MORE Winter wear

Yes, more ski wear! Although this time, regrettably I cannot lay claim to it. Yes I chose it, yes I love it, but no I did not make it. This is all down to the spectacular handiwork of my Mum. I requested, nay, demanded a red and white snowflake jumper, just weeks before Christmas. I had scoured the shops and the internet for what I was after and to no avail, so Mum stepped into the breach.
She located a totally awesome pattern at our local sewing shop, picked up the wool and went for it. Now it wasn't meant to be a christmas present, it was just my selfish wish to have it for the Christmas period, so Mum gunned it on the sticks and only missed the event by 2 days! So although it wasn't waiting for me under the tree, two days later I was cozied up in it in front of the fire. Superb for our flat with no central heating (and it was a long, cold winter this year. Cold. Very cold.) and my skiing holiday.

So here is my post to say thank you to Mum for my MARVELOUS jumper (obviously quite belatedly, but that won't be a surprise).

But now spring has sprung, and with temperature no longer below zero my warm jumpers will have to be put away until next winter. But that means there's lots more room for summer dresses! Ace!

Ski Tuesday

Well, its been a while... same old excuses though, moving house and switching jobs! I'm now based full time in the capital and all is going well.

I have been sewing though, even if my reporting of it leaves a lot to be desired! First off the blocks, and in the spirit of the season, is some ski wear!

The occasion of my first ever skiing trip, was most definitely an opportunity for some new snuggly jumpers. Now its been a looong time since I wore fleece (my school uniform was made of a particularly hideous fleece and the scars are still healing) but as someone who is naturally chilly anyway, I knew I would be thankful for it when I was halfway up a French mountain. As I knew I wasn't going to be wearing them a huge amount, I bought some fairly cheap navy and cream polar fleeces and used the Burdastyle Lydia pattern that I already had.

I was able to cut them out and pin them pretty darn quickly due to the fleece's fluffy friction and near indistinguishable grain. But then, when I put needle to syntheic fluff, my moment of enlightenment came... It was marvelous. The fleece was bliss to sew, it sewed up quickly and neatly and you didn't have to faff about finishing any of the seams, because it doesn't fray. It stays where you put it and its sooo lovely and soft. In no time at all (well actually several hours, but comparative to other projects, pretty swift) I had two snuggly jumpers. I added a little flower to one and a discrete bow to the other. The only modification was on the neckline which I chopped down, and the use of fleecey binding rather than facing on the neckline.

Now I'm not saying I'm a convert, and I am certainly not planning to add any more fleece to my wardrobe in the near future, but I am almost ready to admit that I don't totally hate it! Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the skiing, but at least I've got plenty of lovely warm clothes now!

Step back in time...

Well of late, pretty much all of my spare seconds have been spent preparing for a 1940s murder mystery which happened last night. I have been waiting for an excuse for ages to wop out my home made rollers and make up a '40s outfit and I finally had a reason!


I duly slept in my rollers, with my super glamourous blue old-lady-hairnet on, in order to have a bevy of beautiful curls to brush out for the event. I sewed up a dress and got some smashing seamed tights! Although I didn't guess the murderer I had so much fun. Now I just need to find another opportunity to go retro again!

Clickety Click!

I have been busy! Honest! Not just lazy!

I spent last weekend down in windy Dorset, jumping around on rocks and eating lots and lots of very nice cakes. I've been hankering for some new mittens for a while and now the weather is starting to turn chilly here, I thought a weekend away may be the perfect chance to start them off!

Unfortunately despite turning the house upside down I was unable to track down a set of 4 needles! Luckily the charity shops of Bridport came to the rescue! 4 sets of needles later (ranging in price from £1 to 10p a set!) I got a matching set the right size! Then it was just a case of making a test mitten before going for it with some lovely wool I picked up in Oxfam a couple of weeks back.

I thought 'how hard can it be? Its just the same but with extra needles!'. No. It is not. They are slippery and clunky and get in the way! Anyway, the knit one purl one wasn't going so well, and
so I am now attempting... a tube!!!


Currently its more of a ring... but it will grow! And once the tube is sufficiently tubular, hopefully I can move on to things with thumbs!!!

This week I have been mostly...

Bathing.

After another half move, I am now spliting my life between Hampshire and London, which means a fair amount of train travel and quite a lot of stressful limbo. To soothe my aches and stresses, I have taken to the bath.

I used to live in a house with a beautiful roll top bath and no shower (shock!). I thought it would be a massive inconvenience, but I actually quite enjoyed my nightly bath. It gave me quarter of an hour each day to just RELAX. It's quite amazing how much good it does my sanity to sit in some hot water for a half hour or so.

One day I hope to have a bathroom with contents as sweeeeet as this...

I already have the mirror... I'm on my way.

Working 9 till 5

I recently started a new job (after a year of student life between my last job and this) and so suddenly became in need of some super snappy office clothes. Sadly, new work doesn't pay immediately, so I needed something fast and cheap.

I trawled my BWOF (or Burdastyle as I believe it will soon be called) back copies and wrote down a list of about 2o pieces that would be suitable. I decided that my most pressing need was for skirts, and so I selected one that claimed to be only 1 and a half blobs of difficulty and was made up of only 3 pieces (speedy tracing and chopping... hurrah).

This was hastily followed by a quick hello to my local fabricland (fabric, lining and zip came to about £6 total... score!). A few muck ups (I didn't notice that the waistband measurements did not include seam allowance!) and pleats later, and tadaaah!

Burda Mag 04/09 113

It has plenty of give to allow for the copious amounts of office bending I do (OK that sounds dodgy - I mean I have to pick up lots of files from low shelves) and the ''kiss'' pleats make it a bit more interesting. I tried my hand at flat felled seams for the lining, and they worked a treat! I made no alterations to fit or style, and it was quick and easy to make.

All in all, pretty damn good!

You shall go to the ball

After several long weeks there has, all of a sudden, come a rush of activity in work, home and sewing. My poor machine has been languishing in my lengthy absence, and together we're getting all revved up about some new projects on the horizon! More to follow soon, but in the mean time, I've finally managed to get some photos together of my graduation ball dress!

After the pallava of making the damn thing fit, I realised that the only thing missing, was a wopping great big bow. So I added one, and felt much better about the whole situation.

Just to recap the changes made from the original BWOF 12/08 pattern were :
- Cutting the skirt off at the knee
- Raising the waist by about an inch
- Adding waist darts
- Adding a bust dart on the shoulder strap side
- Raising the shoulder
- Adding a big bow

If I was making it again, I think I'd just use the lining pattern for the bodice and not bother with the shoulder pleats included in the original pattern. They can't really be seen on the photos because they came out pretty badly and had to be covered by the big bow. I think if I'd done them properly they would have looked good, but it really wasn't very clear at all, and some how I managed to ruck them all up. They looked fine when they were flat, but when I put it on they looked pretty bad.

Generally this pattern was not a good fit for me, but I think after all the tweaking the dress came out looking pretty good, so I was happy in the end and had an awesome time at the ball. And both the dress and I made it into the survivors photo!