Me on Monday ~ The Ginger Edition Part 2

If you’d been here earlier you would have laughed at me, for sure. Although, if you really had been here this morning, I could have just handed you the camera and saved myself the contortions, but were would the fun be in that?

All I succeeded in doing was proving I cannot take a decent selfie, to show you my new skirt. I need longer arms or a tripod. These are the best of a bad bunch.

A close up of my favourite part. The polka dot waistband facing. Love that.

That’s Me on Monday. How about you?

What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday #307

The mechanic has gone to work, the lunches are packed and breakfast cleared away. The children are ready and my boy is having his 15 minute chill out before he walks to school. That gives me enough time to pin on my waistband and write this.

All thanks to my new sewing machine cabinet/table. Whenever I have a few minutes to spare I can get the next bit ready to sew. It’s working well for me. I started this skirt on Friday (if you’re an Instagram friend, you’re no doubt sick of the sight of it by now!) and I’m on the home stretch. Hoping to have it finished tomorrow.

At the back you can see the next skirt, in my six pattern plan, cut out ready to go.

I probably would have been done by now, if I hadn’t procrastinated so long over that pesky zip. Managed it on the second attempt, although I ended up turning it inside out and sewing from the zip side rather than the top. Never mind, it’s in.

That’s me for today. Time to wave off my boy and chivvy my girl. Want to see what the other deskers have been up to? You can find them all at Julia’s place.

PS. If you visited last week and were interested in what that stamped panel turned into, you can find the gift box here, along with a quick tutorial.

Me on Monday ~ The Ginger Edition

Today you’ll find me a little distracted. My girl has her Art exam. The first half of it anyway. She was a bit anxious when she left, although excited to be spending an uninterrupted five hours drawing. The best thing of all? She’s missing PE!

For her, it was a rough sketching, preliminary drawing sort of weekend.

For me, it was all about the Ginger skirt. A denim ironing, grain line measuring (why didn’t I think of using my quilting ruler before?), pattern tracing, fabric cutting…..

…..waistband assembling (loving those polka dots for the inside), seam finishing (in my favourite old school style), edge folding (the Ezy-Hem makes it so easy), zip avoiding kind of weekend.

Me on Monday? I can’t put it off any longer. Wish me luck.

Waving back to Sian on this beautiful sunny afternoon. Coffee in the garden to look forward to, once I’ve conquered that pesky zip.

Friday Finds ~ Seamwork

I’ve talked before about my love of Indie sewing patterns, with their clear diagrams and explicit instructions. Often there are online Sew-A-Longs just after the release of a new pattern and with older ones you can guarantee that there will be a wealth of examples and handy tips from sewing bloggers who’ve already made them.

Colette go the extra mile and the Laurel, with a 40 page (yes, really) instruction book, is more like a sewing lesson than a dressmaking pattern. Every single step is covered and it assumes no prior knowledge. When it says beginner, that’s exactly what it means. There is also an extra 60 page e-book available to download, with nine variations to the basic dress. The booklet includes a sleeveless version, which is what I am making. It has an invisible zip*, which might put some people off, but I have read lots of blogs where the maker was able to get away without putting one in due to the loose shift shape of the dress.The blouse version doesn’t need one.

Onto the Friday Find. Colette are launching an online magazine next month, which will be free for everyone to read. But, if you choose to subscribe you will also get patterns via digital download and other bonus content. The projects will all take less than 3 hours to make. Sounds good to me. You can add yourself to the list for receiving a sneak peek here. I am also subscribed to Snippets, which is a handy hint/sewing tip delivered to your inbox every Tuesday. I’ve learnt all sorts from those.

We have a Saturday free of university tours this week, so I might get some time to work on my Laurel. Here’s hoping. Have a lovely weekend.

*There’s a great tutorial, with a video, on how to install one here.

The Birds & the Bees….

….blowing in the breeze.

Tula Pink is popular in the quilting world and I loved this Tree of Life design from the Birds & the Bees range. When I found a couple of yards on ebay, at a very good price, I snapped it up. It seemed a shame to cut it up into small pieces for patchwork* so I decided to use it to make a dress and of course there would be scraps (quite sizeable ones as it turns out) left over.

Yellow is not a colour that features much in my wardrobe. Not because I don’t like it, it just doesn’t really suit me, but this mustard shade seems to work. I chose the Laurel shift dress from Colette. The front is one piece so other than the bust darts the large scale pattern won’t be broken up. I didn’t have quite enough yardage to match the rows of trees exactly, at the side seams, and I’m hoping that is not going to bug me once it’s sewn up.

There wasn’t any time for sewing over the Summer holidays and I’ve yet to finish my Lonsdale dress. I know, I know! Can’t believe I started it in April. I cut the Laurel out while waiting for my new zipper foot to arrive. I just couldn’t get on with the old one and I didn’t want to make a mess of the zip, when I’ve been so careful to get a good finish with everything else. Postie brought it this morning so I’m all set now and hope to have some finished garments to share with you very soon.

*Look what Florence has done with some of the Tree of Life fabric. Can you spot it in the purple cog? What an amazing job she’s done with the fussy cutting.