I nearly made a dress

Wow, making clothes takes ages! Okay not as long as making a quilt, but still the combo of my glacial sewing pace and complete uncomprehension of pattern terminology meant I couldn't quite finish my dress during the 3 day sewing course.
Not too much to go though - just the hem and collar. I did do the collar already, twice, but it was all wonky so I had to unpick and try again.

My camera battery just died so I had to use my phone but here's my nearly a Lisette dress.

Also a good iron probably wouldn't go amiss

Thanks Nikki at Oh Sew Brixton! for endless patience, encouragement and not rolling your eyes too much when I asked the same question for the eighth time.

Now I just need to find the time and energy to finish this one instead of starting on dress #2 which is all ready for cutting...

Ready and raring to sew

I've been hard at work preparing for my dressmaking course this weekend; I tell you it's been exhausting.

So far I have:

1. bought some matching thread for my fabric
2. finally decided on a pattern
3. watched all of season 8 of Project Runway (for research purposes, v important)

So this is what I'll be massacaring making this weekend:

Phew, must be time for a glass of wine after all that hard work.

Me + Mood 4eva

I *heart* Mood. If it was a person I’d marry it and we’d have gorgeous fabric babies and live happily ever after. But it's a shop so that is just crazy talk.
I spent a fab few hours in there with my Mother dearest, me mostly running (ish) up and down the cotton aisle looking for dress fabric, throwing desparate looks at the gorgeous jersey knits that I haven't a clue how to sew and Mama ogling the silks. Unfortunately I am still a knee cripple after surgery so I couldn’t stay in there as long as I wanted but I did get some super snazzy fabric for two dresses. I wanted to go back another day but it was closed (a good thing in the end as I was 3.5kgs over my luggage allowance as it was).

Brown flowery stripey cotton, plain cotton sateen and a peacock print rayon

I did also meander over to City Quilter to get some other bits and found this little selection of awesomeness.

These bad boys are destined to be a house warming gift for my BFF

 I’m thinking of starting a campaign to get Mood to open a London branch. Who’s with me?

P.S. Does Swatch the dog only show up when the Project Runway crew are there? I've been into that shop at least four times and have never seen evidence of said canine.

Done and dusted

The baby quilt, finally restored to its former white glory, is finished and handed over to baby Joseph. Now here's hoping that no one looks too closely at the stitches, or the pencil marks that didn't wash out of the white fabric, or any of the other 'features'. For all the mistakes hopefully only I notice, I've learnt so much making this and I'm looking forward to cracking on with the next project on my lengthy to do list.

Slightly odd angle thanks to my standing on top of a chair vantage point

An extra little embroidery owl for the label

Holy guacamole Batman

I never thought I'd see the day. I have actually finished a craft project. Okay so it's a little late (*ahem* about a year but who's counting?) but still, it's finished. Unfortunately, it is also pink. It is supposed to be white.

What are you talking about? That looks white to me

Oh yeah, it's definitely pink

 

It's currently soaking in some super white stain removal stuff but I don't have high hopes for a complete restoration.

I also managed to sew my finger to the binding yesterday so it really was a comedy of errors. If I didn't laugh I'd cry!

Excited! Excited!

It's an exciting time in the House of Thimbles today I tell you. Ex. Citing.

Reason for excitableness #1: I've just enrolled in a beginners dressmaking course. It's a 3 day intensive course after which I will hopefully be the proud wearer of a new (made by me) dress and will no doubt be brimming with over confidence and will start making rash claims about setting fire to every item of clothing I currently own and replacing my wardrobe with gorgeous hand made delights.

Reason for excitableness #2: I'm going to New York in 10 days! Now on the face of it the trip is for my brothers wedding which will all be lovely and fun, but really, do you know how many fabric shops there are in New York? And how cheap they are? And that there are whole entire shops just selling buttons? And that Mood is three whole floors? (My voice is getting a bit screechy and over-excited now, sorry.) The last time I was there I had to do a whistle-stop tour of fabric shops as I had my bored bro in tow, but this time I'm taking my fabric loving sewist Mama so we can stay there all day!

Cue harps and angelic choir

A binding mess

Binding. A.R.G.H.H.H.H.

I've made quilt tops before but have always abandoned them before they were anywhere near finished (Oh look! Shiny things! *runs away*), so this is the first time I've ever bound a quilt. Now this binding lark looks pretty simple and there are loads of great tutorials online but I'm still making a big old mess of it. 

How not to bind a quilt in 20 easy steps:

1. Cut 2.5 inch binding strips.
2. Sew strips together to make a SUPER STRIP long enough to reach the moon.
3. Pin binding to the quilt edges, not forgetting to do snazzy mitered corners and stab yourself with a pin every few minutes.
4. Sew the ends of the binding together.
5. Start sewing the binding on.
6. Realise the binding isn't wide enough. Panic. Unpick stitches.
7. Create millions of samples to test out different seam allowances.
8. Resume sewing using 2.5/8ish allowance - use inside edge of walking foot and close-one-eye-and-squint as a seam guide.
9. Stop to celebrate successes of sewing mitered corners correctly.
10. Realise binding ends aren't joined correctly. Cease celebrations.
11. Unpick stitches.
12. Consult internet for correct joining method.
13. Repin and sew ends together. Press and repin to quilt.
14. Realise red thread used to sew ends together after not bothering to change thread for one little seam is visible on the binding.
15. Stop for a gin.
16. Decide no one will notice red thread, resume sewing.
17. Complete sewing!
18. Realise 2 out of 4 mitered corners aren't mitered.
19. Have another gin. Unpick and resew corners.
20. Complete sewing!

Now if anyone can also let me know how to do the binding without getting constantly stabbed with pins I'd be very grateful. 

Time for more gin.