A vintage skirt

On Friday I popped into town and went to a vintage shop. Whilst browsing, and I was only going to browse, I found some fabric (1.30mx1.35m for £6). Well, that was a bargain I couldn't refuse... so I brought it without having a project in mind. When I got home and saw just how much fabric I had, I decided to make a skirt. I got the basic pattern from Sew Serendipty book (which my lovely parents got me for my birthday) and then used my dress making knowledge to make it.

I lined the skirt, did french seams, hemmed it, made belt loops and put in a zip. Yes, I spent the whole of yesterday creating it (I finally finished it at 11pm), but for just over £9 I think it was worth it. I was actually impressed at how much I remembered from my dress making course, its like making a LEGO model, you have to follow it step by step but eventually you don't need the instructions anymore and it is just done by intuition.

Anyway, here it is...

 

Cxxx

2 years of blogging

I know I havn't been blogging much lately, which is really bad of me! I can't even use the excuse that I have been working hard because I am in the middle of an 8 week school holiday (lucky, lucky me!).

Recently one of my friends has had a baby and so I had the exciting task of creating a baby quilt for her. The best bit was choosing the fabric, how cute is baby fabric these days? I made a raggy quilt which I have never done, and actually didn't like the look of them. But, after making one I am in love with them and wish I had one!

Cxxx

Time to stitch!

So it is now spring (supposedly) and we are rushing into the summer term at school, this one is going to be a busy one! Not only am I going out every Thursday (like I usually do) but I am running a school cookery club and now decided to go to a dress making course on a Tuesday night! No, I am not jumping on the trend of The Great British Sewing Bee, it just occurred to me that I now have some income I can have fun with and I have a beautiful Singer Sewing Machine just waiting to be used. So I am going on a 6 week evening course to make a dress and even though I will miss dinner (or at least eat much later than normal) I am very excited! So check back for updates, hopefully I will soon be in the procession of a beautiful dress and some very handy sewing skills.

Cxxx

A Sleep Mask

The summer sun comes drifting in my east facing bedroom window and I groan. Yes, it is lovely to actually have some summer sun, but not at 7am on my day off. So I decided to do something about it, make a sleep mask. I picked out one of my cute flower fabrics, a lovely embroidery thread and sat at my Singer Sewing Machine stitching away.

So here it is; you need your front piece of fabric, wadding, a backing piece of fabric (I used black piece of silky fabric), elastic fabric and embroidery thread.

Pin the wadding and the front fabric together, then measure out your words. I went for 'sod off'. I thought it would be funny, but I think some of my more strict friends won't like the 'swearing' in this phrase. I used back stitch to do this but there are plenty of other stitches you can do, be as creative as you want!

Now, Pin the wadding/flower layer to the back layer with right-sides facing together. Stitch around the top and bottom of the mask allowing two unstitched areas where you are going to put your elastic. Turn the eye mask inside out and iron.
Now finish off your mask by measuring and cutting your elastic. Turn the sides of the sleep mask in and finish it off by stitching the elastic in place. Do this on each end, and your done!

Happy Birthday Singer!

This year is the 160th anniversary of Singer Sewing Co. We have four in our house, I brought mine two years ago and since then have made a dress and a number of crafty projects on it. My parents have three! Once they saw my beautiful Singer it appears my dad became obsessed at buying them from our local auction. We now have the three, each in their own window in the living room. So as you can tell we love Singers.

I recently found a brilliant website where you can post your Singer Sewing Machine stories in celebration of the wonderful item. So take a look at other peoples stories here.
And to end this post on the beautiful Singer Sewing Machine the brilliant Beatles movie 'Help' dedicated their film to Elias Howe, "who in 1846 invented the sewing machine." And the film finishes with a picture of a Singer Sewing Machine, classic and brilliant.

And here are two British Pathe films on Singer Sewing Machine...

SEWING MACHINES - OLD AND NEW

SEWING MACHINES