Catch Up Time (Again!)

 Wow! 

So much to catch up on...

Not sure why, but my blog has been on my mind lately and so I popped over - I can't believe it's been so long since I was last here! 2018! Looks like I need to clean off the cobwebs, get the duster out and do something about that...

So, since I was last here...*deep breath*.     

I've got married, and moved house...both in the same week, between Covid lockdowns. I never want to do that again haha! We love being married, and love our new house, but boy was it stressful! Jamie is now at college (how did that happen? He was still at Primary School the last time I was here!), Russell is still writing music, we now have a cat, and three new nieces!

I've taken up watercolour painting, alongside many other new crafts, and now have my own craft room! 

I'm currently making things for our local church's Easter craft fair, which my Mum and I do together every year as well as their Christmas fair. It's great fun, and it's lovey to spend that time with my Mum too! 

More about all the crafty things later, I think that's quite enough to be getting on with for today!

Take care, and I'll be back soon (well, sooner than 7 years, anyway...)

Love 

Lisa xx

Getting an early start...

Well for some reason, (and trust me, this NEVER happens!), I'm making an early start on things for that most dreaded of C-words...
CHRISTMAS!
I found some great pieces online at Hobbycraft, and got inspired to make some bits and bobs.
So far I've made a couple of wreaths, a couple of plaques, and a bauble...not a bad start considering we're only a third of the way through October!
Firstly I was inspired by this Autumn wreath I had a go at making...I was bored one afternoon and fancied doing some crafting, so after trawling Pinterest for ideas I mixed a few of them together and this is what I came up with. I quite like it, and have had it hanging on my front door for a couple of weeks now, and have even had compliments on it from delivery drivers! It looks bright and cheery and it's lovely to see when I come home.

These are the pieces I made for Christmas...

The wreaths...

...the plaques (some people think wreaths are too 'funeral-ly)...

...and finally the bauble I made today!

I need to stock up on some more supplies I think, I've loved making these! Now to decide what to do with them all....ha ha! 

Thanks for looking, let me know what you think!

Lisa xx

Is there anybody still out there?

HELLO...

HELLO...

LISA CALLING...
IS THERE ANYBODY THERE???

Ha ha....wow, it's been a while, huh?

So much has happened since the last time I was here...

4 house moves (yes, you read that right - 4! Don't ask ha ha!),

1 engagement (yes, me - after 11 years together!),

2 new sewing machines (you can never have too many, right?),

and a keyboard!

Phew!

Well, now things have finally settled down somewhat, I can actually get my sewing gear out of the boxes its been packed in for the last two years, and so I thought it was time to update the blog and *hopefully* post some more regular updates on my doings!

Until then, here's a couple or three pictures of stuff that's been going on with me.

I'm off to dust away the cobwebs and sweep up the dust in here!

Enjoy,

Lisa x

Simplicity New Look Competition

Hi everyone! Long time no see! I haven't had much time for sewing lately as I've been concentrating on getting myself fit and healthy, but I saw this competition mentioned in the latest Love Sewing magazine and just knew I had to enter! Unfortunately I only saw it on the 19th of May, and the competition ends on the 31st so I knew I had to get my tail in gear to get it done!


There were three categories for the competition - Dressmaking, Vintage, and Newcomer. Each category had a different pattern, and as I picked the Dressmaker challenge, I received a New Look 6145 shift dress pattern on the 24th May and got to work straight away!

I had some gorgeous ticking fabric in my stash that my lovely friend Emma gave me, and I knew it would be perfect! 

I decided to play with the pattern a little, so I chose to make view E without the collar, and thought it would be fun to quarter the front of the pattern, cut the ticking on the bias, and make a diamond shape pattern! (I know, with 5 days to get it done and the small one on half term holidays from school - I *might* be a little crazy!)

So I traced, and cut, and pinned like crazy...and this was the front - I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief, I can tell you ha ha!

On the back I decided to quarter the pattern to continue the waistline round, but I didn't do the same pattern with the fabric, deciding instead to just chevron it down the centre back. 

Now came the easy part - sewing it together!

I'm really pleased with how it turned out, especially as it was such a fast turnaround, and my first attempt at pattern matching stripes! Eek!

I think I'll be making quite a few more of these, although perhaps next time I'll just use a plain fabric! Ha ha!

I'm just glad I managed to get it finished today in time to enter it!

Thanks for looking

Lisa x

Of a magazine, a pattern, and a dress. . .

A few weeks ago I saw a new magazine that was being launched called Love Sewing, and it looked good so I decided to give it a try - it's fantastic! Lots of projects, new fabric lines, interviews, helpful articles, free gifts and patterns...what's not to love? I'm now subscribed so I don't miss an issue! 

The free pattern in this issue was a downloadable one from Simple Sew Patterns - the Brigitte dress.

I thought it was really pretty, and fairly simple which is good as I don't often make things for myself!

They suggest in the magazine to use cotton or jersey, so I decided on cotton as I already had a couple of metres of this gorgeous Makower beach huts fabric from Ditto Fabrics and thought it would make a pretty summer dress.

Printing out and assembling the pattern was pretty straightforward - after measuring myself and checking the sizes on the pattern I made a size 16 (I wear a 12-14 in 'shop bought' clothing) so make sure you check your sizes...however this is quite the norm for sewing patterns!

I also decided to make the sleeves shorter, and to add a lining as the cotton I chose was a little see through!

I'd never made a lined dress before, so I chose a thin cotton (from an old bed sheet!), cut all the pieces as I did for the actual dress, and tacked the pieces together like for like - from then on I treated each piece of matching tacked lining and dress fabric as one piece, and then sewed it all together. It worked really well doing it that way!

This is a 'halfway stage' picture...

The step-by-step instructions were really clear and simple to follow...even for the invisible zip, which I'd never done before! Mine didn't turn out QUITE as invisible as I would have liked, but that was down to my sewing skills and not the instructions lol! 

Overall, I was very impressed - I will definitely be getting more patterns from them! Actually, Issue 2 of Love Sewing arrived on my doormat yesterday (3 days before it's available in the shops - the benefits of subscribing!) and it has a paper pattern for this beautiful top and skirt from Simple Sew Patterns as a free gift, so I will be blogging those makes shortly! I love the vintage styling of them and can't wait to get sewing! 

So anyway - here's a pic of the *almost* finished dress...I hadn't hemmed it here lol!

And one of me wearing it (over jeans, it was chilly lol!) - excuse the photo, I had to rope in the Mr. to take it!

 I've worn it a few times since and had lots of nice comments - people even asking me where I bought it! Nothing better for a sewer than to hear that!

Well, I say nothing better...

I opened the above Issue 2 of Love Sewing yesterday, and what should I see but MY DRESS! In the magazine! I was over the moon!

Although next time I take a picture of something I make and post in on Facebook, I'll make sure to not have my ratty old ironing board in the background ha ha! Oops! 

In the next couple of days I will be sharing some thoughts on my new sewing machine with you too, now it's had a good road test!

Thanks for looking

Lisa

xxx