Sunday Stitching & Haberdashery / Yardage Woes

Considering how much I love wearing my hen night dress and how much I enjoy a quick rewarding sewing fix, I decided to give the Jamie dress pattern another go. Out came the pins for a few more alterations. Sides, armholes, back..

After manipulating the pattern pieces accordingly I spent yesterday afternoon cutting and sewing. This morning I attached the skirt and wanted to insert the zipper when I realised that even though I'd bought a zipper in the perfect shade, alas, it was a regular one. I prefer to use invisible zippers for clothing. I'm not a fan of exposed ones, even slightly. So at 10 a.m. I had to put my pretty away unfinished. Sob.

Not one short of projects I didn't grumble for long, though, and out came the Echo strips for some (tedious) layout fun on our bed.

I really really like this layout of alternating wide and narrow strips. Alas, I don't have enough wide strips to make it perfectly symmetrical! I'd need another 4'' WOF or a fat quarter of seven prints to achieve that. And you know it's pretty much impossible to get hold of. Let alone all in one place, quick and cheap.. which a quick google search only confirmed..

Argh. Now, am I biting the bullet and keep it like this with five rows wide and narrow each? Or do I cut one column of wide strips into two narrow ones (marginally narrower than the actual narrow column) to frame the whole quilt? Or do I add a row of scrappy vertical strips to the right hand side of the quilt? I can't just scrap a wide row because I need the overall width. Argh, zum Mäusemelken..

I've decided to not let this annoy me too much right now and will start stitching anyway. It'll all fall into place eventually. Somehow.

Happy Sunday and happy sewing!

Back in the Game

I'm still taking it slow but the love sewing machine and I have been reunited which has resulted in this baby - a finished baby quilt top for the nephew. Do I have to give it away? Haha, no worries. I will. Just too happy how this is turning out.

It's also the return of the living room door as a backdrop. With a twist. The doors in our new flat have glass panels which, at least for this picture, is kind of cool.

Up in the air.

Meagre attempt at playing artsy.

I'm making progress on the owl front on the back of the Red Riding cushion cover as well. Another thing that will be hard to part with.

I'm off - I've got another date with my love sewing machine once I've cut into 2.5 m of fashion fabric (the blue floral print in this post) and 1 m of light blue cotton lawn. If all goes well I can swirl around in another summer dress of my own making after the weekend. Depending on the weather just as much as my perseverance.

Happy sewing and a wonderful weekend to you all!

More Needlework Whilst Convalescing

Thanks for your kind well wishes. You're all so lovely to spare a moment for me!

The cold symptoms are pretty much gone, the bed rest is and has been more about, well, resting. I was very lightheaded and nauseous on Monday which got me the extra round of downtime. I've been getting better since with all that sleep and no nothing but today I got half an hour in the park with my nephew and sister to get my blood pressure going a little. (He's still cute as a button!) Afterwards I was knackered and had a proper midday snooze but it was a very welcome change and more importantly needed. Can't risk a cold start on Monday but need to ease into being up full time again.

Well, enough with the whine and onto the interesting bit. Tada!

I've taken up working on the Red Riding cushion cover again. Can't believe how long I've been stalling this but somewhere along making plans for the hand quilting and deciding on an owl I'd hit a creative wall that I tore down yesterday. I'm using this as a guide. Whoop, getting all excited about this project again.

Happy sewing!