Why I love this little corner of the internet…

My husband often mocks my ‘imaginary friends’ I’ve made through blogging, but he’s really missing the point of why this little, tiny corner of the internet is so fab 🙂 When I posted about a recent make that came out far too small, I was genuinely amazed at how many people offered their reassurance and advice. And what great advice too! My previously unwearable make, see here, that I had resigned myself to packing away until next Spring to fret about, suddenly became easy to rescue. And here she is…

The simple but revelational (to me), advice of removing the sleeves worked in lessening the ‘pull’ across my chest. I then neatened up the side seams, made some additional bias binding (not my favourite of tasks, but I can see I’ve improved a little), and attached accordingly. It’s now wearable, hurrah! Thank you Thimberlina (Thimberlina.wordpress.com) 🙂 The idea of inserting a couple of lace panels along the side seams would have been my next step, totally in-keeping with the theme of the top (if tops have themes!?!) had this not fully worked, thank you Teri (farsewla.wordpress.com).

So my daft husband can laugh all he likes (what do men ever know anyway?), but I love being involved in such a supportive and inspiring community. Thank you to anyone who reads or leaves comments (and for the links to leggings patterns) They really are much appreciated 🙂

Incidentally, you may have noticed my new BFF. I’m naming her Betty, after both my unplanned pattern purchase last week, see here, and a discussion of a certain, famous tea and cake emporium with Amanda of aebgledhill.wordpress.com which I was conducting while putting her together at the weekend 😉 I love how ridiculously tiny her waist was before I adjusted her to my, ahem, more ‘realistic’ measurements. Sorry Betty, but if we’re going to be best friends you’d better get used to the cake…

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Waste Not, Want Not II

The left over material from my Winter Ginger, see here, seemed the perfect amount to make my daughter another simple skirt from. I used Lisa Comfort’s ‘A Very Versatile Skirt’ pattern from her book Sew Over It. I’ve used this pattern many times for myself and once for my daughter, when I was forced to convert my very first Ginger into a skirt for her, after a serious zip malfunction, see here.

I could really see how far I’d come skills-wise, running this up. It used to take the best part of a day to run them up, more material for myself granted, but still… This, however took me the sum total of an hour and a half, and a good fifteen minutes or so of that consisted of my daughter selecting her appropriate trimmings from my box of tricks 🙂

This make made me feel bad that I don’t make her more things, but she’s growing so quickly, it sometimes just doesn’t feel worth the effort. I figure I get a lot more wear out of items I sew for myself (unfortunately I stopped growing many moons ago….) This was so quick to make up though, and suits her so well, that I really should run up a couple more. I do kind of wish I’d made this just a touch longer though. She’s wearing it here with her thin, ballet tights (having just come home from her lesson), but I guess it would look better with some thicker, navy leggings. Speaking of which, leggings are something she really could do with more of, I must have a look through some of my old magazines to see if I have a suitable pattern or search some free patterns online. If anyone thinks of any, aged 7 or so, let me know 🙂

I’ll leave you with some action shots. She couldn’t wait to model for me today 🙂

Finding Patterns in Unexpected Places

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who absolutely loved reading about Karen of didyoumakethat.com‘s kookily brilliant ‘pattern trail’, which involved her hiding a range of lovely patterns in various nooks and crannies all over The Isle of Wight, with a series of clues to help her readers to locate them 🙂 So disappointed to have been miles away from the action!

The highlight of my week so far wasn’t quite on a par with this, but it made me smile nonetheless. Every year we take our pupils to visit The Imperial War Museum in Salford, here in Manchester, to further their understanding of the war poetry unit we teach them. It’s a fantastic, and deeply moving visit, which both our girls and the staff enjoy. I’m always fascinated by the contributions made by women in particular and the individual stories behind the artefacts on display. What I wasn’t expecting to find though were these…

… nestled in the museum shop. In fact, there was a whole little section dedicated to the ‘make do and mend’ mantra. Well, clearly as they’re both completely impractical for a British Winter, I couldn’t resist 😉 I probably paid over the standard rate for them, but it’s clearly for a good cause and I’d have probably paid something similar for p & p, and no doubt wouldn’t have stopped at just placing two patterns in my shopping cart (anyone else guilty of justifying their additional purchases to get their money’s worth out of the p & p?)

I might also have made my first couple of purchases for my ‘Sewing Santa’ recipient… Head on over to Stitched Up From the Start for more details, and if you’ve missed it this year, definitely something fun to consider for the next 🙂

Where’s the most unexpected place you’ve purchased patterns from?