Its fail day!

Because, I was meant to have had a finished suit by Tuesday;

 buttons sewn, hems neatened, collars top stitched.......

I have this instead

A collar, 

an un-top stitched, faced front or two,

A shoulder seam and finished facing,

and a  hem that will be narrow.

Not the progress I hoped to make. On the other hand, since I'm meant to be getting Sewmuchbetter,  maybe it's best that I take my time and finish with a garment I am proud to wear. Tuesday, not fail day!

I now have,  

One of these!

My Silver Viscount overlocker looks more like this,

 but my picture of it says nothing good about this fine piece of machinery.

I spotted it on Gumtree London a few months ago, bought it home and kept it out of sight for a braver time.  It was being sold for less than half price, just down the road from my place, had hardly been used and  came with a few large cones of thread.

I only just got round to working out how to use it; now that I'm more confident, I shall use it a lot more!  

some practise stitches

.

EMBONPOINT

Etsy is a place full of wonderful things.  As I was Internet window shopping I really had to buy a dress and jacket pattern that I came across from one of the sellers.

   

Her name is Omega;  she sells these Embonpoint patterns as PDF files. Each file comes with a ruler, instructions and patterns pieces for each garment.  I paid £13 for both jacket and dress.  Embonpoint patterns can be used to fit sizes from 20" to 69" bust. You could fit a whole gaggle? bevy? of bridesmaids.  What is the collective noun? Should there be one? It should be beauty!  You could fit a whole beauty of bridesmaids! Her patterns are gorgeous! You know, vintage, but now!  Search for EMBONPOINT in Etsy, you'll see what I mean.

This is some of what I got

This was too small, and so were the other options suggested i.e. 100% zoom

more of the above

I pulled this number out of a hat.  Worked though!

To get the correct size, I had to experiment with %ages on my printer 'till I arrived at a 120% print out

There are other pages that tell what the symbols and letters mean, and how to use the ruler etc.  

I shan't be starting this project till the 18 Y O finishes her exams and I can have my dining table back.

This system is similar to the Lutterloh  system according to Omega and I think it is.  The special rulers though are not interchangeable.

Have a good week!

Why was the broom late?

It over swept!

Mission: Project Aborted!

I was going to make one of these

From this old Burda

I made 3 of these over the years, but had to give them away as I got smaller.  I made a soft blue cotton one, a peach Georgette and a flowery Chiffon. Anyway, I lost this crinkle embroidery Georgette that I bought for the occasion. 

                       That's what happens when you put things away.

 

I ended up instead, looking at this pattern 

                              

from this Burda,

and did a quick make instead, just to make myself feel better.

 

It is a very quick make, only a few pieces; Front, Back, Casing, Sleeve-things and the long Belt/Tie.  (As I was pulling the fabric inside out for the belt, I slipped and bashed myself in the face).  I wore it to school next day and received 4 compliments!  I must say, I don't like it very much! It would have been better had I a figure. I loved making it as it was so simple. 

I'm going to do the blog thing!

WAS IT EASY TO MAKE?

YES. I disregarded the instructions - it's almost self explanatory.  I'm not gonna show any stitch details although, it is pretty good - you'll just have to trust that what I say is true.

DID IT LOOK LIKE THE PICTURE?

NO! and YES! Off, it looks like the pattern but on, no! But that's because I have no figure to speak of.

WOULD I MAKE IT AGAIN?

YES, KIND OF!  I 'm going to, one day, make this version 

because it has the caftan look around the sleeve/sides, which was what I wanted in the first place.

WHAT DID I LIKE ABOUT THIS PATTERN?

It's very easy and I imagine you can get a lot of wear  on many occasions if you think about the fabric more carefully than I did.

FABRIC CHOICE

One I had in my stash from a second hand place called Posh Junk in Mitcham.

It was 45" wide with colourful tulips on a navy background. I didn't want to be bothered with too much pattern matching;  I had about 2.5m. I managed to use about 2m.

I then found my fabric - if you got this far you've seen it - and it's been cut out and is ready for marking and interfacing!  Hopefully, I'll have a new two-piece dress by next Tuesday! I'm going to have to take my time on this one; my fingers are a little numb these days and the fine fabric's a little difficult to manoeuvre at the best of times but, as I say, I'm a-gonna-take-me-time.

Teacher: What is a forum?

Pupil: A two-um plus a two-um!

Pfaff Creative 1475 CD mended for now!

Years ago, after a lot of sewing machine research, I decided on a Pfaff Creative 1475 CD with IDF.

The 23-Y-O was 5 months old at the time; my younger brother and I put her, in her little car seat, in the back of his motor and we drove to Hammersmith High Street, where I purchased my dream machine!

I lurved this machine, lurved it I tell you!

We made things together, me and Pfaffy; tiny baby clothes, little girly dresses with matching shoes, little and then big patchwork quilts, dresses, blouses, trousers and simple bags for me,  an outfit or two for a funeral or two, bridal frocks and suits, wedding dresses and suits, bridesmaid finery......

The actual machine

plus wear and tear

Then one day, a year or two after the guarantee ran out, the tension went kaput!

Arghhh!  No money, no machine; what to do?

I went to buy some veg for our tea one day and last minute, went to the  man in Tooting Broadway Market who sold and repaired machines, at that time.   He persuaded me to buy a heavy, zig-zag Husqvarna Viking 3010 machine that I couldn't even carry home.  It's a great machine. Sturdy, reliable, easy to fix, cheap replacement parts.  But it didn't do this

 or this,

or indeed this

not automatically, anyway!

I plodded on, Pfaffy sitting in the corner gathering dust, being moved from one corner to another, 

Then!

                                    

Hairdryer!

What!  (I hear you exclaim in disbelief)?

Well,

I had a laptop that also went kaput a while ago.  The best forum advice said: heat it up with a hairdryer around the circuit board bit.  The solder would melt, flow to the relevant components re- connect them, voila, laptop works again!

Did it work?  Your a bit curious now innit?

Did it ek-as-like! It just melted and warped the plastic. And I was using it on my hair, hair I tell you!

But,

I looked at Pfaffy, Pfaffy looked back, all forlorn and hound doggy, I walked past the hairdryer and, 

like I said!

so I took this

and held it around here

for a couple of minutes.  Aluminium body you see, not too many melty opportunities!

And now, Pfaffy does 

THIS

And I do THIS!

I hope this is of some use to someone out there and that it can work for somebody else.

In the meantime, I plan to make one of these

using some Georgette fabric wot I bought cheap, from Silkhance Fabrics in Tooting, but I cant find it at the moment.  And that's what you get for clearing things away!

The bag is ongoing, meaning I  haven't received my hardware yet but it looks like this so far.

I do not like that lilac but, It's done now and I'm not gonna change it again!  (long story)

I'm awaiting some lobster clasps and bag feet in silver effect.  I have large eyelets for the lobsters and should have bought silver rivets but I don't want to wait any longer.

Teacher: Why can't you ever answer any of my questions?

Pupil: Well if I could there wouldn't be much point in me being here !

Bag jumper

My week with not enough pictures:(

I'm working on a new bag.  I'm kind of addicted at the moment (you don't say!) but it'll pass soon.  The sun is in the sky in the UK, sometimes, and even though it's still very cold, ( nobody told the weather it's nearly June) I'm hopeful that I can wear some summer gear that I plan to make, soon.

In the mean time,  I'm part way through a bag that used to be a jumper. I acquired this from a recent clothes swap.  I ( of course, with my feeble memory) forgot to take a picture of the jumper before I cut it up! But the shape was very similar to this one,


but with less sleeve, less pattern and less neck.  And as you can see from the pictures below, it was washed so much, I didn't need to finish of the edges as it doesn't even fray when cut!

This was meant to have been the back of the bag but, because it's only a useful tote, I'm gonna have this in front, plain back and use a bag organiser instead of putting more pockets on (in).

It's a bit feeble, so...

I sewed plastic canvas onto the side seams

Inside, interfaced and strengthened 

That's it, so far.  I'm awaiting hardware from the post people.  I told myself to stop spending so much on the Bay so,  I bought my stuff from a shop on Etsy UK instead.  (hee hee)!

I had 40 minutes to wait for a pal in Tooting Broadway on Wednesday lunchtime, so I popped in to a place called Graveney and Meadow for tea and a sit down.  Service was great, young folk working were all lovely, not to mention beautiful and tea was bought to me with a tiny teapot that yielded 2 cups.  No pics (sigh)!

I'm going back, I'm bringing a friend and I'm taking pictures, if they allow it.  This is their site

http://graveneyandmeadow.com/

The reason I'm giving them a mention is - this is what I saw on my trip to the bathroom.

Pattern paper art!

I was altogether too amused!

Another day!

How do you make seven an even number?
You take out the 's'!