Isolation Skirt

Posted on May 5, 2020 by craftycreeky

I’ve managed to finish a few things over the weekend, so I’ll share them with you over the next few days. I’m trying to reduce my fabric stash a bit, especially my dress-making lengths, I want to reorganise how I store things in my sewing room and really that means being able to fit it all in one large cupboard…

It’s time for some dress-making!

In the New Year I decided to order some new patterns whilst they were on half price offer, help to kick-start my sewing. One pattern was Butterick 6605. It is described as ‘Modern Fit with Ready to Wear Sizing’. Whilst the photo of the outfit is of a more curvy model, the line drawing is of the usual slim version, sizes vary from X-small to X-large.

I started with the top, using some lovely shirting left over from a previous project. I looked at the bust measurements and also the generous ease and cut out an extra small (34-35″ bust). It actually went together OK, but it felt a little snug, I let a little out on the side seams. I also found the hidden button placket made the front very stiff – it meant there were basically six layers of fabric and three layers of interfacing up the centre front. It also made the round neck a little uncomfortable. At this point it was nearly going in the bin! I slept on it…

I decided I had nothing to lose by hacking it, I wouldn’t wear it as it was. I took off the button placket, I undid all the edge-stitching round the centre front and neckline. I re-stitched it as a V neck. The centre front caused issues as it wasn’t on a straight with the fabric, I’ve checked the pattern piece and it wasn’t my cutting out!! In the end I used three small buttons from my stash with which I could get away with skimming the edge of the garment, rather than the large buttons suggested.

I think there is now a chance of me wearing it!

Next was the skirt, which is actually very similar to the wrap skirt in the Great British Sewing Bee in episode one. By the way, it’s quite exciting this year as one of my sewing buddies is a contestant, Ali (who blogs as Thimberlina or Thimbers on Instagram) organises the sewing meet-ups in Dewsbury a couple of times a year. She’s actually a paramedic and in all the time I’ve known her, I’ve only met her twice at work, twice in one week she brought a patient into my department when I was on duty, she took a selfie of the two of us!

So fingers crossed for Ali, she’s doing well so far!

Back to the skirt…

Having found the top a little snug, I took extra care with my measurements. I found it a little odd as it suggested measuring full hip, add 2″ for ease, then that is the size to go on! This made me a large size. Strange, but I did as I was told…

I was using some lovely linen which I’ve had in my stash for years, I mean probably 20 years, I seem to remember it was about 50p a yard at the shuttle as it had potentially excess dye in it. It has a lovely drape to it. I just had enough left to cut the skirt out.

The actual skirt went together easily. However…it was huge! Although it is a wrap skirt I couldn’t just wrap it further round as the hang was all wrong. I slept on it!

I decided to add two extra darts in the back and take in a good 3/4″ at each side seam, it means the pockets are a little deeply set, but it was either that or forgo the pockets. It was meant to have ties, however with the fitting issues I’d had I decided to use buttons instead.

When I stand still it looks OK, but I’ve remembered now what issue I have with a wrap skirt, when I walk up steps I show my leg, like a lot of leg, like the whole of my leg!! Maybe I’m just not lady-like enough to wear this style!! It’ll be fine for staying in days and I have quite a lot of those at the moment!

As for the pattern, it’s going in the bin!!

Posted in Dressmaking | Tagged , | 13 Comments

Monday’s Meander Round the Garden

Posted on May 4, 2020 by craftycreeky

We finally had some rain here in Yorkshire last week and the garden is looking a lot better for it. Apparently it’s the first measurable rainfall we’ve had since mid March, which considering April is known for it’s showers, it’s pretty unusual!

The patio is starting to green up fast, the geraniums are covering their bed by the gate now, euphorbias are curling out their lime green bracts, hostas are opening their leaves and the white broom (in the middle) is in flower. I bought the broom last year at the Harrogate Spring Flower show, it was one of those plants where people stop you to ask where you bought it!

The sunshine and warmth has brought many flowers out earlier too. This aquilegia is down by the patio, it’s so pretty…

On Sunday it was Dawn Chorus Day, there were various internet events on to help you identify the birds from their songs. I set my alarm clock for 5am, the allotted time, with the idea that I would see how I felt when it went off. As it was I was already awake, so I got up, made a cup of tea, then sat outside on my arbour with an old quilt wrapped round me to keep warm and listened to the birds. It was all very peaceful, I can recognise some birds, like the robin and the blackbird, the wren and the great tit, after that it could be anything! I started listening to one of the broadcasters but it interfered with listening to the birds, I think it’s something I need to do later. It was a nice way to start the day.

Dawn Chorus cup of tea

I’ve quite a few clumps of camassia around the garden, I think they are stunning bulbs, so once I discovered they actually like my clay soil, I planted several! I planted a white one too last year but so far it hasn’t done much this time.

The rhododendron’s are coming into flower too, this one is by the big fence and I’m hoping in time it will grow into quite a big bush, hide some of the fence.

I’m making slow progress in the front garden, well I was until I did too much digging and strained my knee! Two pilates sessions and it’s much better, though I don’t want to push it. I’ve a lot to cut down and dig out in the front, trying to get some semblance of control! Having broken all my secateurs I treated myself to a new pair and some matching loppers, so hopefully I can crack on now. I also had a bit of a brainwave regarding all these prunings. Our tip is currently closed due to covid, so they’re stacking up – we’ve three ton bags full already. I suggested that if we bought a shredder, all the shrubby clippings could go in the hot composter. My OH agreed and collected one the next day!

Having a bit of a break from digging has given me time to think about what’s staying and what needs to come out – I’ve a lot to do!

Posted in Garden | 8 Comments

Morgan Jeans

Posted on April 28, 2020 by craftycreeky

I’ve done it! I’ve finally made myself a pair of jeans!! And they fit!!!

I’ve had the Ginger Jeans pattern on pdf (always off-putting for me!) and a paper pattern of the Morgan Jeans for years, and I mean years. I just kept putting it off. When my last pair of jeans became too indecent to even wear in the house, I deccided I had to buckle under and make some, after all I had all the denim and all the hardware extras to make them, I just needed a kick…

Ginger jeans by Closet Case Patterns are well known amongst the sewing community, , their Morgan jeans pattern is less well known, in fact it’s rarely mentioned. Ginger jeans are described as skinny leg, low waisted jeans, though I think you can get an adaptation to raise the waist level. They are designed for stretch denim. Morgan jeans on the other hand are described as ‘boyfriend jeans’, they are higher waisted, a button fly, and more straight legged. This style appealed to me more. It is also designed for non-stretch denim.

I thought I had some non-stretch denim, a heavy black one, it didn’t seem to give when I tried it, however once I started to sew with it I realised it does have some stretch, but the pattern has worked great with it.

I measured myself before and came out as a 14 leg and 12 waist. Helpfully it gives finished garment measurements, including calf and thigh, I decided I would make a straight size 12 instead as there was a fair bit of ease allowed for.

My original plan was to sew the whole thing with black thread, so all the top-stitching would be black, I wanted to be able to concentrate on sewing the jeans rather than constantly having to change my top thread. The first part to be stitched with jeans is always the back pockets and their stitched design. I decided to play with my new sewing machine as it does alphabets. I tried various fonts, but in black it hardly showed up, after trying various shades I plumped for dark grey, which shows up nicely whilst being fairly subtle, and I could sew all the seams in the same thread. My overlocker was already set up with black, so I could easily change between the two.

I stitched Crafty Creek on the back pockets and added a simple decorative row below. It’s not perfectly central and I’ll probably do it differently next time, but as an idea I think it works. So if ever you see someone with Crafty Creek on their bum, it’s me!!

Of course my OH had to take a photo as I bent over!

As with the denim skirt I made recently, with jeans you just have to steadily work your way through the instructions. They’re not actually difficult to make, it’s the fit that’s the tricky bit! The instructions were OK, though I thought the Merchant Mills instructions for the jeans skirt were clearer – I was glad I made that first. There was one instruction that I’m sure is incorrect and another which I didn’t understand until it was too late.

I made the jeans as per pattern until the stitching of the side seams, I machine basted these so I could try on and alter if needed. On the first try on the waist was huge, so I took some in at the side seams. It still gaped at the back. I was going to accept it and hope the waistband brought it in, but luckily I slept on it and this morning I undid the top-stitching and edge-stitching down the centre back seam so I could take it in there. It made all the difference. Next time I’ll make everything up to the point of stitching the main pieces together and then just baste until I’m happy with the fit.

I lined the pockets and backed the waistband with some cute quilting cotton, it’s got daisies and little mice on!

My sewing machine coped pretty well with all the layers of denim. It started skipping stitches at one point, but I just gave it a new needle and it was fine. I remember a tip I saw on facebook about the little black button on your standard sewing machine foot. I’ve been sewing for 40 years and I never knew this!! If your sewing over really lumpy seams and the needle is in danger of hitting the foot due to the angle, lift the foot, hold it level and push in the black button. It will hold it in the level position whilst you go over the hump! It works!!

Extra equipment I found useful; my wooden tailors block, I used it for all the seams, you press and steam with the iron and then quickly press hard with the block, it helps set the steam in and makes a lovely flat seam. Tailors ham, the sausage shaped one, great for pressing down trouser legs! Silver gel pen, great for marking top-stitching lines or button holes. Bernina buttonhole cutter, these are like mini chisels which cut straight through the buttonhole – they are so sharp!

I’m really pleased with the final fit, the adjustment at the back helped, I know which bits to look at next time. I think the stretch worked really well with the pattern too.

Closet Case do an on-line ‘book’ for making Ginger jeans and obviously it’s just as relevant for the Morgan jeans, I found it really helpful, they have pictures of ‘normal’ people in jeans with fitting issues to show which bit needs altering, lots of tips of choosing denim, sewing with it etc.

As you can probably tell, I’m well chuffed with my jeans 🙂

Posted in Dressmaking, Serendipity | Tagged , , | 26 Comments

Coming Home Quilt

Posted on April 26, 2020 by craftycreeky

I’m getting there! There’s light at the end of the tunnel!!

I’ve cracked on with this quilt, hand-stitching all those leaves to the corners. I discovered that on a Friday night Andrew Lloyd Webber is doing a free screening on one of his musicals, it’s a perfect accompaniment to hand-sewing! I missed the first week which was Jesus Christ Superstar, last week was Phantom of the Opera, which is one of my favourite musicals, I just love the power of the music. This week was Love Never Dies, it’s the sequel to Phantom but I really didn’t enjoy this one much, the storyline was just too far-fetched! I got lots of sewing done though! Three weeks ago I was stitching leaves on…

There’s eighty leaves on the quilt altogether! Once all the leaves were stitched I made some 1/4″ bias binding, typically the fabric I wanted to use only gave me 20″ lengths and I needed 22″, so I had to piece it, though making one long strip was probably easier than 4 short ones. We had to undo a small hole in one of the seams to tuck the ends in as we sewed it on.

The quilt is pretty big now, about 72″, so it’s not easy to photograph. I had a bit of a brainwave though, I folded all four corners into the middle so you can see them all…

I’ve also made the blocks for the next border. This one took a little working out as I’m not making it according to Sarah Fielke’s design. The pattern is for another deep border with dozens of tiny triangles on! I decided I didn’t want such a big quilt, I’ve got three king size ones already, I wanted this one for the double bed in our guest room. I also felt it was quite a fussy border for the quilt, I wanted something a little simpler. Part of the design was some large triangles. I decided to adapt this, I checked the measurements and worked out what size of flying geese I would need to get the effect I wanted. I used the fabric with blue trees on for the base and then cut the squares in the mid to dark blue, green and purple fabrics. I prefer leaving the base rectangle intact, not trimmed away, as it means if my triangles are slightly off I still have the true measurement from the rectangle.

It took ages to work out the colour placements of the triangles! My original thought was to have all the colours mixed, but it looked much better in pairs. Of course I was left with two flying geese which wouldn’t pair up, so I unpicked and re-sewed them. I’m really pleased with how it’s worked out, especially with the trees in the background.

Once these are stitched onto the quilt, with silver grey in the corners, I just have three houses to applique in each corner and the top is finished! This is a quarter of my quilt so far…

I’m going to send this to a long armer to be quilted as even with my extra length on my new sewing machine, I think this would be pushing it. I’ll wait until the lockdown is over and then go and see them.

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, Tracy, Deb, Susan,  Nanette,  Edith, Sharon, Karrin, Gretchen, Kathi,  Bella, Daisy, Connie and Monica

I’ll also be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday.

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

Staying Home Quilt

Posted on April 25, 2020 by craftycreeky

I’m making good progress on my Staying Home quilt, it’s basically going to be made from the left over fabric from my Coming Home quilt, I seem to have rather a lot left!

The basis of the quilt are some pretty little designs from quilters in Australia, it’s been organised by Natalie Bird of The Bird House, to help everyone through the lockdown and general uncertainty of the pandemic. She got her friends in the quilting community to each design one 6″ block, it’s all free, there’s been a lovely group on facebook too. There’s sixteen blocks all together, I’ve shown you a few last week, here’s some more…

Karen Styles of Somerset Patchwork designed this one, a pretty embroidery in the middle, surrounded by mini hexagons. Those hexagons were a fiddle, they’re only an inch across, corner to corner! I’m not a great lover of EPP and this didn’t enamour me to the technique!! Having said that, I love the block!

I nearly didn’t make this one, I think the colours in the original one put me off, silly I know, but it made the kitty look quite fierce. I then saw lots of other variations as people made them and it grew on me. This is the part of facebook I really like, seeing lots of different ways of making the same block. Some embroidered it, just the outlines or filling in the shapes, some did free motion embroidery round the blocks, some needle-turn appliqued it.

I decided to use bondaweb and machine sew round it. I couldn’t find my bondaweb so I ended up using Steam-a-Seam instead for the first time. Whilst I can see it’s advantages, I’m not converted, it doesn’t half gunk up your needle! However, from a point of view of being able to temporarily stick the pieces down before ironing them, it was a godsend, especially when I realised I was arranging them looking at the reverse image! I stitched them with the blanket-stitch on my sewing machine, it was fiddly but easier than I thought. The only bit I would change with hindsight is I would have free-motion stitched around the eyes, as they looked quite an intense blue before, but it’s lost with the stitching. I really like this one, it was designed by Pattern Poole.

The next one was a quick and simple one, designed by Kathy Doughty of Material Obsession. I used the Steam-a-Seam and hand-stitched round, this is when I realised just how much it gunks your needle up – more so than bondaweb.

Another one I nearly didn’t dois this one by Deidre Bond-Abel of Hot Creek Quilts. The design was for applique, to me it just felt too heavy. I saw a couple done with embroidery and decided to adapt the design slightly. I just did a single line of chain stitch for the stem, instead of a 1/4″ wide one, I narrowed the body a little and gave him some legs and googly eyes. I then just embroidered over the design.

The last one to show you is this cute design of two little birdies sitting on a swing. I made them bluebirds, I like the way this one has turned out. The design is by Country Hart Designs.

So all together I’ve made nine so far, there’s another four I want to do, making thirteen in total. This may sound an odd number but it actally works out really well. I’m planning to make some 6″ house blocks to put inbetween the embroideries. Twelve of those will make a five by five block quilt, with borders and sashings it should get up to a reasonable size….and use up most of the left over fabric!

I’ll be linking up with Kathy’s Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday, please follow the link for lots of hand-stitched inspiration.

Posted in embroidery, Quilt-a-long, Quilting, Serendipity | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Tuesday’s Totter Round the Garden

Posted on April 21, 2020 by craftycreeky

Our lovely spring weather continues here in Yorkshire – I’ve even had to start watering plants, especially those which only went in this month!

My OH commented yesterday what a colour corner we have next to the conservatory, I think the daffodils are late because I was late planting them, so they’ve joined in with the blue brunnera and the pink camellia behind.

Opposite is my pots border – the soil here was awful, so I flattened it, put down some membrane and pebbles, and covered it with pots, I have a bit of a blue theme running through the pots too which adds a nice splash of colour in the winter. I also find having all the pots together seems to create a bit of a microclimate – I rarely water these, even though they’re in pots. Having said that I gave them a good drenching yesterday, we’ve not had rain for weeks! The acer is over 25 years old – I bought it when my son was born.

Plants seem to be sprouting up daily, these erythroniums are beautiful with their nodding pale yellow flowers, I think they’re called pagoda. The tall stems behind have appeared this week, it’s Solomons Seal, it’s getting a bit rampant really, but it’s not that easy to dig up! All the hostas are starting to unfurl their leaves too so hopefully soon the pond area will look verdant and lush!

I’ve been working on the front garden again this week, it’s a huge task, we’ve got three tiers, two narrow ones and one deep one. I’m pretty much clearing the top one at the moment, just leaving my favourite shrubs in. The marestail and bindweed has gone rampant here, so I’m trying to remove as much weed roots as I can before I cover it in membrane and the then weedkiller anything that comes through! I did this on the lower tier and it certainly helped. My problem now is that the top tier is probably 8-10 foot wide and 25 feet across at least, a big area to clear, so I’m tackling it bit by bit…

I’ve a purple magnolia in this area, it flowers quite well, but I have to say I’ve always been a bit disappointed with the blooms, they’re a bit of a muddy purple, I think maybe magnolias are one shrub when it’s best to stick to the original!

On one of the lower tiers I’ve an eschordia, The Bride, it’s in flower at the moment and it’s beautiful…

I took a photo from upstairs the other morning and the camera just caught a shaft of light coming down, it looked beautiful and not at all what I say through the viewfinder!

Hopefully next week they’ll be more progree on the front garden 🙂

Posted in Garden | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Harold the Hare SAL

Posted on April 19, 2020 by craftycreeky

It’s three weeks since I last showed you Harold and I have to say I’m quite amazed at the progress this time! I was getting to the point of thinking I’ll just get his head and shoulders done and frame it smaller…

Three weeks ago I’d just sorted out his nose!

I tackled his left ear first (as you look at it!) it was a bit ‘blocky’, I know that’s the techniques the designer uses, like a cross-hatching of stitches, but it is somewhat out of my comfort zone! I started adding some finer stitches to blend everything in a bit, most of the embroidery is stitched with three strands, I started over stitching with one or two threads, it seemed to work. Of course it would have been better if I’d done a little on one ear, then the same on the other, as it was by the time I came to do the right ear I had no idea which colours I’d used! Close up it looks a bit messy, but from a distance it looks OK.

I added some fine eyelashes, stitched in the highlight in his eye, whiskers will wait until I’ve finished the background…

There seemed to be an awful lot of stitching left on the main body. The original pattern only uses about 5 colours on a range – I think it was DMC 004 to 008, I started adding some warmer browns when I was stitching his face. I ended up with about ten different DMC threads in use, I also found a variegated one, not DMC, which is warm greys, browns, verging on purple. It helped to fill in a lot of the body fairly quickly as I got the colour change without changing my thread. Whilst this style of stitching is still out of my comfort zone, I do like the effect, a sort of ruffled fur look, in the close up you can see all the different colours, but they all come together nicely. The colour on the photo has come out more grey than brown, but you get the idea.

So Harold himself is now finished, though he does look like he’s hurt his paw, I’m not sure how that’s happened! I just need to do the background now, I’m thinking of a few grasses and tiny flowers around his feet. I think this is one of those projects when half the problem is knowing when to stop!

This stitch-a-long is organised by Avis, we share our progress every three weeks, please follow the links to see lots more stitching inspiration.

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

Linking up with Kathys Quilts too for Slow Stitching Sunday

Posted in embroidery, Stitch-a-long, Workshops | Tagged , , | 21 Comments

Anthea SAL

Posted on April 18, 2020 by craftycreeky

I’ve just finished the April cross-stitch for the Anthea SAL by Faby Reilly. This is the one where each month has a flower design, I’m making it into a textile book with a page opposite of a wordplay based on the month. I haven’t done Aprils wordplay yet, but I have finished the flower.

This month it’s violets, one of my favourite flowers, we have wild violets self seeding all over the garden, I always feel a bit guilty if I have to pull them up as they are so pretty. At the moment there’s a lovely little clump in flower as we go up the wooden steps onto the back lane.

I would have finished it a week ago but I realised at the last minute that I didn’t have the deep purple for the back-stitching, I did look in my stash for something similar but there wasn’t another one of the same intensity. Of course my delivery got delayed with all the bank holidays over Easter, never mind everything else going on, but it was worth waiting for as the colour is just perfect.

The fabric is a permin evenweave linen, 32 count, it’s a lovely soft purple colour, perfect for this. I used some gold beads from my stash which aren’t too shiny, I’ve decided I prefer the more matt or satin finish to beads. It’s a gorgeous design, the delicate back-stitching make these designs something special. I shall try and incorporate one of the violets and maybe a flurry of french knots into the wordplay.

Here’s the other pages I’ve stitched so far…

Posted in embroidery, Stitch-a-long, Textile Books | Tagged , , , | 14 Comments

Staying Home Quilt

Posted on April 16, 2020 by craftycreeky

I’ve stitched another two blocks from the Love & Hugs SAL on facebook, there’s a 6″ block being released every day, so I’m just printing off the patterns and stitching when I can. I’ve discovered there will be sixteen patterns all together, I’m not planning at the moment to make all of them, but we will see.

I’m using colours which will go with my Coming Home Quilt, the idea being that I can use all my leftover fabric (of which I seem to have quite a lot, I’ve only one border left to do!!) to make a scrap quilt. One idea I have at the moment is to make a number of 6″ pieced house blocks, these could then alternate with the embroidered blocks to make a reasonable sized throw with some sashing and borders. Hence the potential name of Staying Home quilt, I thought it was rather apt!

Anyway, back to the stitching…

The next one to be stitched was one by Gail Pan, I’ve admired her designs for a while, in fact I have one of her books on my shelf, waiting for me to stitch something. It’s a very pretty design with bees and flowers. The beehive and the box are done in chain stitch, the rest is just back-stitch, lazy daisy’s and straight stitches, oh and a bit of satin stitch too. I changed the colours as I was going as the box seemed too dominant at first – not that it was going to get unpicked!! I changed the colour of the running stitch to a mid shade, rather than a light one, which helped to tone down the dark blue a bit.

The background fabric is actually a warm white with a delicate grey tracery of leaves and stems, it looks lovely but it’s a so and so to trace over, as I couldn’t tell what was fabric and what was design lines, even with a homemade light box!

The second block is by Jenelle Kent of Pieces to Treasure, it’s a lovely elegant block with twining leaves and a dragonfly. I enjoyed stitching this one, it’s mainly back-stitch and french knots…

I’ve already traced off the next one, I’ll probably end up stitching about twelve of these designs, then with house blocks I could have a good sized quilt. This is the four of them together…

Posted in Coming Home Quilt, embroidery, Stitch-a-long | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Extremes of Sewing AKA The 39 Steps!

Posted on April 15, 2020 by craftycreeky

Last week I made two skirts, very simple jersey ones, just two side seams and a waistband. This week I’ve gone to the other extreme and made a denim skirt with 39 steps in it!!

I’ve made this one before, it’s called the Clementine, it’s by Merchant and Mills in their denim range of patterns. It’s actually fairly straight forward, you just have to take your time and go step by step. Luckily all the fiddly bits like fly zips and pockets are stitched whilst the pieces are still fairly flat. The instructions are pretty clear, there’s only one bit that I had to read about three times, but I got there in the end.

I used a black denim from my stash, I bought it last year sometime at Fabworks in Dewsbury – £5 for 1.5 metres, a bargain! It’s quite a firm denim with a little bit of stretch. I nearly did all the top stitching in black but at the last minute I decided to use a variegated quilting thread in pinks and purples. It’s quite bright at the moment, but I’m anticipating that after a few washes with all the dark clothes, it will tone down a bit. The pockets are lined with a sewing themed fabric, I used the same fabric to line the waistband too so I didn’t have two layers of denim to contend with. Last time I made this skirt exactly to the pattern, I love wearing it but I always wish it was just a bit longer, so this time I added 6″ onto the length, I anticipated cutting it back once it was made, but I liked the long length, so I just did the usual jeans hem on it.

The pocket top-stitching is the first step in the whole procedure. Of course this means you have to decide what to put on the pockets. I ummed and arred for a while, last time I put an ECG on the pockets, but I couldn’t decide what rhythm to do – it’s got to be accurate when you’re a cardiac nurse!! The one provided in the pattern was a bit like an M, I decided to stylize it a bit and then had the idea of having my initials on the back pockets, M and C. I was pretty pleased with how they came out – my C could have done with being a bit lower, but it was OK. Then my OH looked at it, couldn’t see that it was M and C and thought it odd that they weren’t the same…well they’re staying!

The zip fly came out OK, I was a bit annoyed with my top-stitching as I thought I’d done it wrong at the bottom, catching in the zip, undid it and restitched it, only to realise it was right the first time, so I had to undo it again!!

As soon as I stitched the side seams up I tried it on and as expected (from last time I made it) it was too big on the waist but OK on the hips, I took in about 3/4″ on each side, tapering it off to the hips.

I had taken the precaution of not cutting out the waistband until I knew how much I was taking in. The waists are funny on jeans, there’s a left and a right, not a front and back, so I pinched a similar amount in the middle of each pattern, double checked the pattern was the right way up, cut it out and it fitted perfectly -phew!!

The only steps I haven’t done is the belt loops, they were to be added right at the end, I still might add them, but I knew I’d never use them and most of my tops cover the waistband anyway!

I tried to play thread chicken at the end and lost big time, with 5″ to go of the hem not only did my top thread run out, my bottom thread ran out too, I thought some thread had got stuck underneath so I had to take the needle plate off…only it’s the first time I’ve done this on my new machine, I ended up getting the instruction manual out to discover a weird piece of metal is actually a (not very easy to use) screwdriver!! Half an hour later…

Until the last half hour I was really please with my new machine, it coped with all the thicknesses of denim, made a very nice button hole too. I got the hang of using various settings for edge-stitching and top stitching. I set up my overlocker next to it so I could switch between the two machines and it worked really well, though in a perfect world you would have one machine set up with top stitching thread and another with sewing thread – there’s an awful lot of changing threads, I was so glad of the easy threading and automatic needle threader!

I’m really pleased with my new skirt, I really must crack on and make some jeans now!

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