Hi all,
It’s been quite a while since I’ve blogged. Life’s been…interesting. I really haven’t been doing much of all for the last few months, only in snatches in between days of bed rest, or a few hours on a day spent mostly in bed. Such is the life of someone with ME!
On the upside, what I have achieved is quite cool, and I have photos. And I’ve been stitching!
I’ve also ordered a millennium frame and a spare set of horizontal bars to play with, so when they get here I’ll put my Greek mandala on there, and perhaps my current project, Papillion Creation’s “Around the World in 80 Stitches” SAL which I am loving, I’m 4 parts into it and about to start part 5 (they’re on pt 8, but that’s okay!).
So here’s where I’m up to with that:
(click for detail, it’s a high resolution photo, but it’s too big for my layout!)
It’s on a minty green 32ct linen I got from my LNS, with all DMC stranded floss except the white which is two sizes of perle cotton, and PTB 01 to add sparkly rainbowy interest. The next part goes anticlockwise from the leaf shape and is a weird ‘filling’ shape between other more recognisable shapes, and full of firework looking stitches from the Balkans. I’ve seen it stitched up and it’s one of my favourite parts. Part 4 was lovely, Hungarian and Romanian stitches. I loved the Romanian leaf stitch in the leaf shape, it’s easy to do and really pretty. Much preferable to satin stitched leaves I think, I’ll have to remember it.
I’ve also been sewing a bit. I like dressmaking, it’s something that’s low energy to do (cutting aside) and good to do in instalments, and I can make a dress much faster than finishing an embroidery project! It’s a lot of fun, too. So, first I made aprons for my friend Rachel and her little girl Ember for their birthdays – it’s the same apron, but the pattern has a criss-cross back made from the straps on the kids version rather than the straight ones on the adult’s pattern. Ember got cherries, Rachel owls. Photos!
Me & Ember:
And from the back, showing the apron goes around the back of the hips, and the criss-cross:
And Rachel in hers:
This was fabric that just screamed Rachel, who mostly wears black with bits of red. And the owls are adorable and grown-up-cute. I got more of the fabric for an apron for myself, and it’s cut, but it’s put away until I was over my being sick of aprons (making three in a row is a bit much). I should get to making it soon 
Then I tried a Colette patterns design called Jasmine and fell head over heels in love with her patterns…here’s my first Jasmine – I have more fabric for a dressier version with a big soft bow and puffed sleeves:
This one’s all quilting cotton, bought from my local haberdashery store when they had a massive sale due to changing owners. I love it, and it’s lovely and stiff away from my body for hot days. It is SO comfortable. I need to make a pair of comfy cotton pants in similar weight fabric.
And then I did the ‘dress’ part of dressmaking. I made the Darling Ranges dress by Megan Nielson. I…do not like this pattern. I made it in the size it said for me, and it’s so small in the bust I cannot find anyone it fits. Perhaps a 16 year old? Not me, and not my sister, and not our friends! Disappointing. Undaunted, I cut the next size up in more fabric, and made this:
I had to go for all three photos to show off the fabric! This is a gorgeous cotton voile that I picked up from spotlight – it’s very thin and somewhat translucent, but lovely for very hot weather. I had it on yesterday with a tank top underneath and belt over the top (like in the photos) on a 39*C day and it was very nice. I had to cut every single piece by hand (no folding the fabric and cutting two!) because the print wasn’t symmetrical across the fabric, very directional, and had different designs in different places. In some ways that was a good thing, because it led to some beautiful effects when it was sewn up, like the meeting of the two patterns on the back at the waist. It’s actually the same design in two different directions, you can see it the other way up if you look at the skirt. And the sleeves have that gorgeous big flower at the shoulders, I knew I had to fussy cut for that as soon as I saw the fabric! And because I’m me, I sewed the (clear, 5/8 inch) buttons on with three colours of embroidery floss, alternating colours, using the colours from the design – pink, purple and dark green.
I love the dress. But I do not love the pattern. I rarely swear, and I swore my whole way through both versions of this dress. Some people have said that it’s not good in smaller sizes and maybe that’s it, but I had so many issues… anyway, it’s done and I won’t be making it again. The biggest issue is the front, which is far too low to be decent – you can see my bra, and that’s just…no. Tank tops it is, thankfully I picked a fabric which looks good with a nice bright tank underneath. I thought about the puffed sleeves, and have nothing against them, but decided that my fabric was busy enough that I didn’t need the extra embellishment and left straight 3/4 length sleeves with a seam width hem on them. They fall to just past my elbows and look great, and are comfortable and practical given that my medication makes me very sensitive to the sun. I wore it to Ember’s first birthday party a few weeks ago in a park, and between it and a square of muslin over my legs (and a hat!) I didn’t get burned at all.
For all my complaints, though, it’s very comfortable to wear, I get compliments every time I wear it and it’s so awesome to be able to grin and say “thankyou, I made it myself!”
The last thing I’ve sewn is my Cambie dress. Oh Cambie, I had to have you as soon as I saw you. Cambie has two options in the skirt, both teamed with the gorgeous bodice, which is essentially a strapless dress front with a high back (to the top of the shoulders) which becomes cap sleeves/straps down the front. So you can wear normal underthings, hurrah, because if it’s summer I do not want to be messing around with strapless anything, too hot for that. It’s also adorable. The two skirts are either a very full skirt or an a-line one. My first Cambie is a full skirted one, but I made it a straight size 8 (despite being an hourglass rather than the pear it’s sized for) and the skirt is probably a bit full for me, so next time I’ll cut a size 0 (!!) and grade it to the waist. I only have bad photos of this one, so I’ll just give you one teaser webcam photo of it, and then when I’ve hemmed it (yeah, it needs hemming, I haven’t had a chance to sew since I finished everything else) I’ll get good photos out in the beautiful spring garden.
The fabric’s a swiss dot voile covered in tiny pink and purple flowers, lined with a very stiff poly cotton (which I won’t use for lining the skirt again unless I want it to stick out a mile!) and it’s adorable. I haven’t had a dress this feminine and just plain girly sweet in a long time, and for me that’s saying something since that’s my usual taste in dresses!
Sorry I’ve been away so long, but I hope I’ve made up for it in photos.
