got back. Now I don't usually drink whiskey neat. Nor do I usually drink such good quality whiskey. You should have seen my face at the first mouthful! Wow! I swallowed badly and coughed a little, but I was ready for the second mouthful and actually managed to taste it properly. It's good stuff! We also treated ourselves to an ice cream from the wonderful ice cream parlour across the road from the fabric shop. Delicious!
Jellybean x

Sencha - Finished!

I love this blouse. But it doesn't love me. I'm pretty sure I should have done an FBA. You'll see why in the pics:

I didn't think it looks so bad judging by these photos. Though it does make my chest look bigger and my shoulders look wider.  It looks a bit better with the Beignet:

Then I saw this one, and thought OMG my chest looks huge:

But still not so bad. But then I saw this photo, and thought yep, definitely needed an FBA. That's what dresses do when its too small for my chest. It needs more length across the chest, as my boobs kind of hitch it up.

It looks stupid, and I am not happy with it. Or rather, I'm not happy with the fit of it on me. The construction is fine, and the fabric is lovely.
So what did I do? I asked a friend if she would like it if fit her, as she is a C cup, perfect for Colette patterns! As I described it to her she got more and more excited. It fits her beautifully! :D It was very strange to see something I had made for me on someone else. I'd rather see it worn than just sat in the wardrobe though. I'm hoping to get some photos of my friend in this blouse sometime soon. I'll post em when I get em :)
I might try this blouse again in the future, but this time with an FBA.
Jellybean x

So close to Sencha

I only have the button holes and buttons to do!! :D I'm so close to being done. The colour really doesn't photograph well with a flash though. I can't wait for sunnier days!
I'm still waiting for the black silk crepe from Cheapfabrics though. I sent them a message nearly 2 weeks ago and received no reply. I'm getting rather annoyed.
As the Beignet and Sencha took so long to complete, I think I've had enough of these patterns for now. I'll definitely be revisiting them though! As for the red Klona cotton fabric that I was going to use for the second Beignet, I'm planning on making a blouse out of it. And the black cotton underlining that was supposed to be for the silk crepe Sencha? I'm tired of waiting for the silk, I figure I'll just get some more black cotton to underline it when the silk gets here. In the mean time, I'll use the black cotton to make a skirt. I'm still deciding on the patterns, so I'll let you know when I decide! :)
More later!
Jellybean x

Knitted cable bag

I thought you might like to see my progress on a knitted cable bag! This is project #7 in the Knitty Gritty book. Now you might be wondering what happened to the zig-zag scarf? Well, quite frankly there's only so much decreasing and increasing that I can take! I might finish it, or I might not. I haven't decided. So for now I'm working on the bag. Knitty Gritty suggests making it as a project bag or an evening bag (the evening bag is half the size of the project bag). I thought a project bag was a great idea, as I'm forever losing the bits and bobs that I need.

Now it might just be because I knitted it, but doesn't that cabling look impressive? :D Its actually ridiculously simple! So if you're a beginner like me and have been scared off by how complicated the finished cabling looks, I recommend you give it a try! It is currently 12cm long. Knitty Gritty suggests 60cm for the project bag! It's going to take a while! But each row is different, so it helps keep me interested :)
You might also be wondering about my Sencha blouse? I'm hoping to do an update tonight or tomorrow :)
Jellybean x

Knitting Supplies

Now of course if I'm going to learn to knit I'm going to need yarn! I already have about 9 balls of cheap yarn in shades of blue, pink and orange. I planned to use these to make scarves and hats for my brothers and sisters for last Christmas. I never got round to it, so now its just sitting there. I've used some of the pink stuff for the booties and I'll use the rest for practicing with :)
I didn't have enough of each of these yarns for an entire project from my new knitting book (other than the booties, and perhaps some baby mittens). So of course I had to go yarn shopping! I also bought some longer needles, in 4mm, 5mm and a set of cable needles.
Here's the yarn I bought:

This is to make a baby cardigan, again for my mums expecting friend :) I love colour changing yarns, and this is machine washable so perfect for a baby. Project #5 in the Knitty Gritty book.

This picture really doesn't show off this yarn well! Its mainly brown, with a colour changing yarn twisted round it. I don't usually go for browns, but I couldn't resist this stuff. I think this will be a lacy shawl type thing. Project #8 in the Knitty Gritty book.

This is a huge ball of yarn! I loved the deep navy colour. This is for a project bag that involves cabling which I'm really excited about! This is project #7 in the Knitty Gritty book. There'll be enough left over to make a pair of mittens for me too! This is project #9 in the book.
I also bought my first 'designer' yarn! It's beautiful!

Apparently the Angel range is quite new. The photo really doens't do this yarn justice. The colour is just yummy, and I want to rub my face on it all the time. I gently take it out of its bag just to stroke it! This will become a light scarf/shawl, project #15 in the book. It will be knitted on big needles, to create a beautiful lacy effect. I'm looking forward to using this one :) It was very difficult to walk away with just this one yarn, but at £7.90 a ball/skein, I really shouldn't get this often. As a treat every now and then though. . . :)
Have you bought any supplies lately?
Jellybean x

Booties

I've been wanting to learn to knit something other than a scarf for a while. I know I've done socks and of course the wonderful Jayne hat, but the socks required much hand-holding from a set of youtube videos, and the hat was super simple. So I figured the best way to do this was to buy a beginners book. I bought Knitty Gritty and a couple others which I might mention when I use them properly. It really is for the absolute beginner, which although I'm not an absolute beginner it was reassuring to know I was doing it right. I like how this book is put together, it teaches you something new, then gives you a project to practice on. I skipped the first project as it was a basic scarf to practice tension. I have excellent tension thank you very much, from the countless scarves I've made. The second project was a pair of baby booties! Lucky for me, my mum's friend is expecting in about 2 months, so my hard work won't go to waste :) Even if I had no one to give them to, I would have made them anyway as its good practice at following patterns which is my biggest weakness.
Here they are:

Yes, its a girl!! Aren't they cute?! I'm really proud of them, even though the book provides extra explanation for the pattern, I still did it :) The little rosette/flower thing is another project from Knitty Gritty. Perfect for a little decoration.
I've started the third project, which is a zig-zag scarf to practice decreasing and increasing. It's turning out pretty cute, as I decided to stripe it too.
More later!
Jellybean x