Cute little washbag

I've been going crazy recently and just watching as many sewing videos as possible to learn what I can.  And sewing instruction videos are ridiculously relaxing too!  So I came across the National Sewing Circle and they have a bunch of videos.  Not as good as Craftsy, but cheaper (they are doing offers at the moment where you can sign up for $8 and get a years membership and can view all their premium videos).  So I was mooching through the videos one evening and saw a video on how to sew a boxy zippered pouch.  I had been thinking of making one for a while and also wanted to make one for my best friend as a gift (can't say more in case he sees it here!).

I am still getting the hang of taking photos at every step, I get over excited and just race ahead, but I'm getting better.  So this is more this is more of a picture show off than a tutorial.  While I'm still getting the hang of the taking photos thing, there are some very good blog tutorials that have pictures (they're obviously far superior bloggers than me!).

I used a Marvel Avengers material that I got from eBay as the outside and for the lining, a black rip stop polyester from Minerva Crafts (I love those guys!).  And I also used a green zip that I had laying around.

When I make the bag for my best friend, I'll take more pictures and do a proper tutorial, I promise :)

But for now, some pictures

Overall finished bag

Handle and little zipper tab

Zipper tab on the other end

Lining of the bag (although not much to see)

V8998 - My first solo dress

I'm really excited about this one, I was browsing dress patterns a few Saturday nights ago, as you do, and absolutely fell in love with it.  Then was having a look through a fabric site (again, as you do) and found the absolute perfect fabric for it.  So on impulse, I decided to go for it.  As luck would have it, the pattern size matches my size perfectly, so I don't have to do any pattern adjustments at all.  Some fitting adjustments might be needed later as I'm on a HUGE diet, but I can deal with that when it happens.

Firstly, the pattern and the fabric:



Oh lord, I love that fabric!  It looks pretty garish on the picture, but that's only close up, from a distance, you can't really see what the pattern is.

Anyhoo, onto the making.  Firstly, I read the instructions that came with the pattern, then again, then once more for good luck.  I think I may have been stalling at this point.  Then got onto cutting out of the pattern, very carefully, while fending Newt off as she realised that she loves tissue paper and started leaping across the paper.  Luckily it's stronger than it looks and it remained reasonably in tact. I stuck the skull fabric in the wash, and then took to pinning the cut out pattern pieces to the interfacing.  I got some sew on interfacing, I wasn't too sure what to get, but I got some from the same place as I got the fabric.  I've not used it before, so I've had a look at how it works, as the stuff that I got appeared to be cut to size off a roll and wasn't in a pack with instructions.

I'm not especially keen on cutting pattern pieces out, I haven't quite got a technique that I gel with yet, and my cutting isn't massively accurate, but seems to be accurate enough to get decent results.  I did notice that the pattern was on the crossgrain, so the skulls were facing the selvedge, and I didn't fancy having sideways skulls on the dress.  So I needed to do some creative cutting, I was advised that cutting all the pieces on the crossgrain instead of the grain would be ok.  Getting all of the pieces on the fabric that I had took some serious Tetris skills.  At one point I thought I might have to get extra fabric, but I was lucky and managed to squeeze them all on.

I then worked through all the instructions, which were pretty comprehensive and easy to follow. and at all of the stages it was looking pretty good.  Going to just post a few photos from the process:

Bodice mostly completed, just need some
hand sewing

My first go at understitching

Skirt sewn up, without lining

Skirt and bodice together

Totally finished - back

Totally finished - front

Me trying on the dress first time (sorry it's not
a great one, I hate photo's of myself!)

Everything complete, including
horsehair and with the little cardigan
that I'll wear with it

I agree, not to everyone's taste, some may indeed recoil in horror, but I'm pretty smitten!  I'm going to Vegas in November, and I have this dress in mind for that, reckon it should fit in nicely.  I'm pretty pleased with it, all the seams line up and the band across the middle isn't wonky.  The zip isn't the greatest zip I've ever put in, but once the little cardigan is on to cover the tops of my arms,  and should cover the zip nicely.  Now that's my first solo dress finished, I plan to do a nice pair of easy pyjama's and a matching robe.  Should give me a nice rest from the stress of linings and zips, and no finger blistering hand-sewing!

Pattern Weights

I've been pondering pattern weights for a while as I'm still not keen on using pins for pattern cutting, it just doesn't feel right to me.  I've researched a ton of options online, and was going to just buy some from eBay.  But then came across a blog that said about little fabric bags full of rice that can be used.

I got a set of quilting squares from eBay that were all Cath Kidston, so it'd match the other stuff in my sewing room.  It was a nice cheap little lot and had a nice amount of variety, saved me having to think what patterns I wanted.

When they arrived, I picked out the ones that I liked, and cut 24 of them into 3in by 3in squares.  And also cut half inch strips out of some of the bits that were left.  I then went about matching them up.  I wanted to have the ribbon, top fabric and bottom fabric to be different on each one.  I could've used ribbon for the handles, but didn't have anything in the right colour, so thought that strips of fabric with a sewn edge in a contrast colour would make a nice touch.

After sewing the edges of all my handle strips, I then sandwiched them in between the top and bottom bits of fabric, (right sides together) and the top side of the handle strip facing the right side of the bottom piece of fabric (see photo below).

I then sewed round the edges using only 1/4in seam allowance, and left an opening.  I also put little 'legs' on the seam to help with the turning out and sewing up the hole (a handy little tip that I found while blog trawling).

Then turned them inside out, making sure that the handle strip was on the top, and then filled with rice.  I found that 2 tablespoons of rice was about enough. Then carefully hand-stitched the opening closed.

I've not done any pattern cutting since making them, so will have to update this when I have to say how they go.  Hopefully they end up being a good little alternative to pins!

Custom Building Veronica

When I decided to get into dressmaking, I decided that I could do with getting a dressmakers dummy.  I live alone, don't have a sewing buddy and have some mobility issues, so fitting things to myself can be a bit of an issue.

I had a look at the choices for dressmakers dummies, and saw that the choices were pretty varied.  I decided that seeing as I'm in the middle of a diet, an adjustable one would be the best option.  I went for an Adjustoform Supa-Fit Deluxe , mainly because it was on sale, it was adjustable, and came with the chalk hem marker.

Once it arrived, I put it together and then went about changing it so it fit me.  I took the following measurements of myself:

• Upper bust
• Bust
• Midriff (just below the bust where the band of the bra goes)
• Natural waist
• High hip
• Full hip
• Side neck to apex (fullest part of the bust)
• Bust apex to centre front waist

I then took to adjusting the dress form, the little dials were really tricky!  I had to use a pen for some of it cos the dials were quite stiff.  I got the size of the form to about half an inch smaller than my actual size then got one of my bras that is the style that I wear all the time, but I don't use because of the colour (you'll see why in the photo) and put that on it, and padded it out with wadding.  Measuring as I went, I then added wadding to the appropriate areas.  Constantly measuring and comparing was the key, adding bits as necessary.  Once I was happy with the overall shape, I then covered the whole lot with some cheap conforming bandages that I got from the 99p Store.  Not amazing quality, but seeing as it was only going on the form, it didn't really matter.  Handily it comes in different sizes, so was useful for either covering large areas, or smaller areas.  I made sure that I kept the 'ditch' between the bust, so it didn't have that rather unsightly 'mono-boob' look.

Seeing as that look isn't terribly pretty, I wanted to make a cover.  I got some cheap teal Spandex from eBay and using my measurements, I made a template for the material.  I took an inch off each edge so that the stretch material would be nice and snug.   I didn't have to be hugely accurate as it would stretch out, but I got the basic shape sorted.  It was the first time that I had sewn stretch material, and it was a bit scary!  But I managed to get it together ok.  Then just needed to put it on the form and make sure that it fitted correctly.  Luckily because it's stretch material, the bottom folds under the form, and doesn't need any finishing.

One funny thing is that I've always had a slightly distorted view of my figure, and always thought I was terribly large.  But actually making this and seeing a 3D version of myself that is the same size as me has made me realise that I'm not actually as huge I thought I was.  I realise that I still need to lose weight, but I'm not the elephant that I once thought.  So a bit of a bonus!

I also plan to mark the appropriate lines with ribbon so I have accurate lines that I can use for centre waist, neckline, etc. but I don't really want to do that until I've lost the weight that I want to lose, then I'll do the final adjustment of the form, re-sew the cover and fit the ribbon lines, I'll update that later when I get to it.

Oh and as with every good dress form, she has a name.  She's called Veronica.  Just watch Avengers: Age of Ultron, and you'll understand :)

Organising Patterns

Anyone that knows me knows that I love organising things.  A trip to a stationary store is a bit of a treat for me and I'm quite partial to a label maker.  So with all the new sewing stuff that I've been getting, I felt that a bit of organising was in store.  I've found that Really Useful boxes are in fact really really useful and they're a new addiction of mine.  But I was looking for a way to organise my patterns.  A small pile of them was forming in my sewing room, and Newt was getting inquisitive, so a slightly more sturdy solution was needed.  I had a bit of a think and figured that some A5 clear plastic pockets would do the trick.  They mostly come in landscape, but I managed to find some portrait ones on eBay and they were pretty cheap.

They arrived this morning, so I put one pattern into each, and labelled each one so they're easy to find.  I was looking for a box to put them all in and found that the empty Lego Wall.E box (I went nuts at the weekend in Legoland and bought a ton of stuff) was the perfect fit.  I plan to cover it with my usual sewing room fabric so that it matches.  I now have about 20 pockets to fill with new patterns, so I'd best go shopping!

My favourite notion and the lies that we can get told

Now, to be entirely honest, as a new sewist, I had no idea what a notion was.  After my last sewing course was slightly ruined by the very annoying teacher that spent more time talking about her child than teaching us anything, I got a bit hooked on Craftsy courses.  I can sit and watch them in bed on my iPad and they're really very good for refreshing your memory when you get stuck, and some of them are very cheap.  And the perks of not having to endure the torture of discussing possible secondary school options for a child that is only currently 8 months old.

I spotted a course that looked interesting that was about notions, so I went for it.  At the moment, I'm going for courses that look interesting and picking up a load of tips and tricks.  Well, it was well worth it because I discovered a lot!  Unfortunately it now means that I have a list of things that I want to buy that's as long as my arm, but for some very useful gadgets.  I had absolutely no idea that tailors chalk could come in mechanical pencil form (I LOVE a mechanical pencil!) and something called a magnetic seam guide.  The seam guide on my machine is pretty good as standard seam guides go, but I figured that extra help couldn't be a bad thing.

So, if you're not aware, the magnetic seam guide is a little block of metal with a magnet in the bottom.  You can place the magnet onto your metal plate seam guide on the correct line.  So as here, I wanted a 5/8th in. seam, so I put it against that line.

Now, to the aforementioned lies.  When I first got my sewing machine, I noticed that stitch one was to the left, and stitch two was in the centre.  Using my instinct, I decided to use stitch one for main sewing.  When I went on my last course (with the overly motherly teacher), I took my machine with me so I could get to know it a bit more, and she told me I was doing it wrong.  Stitch one was for zips as it was over to the left, and stitch two was for normal stitching as it was in the centre and stitch one was for zips as it was to the left.  So I went about my sewing using her advice.  It was against my instinct, but she was the experienced one.

A few fairly minor projects went by, and then I started a cushion.  Now I'd made a mistake on this cushion when marking it out, I marked it too small, I'd forgotten to put the seam allowance on, so I corrected it.  Which meant that I had a mark 5/8th in. on the fabric.  I had my new magnetic seam guide and decided to give it a whirl, put it on correct line.  Put the fabric in, butt it up against the seam guide, stitch set on stitch two, and noticed it...  The needle wasn't near the line.  So my instinct gave me a tap on the shoulder.  "How about you try stitch one?" it whispered to me.  So I flicked the dial to stitch one, and the needle moved to exactly where the line was on the fabric.  So therein lies the moral of this story.  Sewing machines are very varied, and while the teacher might know an awful lot about an awful lot of things, they might not know the intricacies of your exact machine.

Luckily, I'd not done any harm.  The dress that I had just started, I'd only just finished the outside of the bodice, so it was just a case just running over it again with the correct seam allowance.  The dress has princess seams, so 1/8th of an inch difference over six seams ends up to be quite significant over the entire garment.  Thankfully I'd messed up the marking up of the cushion!!

Hopefully news on the finished dress soon :)

Sewing Magazine Review - Ads, freebies and the occasional useful item?

As you know, I'm pretty new to this whole sewing thing, and I have been considering getting a sewing magazine subscription, mainly because it'd be a good mix of things, some handy tips, and to be honest, I like to flick through a magazine once a month.

I get a baking magazine already, and I decided on this one when I went to the Cake and Bake show last year.  I had a nose through most of the mag stands on offer, decided that most were just glossy catalogues filled with adverts, but I saw Food Heaven and because it guarantees at least 100 recipes every month, and not too many adverts, I went for it. And it's been a great read ever since. (They've not paid me to say this!)

Sadly, I'm not scheduled to go to any sewing shows this year, so I figured that to choose a new subscription, I'd need to sample a few.  It's been raining all day, and my plan was to go home after work, get into my fleecy pj's, close the curtains, put the fire on and cuddle up with my cat, Newt.  So I went into WHSmiths on the way home and bought every sewing magazine that they had on the shelves. A whopping £27.96 later, I shuffled out into the rain with an armful of potential subscriptions and feeling somewhat like I'd been mugged.

I figured that this information might help anyone else that's in the same predicament as me so I'll go through the freebies that I got, the cost, what projects were included, the amount of pages that were dedicated to adverts and what offers there are for giving them your money long term for a subscription.

*** Just to confirm, the details below are correct as of today (24th August 2015) including prices, contents and offers ***

Here goes!

Magazine #1:
Sew Inspired - £9.99(!!!!)

Freebies:
* Sewing for Fun - Video Project CD-ROM (contains video tutorials, handy projects, and templates)
* A plastic Heart template that gives you seven sizes of heart
* Kwik Sew pattern K4040 Misses' XS-S-M-L-XL

Pages: 68 (including front and back covers, it barely feels like a free insert in a normal magazine)

Adverts: 3 full pages

Projects: 21

General comments:

I had no idea how much it was when I picked it up.  It was a shock when I rang it through the self service till, I nearly had heart failure, but I stuck with it.  It costs a lot!!  And you don't seem to get a huge amount for that money either.  This is the first magazine from the 'best-selling sewing author' Debbie Shore.  I imagine that they're just feeling the market out a bit.  A lot of space is filled up with sections on Debbie's sewing room, must-haves for beginners, how to use the free kits, some giveaways, craft projects, how to choose a sewing machine for a beginner (which was very sparse), a guide to sewing machine feet and how to do free-motion embroidery.  Also how to make a bookmark, which didn't seem to need a whole page worth of explanation.  There were a few useful bits, especially for a beginner, but I think that an experienced sewist wouldn't need a tutorial for a bookmark, or a very simple sack (literally two pieces of material sewn on three edges and tied together at the top with some ribbon).  One thing I did find hugely useful was the suggestion of using Frixion pens for marking fabric.  As heat (the Frixion name suggests) makes the ink disappear, you can mark fabric, then iron it away.  I've been obsessed with these pens for years, and I have a ton of them, so I'll make sure I keep a set in my sewing room.  The price of the magazine was almost worth it just for that tip.  Almost.  Actually, no I'm still hurting over the price!

Subscribe and save: Doesn't appear to be any offer in the magazine, I think it's a bit too early.

Final verdict: I wasn't blown away by this magazine at all, or the 'freebies', I definitely wouldn't subscribe (if it becomes available), and would likely only buy again if I was suffering from some kind of mania, or they had a cool freebie that I was intending to buy anyway and would otherwise cost more than the total price of the magazine.

Magazine #2:

Love Sewing - £5.99

Freebies:

* Simple Sew Sewing Pattern - The Jersey Top and Cross-Over Back Blouse #015 UK 8-20

* Patterns for the projects in the magazine

Pages: 100 (including front and back covers)

Adverts: 25 pages (including double page ads for subscriptions and future issues)

Projects: 16

General comments: This is pretty advert heavy, possibly a couple more than I think is acceptable.  However, in saying that, the projects and articles seem to be a good mix of items for beginners as well as experienced sewists.  There are the seemingly standard sections about how to use sewing machines, the best items to have in a starter kit, but also a really nice mix of projects that include tea cosies, a teddy bear, a kids hoody, a skirt and a pin cushion (to name but a few).  I thought that this was a nice combination of levels, and things that I will keep in mind for future when I'm more experienced.

Subscribe and save: For those looking for a subscription, you get a 30% discount (£27.25 every six months on Direct Debit - £4.54 per issue) and as a joining bonus, you get a Pencil Skirt Kit that includes fabric, thread, concealed zip, and paper patterns for sizes 8-20.

Final verdict: I liked the mixed level of projects as well as the tutorials.  Slightly put off by the ads, but they're never going to go away with magazines like this.  Think this is a pretty good read overall.

Magazine #3:

Sewing World - £5.99

Freebies:

* Patterns for projects in the magazine

Pages: 100 (including front and back covers)

Adverts: 23 full pages (including double page ads for subscriptions and future issues)

Projects: 12

General comments: I find their lack of freebies disturbing.  Seeing as they're the same price point as the others that do have freebies, it seems  a little off.  There are slightly less ads, but also less projects too.  Similar to Love Sewing it has a varied set of projects, from a tea towel, pyjamas, little bags for back to schoolers, cushions, a backpack, and a kids t-shirt.  They have a couple of tutorials, but nothing amazing.

Subscribe and save: For those looking for a subscription, you get a £18.89 discount from buying it over the counter (£52.99 every year - £4.41 per issue) and as a joining bonus, you get 'Abbygale Sews' and 'Compendium of Sewing Techniques' books, apparently worth £22.98.

Final verdict: Not at all impressed.  I think that if the same standard was kept every month, I'd likely be bored within a year.

Magazine #4:

Simply Sewing - £5.99

Freebies:

* Pyjama pattern

* Patterns for projects in the magazine

Pages: 100 (including front and back covers) 

Adverts: 18 full pages  (including double page ads for subscriptions and future issues)

Projects: 10

General comments: Startlingly low on projects, and a lot of them we along the same theme.  Several of them were for a girls bedroom, I don't have any kids, so the projects for kids aren't a big draw for me, although I realise that people will use those things, it's nice to have a mix so that everyone has something.  They also had some really weird projects on how to cut old t-shirts into headbands (which were pretty inexplicable), how to cover wire coat hangers with material (I'm pretty sure that nursery school kids could manage this) and cushions in the shape of clouds.  There were some nice guides at the back that included how to buy fabric, guides to fabric types, fabric terminology, and machine needle sizes.  They could be useful for beginners.  It also had handy workshop section that went through pattern matching.

Subscribe and save: For those looking for a subscription, you get a 25% discount (£26.96 every 6 months - £4.49 per issue).  I can't find any reference to a free item included with the subscription.

Final verdict: I think I'll end up using the pattern, and some of the guides were handy, but nothing that I couldn't look up online. I wasn't blown away by the contents.

Overall decision - I think I'm going to go for Love Sewing, the free kit with the subscription is pretty cool, and the variety of projects and tutorials seemed a good mix.  I think I'll give it a go for 6 months and see how I go.  I might even update this if I remember :)

Note:  I could've added links to each of the sites for the subscriptions, but it's late and I'm sleepy, so you'll have to forgive me for this one.  If you want to find something, give the title a Google, and you should be set :)

Wrap up on sewing projects so far (part 2)

So, part 2 on my recap of the sewing projects that I've done up until now.

Dressmaking Course - Crafts Bee in Beckenham
Made this rather snazzy dress. Unfortunately it's absolutely huge on me because I'm quite large chested and the course was only how to make a dress, not how to make one that fits you properly!  The waist really needs some taking in, but hopefully I should be able to take it in soon so it fits.

Cat bed for Newt
I had some extra material from a beanbag project that I'm working on (post to come later when I actually finish it, soon hopefully!)
I cut out a couple of ovals, and a couple of inch wide strip that went round the circumference of the ovals, sewed them together and filled with beanbag beans.

Even fitted my first zip without any assistance!

My cat, Newt seemed really quite pleased with her new bed  :)

With any luck, my next post should be a proper one, as I should be nearly finished with the beanbag.  Fingers crossed! :)

Wrap up on sewing projects so far (part 1)

I've not really had this blog in mind when starting out with sewing, so a lot of the photos are of end projects rather than step by step. So I'm going to do a quick run on my projects so far:

Beginners Sewing Course - Crafts Bee in Beckenham

Cute little cushion as a starter

Awesome tote bag that I adore and use everyday

And it has an interior Hulk pocket (not a pocket for a Hulk, but a pocket with Hulk on)

First sewing machine project at home

Sewing Room Curtains

Wrist Pin Cushion

I got the kit from eBay but the material wasn't to my taste, so used a Kath Kidston fabric from Ikea

Sewing Machine Cover

Ironing Board Cover (can you spot my sewing room theme yet?)

One more wrap up, then I should be all caught up :)

The Shoe Cake

A friend at work asked me to do a birthday cake for one of the guys that she works with. He’s notorious for complaining about his feet, so she asked me to do a shoe, specifically a red Converse high top. Not done one before, so was a bit nervous. Started off with the lemon cake that I use for fondant fancy and baked a square cake, then using a paper template, carved the basic shape.

I used one of my high tops to use as a basis of the actual carving of the general shape.

It was then a case of the decorating, only slightly daunting!! I used the Renshaw sugar-paste, because I wanted a proper red. I’d made rough paper templates from one of my shoes, and then used those to cut the general shapes that I needed. Because I was only working with small pieces of sugar-paste, it was actually a lot easier than I thought it’d be. I started by putting the tongue on and made sure that there was some overhang at the top. I then went on to put each of the sides on. Because the templates were rough, I had to do a little trimming. Then came the white toe piece, which took a little while to get the shape correct. Then the strip at the back that covers the area where the two side pieces meet.

I then had to tackle the rubber area at the bottom. I used a Wilton strip cutter to do most of it, and that worked great, but the extruder that I bought to do the black strips, that was a problem as my hands weren’t strong enough to get the sugar-paste through, so I just cut those by hand with a craft knife. I did some of the detail with a sugar-paste tool.

The laces were cut with the Wilton strip cutter. I couldn’t find a texture sheet that was cheap enough for the lace fabric, so I made the markings by hand with a sugar-paste tool. I cut out the eyelets using plain circle piping nozzle and put them onto the shoe and painted them with edible silver paint. I then cut the laces into strips and copied the lace pattern on my shoe. This section was far easier than I thought it’d be and looked really quite effective!! The part that I was most worried about doing was next, the piping of the logo! I cut the circle out, and then using a paper print out, I marked what I needed to pipe. I used some Tesco writing icing as a cheap and it was a weekday so I didn’t have that much time. The colours weren’t right, but done was better than good at this stage! As the shoes tend to turn up a bit at the front, I used some black sugar-paste (again Renshaw) to add a small section at the front to give the illusion that the toe was turned up.

I was really very happy with the way it turned out, and everyone at work was really delighted. The cake was ‘unveiled’ at about 9:30, but they refused to cut into it until about 1 because no one wanted to be responsible for cutting into it. Had a few random people come up to me asking if it was me that made the cake and said how amazing it was.