Today We Made

It’s so timely that Gertie has decided to have a sew along for the Lady Grey coat, because I recently cracked and bought it, almost without any plan to make it. I think I just wanted to have it, and imagine the gloves I’d wear, and how glamourous I’d look going to Sainsbury’s.

But no! It will not languish all unused and forlorn until I find it in nine months and berate myself for not tackling scary coat project. I will be in the company of others, all tackling the scary coat project, but with expert, gentle guidance along the way. You know this is going to take a herculean effort on my part, to make the time to actually do the sewing, right? I’m hoping the group thing inspires me to keep going, in short. In long, I’m hoping that being part of a group that will undoubtedly make more/swifter progress than me will provide a kick up the arse.

The timing is perfect for the season, but for me personally possibly less so. There’s a family holiday coming up and I’ve decided I want to do archery on Saturday afternoons. (There’s a blog post in here somewhere about having a multi-faceted life. At least, if there isn’t there should be.) But hey, we’re in this to squeeze the juice out of life right? I’ll get on it just as soon as I locate my reamer.

The Tool Kit – the things you need to begin sewing. I have them all, but I just love the seam ripper on this post. Recently I’m finding that Sarai’s blog is becoming one of the first I go to in my reader (when I have a spare five minutes to actually get to the reader). August is fabric month and I like this post (and useful comments) on weight and drape. It’s a blog chock full of useful advice for dressmakers – go! Soak it up!

How to make good buttonholes (video)

Tips on Sewing with knits by Meg, including the introduction of a new to me notion – woolly nylon thread. I must find this soon.

Sew Mama Sew Make It Wear It list of links – a handy summation of a whole month of dressmaking advice.

Alexander Henry Cotton Lawn (via Sew Liberated) Oh yes please!

I’ve had a break from the sewing room lately, partly due to family visits & general otherwise occupiedness, but also partly due to firing up the internet and making a home for a spot of writing. Since I realised this morning that Florence has outed me I can at least out myself – I’m practising writing, over here at practicewriting.co.uk. Come and have a look, but do remember it’s only practice.

The first Colette pattern I saw was the Lady Grey coat, and it fired up a ‘me want’ feeling that just got bigger when I looked at the other patterns in her range, and read that they’ve been designed with an eye on the ladies with a C+ cup. (Small busts: Check out Colette’s site for some handy tips on making a small bust adjustment, as well as some inspiring pictures in the gallery.) How fortuitous that Alice asked me if I’d be happy to review a pattern from her new shop, Backstitch – I leapt at the chance, and finally settled on the Sencha Blouse.

Made in very short sewing bursts when I wasn’t entirely knackered or covered in fish pie (Fitz is getting more creative with his mealtimes) it was an absolute dream to sew. I’ll definitely be making this one again, in a variety of fabrics. It’s so easy to wear & in fact I’m going to wear it today, while drinking margaritas. Read the full review at Backstitch! (More pictures at flickr)

Sencha Blouse Pattern and Kaffe Fasset spots fabric from Backstitch.

So sorry not to get to this when I said I would – a poorly little boy prevented me, but on the plus side he now has 3 teeth to show for it (and I have about a million new grey hairs.) I really loved reading about the first things you made – I’m only sorry I didn’t have a prize for everyone. Here goes:

Which means (after removing Florence from the running) the winner is Anna, who said:

My home is overflowing with books, but as someone who has just inherited a fabulous old Bernina (and with not much of a clue as to how to use it!) I am intrigued when I read reviews of books on the subject, especially when they say that they wish they had had them when they first started out! another one to add to the wish list perhaps..are there any other books you would recommend to someone who has also just made her first (three) cushion covers?!x

Oh the luck of the girl – wins my giveaway but also inherits a Bernina! Pfff. A Bernina! Congratulations Anna :). I’ll answer your questions about sewing books under your comment, but if anyone wants to pitch in with a suggestion, feel free.

I must have missed the memo but I was quite excited to see Ms Butler’s wallpaper, available from Graham & Brown, in August’s Living Etc:

I’m not a regular reader of the magazine – I used to be, before I realised that monthly house envy wasn’t good for my mental health – but we’ve decided to convert the loft and as a consequence redo the hall, and so I thought a flip through a homes magazine would be inspiring. Did everyone else know about this development? Nice to see some of my old favourites writ large for a wall, even if I can’t see Mr J agreeing to many of them. Tremendous idea though – bringing a fabricaholics obsession into the living room. It would be like living inside your stash (possibly not a good thing now I think of it).

Don’t forget you can still leave a comment for a chance to win ‘Made At Home’ and some lovely fabric…

A little while ago I swore off making clothes for me, because my shape was all wrong. Well, I still wouldn’t go as far as saying that it’s all right, but it’s better. I have a little more definition, I’ve lost a few more pounds – nothing major but enough to make me feel a little bit better about it.

oh I’m all on an angle!

I had more of that red jersey cluttering up the stash – you remember, from February’s make? I haven’t worn that out of the house, but I’ve worn this t-shirt two days in a row (yes, I’m putting it in the laundry later). The pattern, sunshine tops from Hot Patterns, is what I can possibly call a TNT (tried’n tested), since I’ve now made a second and I’m as happy with it as the first. Incidentally, I just used the pattern pieces I’d traced and cut for the first one, and do you know, it fits pretty darn well. There’s a little issue with some pulling round the mamas, since they’re still a bit larger than before, but it’s not enough to make me want to howl and tear the t-shirt into pieces.

ok that’s a little better…

The thing to remember with Hot Patterns is that they are cut looser than your big 4 (in my experience), so to get a closer fit I think I made a size down from what was suggested by my measurements. I just like a t-shirt that doesn’t swamp me, but you might want something more floaty. I do really recommend this pattern, but don’t take size recommendations from me as gospel – see what happens in your sewing room, with your body and your fabric. Or, to use an ancient internet term: YMMV.

The only thing I would change could only be remedied by the purchase of a twin stretch sewing needle – apparently the twin stitches can prevent the lettucing effect you can sometimes get on a knit hem with only one line of stitching (think cover stitch machine finish). I actually didn’t get any lettucing this time around, and maybe this was because I was good and did all the pressing I was supposed to, and maybe I was just lucky. Whichever, July’s make has Win written all over it. (Not literally though, because I probably wouldn’t wear that.)

What was the first thing you made when you began your sewing adventures? For me it was a cushion cover. As simple as you like, two squares of fabric and a zip. I didn’t know enough to be scared of zips, and I thought silk was a lovely fabric to work with, and I didn’t know a thing about interfacing. It stood me in good stead for longer than you’d think, considering how slap dash it was.

I was reminded of that cushion cover when I first looked at Made At Home, which Quadrille kindly sent me to have a look at. The chances are you’ve picked up a cushion cover in a shop and swiftly put it down after looking at the price tag, yet still been consumed with the desire to strew your home with textiles that make you glad all over. Making a house into a home is one of the biggest motivations there is to learn to sew.

The book has great style: slightly retro and homely, but with a funky edge that leaves you in no danger of creating old-fashioned furnishings. Not a pelmet in sight, in other words. The mix of photography and child-like illustrations gives the book a light-hearted ‘give it a go’ feeling, which is a nice contrast to the ‘must do it this way or be shot’ tone of some sewing manuals (not that there isn’t a place for that too). It’s a book to encourage rather than frustrate, I think. Lawks I wish this kind of book had been around when I started sewing…

I started the blog a little while after I started sewing ‘for proper’. This post is number 300. 300! Amazing. To mark the occasion I’ve decided to give away this copy of Made At Home to one lucky commenter, together with a metre of Heather Bailey’s Fresh Cut from my stash, so you can start sewing straight away.

Just leave a comment below by midnight BST on the 28 July (you can say something nice if you like) and I’ll pick a winner next Thursday. Thanks for the last three years, internet, and here’s to the next three!

Something else half remembered from the past: there was a poll of Stephen King fans asking which of his books they loved the most. The overwhelming winner was the Stand, a book I loved myself. The response from the author was a slightly grumpy acknowledgement that it was good to have written something so well loved, but it was slightly galling that it was something he’d written twenty years ago, as if nothing he’d written since quite lived up to it, and he was therefore past his best.

When it comes to posts on this blog, and search terms that bring people here, the overwhelming winner is the Crochet Hook Roll tutorial I wrote a couple of years ago. It’s not a complicated project, but it’s a darn popular one, and I’m glad that so many of you love it. Unlike SK I don’t mind that I wrote it a while back, because frankly, I’m just pleased you like it.

So, now that I’m a mum, with nary enough time to fiddle faddle about, I thought that it might be nice to have a downloadable version, rather than a blog post that means you either have to stay close to the internet, or do some boring copying and pasting. I know it’s what I’d want, and hopefully you will too. While I was at it, I acknowledged that with a couple of tiny tweaks you could put pencils in it too. Now who wouldn’t want that?

I’ve made a new page for downloads (hey, I’m optimistic there might be more) so off you go, and get it here.

Eynsford Circular. The Kent countryside speaks for itself. Photos of varying quality taken with an iPhone…

Apologies if you were trying to visit yesterday – for a whole five hours the server was down, which was more disturbing for me than it should have been. Not only was the website unavailable but my email was inaccessible. No email! I tell ya, I was a frantic mess. I was waiting for a couple of important ones (of course), so instead of being able to relax and do something else, I obsessively checked and rechecked my mail, and kept trying to get through to support to find out what was going on. I realised I am hooked into the internet like the matrix – I don’t function well without my mail, and I don’t like it when I can’t edit my blog.

While I re-compose myself into something resembling a normal person I though I’d share a couple of tools that are making my online life a little easier to handle. After all, time is limited, and even if I can’t always spare the time to type, I can lurk like it’s 1999.

Gruml – it’s a google reader app for Macs. I got tired of Bloglines, and a word about it being underfunded or possibly being bought or something (it’s an internet rumour that I vaguely remember and therefore can’t substantiate) made me think I should switch to google reader. But I don’t like google reader on the web much, which is where Gruml comes in. It syncs with your GR account, so what’s read stays read, and you can open new tabs within Gruml so if you want to click through to read the whole post, or leave a comment you don’t end up with lots of windows open in your browser. The only thing it doesn’t cope well with is pop up comments from blogger, but it’s in Beta so there’s still time. This is why I haven’t got round to having a bloglist on the side yet. I’ll get there…

Tweetdeck – about a hundred years ago I looked at Twitter via a blog called Random Acts of Reality (which is really very good and you should read it). Of course, I didn’t get it, because it was new & there was hardly anyone to follow, so I abandoned it. So after being a way too early adopter I waited to become a late one, and it’s much better now. I have tweetdeck on my iPhone too, so the accounts are in sync, which is great, and I turned off all the annoying little updates and noises, which is even better. It’s a great app, but boy, are those pop up windows annoying.

WordPress App – am I ever glad I got an iPhone before Fitz arrived. I would be lost without it. I tend not to write entire blog posts on the app, but if I’m out and I have a thought for a post I can easily create a draft for it, and then it’s safe. And what’s more in the right place, rather than tucked away in another place where I’ll completely forget about it for months. Yes I will, because I have. Oh, the joys you’ve missed out on.

Now you can all tell me: Is there anything I’m missing? What daily internetery could you not live without?