Secret Cross Stitch

Just a little photo of me working on an ongoing project. I took the opportunity on a visit back to my parents house a couple of weeks ago to make use of my mums crafting lamp. Wow what a difference that thing makes. I was working cream thread on a just off cream linen and frankly it was a damn nightmare. However the lamp made a huge difference and I was soon stitching the night away.

This is just a small cross-stitch which I am making to celebrate something big that will hopefully be happening at the end of next month. If all goes well it will be finished by the start of December and I will be able to take a couple of photos of it on the wall.

Fingers crossed :-)

Doctor Who Sew Along

Firstly the weaping angels freak me out!! This button has some serous nightmare potential. 
Anyway I love the idea behind this sewalong from Tempest of Fanbloomingtastic. I have lots of ideas for this one but I will just have to see if I have enough time to squeeze in some fun Dr Who sewing. Until next time... :-)

My First Make

After fixing a strap on a handbag I brought back from holiday, the first thing that I made with my sewing machine was this cover for it. Typical for me I decided that I didn't I didn't just want a dust cover I wanted something that was going to look pretty and not look like a small tent on my table.

My first port of call was of course Google. After a few minutes of searching I found this fantastic sewing machine cover tutorial video from Vanessa of TheCraftGemini on youtube (I have been watching her videos ever since and absolutely love them). The video is so easy to follow! A couple of weeks after getting my sewing machine for my birthday I went to one of my local fabric store and raided the scrap bin until I found this cream and gold colored fully lined curtain  I think it must have been an ex-display item. Realising that it was going to be really boring just being cream I bought another cottons that were on sale.



Never wanting to make things easy for myself I decided to make a strip of little patchwork squares to go over the front and back of the cover. Little did I know how trick it is to get all the squares to line up when they have been roughly cut with a pair of scissors. Some of them don't quite meet the way I would like them to but I think that as the first thing that I ever made it can be forgiven and I am really pleased with the look. Only now do I know that what I was making was the early sages of a quilt. If only I had know, I would probably have quilted it properly and used some nice batting to add a bit of padding and protecting to my machine rather than the two layers of heavy interfacing that I ended up using. Never the less, Vanessa's video is really easy to follow and covers everything you need to know to make our own cover. 

The Red Dress

I originally made this dress for a Gala dinner at work. I really wanted something that was different to what the rest of the girls were wearing and as it was for work I wanted a dress that wasn't too tight and showed an unacceptable amount of leg or boob. This dress definitely did the trick and I spent the evening feeling confident and proud of my latest make. There was a professional photographer on the evening who was taking photos of the tables but unfortunately the photos have not been released and I just can't keep waiting for them.

Fortunately, I had a great excuse to get dressed up again at the weekend as Vintage Nation was on at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh.

The dress is New Look 6184. As I wasn't too sure about fitting my top half I decided to not break the bank and used some fairly inexpensive polyester fabric that I bought for about £2.99 a meter during a sale. On the whole I stay away from 100% poly as I find it a bit sweaty and uncomfortable. However I think I have been quite lucky with this one and with it being a sleeveless dress I don't over heat in it. 

I thought this pattern was pretty easy and straight forward to follow. I started by making a muslin/toile from some of the material I picked up from my car boot sale trip to East Fortune. After debating over the fit for an evening or two I decided that it was as good as I could get it. From then it took just 2 or 3 evenings to complete. Seeing as I have only ever learnt to put in an invisible zip I decided that I would stick with what I know and put in an invisible zip. It went quite well but I think it could have been neater around the skirt bodice seam. I also added some lovely floral bias binding at the seams. When you wave your arms about you can see a little flash of it but on the whole I am the only person who knows it is there. 
My only problem with this dress is the material. Ahhhh... this stuff does not crease or take an iron well at all! I think I need to read Lauren of LLadybird's post on the importance of pressing again. I am also thinking that some sort of pressing cloth and some more research on ironing polyester might help. Otherwise I am staying well clear of this stuff! It is a lovely colour though :-)

On a side note check out my hair I love, love, love it!!! The lovely ladies from Miss DixieBell were at the event doing hair, make up and nails. I didn't bother with make up and nails as I am a cheapskate. I love having vintage hairstyles though, and I am totally useless at doing them myself so I don't mind splashing out on having my hair done. The photo on the right makes me giggle, the women sitting down look so amazed. It was so pretty, I was sad when I had to take it out to sleep :-( 

All in all I love this dress and had a fantastic day at Vintage Nation (someone even stopped me and asked for my photo!) More of these dresses to come, I think I will try the lower neckline next time.

Tiny Hats for Bonnie Babies

This is soon to be my first contribution to the Bonnie Babies charity. Bonnie Babies makes and sends tiny premature clothes, blankets and sadly burial outfits to U.K. special baby care units, also to parents who need support. They are a non-profit voluntary organisation, depending entirely on the hard work, kindness and dedication from members and friends without who's support their work would not be possible.

On their website they state that pull on hats are used and requested more than any other type of hat/bonnet, no ties or ribbon, just a pull on hat. Fortunately,  I managed to pick up one of their tiny hat patterns at my local John Lewis. John Lewis are a key promoter of the charity and have a supply of Bonnie Babies patterns and appropriate wool in their stores. Some of their patterns are also available on their website here. These patterns are available only for charity use and not for sale or reproduction.

These little hats are super quick to knit as they are so tiny. The pattern that I have has five different styles in it, so I will be knitting one more hat and then sending these tiny gift away so they can help some new parents needing some assistance. 

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THESE PATTERNS ARE ALL MADE AVAILABLE TO US ON THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THEY ARE USED FOR CHARITABLE PURPOSES ONLY AND ARE NOT COPIED ELSEWHERE.

The Maybe Next Year Scarf

From start to finish  this scarf has taken forever! Frankly I don't have a good excuse for it taking so long. I started knitting it some time around the start of this year and finished it on Thursday a good 8 or 9 months later. Considering the first leaf and the main body of the scarflet were finished in 2 very lazy evenings this just makes things worse. Unfortunately, I through a bit of a strop at the pattern when I couldn't get the second leaf to decrease whilst keeping the moss stitch in tact. After several attempts and with the weather getting increasingly warmer I finally gave up and stuck it in my knitting drawer. 

Thankfully, after a rather chilly evening last week I came across it in the knitting drawer and with a new sense of determination took up my needles once more and completed it. It took all of an hour to rip it back and do the whole leaf again. I'm fairly certain that it is still not correct but it looks OK to me and at least now I have a wearable scarf.

Apart from my minor falling out with second leaf the pattern is really easy to follow. There is even a handy knit along video Anthropologie inspired scarflet by iKNITS on YouTube which is where I originally found the pattern. The pattern itself is on Ravelry and is free to download. The scarf has a very simple feature of a pocket style loop which you can pull the second leaf through to keep the scarf close around your neck. I also love the shorter style of this scarflet, it means that there is not miles of material to squeeze inside your coat and is also stylish enough to wear around the office without looking like a snow man.

The yarn that I used is Big Wool by Rowan and is a really warm 100% Merino wool. I think the shade is Linen but I don't have the tag on me just now to check. Looking at the selection of colors online I will have to make another couple of these, I particularly like Wild Berry, Lichen, Burnt Orange and Stag.

I hope everyone taking part in FESA is enjoying themselves, I am looking forward to seeing what everyone has made. Although my scarflet  was started a while ago I still think it definitely counts as craft yourself cozy.