This Post Is Brought To You By The Colour Blue

I subscribe to a stupid amount of blogs. Most of them are sewing blogs, but there are one or two others in there and Bored Panda is one of them. It's full of funny, inspirational, and down right cute pictures but I've never really been inspired to do more than share something to facebook before I go back to whatever it was I should have been doing.

They had a post about award winning photographs a little while ago and they were beautiful but it was the colour combinations in one of them that stuck with me.

(Amazing autumn fall landscapes)

I think it's already kind of obvious that I'm a fan of blue, but blue and orange is something you don't see that often so I never really thought of it. I couldn't even find anything on spoonflower.

I did think about trying it in one of my projects, but I don't know if I could pull it off. I like fun clothing, but I really can't tell what's good when it comes to colour.

I quickly realised the answer was shiny things! (It often is.) Silver, gold and copper are like black, they go with everything without looking ridiculous (as long as you don't overdo it) and even I can put something together without looking silly.

fotor.com

Top left: (Beautiful embroidery)

Top middle: (Beautiful crazy quilting)

Top right: (Dany Atrache 2012)

Bottom left: (Gilded paradise dress)

Bottom middle: (Dior)

Bottom right: (Copper and teal)

It's not really a big thing, but I kinda trace my terrible colour matching skills to my mum. It's not her fault, she's colour blind. The only way she could choose things that matched was to go for two things that were the same colour (usually purple) or rainbows. Even then it still went wrong sometimes. :-)

New Desk? Kind Of...

I've finally got back to sewing! One of the problems I was having was a lack of sewing space, a designated space where I could leave stuff out and not have to stick it all in a cupboard every time I needed the space.

It's only a mirror on top of some bedside tables but I don't have to kneel on the floor to cut fabric so it feels like a lot less work to do things. Cutting out is probably the worst part of sewing and I think I'll get a lot more garments made.

I've actually managed to cut out the front pieces and one of the button stands. Only one more piece to cut out and then I start sewing.

New Looks For Me!

I've been very good lately when it comes to buying fabric, especially since I live near a great sewing shop. That being said, I have been looking at the sewing patterns.

When I first bought a load of sewing patterns a while ago I went for what looked cool. The kind of thing I'd stick on my Pinterest inspiration board. I didn't really put too much thought into when I'd be sewing and wearing these complicated patterns.

Now that the New Look patterns at my local sewing shop have come on sale again I decided to stock up on simple patterns that I could try making again and again. It was pretty easy to narrow it down to these seven patterns but here's where it gets harder.

I like dresses even though I only own one, the 1940s one I made myself but that doesn't really look very good without a slip. I have loads of leggings to wear under them and a dress pattern that would work fine for a slip so now I just need to get making.

The top two dresses are simpler dresses with nothing cut on the bias, but they're different enough that I might consider getting both.

These two, though, I'm not too sure about. They're both okay, but I can't see myself getting both and I don't know which one to choose. The one on the left, New Look 6093, looks kinda cool but it's a bit more complicated and the inserts are cut on the bias. The other one looks kinda plain though.

I also want this top, even though it doesn't quite come under simple basics either. Wrap tops are one of those styles that seem to look good on almost any woman and I really like them.

And finally, the really basic stretch tops. The one with separate sleeves is a bit more my style, but it looks like it would look best in unpatterned fabric and that really isn't what I end up getting, especially in knit fabrics.

Okay, so I'm indecisive, but at £2.95 a pattern I can live with that.

A Long Overdo Goodbye

When I first started this blog I spent weeks cutting out a toile for a jacket from an old curtain I got from my
mum, and then put it aside after sewing one or two seams. All the parts are still in my spare room somewhere but they got lost in the mess.

Now I'm cleaning up my house so that it'll be easier to move back to my home town after Christmas, and I'm coming across the bits and bobs that I haven't payed attention to for months. I don't really know what I was thinking. Not only am I not really a toile person, I find it hard to sew things I AM going to be able to wear at the end. I don't want to spend ages sewing something that makes me bored. If I don't fit into it at the end I'll just have to find someone who does.

I have two other projects that need a decision as well, my bed-sheet dress and my gingham dress.

I only have two dresses in my wardrobe, neither of which I wear. It's not their fault, really. One's an airline hostess costume in quite horrible, stretchy fabric, and the other is my 40s dress that needs a summer event to shine and a petticoat (that I don't have) to hang right.

I'm afraid I'm chucking my bed-sheet dress. I know I was never going to wear it and the fabric was on it's last legs to begin with. It was dark from being used, like a carpet that's been walked on every day. It never would have coped with having butten holes put in it because of the weave, either. I'm kinda sad I didn't realize before I cut it up. Maybe I could have made some cushions by using the side that was on the inside, but it would have always looked weird. At least I learned something from this.

The gingham dress will get made, partly because my boyfriend helped me with it and that makes me think of him, and partly because there's a good chance it'll be wearable, at least in spring. If it's not then at least I can give it to the charity shop without feeling embarrassed..