Pincushions 2 Monday 15 September 2008

Pincushions 2
Originally uploaded by Psaryce

Fed up with keeping my pins in a bowl shaped container with lid, I decided to have a go at making my own pincushions. These cube shaped beauties are made from samples I received of upholstery fabrics and stuffing from an old pillow. Thanks to my lack of a decent camera at the moment, you cannot see the colours very well but the stripey one has a deep purple bottom.

The smiley face is thanks to Hoovy. She has decided this one is a hedgehog and enjoys giving him different hair styles … including a few Mohawks.

If I do another one, I think I’ll put a weight in the bottom but still it is far better than those horrible tomato ones!!!

Hoovy’s Custom-made School Shirt! Tuesday 2 September 2008

The Shirt!
Originally uploaded by Psaryce

Well here it is! I finally finished the shirt this afternoon- phew. Hoovy was getting concerned it wouldn’t be ready for tomorrow and made a few comments that indicated she’d resigned to wearing it on Thursday instead. She kept a close eye on the progress as I re-attached the sleeves and sewed the buttonholes and buttons on. As I did so, she was comparing my work to that of the pajama shirt she was wearing – making sure I was doing it right!

It started out very well until I got to the sleeves. I asked her about how she wanted the cuffs and she choose pleats over gathers. It was simple enough once I got my head around how exactly to do it so they were symmetrical. The real troubles came when I attached the sleeve to the shirt and we discovered it wasn’t just puffy, not even just poufy … it was a mix of mega puffy/poufy! It reminded me of the old Victorian nightshirts it was so ridiculously wide. So the only way to rectify it was to remove the sleeves (grrr – unpicking white on white late at night can make one cross-eyed!). Then I had to re-seam the sleeve (I had opted for false French seams so a bit of extra work there) but luckily managed to taper to the cuff so I didn’t have to re-do that bit!

Once the thinned out sleeve was attached, the rest was a breeze. 8 buttonholes & buttons, a quick wash in the machine to get rid of tailor’s marks, a bit of time on the washing line to dry and finish off with an iron and it was all done. Much to her joy as I know she secretly wanted to wear it tomorrow and so did I. At least I finished it all before she went to bed. She has it all hung up with her other bits ready for the morning

Duvet Pajamas! Tuesday 19 August 2008

Duvet Pajamas 1
Originally uploaded by Psaryce

Well whenever I can hold my munchkin down long enough, I’ll get some pics of us both in our PJs.

I made these from a duvet cover bought for £1 at a charity shop. The top print was dots and the bottom stripes. I thought it’d be a bit boring to make either dots or stripes so opted to be a bit more original and do a leg of each.

I had a hassle with the commercial patterns I had as one (a McCalls) was extremely long from the waist to crotch and the other (a Simplicity) was ridiculously wide. I wanted PJ’s not clown pants! In the end I altered the Simplicity pattern by taking it in about 3cm down the grainline.

I had to adapt the waistband even though I’d measured because if I had stuck to the directions the bloody crotch would have been down to my knees. I hate to think how the McCalls pattern would have come out! I turned down the waist 3″ to create a double casing and stitched above and below the elastic to create a slight ruffle effect.

Hoovy’s are shorts but also the garment had to be adjusted in the waist to crotch area so I used the same treatment to the waistband to fix this. She absolutely loves hers as much as I love mine.

Using an old duvet cover means the fabric is lovely and soft. Now I just have to make some tops to match as I have loads of the fabric leftover!

Recycled Skirt Monday 18 August 2008

Pink Recycled Skirt 2
Originally uploaded by Psaryce

I have finally gotten around to adding this blog! This is the skirt I made at a recent Recycle & Sew event in Fareham. The event was great fun and I will post pics as soon as I can. There was a wide variety of people and projects going on and it was very interesting to see what everyone else was getting up to. In the room were large tables set out in a semi-circle for us to work on plus two large tables with the machines (2 normal sewing machines, 2 overlockers and a coverstitch machine) and a huge pile of used clothing and scraps to play with.

Aside from us ladies, two boys who had won a competition at a children’s event were there. I would guess they were about 8 and 11. They were fabulous and so inspiring! One of the assistants helped the elder boy add to his camouflage-style trousers so they fit more comfortably (they were too tight) and the other boy decorated a T-shirt to look like a tux using red sparkly fabrics and other trims. The assistant was most impressive in her dealings with the boys and even got one who was very reluctant to use the sewing machine to have a go on the overlocker!

Another lady re-styled a simple summer dress for her daughter to be Tinkerbell. Others were pattern cutting, one lady brought loads of items to be fitted.

My project was to re-vamp an well loved jersey hooded jacket that buttoned up. I had received it in a bag of clothes through Freecycle and loved the mis-dyed soft pink fabric. It was several sizes too big for me and as I said it was worn out with holes at the pockets edges and along the drawstring casings. So I created a skirt which I still needed to finish the waistband at the end of the day. I feel I could have completed it on the day but kept looking around at everyone else’s work.

All-in-all it was a fun afternoon on a very grey and yucky Saturday. I will definitely to go another event like this and will bring my DD along as well.

Stage 3 of WIP Friday 8 August 2008

Stage 3 Close
Originally uploaded by Psaryce

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN & START @ THE BEGINNING BY READING INSPIRATIONAL PATTERN POST

Oh we are getting there! I went to the craft store to get a zipper for this skirt and while they didn’t have what I wanted, I did find this fabulous chain! It is black with a rainbow-y sheen to it and totally up my fashionista’s street!

I’d originally thought to sew it on then thought again and decided it wouldn’t like Mimi (my washing machine) so I opted to attach it with safety pins instead. Easy to remove for washing and well cool looking

Stay tuned for the finale coming soon!

Stage 2 of the WIP Friday 8 August 2008

Stage 2
Originally uploaded by Psaryce

Yes I know this is all being posted on the same day but I have been buys sewing all sorts and haven’t taken the time to post so I am doing it now.

This is the skirt at Stage 2. No longer a simple black (boring) skirt that would be lucky to be worn to school in September, it is becoming something more, something special and something I hope she will love!

I had decided to add a yoke with this funky white fabric I have bits of here and there. I know she likes it because I made her a kerchief with it and she said “cool”. But that wasn’t quite enough, it seemed lacking in the ‘oh, la la’ department.

So I dug out some netting I had. Not just store bought stuff … this is a recycling/reusing project for the most part. At the start of warm weather, we had bought a net curtain thing for our back door. I like to be in the kitchen and have the door open but at night bugs like to be in here too. Well the first one didn’t work to plan as we’d cut it all wrong so bought a different kind for the door and I saved the netting from the first one. After washing it (just in case there was a bug that didn’t manage to get through the gaping holes), I had stuffed it into my fabric stocks.

Upon adding the netting under the yoke it said ‘Voila!’ to me so I stitched it together. It’s a pity the pic’s not better but one day I’ll get a real camera

Stage 1 of the WIP Friday 8 August 2008

Stage 1

Originally uploaded by Psaryce

WIP = Work In Progress

Simple (boring) black skirt … looks so sad hanging there doesn’t it. But consider for a moment that it used to be a pair of trousers, ones I got in with a bunch of other clothes through Freecycle and now it is becoming something more becoming. It is being transformed with love for a lively little girl with (dare I say it) a ‘passion for fashion’. No my munchkin isn’t a Bratz fan but that saying suits her.

Anyways apologies for the photo quality, I don’t have 8 arms but it would help because I use my MacBook’s Photo Booth to take pics with. Still my hand looks very dainty don’t you think?

Inspirational Pattern for a WIP Friday 8 August 2008

The Pattern
Originally uploaded by Psaryce

My darling little 9yo fashionista is very difficult to sew for even though she desperately wants me to make her things. If I am lucky, they get worn once so I don’t often spend the time sewing for her. Cruel but life is too short to make clothes that will spend their lives in a wardrobe wanting to be worn.

So I am not sure why I decided to make her a skirt but I did. So I began my search for a suitable pattern or an idea or something. I find commercial children’s patterns very boring, plain and very often too girly for the likes of my little disco diva. There are probably plenty of very good patterns on the market but for me it is difficult to envision a personalized design masterpiece when you have to look past the horrible drawings and/or fabrics used to illustrate the patterns.

As such it was a surprise to find myself inspired by this pattern my mother had used to make clothes for me when I was that age. As you can see, it isn’t exactly what you would consider an inspiring image!

Nevertheless for some strange reason I found myself searching for the right fabric to make a simple black skirt for my little darling.

Tree Curtain Shopper Friday 18 July 2008

Tree Curtain Shopper

Originally uploaded by Psaryce

I was in bag-making mode yesterday! Using a pair of curtains kindly donated to me through Freecycle, I made this bag. I created a pattern from an evil plastic grocery store bag (no this is not an original idea I know others do this too!). I hate short handles so made mine a bit longer. You cannot tell from the photo but the fabric is a bit thick and so the bag feels luxuriously sturdy.

In addition to this, I also used some of another pair of curtains obtained through Freecycle to create my first Morsbag. Although it is square, when I first held it up, the sides dropped in and created this triangle shape. I liked it so I have pressed it into this shape because it looks more funky than a square!

Charity Shop Bargains Monday 30 June 2008

I absolutely love going to charity shops and finding bargains. I don’t think it is me being stingy, I just enjoy recycling/re-using things and the added bonus of helping out a charity is cool too. I spent yesterday cutting things out to sew and this morning sewing some of them. About lunchtime, I decided to walk into the village as I needed a thread colour I don’t have. After getting the thread though, I couldn’t stop myself from browsing the three charity shops in the village. In total, I spent £12.20 but managed to get loads for that money. My poor meshy/eco bag was stretched to maximum! I’ve uploaded pictures of my hoard simply because I was surprised at how little I spent and how much I got!

These items will, naturally be cut up and used in various ways for sewing projects. I especially have the crib sheets in mind for my grandson. I’m sure I can make quite a few things out of those for him. Oh and the scrap of skull fabric (25p) I got to make something for one of my nieces.

So think about visiting charity shops, secondhand shops, consignment shops, etc. in future. Go in and browse while keeping a sharp eye out for things that can be turned into something new & different! It’s loads of fun, saves you money and helps the charities!