Tigers, foxes, flowers, bows and wicked hair.

So firstly, the good news. Noah has finally accepted his tiger trousers. He wore them today. Phew. Not a wasted effort then!. I now have to decide what to do with the remainder of the fabric.

Secondly, I have very nearly finished a new pair - the foxie trousers (just need to sew up the waistband) Its so quick when you've done it (and made umpteen mistakes) once already.  These only took and hour or so to cut and sew and Noah is enthusiastic about this pair - he seems to like them better with cuffs. He actually said they are 'so nice mummy' - but 3 year olds are fickle - he may change his mind tomorrow. Bad photo as taken in poor light. Its so late I can't be ar*ed to get the machine out again, change the needle to a double, and get going, but I'm so close.



Thirdly, bed hair. Mostly its bad. On Joey, however, its cool. Seriously - how much does this child rock his slept on hair? That never happens to me LOL!



Finally - I'm still trying to embellish this flipping bag. I tried a gathered flower with a button in the middle:



The I tried making a bow:



I'm still not convinced. Noah did say 'that's a lovely bag mummy' and I do take his critiques seriously (was trying on a dress the other day - "No" he said "that would be a bad choice" - he was right)  so even if I cannot create the right brooch I'm happy enough :) I will keep trying though.

Book Purchasing Bargains

I've been looking at buying Sew U Home Stretch (bizarre title) for some time, after I 'd been hankering after Tillys nautical knit dress.

Luckily it happens to be on offer for £3.99 at the moment at the Works. Unluckily, when I nipped in there today they didn't have it instore, so I've had to fork out postage, but still a great deal compared to everywhere else selling it. I may have bought a couple of other books <cough> whilst I was at it. BUT they were ALL bargains I tell you...Bargains!

Finally started work on the swing dress!

I've been itching to start it, and as you can see the bodice is starting to look something like a bodice. I did find the instructions incredibly confusing though, and nothing seems to fit quite right. I checked and double checked my pattern, but I've cut it all out as instructed (apart from shortening the bodice, but I did that both front and back in the place they marked to do so)For instance, the back shoulder section, where the bodice back meets the (gathered) bodice front, is not long enough.

As a result I had to sew it at a bit of an angle and use the tiniest seam possible (About 1/8 inch). The result of this is that the yolk (which is topstiched down) is not in line with the inner edge of the front bodice.

The gathering (which I did between notches as instructed) seems way too far towards the armholes, with not much near the inner bodice (towards the neck) You can see that in the photo below (actually, my point is, you can't see the gathers at all in the photo below, which concerns me - but you can see them in the photo above) I'm hoping it will look fine once the dress starts to come together. I'm also hoping it fits. Its seems a bit small.

However, I'm not cutting out a new back bodice. I am going to soldier on regardless and see what happens. If I like the dress, then at least I know next time how to modify. I love sewing with this cotton though, and so does my machine. Don't seem to have any of the issues I get with other fabrics. (Probably shouldn't have said that so early on!)



I would sooo love to have a dressmakers form, but maybe that's what I can ask for in August (birthday) Not sure where I'd put it though.

I also subscribed to Cloth Magazine. Its £5 for three issues to see what I think, and I feel like I'm allowed a subscription as JP gets Viz. Admittedly I read that in the bath (I like readers letters and tips!) so its kind of for both of us. I don't think he'll be reading my sewing mags!

Oh yes, my order from U-Handbag arrived. Uber-quick. I'm v. happy. Will post pic once I recieve the fabric and other gubbins to make my handbags with!

The tiger trousers are finished, but he point blank won't wear them

Nothing more to say. I'm working on him. But he's 3, so short of threatening to to wear them myself (and I might get one arm in) I'm not sure there's any way of convincing him!

The Great British Sewing Bee

The Great British Sewing Bee is on tonight. I'm loving this (although I'm sad that Tilly got knocked out last round. She was a bit disorganised but she did create her own pattern for the shirt)

Obviously will have to be whilst JP is in the bath as he can't fathom why I would want to watch it. I'm actually learning things (although the 'beware of sewing with silky fabrics' episode came too late for me) and I love seeing what they come up with.

I love getting parcels!

Yippee my fabric's arrived. And its just as purdy as I'd hoped :) I love getting parcels.

I'm on a roll!

And my next project. I'm going to make the swing dress

from Sense and Sensibility patterns. I love this green fabric which has teeny tiny stars on it - I'm hoping the colour is accurate though - I like the sort of dark-sageyness of it.

The two other fabrics I had my eye on were this blue poplin which is very pretty:



and this red lifebuoy, which I decided I probably wouldnt be brave enough to wear, even in the black version!

Finally - two finished frocks!

I've had this dress sitting in my cupboard for ages requiring modification. I bought it in Peacocks sale for a fiver because I loved the retro fabric and skirt, but hated the bodice which had round very high neckline and sleeves that were too tight. It was also too big. Sadly I now fit it, however we shall focus on the good things. I've chopped and darted and seamed and bias binded the edges and now have a dress that I really rather like. Result!



This jersey stretch dress worked out really well too. although you can't tell from the photo as it looks a bit all over the place. When its on I love it, but I'm not taking a photo of me wearing it! I got it in the tesco sale for £7, which is cheaper than buying the fabric and starting from scratch, but the body was too long (I'm short waisted) and the neckline too high, and the sleeves too long. It took me many evenings to unpick it all (they are stitched really well - who knew?) and re-shape and stitch the neck facing back in and make little gathers on the front and puff the sleeves, but its done. Ta-dah!



..and then there's this little cutey bag I got off ebay. Added some of the cute polka/lace trim I bought and didn't know what to do with - just to pep it up a bit.

Woo!