Charlotte skirt - lining

Bought my lining fabric - a simple grey. Knocked together the basic shell of the skirt very quickly. Machine stitched round the top and then hand blind stitched round the zip, all as By Hand London instructed.

Table runner

My best friend is moving out of town so I wanted to make her a present for the new house. And what a perfect opportunity to play with my new sizzix die! I'd seen a quilt using this this applecore die a while back and fancied having a play with it, so when I saw the die in a store I had to buy it. Handily, the sizzix website has instructions for this table runner so that helped.

I used fabrics that I bought ages ago from the V&A quilts exhibition in 2010. They are floral ... well, leafy and are from Liberty.

And I enjoyed this make. It took some time as the curves are a bit tricky but it was quite satisfying.

And my friend seemed to like it too, which is a bonus!

Charlotte Skirt 2

Well step two has taken quite some time! Simple stitching of darts and seams. My challenge came when it got to finishing the seams. When I made the  Victoria blazer I wished I had put more thought into fin7shing the seams. Not having an overlocker (yet!) I just used pinking shears, but it doesn't look great. So I decided to bind the seams. Bizarrely I seem to have purchased about 50cm of bias binding, which is no good to man nor beast.

So first attempt at proper fitting. I tries on the skirt and it fits well at the waist (yay!) But is way too baggy at the hips (boo!) Essentially meaning there is about 2 sizes difference between my waist and hips.  Two attempts later and I think it now fits. As recommended by the lovely ladies at By Hand London I tried it inside out and pinned the excess, sewing new side seams. Hopefully this is gonna work!

So I spent ages making binding from the offcuts of the fabric ... and then having used them on the centre back seam I think itnis way too bulky, so scrap that! Although, I used the binding on centre back before inserting my zipper so I've left those ones, but the other seams I have just folded under the raw edge and sewn them to neaten.

And now I've decided I want to line the skirt so another pause whilst I purchase that.

Plushie monster 2

And another Plushie monster. Bit of a variation on the previous one but essentially the same. Incrediblg cute and fun to make.

Charlotte skirt 1

I'm not doing this sew-along 'live' but as one exists I thought I'd blog along.  I bought the Charlotte Skirt pattern from By Hand London a while back and the fabric I've got is from Pumpkin Patch in Hailsham, again, bought a while back. I've decided to do the variation without ruffle or peplum. That all feels a little too girly for me.

Step one is sizing, pattern and cutting. I haven't had a lot of success in getting sizing right for clothing so far. The only thing that seems tk have been right is hubby's trousers. For this skirt, having measured myself, I've gone for the biggest size, although the waist is too small, so I've added some more on at the waist ... we'll see if that was a sensible plan!

Placing the pieces and cutting out is all very simple when it's just three pieces. So onto part 2!

Quick Christmas make

Just a quickie I made whilst watching a DVD. I cut two snowmen from white felt using my Sizzix machine them embroidered the features onto one side. A simple running stitch to hold front and back together, a ribbon and a little toy stuffing.

Cute right?

Scrap quilt

My god did this one take a long time. I did write a post on it back in May. This is another of those ones that spends weeks being laid out on the living room floor, much to the annoyance of hubby. Othervthan the sashing, binding and backing fabric, it's all made with scraps. This took a long time to piece together but I'm really pleased with the result.

Then came the quilting. I decided to do a complex wave pattern which was taking forever. I just have a standard sewing machine so I was having to roll it up and feed it through which was annoying so I put it to one side, thinking I'd do a few rows every now and then ... but of course I didn't. So I unpicked it all and just went with a classic 'stitch in the ditch'. Binding on, bish bash bosh done. Now to give it to my friend.