Sewing...but where is the sun?!

At last, a successful sewing project, well one I love anyway!  Have a look at this pattern, I think its great, lovely A line shape (tick), deep pockets (big tick), fitted waistband (tick) - I love it!

Instructions seemed easy to follow and it went together in a day! a record for me lol :)  The fabric is a lovely cotton sateen with a small amount of stretch which sewed beautifully and is lovely to wear from Fabrix in Lancaster.  I did View B but added the contrast band to the length of the skirt as I wanted it out of the one fabric - this will be great for warm weather IF we ever get any!

Freezing! can you see those grey clouds? yet more rain on the way.  Also wanted to add this shot of my rasberries (can you see the bush to my left - it was planted from a cutting last spring and now has these gorgeous fruits)

On the knitting front, I fell in love with this cropped jacket from the new Noro Magazine which is out now in WH Smiths

Its a pretty easy quick knit once you get the hang of the wrap and turn rows, but really effective with the lovely stripes which constantly change shade and colour - the wool is Silk Garden Sock Yarn which feels really luxurious - hope its a good fit when finished!

Finally, a great big thank you to the lovely Wendy at The Butterfly Balcony who nominated these humble ramblings with a blog award - I haven't got round to working out what I do Wendy but will be having a look (watch this space!) - I confess I am a technophobe hoping to improve!

Happy sewing and knitting x

At last..!

At last I have something to post! Despite best intentions little has happened recently to post about, but I have finally got round to a couple more projects, and have finished one!  The finished product is the "startime dressy top" from A Stitch in Time Volume 2 - and I love it!

After having a trip to the Texere Mill in Bradford (address in the book) and discovering a knitter's paradise (a bit overwhelming if you don't know what you are looking for though !), I picked up the required two cones of Thai Silk -n £11 per cone so the top came in at a very reasonable £22

The instructions were a dream to follow - even for a fairly basic knitter like me - there is a crown pattern (the neck yoke) which is a 14 row pattern followed by the body pattern which is a simple 6 round row.  The top is knit in one piece from the neck down - not something I had done before but wasn't as scary as it sounded.  The only tricky bit, for me, was the division of the work for the sleeves which took a little bit of practice - but worked out great in the end.

The top can be worn on or off the shoulder - I dropped half a needle size for the crown pattern to bring the neckline in slightly as I didn't want it too wide and feel like it was falling off my shoulders all the time - worked a treat.  Here is what the crown pattern looks like:

The edges do curl slightly, but I like the softness this gives which seems to work well with the nubbly silk. 

Rubbish photo! I'm not asleep honest!

love the back! could just do with some sunshine!!!

I think that the full skirt in the book's styling really looks great with this top (better that my jeans anyway!) so I think I will have to look out for a similar pattern and get on with making a skirt to wear with this, perhaps with a wide belt...! Don't you just love having lots on the wish list even if it takes ages to get round to it.

January roundup...at last!

Confession time: I'm not the most prolific blogger!!! I think its a week or so since I last blogged only to find a whole month has gone by - how did that happen?!  So, I think my ambition is going to be to do a monthly round-up of progress throughout the year and I hope to have at least 12 completed projects by the end of 2012 - but I will need to improve to reach that target!!!

At the end of 2011 I decided one of my other goals for 2012 would be to get a bit fitter and have since been attempting to do some jogging - not easy when you go to work in the dark, come home in the dark, provide taxi service to two children to their activities five times a week etc etc...however, I have managed some! My totals for January (as verified by Runkeeper - the most brilliant motivational free app which tracks the distance you have run, minutes per mile, calories burnt etc) are:

Number of runs: 12
Total miles: 37.5
Average pace: 10 mins per mile

Don't think I've actually lost any weight yet though! Will keep working (slowly) on that.

Sewing:
For 2012 my goal is to slow down a bit! I know, I'm snail pace already, but I think I've been trying to run before I can walk and not having too much success, which is a bit demoralising.  I think if I slow down and try and achieve a better quality, I'll be much happier! In saying that, I've loved every minute that I've been able to spend at my sewing - usually listening to 999 FM (Magic) which plays great 60's, 70's and 80's music...

Progress on the Colette Patterns Peony dress has been the slowest of all - I'm still working on the muslin trying to perfect the fit - which is still way off! I seriously need a manual on alterations... the main problems seem to be: the shoulders - too wide and far too loose; and the position of the darts - despite moving the darts out by a whole inch they still seem to be ridiculously close (does anyone have boobs that close together?): here's a couple of pictures so far (not pretty I know!):

I think that perhaps I need to cut a size smaller body(?) but keep the same waist measurement.  Anyway, patience was a real issue by now so have put this to one side in the hope that I can come back to it with fresh eyes.  I do want to make this dress a good fit as the skirt is a lovely shape.

To have a break from this dress I decided that I would tackle a burda pattern I've been eyeing for some time:

I love the unusual neckline on this blouse and can imagine it would be great to layer.  Ultimately I would love to make this in a lightweight linen, but for  now am trying it out with a poly cotton picked up for £1 per metre (no tears if it doesn't work out as planned then!):

I think I am definitely going to shorten the length by about 3" and going to have my first go at making bias binding for the sleeve finish - more to follow.  The pattern itself seems good except that the instructions are very brief and I've more or less made up how the collar fits.  I'm not sure its exactly right as in the magazine picture it looks like the collar is slightly proud of the neckline, but mine aligns - still, I like it like that, so no worries.

Knitting: Daughters' aran cardigan is finished! Just in time for her 14th birthday:

She loves it!!! It was a joy to knit and grew surprising quickly (for me).  The only change I made to the pattern was to take some of the fullness out of the sleeves for a slightly more fitted look, which I think worked really well.  The buttons are leather faced retro look buttons, 12 off at a cost of nearly £9!!! Still, the cost overall is still under £25 and looks far better (I think anyway) than anything you can get in New Look or River Island for more money.

I've also spent a bit of Christmas money and purchased "A Stitch in Time" - a gorgeous book full of vintage patterns adapted to modern yarns and sizes.  Saturday is going to be a trip to Bradford (about an hour and half's drive) to visit the Texere Mill there which apparently is a knitters heaven...more later... here are the patterns I am interested in tackling:

So, lots to look forward to!