Birthday and Christmas presents......only the craft ones!

My birthday and Christmas are only 4 weeks apart, so a years worth of wishing comes to fruition in a short time!

My husband very wisely refers to my Amazon Wishlist for present ideas and usually picks a good selection like, a book, something practical for sewing and something unrelated to craft.

This year was no exception.  I'm still getting the subscription to Sewing World which I love.

In addition I also received a new blade for my rotary cutter.....

A French curve to help my journey towards making clothes that fit.....

He also got me a make your own knickers kit by Flo-Jo......

... from the Fluffatorium (couldn't resist showing it to you) when we visited a couple of months ago....

I also got this fabulous book.....

A quilt book which is not my style at all, but is very lovely and has sparked lots of ideas.....

And from Crafty Friend, this book......

I used an excerpt from Prima Makes to make this little rag doll for The Hubs newest cousin for Christmas.....

(Bad quality photo taken on my Hudl, in bad light on a 

hotel bed as we were rushing out to a Christening (as I remembered

 that I had forgotten to photograph of it at home!) Doh!)

It was such a lovely project that Crafty Friend thought I might like the whole book....she's not wrong!

With my birthday money I treated myself to a Zàkka book.............

And also some yarn for a special project (using Mums money)......

I also decided to get back into reading so bought myself these (using Mums money)...........

And to brighten my day (as I had LOTS of flowers for my Birthday and too few vases to put them in, Crafty Friend also bought me this lovely jug........

Look at the colours.........

The peach coloured flower reminded me of my hand embroidered runner picked up on eBay, look...............

.....and on closer inspection, the dark green leaves and red and blue flowers!

I was truly spoilt rotten.....and loved it!

Thank you, thank you, thank you lovely peeps xxx

I shall be getting on with some clear outs, updates and Ta-Dah's very soon but for now I'm off to get on with some more crafting, I'll catch up with you soon.

Love
Nora
xxxx

vintage patterns and stash

A couple of years ago I helped my sons friend move out of his family home.  His mum is a very clever lady who has fashioned their 1970s house into a throwback to the 1940s or 1950s and makes her own clothes from a library of vintage patterns she has lovingly gathered.

Add to this my holiday reading of almost the whole blog of the lovely Handmade Jane, I am inspired.

I have been scouring the Internet for vintage patterns I like.

The clothes journey started with this Colette book on dressmaking.  Many people unfamiliar with dressmaking recommended this as a good way to learn skills and construction.

I have also found modern patterns with a vintage twist in my Sewing World magazines.

And free patterns on the V&A website like this one....

Moving towards making for myself I have bought these...

Love the button back on this one (view C)....not sure about the fullness of the skirt so I might have to reduce that a bit!

On this one I particularly like the curved button closure, it reminded me of the Afternoon Blouse by Jennifer Lauren Vintage ........

I was surprised that despite being a shop size 10 on the top and 8 on the bottom, I am almost size 16 on vintage pattens, a mix of sizes on modern patterns (a good reason not to buy them!) and a perfect size 4 in Colette patterns.

Not only do I love the patterns, I adore those watercolours depicting the dresses.

I love them so much that I think I will be colour copying them and putting them in frames to adorn some blank walls in my home!

I bought a new and modern pyjama bottom pattern as I can never find comfy ones in the shop.  The pattern is teen to adult unisex so it can be for myself and The Hubs.

Hub is only 5ft 2 inches tall and very slightly built.  We have terrible trouble finding clothes to fit as there is no such thing as petite menswear.  I shall use this to transform some of his shirts that are worn at collar and cuffs into pyjama bottoms.

I do have some fabric, but it's not really suitable for dressmaking, nor is there sufficient for my size.

With this in mind, I have to tell you....I have made purchases of the fabric-y kind!!!

Calm oh pounding heart!

Our local fabric store is closing down (nooooooooo!) And all fabrics are half price....YES.... HALF PRICE!!

I went in and found this gorgeous Robert Kaufman brushed cotton, so got 4m for some pyjama bottoms for myself (pattern above...happy days!) and Little Lady.

Then there was this delightful lawn........

........ which is likely to become a tie for The Hubs and whatever else I can get out of it....oh! How about some knickers!?  I could use the pattern from my Birthday Kit (post about that coming soon!)

Then last but not least, this......

Its prairie from Dashwood studios, I thought it might make either a nice dress or a Betty Draper blouse to go with my Burdastyle Sailor Pants .

Even at 50% off it's an outlay all in one go...but (you knew there was going to be a 'but' didn't you?) it does give me something to work with as I make progress on my handmade wardrobe. (Well, that's my excuse!)

That's the update on purchases...off to do some very boring but totally necessary food shopping and I'll be back soon to share my birthday and Christmas treats.
See you soon,
Love
Nora
xxxx.

P.S. in case you are interesed, the button back vintage pattern appears on The Little Tailoress blog and she too reduces the skirt by the looks of it!  Happy Days!

Little Lady and the Sewing Machine Adventure.....

Nope, not the latest Ladybird book, but our real life adventure with another book.

Hoping Louise at Sew Scrumptious might read this as her daughter has just received a gorgeous new purple sewing machine for her birthday...Happy Birthday Isabella!

Here is the book.....

 

....and here is the very first project chosen by Little Lady.....

 

...a Monster Scooter Bag!

 

I traced the bits onto freezer paper so that we had them for future reference (I pop pattern pieces in an envelope taped to the inside back cover of books).  She helped me cut some with scissors and supervised me rotary cutting others!

 

Here she is pinning her stripes......

...and here she is sewing them!

  

Yep, that's all her with no interference from Mummy!

 

Here's the eyes sewn on to the bag flap...how cute is all that skew-wiff sewing!?

 

And here he is pinned ready for the all-round-the-edge-sewing bit.

 

And there is one VERY happy 5 year old with her Monster Scooter Bag! Great job Little Lady!  What a great book too, nice pattern templates, easy instructions...nuf said!

Back soon with more Little Lady Sewing....she'll be needing her own blog soon!

Ta-ta for now,

Nora

xxxx

Scooter Monster Bag....done!

So, here we are about 2 hours after the last post with a Ta-dah moment!

Ready.......?

OK, here goes.............  ta-DAhhhhhhh......................!

She is just SOOOOOOO proud of herself, and rightly so!

The instructions in the book are really good, although we did opt out of the basting, only because I think she would have lost interest, it's something she can learn as she becomes more proficient and independent.

She started by pinning the stripes on to the bag front.....

Then she stitched them on with the machine switched to it's slowest.....

How impressive is that!

This wasn't posed, she was genuinely running the machine herself and controlling the fabric!  One amazed Mummy!

As you can see she hand stitched the eyes and buttons on to the flap front and everything else was machined.

I can honestly say that the only help I gave was a bit of pining through the thick layers.....

....... guidance and a running commentary for the most part and then when it came to stitching layers was a bit more hands on with the fabric but she decided when to stop, start and reverse the stitching.

I have to say I was really impressed....and amazed at how quickly she worked out at what point she needed to press the button for the machine to stop where she wanted!

So here she is once again.... proud or what?!

She is now taking a hard earned rest in front of the TV to watch Shrek 2, Mummy is off to sip Earl Grey and sew a bit more of her Clothkits skirt...woohoo!

I'll see you again soon either with Part 3 of my updates or a finished skirt!

Byeeeee,

Nora

xxxx

Polling Day means a day off school

Here in the UK there are local elections going on and in time honoured tradition local schools are turned into Polling Stations for the day.  This inevitably means that many Infant and Junior (Primary) schools are closed for the day.

Added to that is the absence of Tiddly Toes from school yesterday due to earache and we have one VERY challenging little person, feeling a little better and wanting to DO!

SO.....a week or so ago, I bought her this book.......

It is meant for 7+ years and she is only just 5...but....she has watched me sew forever, and I think she understands the concept anyway....so we're just going to go for it!

Granny and Grumps bought her a new scooter for Christmas, so she has decided to make herself this scooter bag for it.

We've cut everything out...she helped cut the pattern and as she was a little wobbly in places (round bits), we've decided that Mummy would cut the pieces of felt.

Mummy needed a drink before the off, so Mummy made a nice Senseo coffee and Tiddly Toes had a bounce on the Bounce-line, no, not trampoline...Bouceline...I think that's a much better name for it!

Here she is letting off some energy in order to be able to sit still at the sewing machine for a long-ish stint!

And here she is again...she just wanted to show off her bracelets and new specs!  Bless.....

Well, here we go....and we'll take photos of our journey to show you all later.

Thanks for stopping by, 

Nora (& Tiddly Toes!)

xxxx

It fell into my basket.....

..honest 'Guv'!

OK, maybe not....oooops!

I hold my hands up to some purchases, want to have a look?

Come on then, my friends, let's have a browse.....

First there was this purchase, certainly not my sort of thing, but somehow irresistible.....

It was inspired by The Patchsmith blog and the desire she had awakened in me to find out more. It also satisfies my curiosity about patchwork on a small scale (compared to quilts for beds), applique and free motion embroidery and certainly provides food for thought on unrelated projects that I would like to get in to.

Then whilst out with Teenage Daughter the other day, we visited The Works and this jumped out at me..............

A bargain at £4.99 when I had seen it on Amazon for £12!

Crafty Friend had lent me this............

It is lovely, but even having made some basic clothes from a paper pattern, the instructions for making yourself a calico pattern were overwhelming.

Sew Serendipity provides a basic paper pattern with which to cut out the basic shapes from calico that you then fit to your body, I just felt it gave me the headstart that I needed.

 I have already cut out the paper pieces to make the skirt, I don't think I have ever started on something quite so swiftly after buying it. So, watch this space.

My third purchase was one (that I had again seen on Amazon for around £10), again from The Works at the bargain price of £3.99!!

The title made me laugh and pick up the book......

'Bend the rules Sewing' starts with some basics in transferring patterns and embroidery stitches for embellishing, it then goes on to some really sweet little projects from bags to different style pockets to sew onto a vintage style apron (one of the other projects!)

There are little quotes from Amy Karol's Gran such as, "Mistakes are much less noticeable after a week or so, and in a month the project will look amazing." I know this is true from experience when I have made the tiniest mistake and taken ages to make good and then made the same mistake and just carried on.

On the finished article, I struggle to find the mistake or the bit that I took ages to put right, so unless it is screamingly horrible, know when to not bother!

A Victorian Stitchers belief was that to achieve perfection was an insult to God, as only God was perfect. I like that thought so much that I have been known to cross-stitch a mistake into something, once it's not perfect in one place, I won't worry about other small mistakes.

I don't know how much I shall actually MAKE directly from these books, but I know they will be a great source of inspiration.

Did you notice in my photos another little Ebay purchase?

My lovely hand embroidered runner.......

 

Isn't it a delight?

 

Here's a close up of the detail.......

 

I love it!

Well, that's that news all up to date, have you got any favourite books adorning your bookshelf that you really should take down and revisit? Go on, have a look.

I shall return again very soon, you don't see me for weeks and then you are overwhelmed with all the posts!

Love
Nora
xxxx