Sunday, April 17, 2011

We bought it!

Well it wasn't too long ago that I was glum because a possible house purchase fell through. Well good news has been had - that sale is back up and running. There were a few issues with piling under the house but we have sorted those and the sale is back on. All going to plan we should be moving in 3 weeks. We will then be the proud owners of a lilac coloured seventies, brown carpet, floral wallpaper, naff curtained home in need of much love and affection. I suspect we will become overnight experts in wall treatments and weeding but it was bound to happen at some stage. The exciting part is we will have some space to move and some cupboards to store things. Giant leaps forwards.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

My new cowl neck top

A few weeks ago a friend and I managed to wangle ourselves off to a Fashion Workshop lesson on copycat pattern making. Jen's Fashion Workshop does a number of workshops and lessons and does a great job of finding those subjects that those of us sitting at home quite want to know. I had been meaning to try and copy a grey top I bought in Paris years ago that is very plain but straddles casual, work and evening. I thought I might be able to manage it. This was a great impetus to finally get that top done. Jen teaches you in this how to copy tops and trousers from your existing favourite items. I sewed up this top using the pattern I made. Jen had taught us to measure the ajoining seams to make sure they match but I forgot once I got home and my only glitch was the sleeves - I didn't measure the arm hole compared to the top of the sleeves and the sleeves ended up being bigger. So I had to do a bit of emergency mid-sew gathering at the top of the sleeve but it looks ok. Plus I was quite fond of the length of the sleeves as is and didn't want them shorter so I just did a rolled hem on the sleeves and the neck rather than a proper turned up hem, which gives it a bit of a raw finish but I quite like it. Thanks Jen. I'd recommend Jen's courses to anyone and I hope to do another this term sometime.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

New purse inners - so pretty........

Managed to squeeze in a trip last week to my favourite secret fabric stash shop. Lucked upon a range of fabric pieces that I thought were just gorgeous. So gorgeous in fact I simply couldn't decide which colour was best. I 'ummed' and 'ahhed' and ultimately did what any good woman would - bought the lot. So this is the basis for the next range of purses. These colours are so lovely and the material is slightly coated which makes it a durable inner for the purses.

I made a couple of the purses with this deep brown fabric I found for the outer and my new lovely fabric as inners. I haven't made the matching broaches yet but I really like the contrast of the woven outer with the slightly flashy metallic inner (the lushness doesn't come out in these photos at all). I'll try and get myself sorted to do the broaches this week and then pop them up on my Felt shop.

I also thought I might try a slightly bigger version of the purse. This was my first try which is a tiny bit wonky at the top fold over. Whislt a shame, the up-side is that it means I get to keep this one. I took it for a trial run over the weekend when we went out for dinner (ended up as drinks but was meant to be dinner). It fits nicely under your arm and holds a bit more than the other. I'm giving it the nod myself (but then I guess I am biased).