Featured project - number 2!

Aha - on a day when I am struck down with bronchitis and can barely summon the energy to look at my sewing machine, let alone sew a stitch, what a nice little ray of sunshine to click onto Burdastyle homepage and find the black cord dress as a featured project!!

Cord dress

A simple corduroy dress on a yoke with a back fastening. The yoke is faced with a beige wool that matches the pattern on the dress fabric and the section just below the closure at the back is finished with bias made from the same beige wool.

Two heart buttons provide the closure and I actually used elastic to go round the buttons for ease.

This ensemble was worn today for school with the red boiled wool jacket. And very smart she looked too!

5. The cross photograph

'A long time ago when I was a little girl with a naughty little sister who was younger than myself, our mother made us a beautiful coat each. They were lovely red coats with black buttons to do them up....We were very proud children when we put our new red coats on. Our mother was proud too...and she said "I know! You shall have your photographs taken. Then we can always remember how smart they look.

...and when the photographer man said "Are you both ready?" my bad little sister kept her eyes shut and said "No".

...my naughty little sister kept her eyes shut tight as tight and said "No taken! No taken!" And she got so cross and shouted so much that the photographer - man said " All right then. I will just take your big sister by herself".'

(More Naughty Little Sister Stories, Chapter 5 by Dorothy Edwards)

Boiled wool red jacket

with peter pan collar and two buttons to fasten

Button detail on the cuffs

The back view

'

k,p, ssk and k2tog

We are in the process of changing our heating for a system that is more "green" and so currently we are the greenest of all and not heating the house at all. Now when I say that I do realise that it is only October and we live in Provence so most of the time this is not a problem. In fact the days are still mostly nice and sunny but the evenings and early mornings are starting to feel decidedly chilly.

So when this pattern for a snood appeared on the day that my annual knitting bug attacked I knocked the dust off my needles and set to work. Et voilà!

Ok, so the needles were huge, the wool very thick and it is hardly the biggest item ever but even so. It is done, cast off and sewn together (and I used 100% merino wool so it really is very very warm).

The Snood: perfect for preventing chills around the neck and throat area and perfect also for snuggling into on a chilly evening whilst watching back episodes of Mad Men!

The photos are a little hazy as mademoiselle E. took them but I am sure you get the general gist.

And, of course, the great thing about the snood is the versatility of it.....

In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think everyone should have one!

Blue tunic

Here's the first of a number of things made up over the last week or so for the little people that seem to hang around here!

A blue linen tunic taken from the Homemade Kids book, view S. The tunic pattern included a drawstring waist which I will probably include on the next version destined for petit garçon but for this version which was to be worn over leggings I left out the drawstring and lengthened the body of the tunic.

The hood, which I doubt will ever be worn up, is trimmed with Liberty bias (in Janet's Rose), as are the sleeves and the bottom edge of the tunic. A decorative bow in the same trim finished it off!

Is this the beginning...........

of something, or should I be savouring this as a highlight?

I have a featured project on Burdastyle. OK, this is not exactly Stella McCartney calling and asking me if I would like a job as chief designer but hey....

Check it out here! (update - if you didn't look on Wednesday you have missed it so you will just have to take my word for it!)

In other news I have sewing 5 projects waiting to be photographed and I have nearly finished my knitting project (I know, applause all round please!) but this has spurred me on. Let's hope for some sun tomorrow and I can let the children play with the camera again!

Grey dotty sencha and a pencil skirt

You may remember that I talked about my Autumn wardrobe (or lack of it). Well, stalled by various other projects, I have finally got round to photographing outfit number 1.

I modified the Sencha pattern from Colette patterns to lower the neckline and rather than making ties out of the fabric I used a ribbon I had in my stash. The buttons down the back are self covered.

To go with the blouse is a straight forward black wool pencil skirt. I used Vogue pattern number 8640 and made a muslin to try and get the fit just perfect. I followed the Cupcake Goddess' tutorials and have to say that I agree whole- heartedly with her assertion that putting an iron anywhere near an invisible zipper is just asking for trouble.

The skirt would probably look better in the photos if a) I had ironed it properly first and b) not had a balloon wafting around in front of me. But when you have a 5 year old taking your photo with a two year old lurking and looking for any chance of getting hold of the camera there is only a certain window of opportunity. This also explains why there are no photos of the top and skirt together. You will just have to believe me when I say that they go together quite well!

Overall I am really pleased with the fit. Sunni's (cupcake goddess') tips on fitting were spot on and her tutorial on the back vent, rather than a simple split, is brilliant.

The skirt pattern didn't call for a lining but I decided to add one in bright fuschia to prevent itching when the skirt is worn without tights, and that sticking to tights thing that can happen with unlined skirts.

As seems to be the trend amongst classy sewing bloggers I added some lace around the bottom of the lining.

Next up, hopefully this week, is another skirt and blouse combo - I am still mulling over the coat v cape question!

What happened to the jeans - Part II

As you saw yesterday the jeans I decided to re-cycle made firstly a marble bag for Mademoiselle to use in the playground.

There was still quite a lot of denim left though which I transformed into bag number 2.

It seems that around this time of year, for the past few years, I have got the knitting bug.

It normally doesn't last long (rarely even long enough to make a "quick and easy" scarf!!) but whilst it does last I have to have the knitting to hand so that I can squeeze the odd row in here and there. Now having knitting lying around where there are also small children usually only means one thing (which probably explains why I struggle to finish anything) so when the bug hit this year I decided that I should find something to house my knitting rather than leaving it in sight of little fingers that like to pull stitches off needles.

Step up denim bag number 2. (and please excuse the state of the windows!)

I used the rest of the strips of denim sewn together to make the outer part of the bag. It is lined with the rest of the flowery fabric that I also used to line the marble bag. There is a magnetic fastening (which I am very proud of!) and the handles are line with the remnants of the shirt - waste not want not!

On one outer side I have added a back pocket of the jeans to give me two outer pockets for my instructions and notions (aka buttons!). I also added a fabric flower and a vintage pink flowery button.

Project Runway Challenge- at last!

Remember this post?

Well, after a couple of weeks that haven't been very condusive to sewing or blogging I have finally got round to photographing what happened to the shirt and the jeans (more to come at a later date on the skirt).

The Shirt

The shirt lost the collar and yoke and then I cut two front sections out of the front panels of the shirt, a back section out of the back and two sleeves out of the upper sections of the dismantled sleeves. Add a bit of liberty bias and some brightly coloured "sweetie" buttons, a bit of elastic shirring round the neckline and ta dah!

The Jeans

The jeans were cut into strips. One section went into making this marble bag. I had specific instructions on what a marble bag should be - square or rectangular, with a closure so the marbles don't fall out and the strap should go round the body enabling the wearer to carry it without it hindering other playground activities such as skipping, clapping or playing hopskotch. Job done, I think.

The remainder of the jeans is currently being used in another project - watch this space!