Tuesday’s Totter Round the Garden

Posted on March 30, 2021 by craftycreeky

It’s been lovely today, sunny and warm, in fact it was that warm I took my fleece off! I spent most of the working in the garden, weeding, cutting back etc. Over the last couple of weeks I finally got all the roses pruned, I had about thirty to prune, plus the rose hedge at the top boundary of the garden.

Today I’ve mainly been weeding my raised bed by the patio, digging up those pesky wild geums, self-seeded alchemilla mollis, grasses. It does look much better. It’s nice to see the beds close up too (like on my hands and knees!) as you realise just how much is starting to grow, little shoots, buds…

We’ve got quite a lot of pulmonaria around the garden, it seems to quietly spread itself about under roses and shrubs. It’s quite useful like that as it adds a bit of colour now but when it starts to get straggly it’s not as noticeable for the rose above it. One patch is a particularly vivid shade of blue…

Over by the pond I was tidying up earlier in the week, everything is growing so quickly, another few weeks and Hubert the heron will be disappearing! The brunnera adds a nice splash of colour here and the hellebores are still looking OK. As you can see the roses along the back hedge have been given a hard prune. I’ve two types of rose along here, one with dense but softer prickles and one with evil ones!

The magnolia stellata is just starting to flower, it’s covered in downy long buds at the moment,it’s one of my favourite trees in the garden.

My favourite hellebore is still in flower too with deep wine coloured flowers…

So the garden is starting to look a bit more tended. My OH has decided to do the front garden, he’s never been particularly interested in gardening, though he loves sitting in it! Anyway last month he said he would help more and I suggested he took over the front garden. He is quite surprised how much he is enjoying it. I think giving him ownership has made all the difference. I pointed out three shrubs which are ‘precious’but otherwise he has free rein. He’s dug over the large area in front of the house and is feeling very pleased as he got a big tub of marestail roots out…bless him, he thinks he’s got on top of them! I didn’t like to dampen his enthusiasm by pointing out that I dug and weeded most of that twice last year! Anyway, him doing the front has psychologically made a big difference to me, now that I’m ‘only’ gardening the back it seems more manageable.

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Community Stitch Challenge

Posted on March 29, 2021 by craftycreeky

Last week I completed the first Community Stitch Challenge from Textile Artist with my portrait of James and Helen walking along the beach…

This week the workshop was by Merrill Comeau,, she’s a very interesting lady and her challenge was to include text in a piece of embroidery, it could be a single word or a whole load of words.

It took me a while to think of which words to use. There were all sorts of examples coming up on the facebook page, from positive uplifting ones to angry ones, to very sad and poignant ones. One which hit a nerve for a lot of people was an embroidery of an elderly lady, clearly very upset, with the words ‘Bitter Pill’. The embroiderer had just had to put her mum in a home and was feeling very guilty. There were so many messages of support, it was quite moving.

After much thinking I decided to use the first two lines of one of my favourite poems, ‘Leisure’ by William Davies;

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep and cows

No time to see, when woods we pass

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to glance at Beauty’s glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait til her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care

We have no time to stand and stare.

When my friend and I go walking we often stop to look at something, it could just be the sunlight coming through the trees, or the reflections in a pool, that’s how we see the red squirrels and the deer or the owl flying by. Our OH’s find it very amusing that whether the walk is five miles or ten, it still lasts all day as we do like to stand and stare!

My first thought was to do a generic view, I started to try and draw one but it didn’t take long for me to decide to do my favourite view, Catbells from Friars Crag, I’ve spent many an evening watching the sun go down from Friars Crag on the banks of Derwentwater.

Having sketched out my idea I had a rummage through my batik scrap box and pulled out several fabrics which would work. I used calico as the background and decided to just do raw edge applique. Batik cotton has a very dense weave so it doesn’t fray as much as usual quilting cotton. I cut out the shapes and arranged it on the calico…

I started to stitch the shapes down with a simple running stitch. Having stitch the fell down I then had the idea of including a clock face in the reflections possibly with no hands as a play on the line ‘We have no time…’

I used the insides of embroidery hoops to draw the circles and decided on Roman numerals to give an idea of the timelessness of mountains (and I also thought they would be easier to get neat!!) I used one of the fabrics printed circles to be the centre of the clock face. I used a silver thread to outline the clock with back-stitch and then running stitch towards the end. The reflection of Catbells still needed securing so I just used running stitch again.

I wrote the words freehand with a silver gel pen and then used a grey DMC thread to back-stitch over it. I’m pretty pleased how well the writing has come out, though I realised too late that I have missed a word out of the first line, luckily it doesn’t affect the line!

All that was left was the trees on Friars Crag. It took me ages to arrange my ‘squiggles’ of green! I wasn’t sure how to stitch them down at first and eventually stuck to running stitch so it would detract from the main image.

I’m pretty pleased with this piece, it’s also one of those projects where I could have gone a lot further, the circles on the grey for example look like the iris in an eye, there is also a possible underlying theme that actually we don’t have time to stand and stare if we care about the natural world and are to slow climate change down.

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Cottage Garden Quilt HQAL

Posted on March 28, 2021 by craftycreeky

Well I’m still hand quilting this beautiful quilt, but I’m still enjoying the hand quilting too!

This is the gorgeous quilt from The Cottage Garden Quilt book by Kathryn Whittingham, so far it’s hand embroidered with raw edge applique, machine pieced and now I’m hand quilting it. On the whole I’ve worked out quilting designs which can be stitched in one direction which I think has made it a lot easier…and therefore more enjoyable! By that I mean rather than going around the little squares, I’ve quilted a leaf/petal shape which meet at the corners so I can stitch one side of a few petals in a row, then go back to the beginning and stitch the other side, it’s easier to do that rather than man-handling a quilt every time you need to come back. Three weeks ago I had quilted about three-quarters of the main design…

Whilst I haven’t spent quite as much time on it this time I’ve still made good progress…

I’ve finished quilting the central area. The churn dash blocks were quilted with two circles, the stars I quilted in the ditch as I felt quilting just inside or just outside the star wasn’t going to sit right. The pin wheels were quilted with a petal shape which then led me to quilt all the little squares with a petal/leaf shape. I think it works pretty well.

The embroidered blocks and the log cabins with a heart inside were simply quilted a quarter inch from the seam.

Once the main quilt was quilted I had to decide what to do on the borders, both the off white strip and the piano key border. I had the idea of stitching a scallop shape along the strip, linking up with every other piano key. I then thought I would have a ‘flower’ on one point and a single leaf on the next one. I pinned it first to see if it would work and although it was perfect on the two sides (i.e. symmetrical) it didn’t work on the top and bottom. So I decided to put a flower on each point…

…it’s much easier to sew to for the same reason I mentioned above, I can do a row of flower bottoms from right to left, then a row of the top half from right to left. All I had to go back for is the central petal. I made a paper template of the flower and I’ve just been marking it with dots from my silver gel pen.

So far I’ve stitched two sides, then I just have the corner posts to quilt and I’m within sight of a finished quilt!

I’ll be quite sad in a way to finish this quilt as I’ve enjoyed every step of making it, but I’m already collecting fabrics for the next quilt, The Seaside Quilt, the second book by Kathryn. If you fancy making this quilt (or the seaside version) please follow the link to Patchwork Katy.

Hand Quilt Along Links

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Gretchen, Daisy, Connie, and Sherrie

I’ll also be linking up to Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday so please follow the link more more hand-stitched inspiration.

Posted in embroidery, Quilt-a-long, Quilting | Tagged , , | 16 Comments

Memories in Stitch

Posted on March 24, 2021 by craftycreeky

I’ve recently started following Textile Artist on facebook and they have just started their 2021 Community Challenge. Each week a different textile artist presents a workshop or talk to inspire you to stitch something. It’s all free and I find this sort of challenge good for pushing me out of my comfort zone and finding my own style. The first one was by Sue Stone and one comment she made was that everyone has their own unique style of embroidery.

Sue’s workshop was about choosing an image that you particularly like and make an embroidery inspired by it. She often uses paintings, but it could be a photo of a person, an item, nature…she showed us how to trace the image, transfer it onto tissue paper and then stitch through the tissue paper. this can then easily be removed without damaging the stitches.

I wasn’t sure about this one at first, I think partly because I wasn’t keen on the type of art she used and I found it difficult to think how I could translate it to something I did like. Then I saw a few embroideries on the facebook page as people started to share their work. There were quite a few from family photos and that sparked an idea.

One of my favourite photos of my children is from our last big family holiday. We usually did things like hiring a canal boat or a cottage somewhere, but this time we pushed the boat out and took the family to Australia where we have family and friends. This photo was taken on the last day as we enjoyed some time on one of the beaches just north of Sydney at Newport. James and Helen would be about 13 and 16 years old, they were just walking together along the beach, exploring the area. James as you can see was still following the fashion of having your trousers half way down your bottom so your pants show – who ever thought that was a good look!!!

I traced the outline of the children and then transferred it onto tissue paper. I decided to do more of a neat quilt background rather than raw edges etc. I found some sea and sand coloured fabrics and started to play with them. Initially I was trying to use the azure blue of the sea and sky, but I couldn’t get it to work with the lighter fabrics I wanted to use for the surf and the sand. It didn’t help that I haven’t many plainer fabrics to choose from. I eventually decided to concentrate more on the surf and sand which meant I could use just the softer batik fabrics I had found.

I added a pale blue tulle lace and some white lace in between the batiks whilst I stitched it on the machine. I decided to pick out the clothes in applique to add a spot of colour, I just used bondaweb to attach them and then tacked the tissue paper image in place over the applique.

At first I wasn’t so keen on stitching through the paper as it wasn’t easy to do a precise back-stitch but once I started to see the effect I quite liked it as it almost looks more sketched than it would with a perfect outline. I realised almost immediately that my applique clothes weren’t perfectly lined up so I took the decision to ignore the placement of the clothes and stitch the outline instead, so at times it just misses and I like that effect. I used a single thread of dark brown as it didn’t seem so harsh as black.

My next decision was how to do the hair. I’ve seen a few embroideries on pinterest which have say a pony tail coming out of the embroidery and I quite fancied doing something similar. I googled it but all the ones I found seemed to stitch the ‘hair’ round the edge and then gather it into the pony-tail. I felt that would give me too thick a ponytail. I decided to make it up as I went a long. I back-stitched round the hairline to give a neat, slightly raised finish, a bit like you do with satin stitch. I then stitched the pony tail by stitching into the cental point, leaving a tail before stitching from the edge to about half way in and then back out through the middle, leaving a big loop before stitching again.

This seemed to give just enough stability to the loose threads. I didn’t aim to cover the head at this point, just to get enough hair for the pony tail. Once I was happy I changed to a slightly darker thread and used a satin stitch into the centre until it was covered. All I had to do then was give her a hair cut! I’m pretty pleased with this.

James hair took a little more thinking as it’s just a typical short back and sides. In the end I used a lighter brown, chose where the crown was and stitched with short stitches or long and short radiating outwards until his head was covered.

I was really pleased with how the figures came out but I still had to work out what to stitch on the background, it needed something. Remembering how Sue Stone had divided her A4 design sheet into thirds and then added diagonal lines I decided to stitch diagonally across the the embroidery, approximately where the shoreline and sea foam was on the photo. First I tried blanket-stitch, thinking I might follow it with a wavy feather stitch, but the blanket-stitch didn’t look right, it was neither perfectly straight or curved enough to work. I undid it and decided to keep it simple with 1/4 inch rows of running stitch, starting at two diagonal corners. I used a variegated DMC floss and I like the rippled effect it gives.

I always find it hard with this sort of thing knowing when it’s finished, I could have done more stitching, maybe on the sand, but I decided I was happy with it. So here it is…

I’m well chuffed with how it’s come out,I like the figures and the background seems to work. I’ll probably use the tissue paper method again too.

If anyone fancies doing these challenges, just follow the link to the Textile Artists website, this weeks challenge is to use text in embroidery.

Posted in embroidery, Workshops | Tagged , , , | 19 Comments

Leafy Tree SAL

Posted on March 21, 2021 by craftycreeky

Having finished my Stitching for the Soul book last month I then spent a few days deciding what project to stitch next. Having done a few more of what I would call textile art embroidery projects recently I was in the mood for some more traditional style of embroidery, more of the neat and pretty style rather than the frayed edges and running stitch style!

Last year sometime (or it may even have been the year before!) someone at Embroiderers Guild mentioned the Mary Corbett Leafy Tree embroidery. I had a look and ended up buying the e-book. During a recent organising day I came across it again and thought Ooh, I like it! When I originally bought it I had immediately ordered any extra DMC colours I needed so hopefully everything will still be ready to use.

Mary Corbett has an excellent website called Needle ‘n Thread, she has lots of designs both free and for sale including the leafy tree one. She has written lots of embroidery books too.

I printed off the design slightly bigger than it’s meant to be – 120% so it’s about 6″ tall, I thought some of those leaves at 5″ would be pretty small! Just that extra 20% also meant it didn’t particularly affect the thread use too, two strands of DMC would still be fine.

I found some lovely old linen to embroider on from my stash. It looks like it was a pillow case, not sure where it came from as I don’t recall cutting one up! It’s a lovely weight of linen to stitch on anyway. I’ve used a square of calico as a stabiliser too as although the linen is a pretty high thread count it’s still a lot of embroidery and hopefully the calico will stop it from stretching and distorting in the ring. It’s also useful for hiding the start and finish of threads.

I traced the design using a lightbox and a pilot silver gelpen. I like the silver gelpens for marking fabric, Sarah Fielke suggested them for applique and I’ve been using them ever since. You can get archive quality, acid free ones too. The silver shows on both light and dark fabrics and if it’s not quite covered by stitching a little twinkle of silver isn’t as noticeable as a black line.

All the leaves are different, using quite a few different stitches and combinations of stitches and the colours fade from dark green at the bottom to orange and red at the top, so as well as learning new stitches and how to use them it’s also teaching colour use. There’s over a hundred different stitch or colour variations!

I started with the dark green leaves at the bottom. The little leaves are mainly fly stitch or fishbone stitch, others include wheatear, twisted fly-stitch (which if I’m understanding the instructions is just an uneven fly stitch) and fern stitch over satin stitch. There’s instructions in the e-book for all the stitches.

I’ve also started the trunk and branches which are stitched with stem stitch. I got a bit confused here with the instructions as I could only find two browns in the list of colours but the instructions talked about mixing three colours. I sent an e-mail off via the web-site, thinking someone might get back with in a few days. Mary herself replied within an hour, clarifying that although she used three Madeira threads in the original, she had since found two DMC threads mixed was sufficient. She’s going to have a look at the e-book to try and make it clearer. I was quite impressed! Sometimes you get the feeling from a website that it’s a big business, when actually it’s not, it’s still very personal.

I’ve started the trunk and branches, I’ve actually used three colours in the end as I happened to have the floss that was in between the two recommended ones. I’ve grown more happy with the effect as I’ve filled more in. It’s grown a lot quicker than I anticipated too.

Next time I share this with you in three weeks time I will hopefully have finished the trunk and branches and have stitched a few more leaves.

This stitch-a-long is organised by Avis from Stitching by the Sea, please follow the links to see how everybody else is progressing with their stitching.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ, Jenny, Laura, Cathie, Linda, Helen  

Posted in embroidery, Serendipity, Stitch-a-long | Tagged , , | 23 Comments

Stitch Wheel

Posted on March 18, 2021 by craftycreeky

Cathy Reavy released another three stitch videos on YouTube today and as I was a day off I decided to stitch them straight away.

First to be stitched was Turkey Rug stitch, we’ve already done velvet stitch (the one that looks more like a shag pile carpet on mine!!) this gives a similar effect but I think it’s easier to do. Cathy suggested we made a triangle shape which could then be turned into a Christmas tree with a couple of extra stitches to make a trunk. The stitch gives you lots of secured loops which can then be trimmed as much as you like. I used three strands of DMC thread, rather than a perle, thinking it would separate and end up even fluffier…

Well mine looks more like Spikey the Hedgehog, so I left him without a trunk!

At the other side of the photo is Bokhara Couching. This is thread couched with the couching stitch making a diagonal pattern, so we’ve made a basket shape and during the next ring we will return to put some flowers in it.

The final stitch sample this week was raised cup stitch, it makes those pretty little pink flowers below…but it’s quite fiddly. You start off stitching a basic triangle and then knots are stitched onto the threads and then more knots on top of the knots – a bit like a twisted crochet sort of…fiddly…I finished them with a french knot in the centre and a split stitch stem. I stitched these in Anchor perle no.8 as Cathy recommended not using stranded cotton. I’ve a box of perle which I’ve rarely used, they always look a bit shiny, but actually I rather like them now! I think the cup stitch makes a pretty flower, I can imagine them in shades of white as gypsophilia, but boy would that take time!

With these three stitches we have now completed the third ring. This one has been mainly filler stitches, the next one is apparently outline stitches. It’s filling up nicely and it does look pretty. I like the way we are stitching something, like a sprig of flowers (or a Christmas tree that looks like a hedgehog!!) I find it much more helpful than just learning stitches out of context. If anyone fancies joining in the Stitchwheel Sampler all the videos are on YouTube.

Posted in embroidery, Serendipity, Stitch-a-long | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Violet Speedwell

Posted on March 17, 2021 by craftycreeky

Violet is feeling very pleased with herself as she has a new coat…

Violet is a very particular rabbit from the Luna Lapin books by Sarah Peel of Cool Crafting. I made her a couple of months back having had the book and the supplies for more like a couple of years. When I bought the wool felt for Violet I also bought a fat quarter of a gorgeous purple felt for a coat.

There’s a whole wardrobe of clothes for the Luna Lapins, I’ve already made a flowery dress and a pair of lacy French knickers, today I decided to make the coat. I think it’s the detail that makes these special, fiddly but special…

I only cut this late this morning, by tea time it was made. The felt is a beautiful 100% wool felt from Cool Crafting in a lovely soft purple shade. I traced the pattern pieces from the back of the book and cut them out.

The instructions in the book are pretty straight forward, it’s just that the pieces are small and therefore fiddly. It’s basically a raglan sleeve coat with collar, welt pockets and sleeve tabs.

I knew I had some perfect tiny rounded buttons in my button drawer which I had been earmarking for this coat. They are seriously small, I’m pretty sure they came from my friends mothers button box. When I searched for them I found I actually only had six, whereas the pattern called for eight. I decided to leave six for the double-breasted coat and use two beads for the cuff tabs on the sleeve.

The coat isn’t lined but it does use binding for the neck line and the hem. I had some pretty bias binding with violets on in my haberdashery drawers, it matched well and suited her name.

My sewing machine sewed the wool fine until we got the the really thick bits, such as the collar going over the back pleat, you’re looking at at least five layers of thick wool. It missed stitches when it wasn’t happy. I ended up hand stitching the collar on as it missed so many! Having said that, there’s a lot of top-stitching on this coat and on the whole it coped well.

With the issues I had had with thickness versus machine, I wasn’t sure how it would cope with buttonholes, it even crossed my mind to leave them off. However I had a practice with a small button in the guide and a narrower zig-zag stitch and it came out beautifully. I decided to go for it! I made three buttonholes down the centre front, I had a couple of wobbles with the machine, not enough to spoil the buttonholes but enough for me to think I wasn’t going to push my luck with the six buttonholes required for a double breasted coat. I think these are the smallest buttonholes I’ve ever made!

Having only used three buttons down the front I could change the beads on the cuff tabs for buttons.The coat was ready for a try on…

I’m pleased with it, it’s a bit snug in the arms which Violet isn’t too impressed with – I had to use artery forceps to pull her chubby arm through, not very dignified!! All in all it’s come out pretty well, or even well pretty! I love the detail in these clothes, the top-stitching, the welt pockets and the cuff tabs. She just wants a pair of shoes now…

Posted in Crafts, Luna Lapin | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

Stitch Wheel

Posted on March 15, 2021 by craftycreeky

I’ve learnt three new stitches with the Stitch Wheel sampler by Cathy Reavy. Cathy releases the new stitches every Thursday. Last week I was just over half way round the second ring…

The first one to be stitched this week was laid work. It was used to make the acorns. I have to say I can’t really see the advantage in using that rather than satin stitch apart from using less thread, I also think it’s harder to get a neat finish. The purple flower is woven picot stitch, I like that one, it’s very effective with the petals raised from the background.

The teardrop shape is detached buttonhole, It’s quite clever is that one as it’s only attached to the fabric round the edges.

We just have three stitches to do and the third circle will be complete, it’s filling up nicely. One thing I have particularly enjoyed with this is that the samples are not just a sample of stitch but used to create something, such as the acorn or the flower. I think it does help to learn how to use it, rather than just the technique.

The next few stitches will be released on Thursday, then I anticipate the third circle will be complete.

Posted in embroidery, Serendipity, Stitch-a-long | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Raggdy Ruff-a-long

Posted on March 14, 2021 by craftycreeky

I’m trying to make some inroads into my stash of kits, particularly the ones by Raggedy Ruff, they’re gorgeous but they do still intimidate me a bit! So to motivate myself a bit I’m posting about one every three weeks, on the Sunday without a SAL post!

Three weeks ago I made a cushion from the Susie the Cat kit, I managed to make it look like my walking buddy’s cat and sent it to her in the post, she loved it.

This week I’ve started a gorgeous one of a hare. These kits are all designed by Andrea Walpole of Raggedy Ruff Designs, I follow her on facebook which gives you a tip off when kits are available. The disadvantage of this is that I find them hard to resist so I have quite a few waiting to be made!

The background is a lovely patchwork of purples and cream with a little green. I think it’s one of the blocks from the Highland quilt but it works just as well as a one off. I usually try to buy kits rather than just the pdf pattern as I really like the fabrics used, it’s mainly batik with a little linen for a change in texture.

Andrea’s technique is to trace the applique shapes onto freezer paper, iron them onto the batik and then cut the shape out, it does allow for pretty accurate cutting out. Andrea just lays them in place before stitching all round the pieces, I’m not that brave, I put a tiny blob of glue behind each piece to keep it in place whilst I get the basic outline done.

Once all the shapes are stitched round the embroidery begins. I’m using mainly variegated thread, I bought a bundle when I made the Spring Woodland wreath so I use those where possible but add plain Gutermann if I don’t have a suitable colour.

I’ve done a fair bit of the stitching on the hare, though I’ve still to stitch his eye and a few whiskers. The eyes are the scary bit to stitch as it makes or breaks the final finished look. I’ve now started on the background with the butterflies stitched and a few flowers too, these are meant to be lavender, not sure what mine are but they don’t look like lavender!

Next to be stitched are the seed heads (brown blobs!) and the corn. Once I get going these don’t take too long, it’s just plucking up the courage to do the free-motion embroidery…I still have to remember to breathe!

If you fancy having a go I can highly recommend these kits, Andrea puts just the right amount of fabric to comfortably cut everything out, all the fabrics are clearly labelled and her instructions are good. She doesn’t teach how to do free-motion quilting but she does describe what to stitch and in what order. She has quite a few kits for sale at the moment, as well as the patterns. Please follow the link to see her other kits. I’ve also found free motion machine embroidery is surprisingly forgiving, the eye tends to see what it expects to see and ignores the occasional wiggly off line.

Hopefully next time you see this it will be finished and made into something, probably a cushion.

Posted in embroidery, Quilting | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Snowdrop Skirt

Posted on March 12, 2021 by craftycreeky

I’m not sure if these are snowdrops on the fabric or just some swirly abstract pattern, it was a freebie from a Dewsbury meet up. We usually have a swop table where you can bring patterns or fabric which you don’t want and swop it for something else. This is a heavy jersey sort of fabric, doesn’t feel quite like scuba but it’s pretty heavy and drapy. It was one of those fabrics where I couldn’t quite decide if it was gorgeous or just a bit too much!

A couple of weeks ago I wanted a quick make, I’d been sorting out my fabric stash ( more on that another day!) and this actually took up quite a bit of room as it is quite thick. It also wasn’t precious so it was ideal for a quick make. I decided to make a skirt using Simplicity 8474, I made this skirt up twice last year and the skirts turned into my go-to-outfit for the summer, they were just so comfortable and easy to wear but presentable too…

It has a deep waistband (like about 6″) with an optional elastic insert and an A line two piece skirt, so it’s a very quick make, just stitch the side seams, add the waistband and hem!

As you can see I still have the lockdown hairstyle, but thanks to my daughter I no longer have dyed ends as she cut about an inch off so it looks slightly better, though in another six weeks when I finally have a hair appointment goodness knows how long it will be!

I do like this pattern, the skirts are just lovely to wear, I’ve already worn it a couple of times. It’s possibly an ideal style for lockdown – easy to wear, comfortable and an elastic waistband!

Posted in Dressmaking | Tagged , , | 18 Comments