just about ticked off the list..

I promised Lindsey a short orange pencil skirt for her birthday many (many) moons ago, and then it has sat waiting fro me to finish off for aaaages. I had loads of tweaks to make, and then I forgot what I was going to do, and so it sat.

But now it is done (I think), Lindsey still has to try it on, and there may be issues yet, but I at least fixed the zip which was the major thing holding me back.)

I still need to properly iron it, so its a bit crumpled looking, but its pretty much there. I used Jessie's pencil skirt drafting tutorial to make it, and it went together really easily (barring my own laziness!). I also added a kick pleat. I found it surprisingly hard to find orange fabric that didn't resemble safety wear, and this cotton from Mandors was a little thin, so I underlined the whole thing. The only bit I am not super happy with is the hem, which was my first real attempt (that worked at all) at a machine blind hem. It actually worked pretty well, and it looks quite nice, certainly better than a normal top-stitched one.The stitches are however a little big, and I think I didn't get the tension quite right as there are some places here it doesn't quite iron perfectly flat. there is progress in my skills yet to be made I think. Looking back though this is one of my first projects designed for normal wear (ie not a costume) that uses a block colour, and those are meant to be more difficult to look perfect.

Overall I think it is really fun, and I am pleased with it. I think I am going to use the same tutorial to make myself some pencil skirts.

These skirts will hopefully be worn with some tops made from this pattern (mainly versions of view C). I had a slight set back yesterday though when I couldn't find the back piece, I'm sure it used to have one.. I shall have to search through my random pattern pieces pile!

Channelling Oona

Over the last few weeks I have been very busy with uni and more uni stuff, and sewing has taken a back seat, with the second half of Roswell Week postponed. To cheer myself up slightly, and completely disregarding my pledge to sew from my stash, I popped into Edinburgh Fabrics and bought the jazziest fabrics I could see.. Oops!!

These magnificent fabric choices make feel a little bit closer to the awesomeness of the lovely Oona, and her love of pattern and colour.

First we have a peacock feather cotton, probably to become a simple dress..

And then this fabulous flamingo print cotton, DESTINED to be a hawaiian stylee 50s shirt dress.

Now I just need some time to sew.....

Roswell day 3 - bird box cushions

Item completed - Bird box cushions.

State before Roswell Week -cut out. 

Reason for abandonment - I got distracted

Time spent as an UFO - as foam cushions that needed covering, a year? as cut out pieces, about a month. 

Time used to finish - about an hour

"chump" factor felt for not having done it sooner -pretty terrible for the amount of time it took me to buy the fabric, not so bad for the rest. 


Ok, this isn't actually finished, as I only finished one, but I though I would check it worked properly for sewing the other one up. 


For many years we had some uncomfortable kitchen chairs, which I cut out some foam squares to make more comfortable. These gradually became slightly disgusting, as I never got round to covering them. Then I got some new chairs, from a second-hand scrap yard in Prestonpans. They were far more pretty, but the foam was still useful.We also have window seat, and the cushions at the end always flopped down and weren't comfy, so I rolled up a bit of foam to make a bolster to prop everything up, which I also never covered. 


I eventually found some fun bird fabric in Ikea. I have never made a box cushion before, and I am not sure I sewed it all up in the correct order, but it seemed to work. I put in zips and everything. As stated in my previous post, the bolster was a bit tricky as it isn't a perfect cylinder or anything, and I made a bit of a hash of bits of it, but luckily these are not visible in use! yay!

Roswell Week day 2 The Meringues don't agree with me skirt

OK, its not day 2, but the weather was so nice over the weekend that I didn't sew anything, instead choosing to ride around on my bicycle.

Item completed - The Meringues don't agree with me skirt.

State before Roswell Week - finished apart from hand stitching the facings, but it didn't fit right. 

Reason for abandonment - I wasn't sure what to do with it. 

Time spent as an UFO - about a month (borderline current project!)

Time used to finish - about an hour

"chump" factor felt for not having done it sooner - not too bad, I tried this fairly recently, and I did need to think about it. 

Well, as you may remember from my previous post, I (like every other sewer on the planet) had tried to make a meringue skirt from the Colette patterns sewing book, only I wasn't very happy with it. Now this wasn't the fault of the pattern, it came together very easily, and for once, wasn't the fault of my inability to read instructions. I really  like the way it looks on other people, particularly Sarah's nice denim version and Scruffy badger's pinstripes.  I just didn't like it on me. I used some nice sturdy stretch cotton, with bright flowers. The fabric isn't quite as lurid as it looks in these pictures. I managed to follow the instructions and worked out how to do an invisible zip perfectly for the first time. I did forget that with Colette skirt patterns I always end up taking a bit off the waist/hip area (I thought it might be just the waist, but it turns out its not) so it was a little large, but reasonable. I thought the scallops might be tricky, but they weren't at all. And then I tried it on and I didn't like it. Rats. As you can see from the pics below, its perfectly wearable, its just a little blah, which is much more visible in real life than the pictures, it just didn't move right on my figure somehow.

I hemmed and hawed a bit, and decided that it was the shape that was wrong. On me I think it either has to be more aggressively A-line, or tighter, this treads a line in between that doesn't work with my hips. I was then a bit stuck, if this was a normal skirt I would just peg it, but this had scallops.. it was going to be a horrible mess if I got it wrong. So I tried first sewing down inside to remove one whole scallop from each side of the front and back. I would have taken a comedy picture of the result, but I couldn't walk far enough to get a clear shot, plus I hadn't taken it from high enough so it poofed around my hips-the end result looked a bit like I was wearing one leg of a massive pair of jodhpurs. I pulled that out and tried again, this time I sewed down so I ended up exactly in the middle of a scallop, so the scallop goes across the side seam. Result! the skirt now looks much more plausible on me. I also cut an inch off one side of the waistband (sloppy I know to only do one side, but the other side had the perfect zip in it, anyhow it looks fine!)

In case anyone is wondering about the title, it is referencing to the fact that I have problems with meringues in real life too, as they are made with eggs which I am allergic to. 

beautiful invisible zip (no, I didn't even try to match the pattern. but it's so busy it doesn't matter)

I am also making progress on my box cushions, with some more nice neat zip action.

Roswell week day 1

I thought I wasn't going to be able to carry out day 1, as I went for some drinks out in the sun, but I decided instead to just have a stab slightly half cut, though sadly not on a glamourous cocktail made by a sexy man, just some beer I got from Tesco. Never the less, I think I may be a convert, as I knocked out two things in about 10 minutes, no drama, no procrastination. Excellent.

Item completed - Shifting skies petticoat

State before Roswell Week - finished but too long

Reason for abandonment - I had two options, either hem all the bottom (never going to happen -it took me about 6 hours to rough hem them to start with) or take it up at the waistband, which I thought would be difficult. 

Time spent as an UFO - over a year

Time used to finish - about 5 minutes.

"chump" factor felt for not having done it sooner - MASSIVE. 5 minutes.. sigh, I have been tripping over this on the floor by my desk for over a year and it took me 5 minutes..

I started this last march, and quickly realised that lining fabric is a pain in the arse to do anything with. It snags, it moves about, it frays horribly.. I do however love the way it feels and ever since I was little, due to an excessive amount of Victorian literature in my youth, I have always wanted a petticoat that rustles.. The skirt is a circle skirt top layer, which is then sewn onto a double ruffle and a deeper single ruffle (on the inside). I can't remember how many meters length there are in the ruffles, I think possibly 10m per ruffle..

The difficulty came attaching them, to avoid the fraying nightmare, I decided to french seam the joins, but this ended up in a wibbly wobbly shambles. However, due to the dark nature and the massive size, this isn't actually that obvious as the wibbles seem to even themselves out!. (more anti lining fabric whining to be found in my Roswell week 1 post).

I put the waistband on and then tried it on with all the things I wanted to wear it with, and it was an inch and a half too long. Rats. 

So today I turned the waistband down on itself, and sewed it down. Job done! Here I am wearing it with my checky dress (which I did not make, but is very swirly). I rather love it, it isn't scratchy like net petticoats, and it squishes so it's less stiff. And it may be a bit of a hot mess, but it's a luxurious silky hot mess! I feel very decadent and flirty wearing it. 

Item completed - Old lady polka top

State before Roswell Week - dart seams unpicked, not resewn

Reason for abandonment - I just got distracted. 

Time spent as an UFO - 6 months

Time used to finish - about 15 minutes

"chump" factor felt for not having done it sooner - pretty big again, really took no time or effort to finish. 

This is a classic "shops make nice clothes for old women that don't fit well" item. I spotted this blouse in a charity shop and loved the vintage collar style and red polka dots. It is however clearly aimed at an older audience, and is cut accordingly. It actually fitted me perfectly well based on its loose fit. It did not however look good. I look like I am wearing a top I borrowed from my gran. 

So I unpicked the darts (shown pinned back up in the shots above so you can get the effect), and then forgot about it. Today I simply put on my dressform inside out, pinned out the side seams and waist darts and then sewed them up. Took no time at all.

Now it fits, and is not an old lady top any more! It looks nice untucked and tucked in. Yay! It's slightly clingy around the rib cage, I think I need to pin it so it doesn't gape (which is odd, as it's not actually very tight..), but otherwise it's looking pretty good. 

Drawing a line - Roswell Week 3

Ok folks, I will admit. I have completely fallen off the sewing bandwagon in the last month or so. I just haven't been at all motivated. I think about a project, and then I sit down at my machine and I just can't be bothered. I don't know what is wrong with me! Well I do, I have had a very stressful month and haven't felt like doing anything. And now the weather is nice so I have been outside playing in the sun (for some reason the weather is pretending it is July instead of March). But no more procrastinating.I shall make things, and feel the joy that comes from doing so. I have made a cushion cover for a bolster pillow for our window seat. Which really needed doing. But it was a serious bodge job (luckily you can't tell when it is insitu!) though it still looks much better than the uncovered roll of foam we had before. I also altered a skirt for a friend, which had been weighing on my mind.

I think that's slightly the trouble, I have a lot of unfinished jobs that just clog up my mind, I shouldn't start things until they are finished, but I have got stuck for whatever reason and haven't done them. BUT NO MORE! I shall finish them all!! (well some of them). Roswell Week 3! For those who don't know. Roswell Week is a week where I try and finish as many UFOs as possible, ideally posting everyday. I have done it twice before, the first time a magnificent success, the second a dismal failure.. Hopefully this time will also be a success..! I shall either finish stuff, or just properly abandon stuff, but the pile will go down! It is a blitz attack sort of approach!

So on the list:

Orange pencil skirt for Lindsey. This is shaming, I should have done this months ago but I keep forgetting what alterations to make. It was meant to be for Christmas... Oh well. This is the skirt of the infamous zip sewing in upside down incident. All it needs is the waistband taking in a bit, the hem redoing and the waistband sewing down. IT SHALL BE DONE!

Mystery project. This is one of those brilliant successes or horrible failures in the making, and probably won't be done this week because there is an awful lot left to do. So it shall remain a mystery.. for now. ( I promise if it is horrible I will show it too). But I shall make some progress.

Meringue skirt. This is so close to finished, but it has ground to a halt for a sad reason. namely, that despite loving this on everyone else who has made it, I hate it on me. The scallops just look peculiar. It may be the fabric I used which is flowery, but it just looks a bit of a mess. The scallops aren't finished but I think they wont be as they just don't seem to work. I think part of the problem is that is a very straight skirt. In an ideal world I would peg it and make it narrower at the hem, which would make it look less odd on on me, but there are those blasted scallops which mean that that doesn't work as I would have to cut off half a scallop or something. Argh.. I am tempted to cut off the scallops entirely and then just have a straight hemmed skirt, but it does seem rather a waste, plus it might be a bit short. All in all I probably would have binned this weeks ago, except that I finally managed to do a perfect invisible zip! It is beautiful and I can't waste it! It appears the trick with my zipper foot is to sew the line it wants to (about 2 mm out) and then sew another one closer, when the zip behaves better.

Cushion covers for the kitchen. This is a follow up to the before mentioned bolster bodge. Again, been waiting a long time for these.

Pendrell Homage. OK this one has been on the list since the first Roswell. I am just scared to cut it out. CHICKEN!

Pink pencil skirt. I traced the pattern, I cut out the pieces. No further progress.

Pink wrap top. Pieces cut out, and will probably only take about 3 seams.. (though it may not work... it a bit of an experiment)

Check pencil skirt. Cut out. Not sewed.

Shifting skies underskirt. Again, been on the Roswell list for a while. All it needs is taking up a bit at the waist.

Yet unknown contents of the mending bag. I had actually lost my mending bag.. for about a year, but spotted it again the other day. I will have to investigate its contents (and possibly bin them!).

Spotty checked vest. Another Roswell regular. This is the result of the Sew Weekly pillowcase project. Last year.

Red shirt refashion. Half unpicked the darts, then abandoned. Really small project that has been hanging about for months.

Turquoise underskirt. Cut out, not sewn up, even though it is only 4 seams, and I wear my other underskirt almost every day. Pathetic.

The list seems to have got rather long, and I haven't even checked my sewing area yet.. Oh well-BRING IT ON! ROSWELL WEEK 3!

Feel free to join me, any other UFO gatherers out there! The challenge doesn't really have any rules, and you don't have to finish, but it is always good to get through the pile!

Liebster award

I have been super busy with uni and stuff over the last few weeks so I have been missing form the blogosphere, but now I am back I am so excited! I was awarded my first blogger award-the Liebster award, for blogs with 200 followers or less. I was selected as one her five top picks by the lovely Sue at Sewing Steady. Thanks honey! 

"The origins of the Liebster Blog Award are somewhat unclear but the general consensus is that it means favourite or dearest to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers." 

1 - thank your liebster blog award presenter on your blog. 
2 - link back to the blogger who presented the award to you. 
3 - copy/paste the blog award on your blog. 
4 - present the liebster blog award to 5 blogs (with 200 followers or less). 
5 - let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment.


My choices are:


I love quiet and small, who mixes sewing and science. I am loving her inspiration pics, that grey and turquoise dress is beautiful. I love how she makes vintage patterns look really wearable and not scary at all!
Over at Creative Accomplishments, My makes beautiful vintage dresses in fabulous colours and patterns, some of which she sells. I have been considering making a bright jacket, and hers is gorgeous!
Laura in a tangle is one of the bloggers who seemed to start about the same time I did, but she has done far more! She keeps running ahead with complicated patterns and stuff while I don't dare!
Steavie over at Beebee's vintage dress makes really pretty stuff in great colours and patterns, she is currently considering branching out into underwear..
Kat at All the whimsical things makes really nice clothes with a mix of modern and vintage looks. I love her full skirt, the fabric is beautiful!