It's been a while since I made myself a Maude Skirt. I do love this pattern so much; I can squeeze it out of a metre of fabric usually, it stitches together super quick, even with the pockets, and it's a flattering easy style.
I had made one up recently for a future issue of Love Sewing Magazine (you'll have to wait to see photos of that one.), and I was reminded how much I love making up this skirt, and also how I have wanted to make a denim one ever since the very talented Jayne had made a denim one when the pattern was still being tested.


Instead of having the usual side concealed zip, I opted for a centre back exposed metal zip, which I am really pleased with. And yes, lots of top stitching in contrast thread....always makes me nervous, but I'm actually pretty pleased with how it turned out, a bit wobbly in places, but nothing is ever perfect eh?

I can really see this skirt being a real wardrobe staple.


Want to try the Maude pattern for yourself ? Then head over to my Etsy store where you can buy the instantly downloadable PDF pattern for only £5, or wait until it is featured in Love Sewing Magazine and get it for free! ( Maude is only available in my Etsy store for a limited time, once it is published in Love Sewing it will be taken off sale for 3 months. )

I've been working at Ministry of Craft today. I love my job teaching classes, even if I do go home with aching feet like I have today.
Ministry of Craft operates mainly out of the basement at Fred Aldous, right in the heart of Manchester's lively Northern Quarter, offering classes in almost every craft you can imagine; embroidery, knitting, screen printing, paper cutting......it's a very long list!
I teach most of the advanced beginner classes, focusing mainly on pattern cutting and fitting. Today was an Introduction to Bodice Fitting. A class I always enjoy, it's intense and the students always work so hard...there is a lot to fit in to five hours, but we always manage.


I know if I wasn't already teaching at Ministry, then I'd definately want to be taking a class there! I might get to sit down more if I took a class, but I really don't mind the aching feet, I know how lucky I am to be teaching a subject I love to people eager to learn and in great surroundings!Plus of course aching feet equals a shopping opportunity for comfy but cute shoes!

So, I had a birthday, I'm now the grand old age of 47, and feel every second of it recently! Angus often jokes with me that I have outlived my biological usefulness now that I am no longer having babies or feeding them, lately I have felt, all too keenly the truth in that joke!
India turned 20 on Saturday, and spent her first birthday away from home. I can't quite believe I am the mother of a 20 year old! She has grown into a lovely young woman, but she will always be my first baby. 


Raising babies for the past 20 years has been the most amazing and wonderful time, even the sad bits, even the heartwrenchingly sad bits, and now as my family grows I'm spreading my wings a little and taking on more freelance work. I regularly contribute to Sewing Made Simple magazine and have had some of my work published in Love Sewing magazine.  
I teach most weekends at Ministry of Craft   and I'm putting together my final collection for my Level 3 City and Guilds in Fashion. Life is busy!
I've so much to be grateful for, and so yeah, I'm 47,my thyroid doesn't work properly, and my bones creak. I have wrinkles and am beyond my "biological usefulness", but the sun is shining, and I am grateful. x

I'm still working on perfecting the fit of my new bodice block. I've been working on this dress on and off for a few weeks now, finally finishing it last week only to put it on and realise despite all my tinkering it still doesn't quite fit right!
I re drafted the front into a princess seam, which I think works well on a larger bust, but kept the back bodice darted, which hasn't worked well at all!
My upper back is rounded and wider than might be expected, while my rib cage is actually very narrow, so fitting my back is often more of a challenge than fitting my bust....the problem with learning about fit is the more you know, the more you find there is to learn....actually that's how it is with sewing anyway, and why I love it so much!


You can see here how I tried to fix my gaping shoulders with small darts that were intended to fit over my rounded upper back, and they do (my dress form doesn't have the same shape there. ), but there is too much looseness around my back rib cage, while the darts fit nicely into my waist.
I was going to abandon this dress, chuck it in a charity bag, especially with spring on it's way. The dress is a medium weight wool blend and fully lined! Today though it snowed, and so I might have a chance to wear it soon, if I fix it. I intend, as a quick fix to take in a seam from the tip of the waist dart to the tip of the shoulder dart, trim away the excess fabric, resulting in a faux princess seam.....it might work! I hope it does!


I will keep you posted! Oh and I did press it, this fabric is stubborn, and holds too many creases!

I've had my dress form for several years now, she was rather broken, picked up from Freecycle. Back then I taped her back together and replaced her stand with that of an old standard lamp, also picked up on Freecycle. My first attempt at making her my size was moderately successful, but after a while I pulled her back to her naked self, covered her with a tube of cream ribbing and just used her as a stand.
Like so many of us, I've seen various ways to DIY dress forms, on Pinterest and other blogs. I had been planning to make a calico toile and stuffing her, but yesterday after being up half the night thinking up various designs I'd like to try draping, I thought I'd give the Duck Tape version a try!






Woody taped me up over an old T shirt, which you will have seen if you follow me on Instagram .
He then cut me out, and I draped the resulting body over my dress form. She looked rather saggy and sad at this point, and despite our best efforts, Woody had managed to squish my boobs smaller than they are.
I taped her back up along the cut, and then stuffed her with poly toy stuffing. Added a bra to give her more definition up top, carefully measuring along the way to make sure I wasn't over or understuffing.





Once I was as satisfied as I could be that she was a reasonable representation of me, I covered her in a tube of cream ribbing and added her tapes.





Weirdly she has an almost Edwardian silhouette, which I guess so must I! Now to get on with some draping!

One day last week while feeling rather sorry for myself I nipped in to the local furnishing fabric shop. They have a room full of remnants that I like to browse just in case they have anything interesting.
Before I even made it to the remnants however, I noticed the shop was now stocking some rather lovely printed canvas fabrics, including this Paris scene with little black cats. I couldn't resist and buying just 3 metres cheered me up no end.


The pre wash faded the colours quite a bit more than I expected, but it's still a cute fabric, and I kind of like the faded denim style of the blues and greens. Perfect fabric for another try with my new bodice block. And after a little play with the waist darts I'm much happier than I was in my last post. (Don't worry, that dress has not been thrown out, I'm working on it!)


I'm reluctant to make myself clothes at the moment. I've gained a lot of weight recently, and have finally after several years of various symptoms been diagnosed with hypothyroidism. Some of my joint pain has already begun to subside after starting drug treatment, and I'm hopeful that once my ideal dose of thyroxine has been worked out, I will start feeling healthy again, and maybe, fingers crossed find it easier to lose weight.


What do you think of my whimsical necklace that I bought in Shoreditch a few weeks ago? I love it with this dress, looks like she is going for a walk through some Parisien streets.

I don't always blog everything I make, but I do usually share most things on Instagram
With February almost here...how did that happen? I thought I'd just do a quick and dirty blog post of my January makes, the good, the bad and the downright disastrous!
Firstly the Doris Sweater above. I love this version so much. The fabric is a super soft loosley woven wool blend, and it is so cosy. I feel the cold even in this mild winter we are having, so any excuse to cosy up is most welcome.
It's been a bit of a Doris'y month actually because I also ran up this quick Doris Dress from some vintage fabric I found in a charity shop while visiting my Mum who lives in Somerset.



And this Doris Dress sample for Ministry of Craft.



I also ran myself up a lovely wool blend A line skirt. Fully lined in some pretty ditsy print cotton.


And finally this disastrous dress.


I have rather sadly gained too much weight for my bodice block, and have had to re work it, this is the first dress I have attempted with my new bodice block, and it just doesn't work. My own fault really, I was in a hurry and didn't toile the dress, and now I have something that needs completely reworking or chucking in the charity bag...I haven't yet decided which it will be......

I love modern technology, browsing other blogs, joining in sewing forums, watching videos on line, but nothing quite beats curling up on the sofa with a cuppa and a magazine.
I'm really thrilled to now this month have my work in two great sewing magazines!
Firstly Love Sewing Magazine has a free supplement this month called Learn To Love Sewing, especially designed for beginners. There are fab tutorials in there, many by my fellow tutors at Ministry of Craft, and including my lovely Flossie's Pinafore. I'm so happy with the photos and design of the pages, the pinafore looks lovely.


Another great magazine is Sewing Made Simple, Guess who made the pink blouse on the cover?


And inside are two tutorials by me;



I have thoroughly enjoyed working on all of these projects...and a few others yet to be released, plus hopefully more in the future.
And this might explain my lack of posts lately here on the blog, I've some catching up to do.

The children all went back to school and college today, India is still home from University, but she was out today and I made the very most of the peace, and most importantly lack of demands to be fed, (children do need feeding so often! ) and spent a very happy morning in my shed running up this Weekend Doris Dress with a twist...or two!


It is a basic Weekend Doris, made with a retro style wool blend. (I sized up to accomodate the woven fabric.) I added in seam pockets*, a wider neck band to form a 60's style "cowl" neck, and hem band. The dress and sleeves are lined.
I'm really quite pleased with it, the lining has made it a substantial winter dress, so I'm ready for the coldest most miserable winter months of January and February, even if it is so mild at the moment that the daffodils are popping up at the park!


A close up of the fabric, and the little inseam label at the hem. I'm always so ridiculously pleased with myself when I remember to add these little touches!
And below, the lining:


You can see it is caught in place at the neck, cuffs and hem.

I must apologise for the not very focused photos, a combination of dark dreary days and having to use the self timer I'm afraid.

* Don't forget my inseam pocket tutorial if you want to add in seam pockets to a Doris dress, or any other skirt or dress.

Happy New Year!

Christmas is very almost here, and I have had to face the reality that  most all of my pre Christmas sewing plans are not going to happen. There is a not so little pile of cut out garments sitting out in my shed waiting for me. I'm a little sad at the thought, but on the other hand, I can look forward to going out there after Christmas festivities are over and taking my time instead of rushing to a deadline, that let's be honest I have set myself.
Even my little christmas tree hasn't made it out to the shed this year, instead it sits on a side table next to my spot on the sofa where I work on little hand sewing projects.


Wishing all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with love. x

I rarely make gifts these days, I'm a very selfish seamstress, and lately with teaching most weekends at Ministry of Craft, plus working on various other freelance projects and putting together a collection for college, there is not much time to sew for myself at all.
Despite that though, I made an exception for India's boyfriend, John. He is a stylish young man with very clear ideas about the kind of clothes he likes, (I realise my description of him makes me sound about 110 years old! ) as you can see from his blog.
He showed me a tote bag he liked and lost for ideas of what to buy him for his birthday a couple of weeks ago, I thought I would make him a bag very similar to the one he showed me.


I used denim recycled from some of Woody's old jeans, making use of some of the seams already in place, added an internal pocket with visible top stitching to the outside, a little denim inseam label and a kilt strap to fasten it.
I *think* I got the aesthetic right, of course John is far too polite to tell me if I haven't, but India assures me he likes it and is using it for University.
I don't usually enjoy this kind of sewing, but actually I really did! Very refreshing to work on something I wouldn't usually.

I spotted this gorgeous orange plaid/tartan* wool fabric in Abakhan quite some time ago, I stroked it and admired it, but at £10 a metre it was a teeny bit pricey for me, so I left green with envy at the lady buying several metres of it to make herself a coat.
Fast forward and on a recent shopping trip, I spotted the very last metre left on the roll and figured £10 was actually not at all too much to pay for enough fabric to make a skirt and I snapped it up.
I'd had an urge to make an asymetric wrap skirt for a while after spotting one in TKMaxx and several in Marks and Spencers.
I used my skirt block to draft the pattern. The back is one piece with waist darts and the front under wrap is one piece, while the overwrap is yoked. The skirt fastens at the right waist with a hidden button and at the front with an exposed open ended zip.
I cut the front wrap with the straight grain going vertically from the waist, but in retrospect that was a mistake, as the edge of the front wrap doesn't hang as nicely as I'd hoped.
Still a great skirt though, and has a kind of "post punk" vibe with the exposed zip. I wore it with my pleather biker jacket and my vegan dm's which I think works.
The offcuts of fabric made a cute beret too, but I'm not sure I can really get away with being so matchy matchy, so haven't braved wearing the two together yet, despite encouragement from India.




No doubt I will come back to this idea again soon. Despite it's flaws, this is one of my favourite skirts of this winter so far.

* So, is it plaid or tartan? I'm never completely sure, what do you think?

Tuesday was the day of my yearly mammogram so Woody had the day off to take me to the hospital. This year's appointment was in the morning, so we went for lunch in Stockport's Old Town afterwards, and did a little bit of vintage shopping at the same time.
Stockport is well known for it's Vintage Village  and over the past few years a few vintage shops have also sprung up around the market place.
I found this piece of vintage fabric in one of the shops for £5, probably a bit more than I'd usually pay in a charity shop, but still reasonable, and so bright and cheery I couldn't really resist!
It is a home dec fabric, the kind I think we had bathroom curtains made from when I was young. Of course it's intended purpose never bothers me, I knew I wanted a simple A line skirt in it. The Delphine skirt by Tilly Walnes is a fab A line pattern, a nice high waist and the kind of exagerated A line I love. I do think that this is my current favourite A line pattern, taken over from my own draft!
I'm calling it my Crystal Tips skirt because the bright colours remind me of a childhood cartoon Crystal Tips and Alistair.

Very much feeling the need to clean up around my blog and my Etsy store, so having a little sale. All my PDF patterns have been reduced to £5.00 plus VAT where applicable, and the remaining tweedy brooches also reduced...they make a nice little Christmas gift.

So, if you've been meaning to buy either Weekend Doris or Maude  as an instant download then now would be a very good time to do it. I'm thinking about no longer selling PDF's, sticking to printed patterns only, would love to know what you think about that, let me know in the comments. What do you prefer? The instant gratification of a PDF pattern or a printed pattern popping through your letterbox?

Last week I was a parent helper on Sid's year 6 school trip to the air raid shelters in Stockport. I have been wanting to help out on this school trip for several years, but always had a small child or two at home to take care of. This year I didn't and jumped with joy at the opportunity to help out. I do love local history, but mostly I just really wanted to dress up!

I had a Butterick 1777 in my pattern stash, and on my trip to Immanuels a few weeks ago I had bought the perfect fabric. The pattern was too small for me, so needed a fair bit of alteration, but otherwise went together easily. I'm not at all convinced it suits me, I'm not really an ideal 1940's shape sadly. I love the 1940's silhouette, but it doesn't love me!


I had rather a dilemma over my hair, my current pixie cut isn't very 1940's at all, I thought I might make a hat, but couldn't quite see how I would get a 40's style to stay on my head, and made this fascinator instead.


I very nearly didn't wear it, it's not particularly authentic, but I did make it from scraps so it fits in the "make do and mend" category at least.


I finished the outfit off with natural tights forgoing natural seamed stockings or gravy browning legs because I didn't want to be worrying about suspender belts and I didn't want to be cold. My plaid jacket from Pepperberry went well, as did my Clarks brogues and my knitting basket.
All together I think I managed a 1940's ish look....except for when I foolishly walked forwards while looking backwards and ended up tripping in my heels on some uneven pavement, crashing to the floor crushing my basket.....although I didn't ladder my tights!

PS, I promise Sid isn't as unhappy as he looks in the first photo. He just doesn't quite understand photos. He had a lovely day!