I’m on a bit of a roll now, I’ve just finished another dress, this time it’s a pretty summer cotton frock. I do like my summer dresses.
I used McCall’s 6958 which is labelled as ‘easy, make it today!’ I have to say, if I concentrated and didn’t get distracted by the internet, then yes, it could be made in a day.
It’s a deceptively simple dress, there are only two main pieces, the front and the back (plus obviously a couple of facings) all the shaping is done by the four pleats front and back. The fabric is some I’ve had in my stash for a while, I think I picked it up on Goldhawk Road. It’s only 45″ wide which is sufficient, but if you want to pattern match and lengthen the dress by 4″…well I couldn’t do both! I decided to lengthen by 4″ and just aim to have the pattern level round the dress. The pattern has come out surprising well at the front, not perfectly central but it could have been a lot worse!
It went together very easily, I used french seams for all the main seams, the facing is deep enough that (so far) it doesn’t seem to wiggle out to the front. I hand-stitched the zip in, which is my usual method as I find it easier to get a neat result by hand.
I cut out a straight size 12, it fits me neatly, I could have done with a little more ease but not much. Despit adding about 4″ I didn’t want to lose any more length with a deep hem so I used a decorative stitch to make a narrow hem.
I like it, my OH likes it, in fact I’ve already cut another one out in a Liberty Tana lawn – with a little more ease at the sides!
I’ve got two cross-stitch stitch-a-longs on the go, each releases a new section of the pattern every two weeks, luckily not on the same day! I’m just about managing to keep up with them both, along with everything else! Life will be so quiet by Christmas when these finish together with a quilt-a-long!
The Zoe box SAL is by Faby Reilly, last time I shared it with you I’d just finished the four sides of the box, each side represents a different season, it looks gorgeous!..
These sections took 4 weeks each, two weeks for the cross stitches and two weeks for the back-stitch and the decorative stitches and embellishments. This time we’re stitching the inside of the box, as there’s not as much stitching we’ve completed winter and spring in two weeks. I love the robin and the ladybird, I think they’re so sweet!
These are actually stitched upside down on the design as they will be folded upwards when we’re constructing the box. I’ve already started the next section which was released on Monday, it has a butterfly and another squirrel on it.
The second SAL is by Deborah Dick of Tempting Tangles, it’s called Enlightenment; Words of Wisdom. It’s theme is trees and it’s stitched with just four colours of floss, well I’m using five, not being one to stick slavishly to a pattern!
Last time I showed you I’d just finished the second section, this is much simpler stitching so it grows pretty quickly…
…which is lucky as I only started this section on Monday and I finished it today, the next section comes out on Friday! The border is in a gorgeous thread by Dinky Dyes, it is a lovely thread to stitch with and I think the colours are beautiful. Deborah gives DMC alternatives to the threads. I felt 3847dark green was a bit too dark, so I stitched the first ‘tree’ in a thread I got from De Vere’s in their Advent calendar, it was just a slightly softer colour. I decided to do the centre one in the 3847 and then return to the De Vere one for the last tree.
It will be interesting to see how this one pans out – it’s not a designer I’ve used before. The top row (this is three out of sixteen sections) is a bit more repetitive than I anticipated, but having seen other designs by Deborah I’m sure it will be lovely when finished.
We’ve had some pretty wet weather so far this month, but hopefully it’s getting a bit better for a while – not that we believe the weather forecasters! I managed several hours on Sunday, mainly tidying up the patio area, some of the geraniums needed cutting back and I found quite a few weeds hiding amongst the plants!
There’s still a fair bit of colour in the garden, some of the veronicas are past it, but these smaller ones down by the conservatory look lovely.
Another flower which braved the weather last week is this beautiful pink one, it’s name escapes me, it’s like a lily but the leaves are different. Unfortunately it didn’t last long before it was battered by wind and rain.
You can just see underneath the pink flower are white daisy flowers of the leucothemum, it’s been flowering for several weeks now, it certainly earns it’s spot in the garden.
Whilst I was tidying the patio area I sat down in the rose arbour for my cup of coffee, I noticed the plants I bought just before the open garden to go in pots are doing really well. The creamy white hydrangea is just gorgeous, I’m hoping the non-flowering hydrangea in the pot behind gets the idea of what it’s meant to do, it’s in last chance saloon as I’ve had it about 4 years and it’s not flowered once, it’s looking the best it has done since I got it, so fingers crossed for next year! The variegated fuchsia has doubled in size in a matter of weeks and the lamium behind it is nicely trailing over the edge of the pot. The three plants together make a nice corner with lots of interest.
We’re heading into the time of year when foliage plants become more centre stage. Last year I planted a rogersia, I’ve got one somewhere near the pond but it’s got a bit swamped by alchemilla and crocosmia. I decided to plant another one on the edge of the pond border. It’s neat, bronzed leaves are looking really pretty.
Back down by the patio there’s still a blue geranium happily flowering away. It’s always quite late in the year when I cut this one back, I love the way it spreads over the bed, gently mingling with the other plants. I always struggle to remember where the actual plant is as it twines over such a large area without being invasive. It’s a very sociable plant!
After a little hiatus I need to step up with the garden again as we’ll soon be heading into autumn with all the tidying up that involves, if I have an early start I’ve a fair chance of getting it finished in time.
It’s three weeks since I last shared my Down the Rabbit Hole quilt, this is the king size quilt I decided to hand quilt in a moment of madness! I’m glad I’m hand-quilting it, honestly, it’s just an awfully big quilt!
Three weeks ago I’d just started the last big border, the one with the rabbits running round, I’m doing the outer diamonds at the same time, so when I finally get round this bit it will be finished! Three weeks ago I was here…
I was struggling with marking the quilting lines – there’s lots of straight lines here so I couldn’t just wing it. As you can see I was trying masking tape but I found it difficult to mark in the order I wanted to stitch, which was like a zig-zag. I’ve also found it’s made that area a bit tacky, probably because I left it on too long, but even so it wasn’t working for me.
Luckily Kate from Tall Tales from Chiconia recommended ceramic pencils. I ordered one and it’s worked brilliantly, so thanks Kate! I’ve marked the whole of one side and so far the lines have stayed and they’re nice clear white lines, which works well on my coloured fabric.
I’ve made fair progress this time, I’m now at the halfway point along the first border, so I feel I’ve got somewhere. I think these will be the fiddliest sides as well as I’m quilting round each of the rabbits. I find quilting easiest from right to left so even with the rabbit I’m stitching in that direction, even though it means stopping and starting several times.
I think the nearer I get to the end the more progress I’ll make as the light at the end of the tunnel gets a bit brighter!
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.
We’re nearly half way through August already so I thought I’d better see how I was doing with my nineteen challenges for the year, so this is the end of July report…
July was a busy month as I worked hard for our open garden and quilt show, so less sewing, but more gardening got done!
1 Scrap Quilt; Still not started but I’ve had a few ideas.
2 Tutorials; I’ve got a couple of weeks holiday from work coming up, hoping to sort some then.
3 Sessions a week in the garden; I’ve probably exceeded that this month! The open garden went well though and I was pretty proud of our garden.
4 Workshops; I went on another embroidery workshop at Fabbadashery, this time it was on Palestinian embroidery, I’ve another one booked in September and a gardening one too. So my tally is two so far this year.
5 presents; Nothing this month but Christmas is sneaking up so I’ll start soon. I’ve made three so far.
6 Quilts; My Spring Wreath quilt was my big finish last month, I’m still really proud of it! I’ve made five quilts so far this year, so doing pretty well!
7 New Patterns; July was quiet for sewing, so this remains at two, but I’ve cracked on since so August will be much better!
8 Kits; Last month I stitched a robin bookmark, it’s been used every night since in my bedtime reading book! This brings my total up to three.
9 Mini Embroideries; Last month I stitched a pair of fairy wings for a travelling sketchbook, I loved them! My total is now 4
10 Things; I made a needlecase last month, it’s proved really useful, it lives next to my sewing machine so it’s always handy. I also made two cushions, one from a quilting practice piece and one from an embroidery I did a year or two back. They look good on the settee in the conservatory. So this doubles my total up to a respectable 6.
11 Cross-stitch Smalls; No new ones, but I’ve already completed this challenge! I do need to stitch another three so I have the complete set for the twelve months of the year by Snowflower Diaries.
12 pages in my book; I’m hoping to start this during my holiday, I’ve just sourced some lovely fabric pages which I’m toying with using. I need to get my box of inspiration out and work out if their size will work, if not I know how I’ll make my own!
13 Clothes made; this was still just three in July, though I’ve already doubled that in August! I shared my cullottes this month which I’d counted in June!
14 Drawers organised; I had a sort out of my machine threads last month, my standard Gutermann threads are now vaguely colour arranged, I’ve put my machine quilting and embroidery threads in a separate box, I’m tempted to stick some golf tees to the base of a box to stand them on. This brings my total up to 9, so reasonable progress!
15 Minutes tidy up; I’ve got a bit slack at this one, I need to get back on as it does help.
16 Books; My piles are getting bigger!! This is going so much better than I ever thought,I have two books on the go at any one time, one for bedtime and one for on the go – trains, buses etc. I read another 4 books in July – helped by reading a whole book in a day! This brings my total to 16 with more to share for August, so challenge complete! I think I’m due another book post!
17 blogs a month; after a quieter June I managed a whopping 25 posts last month!
18 Walks; I’ve not done any more walks this month, still recovering from a virus, but I’ve already reached my target of 18 walks. We’re still hoping to do at least another three day walks so we can finish the Cleveland Way.
19 Splendid Sampler Blocks; This has been on the back burner whilst I concentrated on my Spring Wreath quilt, so I really need to get cracking with it now. I’ve made 14 so far this year, so not bad, but I want to get the quilt finished.
So I’ve a real mix of progress, some challenges complete or almost there, others not even started, hopefully August and September will be pretty productive, I’ve had a good start to August anyway!
Last night I finally finished a jacket to go with my white rose dress. I needed something smart to go to a family funeral and managed to find everything except lining in my stash for the whole outfit – though that probably says more about the size of my stash than luck!
The pattern I used is Simplicity 7667, I think I picked it up from a fabric swop table at a sewing meet-up. Having made it up it does look a bit ’80’s, and having just found a date on it…1992 – not a bad guess!!
I wanted a simple shift dress and collarless, easy to wear jacket. This is my dress I made last week…
For the jacket I used some fine cashmere which I bought in a fabric shop in Armley, it’s beautiful, I originally bought it to make a winter dress, and if ever I see it again I’ll be tempted to buy some more as it is a beautiful fabric. It’s just about heavy enough to make a lightweight jacket for cooler summer days, of which we get quite a few here in Yorkshire!
The pattern is for an unlined jacket, I’m not keen on unlined jackets, so I made a second jacket in a habotai weight lining, basted the two together down the front edges and simply stitched the facing over both layers.It meant fudging it a bit where the facing met the hem, but it looks fine.
There’s just one central button, though I think it hangs better unbuttoned.
I do like the nice big pockets on the jacket! The pattern calls for shoulder pads and my first thought was to leave them off. I cut out a straight size 12 which is fine, but I didn’t realise from the picture how wide the shoulders were, so I ended up having to put some in. It does make it a bit boxy and 1980’s ish!
I’m pretty pleased with it, I’d prefer it not quite so 80’s, but it makes a nice simple jacket which I’ll hopefully be able to wear for other occasions. I felt it needed a brooch and I remembered one I bought was I was in my 20’s, it’s just the right colours. I think I need some tights on though, my legs look nearly as white as the roses!!!
It’s three weeks since I last shared my Finery of Nature cross-stitch and if I say so myself, I’ve made pretty good progress! Three weeks ago this is where I was…
I’ve now finished the cross-stitch on the last bit of the nest together with the tip of the dragonfly wing and I’ve started the back-stitching. I do find back-stitching a bit tedious, so the amount needed on the nest was hard work, so I stitched a couple of threads on the nest and then did a couple of threads on the flowers around it. I’m getting there! I’ve started the flowers around the nest and I’m trying to stitch the border as I go along, rather than being left with the border to do at the end.
Decision time!!!
The border round the edge is meant to have gold thread couched onto it, but then again the whole cross-stitch was meant to be stitched on black aida with lots of gold thread. I didn’t want gold thread, I tried silver on earlier bits and that didn’t work either.
I decided to try few different colours – not too many as I’m not keen on undoing back-stitch! I tried a single thread of dark green first (middle one!) that just seems to disappear. I tried a double thread of dark blue (left), I think that’s my favourite so far. I also tried two strands of back, (right) as there is a lot of black back-stitches in the design. I feel that’s too harsh but I am open to opinions. So which do you think is best, or do I need to try and find a nice dark charcoal grey or darker blue. It is quite a dominant feature in the original design.
This Stitch-a-long is organised by Avis, if you would like to join us please send her a message. We post our own projects every three weeks, it’s great for motivation and encouragement. Please follow the links to see many more inspiring projects;
I was a bit late this month arranging my selection of smalls for August, mainly because most of them were out on display anyway for the needlework part of my open garden and I hadn’t quite got round to putting them away!
I’ve decided August is going to be on a theme of creatures, all kinds included! It started because the August cross-stitch from Snow-Flower Diaries has a border collie on it.
I then found my cat one, I originally stitched this in my 20’s and it warped a bit – too much to frame it, so it sat in my workbox for far too many years, decades in fact, until I decided to turn it into a small. I think it was a Lanarte kit, it’s very fine, too fine for my eyes now!
The lavender bag is one I made for my mum a couple of years ago, it’s got a pretty little butterfly on it. This is a design by Faby Reilly who’s Zoe box I’m stitching at the moment.
Faby Reilly Design
In the middle of the soft green/teal one is a tiny butterfly charm. I bought the pattern quite a few years ago at the knitting and stitching show, it included the charm. I think I’ve over done this one a bit with the lace, but it’s very pretty.
I stitched the brown rabbit holding a daisy last spring, it’s one of my favourites, the design is so simple but effective. The design is by Dany Chevallier, I’ve another one to stitch of a rabbit holding a daffodil.
The three hopping rabbits are over 20 years old, it was originally on a bib I embroidered for my children (who are now in their twenties!) I found it in a box in the loft a few months ago and decided to turn it into a small.
Last but not least is my blackwork sheep, he was a practice piece for a square I had to fill on a joint piece with my Embroiderers Guild. Skipton name originates from sheep town, so I felt we ought to have a sheep in the design!
So that’s my little seasonal display for August, I still haven’t stitched the last three months of the year (only had twelve months to do it in!!) so I need to get myself organised!
We’ve got a family funeral next week and when I looked in my wardrobe I really had nothing suitable, whilst wearing all black isn’t so necessary these days my smarter summer dresses tend to be light and floaty or more suitable for weddings and I certainly didn’t have a simple dark jacket.
I had a look in my stash, wondering if a dark jacket would tone down one of my summer dresses, this is what I found…
…a whole outfit, just waiting to be made! The white rose fabric is scuba, I bought on a whim last year in Fabworks in Dewsbury and then wondered what on earth to make with it. Scuba is a funny fabric, I’m still not sure about it as it is so synthetic but I felt the design was perfect for a smart, simple dress. It’s not quite black, more of a dark charcoal grey with a tiny touch of brown. The plain fabric is some beautiful cashmere I bought in Armley last year, I was planning to make a winter dress out of it, but I decided it would make a wonderful summer jacket for cooler days (of which we get quite a few here in the UK!!) and as it’s dry clean only then I think a jacket is probably more suitable anyway. Colourwise it matches perfectly.
I had a rummage through my patterns and found one I think I picked up on the swop table at the last Sew Down Dewsbury, Simplicity 7667 was just what I wanted, a shift dress and a simple style of jacket. I even found an invisible zip of the right length and colour in my stash! It was all meant to be!! All I had to buy was some lining for the jacket.
I decided to tackle the dress first. It went together very easily but took a bit of fiddling to get the fit a bit better. I cut out a size 12, grading it to a 14 over my hips. Scuba is very stretchy and this pattern was for woven fabrics, but I didn’t cut smaller as I didn’t want a figure hugging dress. I stitched the two darts in for the bust and then just basted the sides and shoulders together to check the fit. That was a good move as there was alot of excess fabric round the armhole. I tried putting an extra dart in the side, that didn’t help, after much fiddling I decided to increase the size of the dart in the side seam, so I undid the basting, increased the dart, basted again and it looked much better. Still not perfect, but better than it was and the best I could do without an assistant!
The invisible zip went in well, I always have to get one of my sewing books out for these as I don’t use them that often. With hindsight I should have started it slightly lower down the seam. I also lowered the neckline by about an inch as I find higher necklines really uncomfortable.
The pattern uses the dress fabric to face the neckline and armholes. I thought the scuba would be too bulky, so I used some lining for that, I understiched it but even with it stitched down at the seams I could see it was going to be a pest, sneaking out at inoportune moments. Having hand-stitched the hem up I decided to just lightly stitch the facings down by hand, it seems to have worked with not much visible from the front.
I’m really pleased with my dress, it’s super comfortable with all the ease from the scuba but I think it looks suitably smart but not too sombre so I should be able to wear it on other occassions.
Sometimes I have things I want to share here, but they’re not quite big enough to make a full post, so I thought I’d lump them together as a miscellany, a collection of unrelated items!
I’ve recently heard a bit about Craftivism and I found an article in the Guardian newspaper about it which is worth reading. Craftivism is about using embroidery and sewing as a voice of peaceful protest and it gets results. As an example the group decided to campaign for Marks and Spencers to pay their staff a living wage (as opposed to the legal minimum wage) they googled all about members of the board and made them a very personal hand embroidered handkerchief, including on them messages to encourage them to pay the living wage. They presented them at the AGM and 10 months later M&S did a U-turn and paid living wage.
Last month I was browsing on ebay – always dangerous – looking at vintage textiles – even more dangerous! I spotted a vintage Christening gown just about to finish with no bids at £6.99, before I could ask myself what would I do with a vintage Christening gown my bid was on and of course I won it!
From the photos I wasn’t sure what it would be like, I knew there was a little bit of damage and old repairs. It is beautiful, it’s made from a very fine soft cotton and when I examined the seams, I realised it’s all totally hand-stitched. The tiny stitches in the seams are exquisite.
I think the lace on the bodice is possibly handmade bobbin lace, it’s embroidered on the bodice too. I was fascinated with how the skirt was attached, I can only describe it as faggotting, all neatly gathered in with tiny pleats.
The buttonholes and the buttons look handmade. I think the lace on the hem is mass produced, though as my mum said when I showed it to her, it could have been added later.
Even the tiny cuffs on the sleeves are embellished with some hand embroidery. It’s beautiful, it’s one of those things that’s just lovely to own. I just need to learn how to launder these textiles properly now.
It was the Festival of Quilts last weekend, I didn’t go this year as I’m saving up for a new sewing machine, but I am planning to go to the Great Northern Quilt Show at Harrogate showground, it’s 30th August to 1st September. It’s a lot smaller but actually it’s a nice size, they have a good display of quilts and lots of stalls. I find the big shows a bit overwhelming at times, this is more manageable! I even took my mum last year in her wheelchair. It’s only £9 to get in too, a bargain, and free parking too! If anyone else is going and fancies meeting up for coffee, let me know!
thecraftycreek 