A Sewing Project

Last night I finished a sewing project I started over the weekend.  E could do with a few more pairs of summer shorts/ 3/4 length trousers, and I have a lovely little pattern in my book "Making Children's Clothes".  I have a lot of material in my stash, but unfortunately I didn't have anything that was particularly boyish, let alone some hard wearing fabric for something he'll be running around with.  So, with some birthday money, I popped along to our local(ish) fabric shop, and set about making some.

I found some hard-wearing khaki green material, and this fabulous car/digger/bus material for the contrasting turn ups and pockets.

I've not done any clothes making for a little while, so it took longer than I thought, but I bought some other material to make a second pair, so I'm sure they will take much less time, as the second time you use a pattern it always seems to go much more smoothly.

I love the contrasting waist band- it's a lovely attention to detail in the pattern.  The only place where I 'deviated' from the pattern was in using zig-zag stitch on the inside seams instead of pressing them open.  Given that it's clothing that I hope will last, I wanted to make durable seams.

By the way, is it just me, or is it not the most wonderful thing to iron the projects as you go along? It makes it all so beautiful to look at and work with. (I know that's what you are meant to do- it is just so satisfying though, and let's face it, it's one of the only time our iron gets used...!)

Fascinated by my shoes being washed!

And, despite the fact that the perfectionist in me keeps noticing all of the tiny things that didn't go perfectly, the boy seems rather pleased with his new shorts!

Next up... some little bloomers (from the same book) for the little Lady.

In other news, if anyone is into sewing, and wants some beautiful inspiration, check out this fabulous blog. I can't get enough of browsing the archives.  Right, I am going to make some muffins.  Does anyone have a good recipe for blueberry muffins? A friend made me some amazing ones recently, and I need to find a similarly wonderful recipe!

Enjoy your Wednesday.

C x

Yes, you would be correct, those are Cath Kidston sewing scissors!

Yellow and Blue inspiration

Today has been such a lovely day.  The weather has been beautiful- blue skies, and really mild.  E is so much better now (thank goodness for prayer and antibiotics!), and there's something even more wonderful about a cheerful child after a few days of them being miserable.

Scrummy!

I had the morning off today! E went and had fun with his Grandma, and I took a leisurely bath, and then had a little jaunt into town.  Oxford is such a beautiful place to live- particularly on days like today!

One place I particularly wanted to visit was Oxford's new little haberdashery.  For a reasonable sized city, Oxford has had no haberdashery (apart from a wall in a department store) since the fabric shop closed about 18 months ago.  This little place is little, and full of charm, tucked away beside Christ Church College.

And, they do day workshops and endorse local craft groups, such as a Monday night sewing and knitting group that meets in a local pub- fantastic.  You can find more information here.  

I had to go in and have a little mosy round, and although I intended to buy nothing, this lovely little pack of fat-quarters caught my eye.

They just looked so spring-like, and they were just crying out to be made into a bag. I really like some of the lovely pleated bags I've seen around, and decided that they couldn't be that difficult to make, so this afternoon whilst the boy was sleeping I set about designing a pattern for my own.  Who knows how it'll turn out, but so far it's going well.

Although my only problem is deciding what colour to do the straps.  I have the floral fabric as the outside, the plain yellow as the lining, and the blue as a kind of 'band' on top.  What do you think would do well for some straps out of the following?

I'll be getting on with it next tomorrow, so if you have any inspiration or opinions, I'd love to hear from you!

In other news I bought myself two lovely new items of clothing today.  I was given some vouchers last summer, and I figured that pretty soon I'd have less time on my hands to go shopping at leisure, so I got myself...

This lovely shirt (which doesn't quite fit now, but will do after birth!) which is a) rather gorgeous, and a style I've wanted for a while and b) ideal for breastfeeding, which I shall be doing rather a lot of in a few weeks' time! And...

A new pair of PJs- again, I'm going to be very good and save them for after the big day, so I have something nice to wear.

So. All in all a Good Day. 

Right. Must dash. The bread needs taking out of the bread maker.  Granary this time.