I went shopping yesterday and am so pleased with my purchases! I have decided to make my own clothes as much as possible and the first items I have opted to make are the skirt from SEW U, and two other Built By Wendy patterns: the long version of her coat pattern 3966 and her top pattern 4111. I ordered the patterns off the internet - they should arrive soon and yesterday I bought the fabric for these projects. For the skirt I chose a nice very very dark blue denim with a yellowish sheen. I think I will do a lot of top stitching in yellow although I was considering making a "novelty" bias binding for detail. I still have to decide between the two - don't want to overkill my customisation. For the coat I found a fabulous material - tweedy wool in browns with green and reddy flecks. Lovely. It was on sale to so a total bargain price but of course they only had the end of the roll left and I am at least 40cm short of the recommended amount. So I intend to await the pattern to see whether I can squeeze the coat out anyway. If I can't well I shall make the inside of the collar and the buttons/button-holes' facings out of another fabric. I haven't decided on the lining yet so I have time to figure this out. Would be nice to get it done before the end of the cold weather though. And I bought three different materials for the top - a beautiful dark grey wool in a light stretchy weave to make a nice simple everyday version and the above cotton print fabric which I thought was soo cool!! Mushrooms, snails, four-leafed clover and hearts in one of my fave colour combos (fushia and turquoise) I couldn't have dreamt up a better fabric! It was a remnant and I have enough for a top for me and a top or tunic for D. I also found this beautiful African material - Dutch Bezin (?) in colours that go so well with my print. I am considering making the bodice of the top in this fabric and the sleeves and body in the print. Or a summer tunic, or... I bought it by the kilo and haven't yet measured how much of it I actually have. Probably about two metres.
Yippe for all the above. Can't wait to get started.
On a less positive note, I am disappointed with my camera's colour rendering. I found with my patchwork square below and with the material above that my camera just doesn't do bright colours. Maybe I have to tweak about with the settings...
Right onwards!
Well we had a good time with our friends but were all really tired, it being the end of the week. So we have decided that Saturday nights would be better for sleeping over. I think I lost my mobile phone on the way home from theirs. And you know I am more upset over loosing it's little knitted pouch (see photo below) than the phone itself! Crazy.
Today it was glorious weather but we had quite a lot of stuff to do at home so, rather than go on a long walk, we just went up to the allotment on the way home from lunch at my mother-in-law's house. Now... we have an allotment but since I was either heavily pregnant or away on holiday for most of last year all we did was plant a few things and then er totally neglet them. You know how sometimes there are things in your mind that give you a terrible feeling of guilt everytime they surface? Well for me, my neglect of the allotment just kept on surfacing. I put off going back there because I was imagining the worst - in my mind it had become a jungle - and all these bad feelings made me doubt my desire to keep it up this year. So going there today was in fact a big step for me. However... it was worth it!! D was well happy up there for a start and immediately started asking me "is this horrible grey plant a weed Mummy?" holding up to show me awful rotted, vegetal monsters with her green plastic rake! The beds themselves were completely weed-ridden but somehow not quite as much as I had expected. The stuff we had left out (yes left out in total negligence - wooden table, tools...) was not in that bad a weather beaten state and, the cherry on the cake, there was food to be picked!!! Even after a whole growing season of neglet the earth still provided us with celery and brussel sprouts!!! So we picked them and went home and I then spent a good hour preparing them to be frozen...
Lots of thoughts about all that... It was lovely to be there and D loved it so it has renewed my enthusiasm and I definitely want to attempt to keep the allotment going - I am sure S will benefit from being out in the fresh air and really he is the only thing that would stop me from doing it - apart from my own disorganisation and general laziness. Soo then I thought about starting now to make my own personalised planting (and of course digging) timetable... lists of the all the delicious veg I want to eat and when it needs to be planted etc. and all that got me thinking about something someone somewhere had said about blogs being good for making yourself accountable. And I think that is right. I think (hope, pray) that by writing these intentions, or promises to myself, down here somehow it will help me take the responsability of keeping them more seriously. So soon to come er a list of delicious veg!
I am tired so will edit the rest of my thoughts to keep only the best and even they will be brief.
Shoe-polishing is a good thing!! I would like to attempt to polish D's shoes each week. They get scuffed so badly but when I polished her little baby-janes today it made a real difference.
I ordered three patterns off the internet. More later. But am itching to go material shopping.
Off to bed now!
I went shopping yesterday and am so pleased with my purchases! I have decided to make my own clothes as much as possible and the first items I have opted to make are the skirt from SEW U, and two other Built By Wendy patterns: the long version of her coat pattern 3966 and her top pattern 4111. I ordered the patterns off the internet - they should arrive soon and yesterday I bought the fabric for these projects. For the skirt I chose a nice very very dark blue denim with a yellowish sheen. I think I will do a lot of top stitching in yellow although I was considering making a "novelty" bias binding for detail. I still have to decide between the two - don't want to overkill my customisation. For the coat I found a fabulous material - tweedy wool in browns with green and reddy flecks. Lovely. It was on sale to so a total bargain price but of course they only had the end of the roll left and I am at least 40cm short of the recommended amount. So I intend to await the pattern to see whether I can squeeze the coat out anyway. If I can't well I shall make the inside of the collar and the buttons/button-holes' facings out of another fabric. I haven't decided on the lining yet so I have time to figure this out. Would be nice to get it done before the end of the cold weather though. And I bought three different materials for the top - a beautiful dark grey wool in a light stretchy weave to make a nice simple everyday version and the above cotton print fabric which I thought was soo cool!! Mushrooms, snails, four-leafed clover and hearts in one of my fave colour combos (fushia and turquoise) I couldn't have dreamt up a better fabric! It was a remnant and I have enough for a top for me and a top or tunic for D. I also found this beautiful African material - Dutch Bezin (?) in colours that go so well with my print. I am considering making the bodice of the top in this fabric and the sleeves and body in the print. Or a summer tunic, or... I bought it by the kilo and haven't yet measured how much of it I actually have. Probably about two metres.
