A Busy Day But Not Much Sewing

Yesterday got off to a bad start when I slept in till noon. Chris stayed up to watch the live feed of the E3 announcements because he's a bit of a video game addict and it went on till 6am where we are so neither of us got much sleep.

I spent most of the day doing laundry and filling a huge bag with clothes I'm getting rid of. I think I've culled half my wardrobe since Chris moved in but it really needed doing. I've got some other items that need either working back into everyday wear or throwing out but I'm giving them a second chance. I'll be showing them to you over the next month or so.

I've finally got to the bottom of the pile of laundry that Chris brought with him when he moved but mine's built up in the mean time and now I have to do that and make sure anything from there that needs to go to the charity shop does. Sigh.

Going through my clothes put us in a silly mood so we messed around with Chris's top hat and cosplay wig. The hat is so big on me that it falls down over my eyes and I'm convinced the wig needs thinning out but it was fun. (I know I look ridiculous.)

That evening I cut the back of my gingham dress and pinned the front down while he sketched. It feels like I'm getting close to the finish line now. I've put up his sketch for posterity because he had a hissy fit and ripped it up shorty after the photo was taken. They've been messing him about a bit at work so he has his ups and downs.

Sleeves And My Charity Shop Adventures

Yesterday I finally cut my fabric for the gingham dress, and it's not even gingham! I cut out the white collar and sleeves but ironing the cloth is still a nightmare because my ironing board is still broken and I'm using an ironing board cover on top of foam on the floor.

Last week I started volunteering at the British Red Cross every Monday, and today was my second day. I officially filled in the paper work and I'm getting a name badge and everything!

The people I work with are great and I'm learning a lot. The thing I think my fellow thrifters will be most interested by is the fact that volunteers don't get first dibs on donations. At least in the red cross shops items have to be on the store floor 24 hours before we can buy them. It seems so cruel when you've been watching something since it came down and someone picks it up that same day but it's all for a good cause.

Personally, I've found that an awesome way to find interesting items is to wait till you're culling the stock (taking down items that have been there for too long and probably won't get bought). You end up looking at every garment leaving and noticing the pretty ones that might be your size then trying them on during slow periods (there always has to be 2 people on the shop floor to stop thieves).

I bought a Batman bed sheet from the shop I work in because I have a thing about Batman and I find if I'm meeting people off forums and need to identify myself a theme comes in handy. I'm planning to make it into a top or a simple dress.

You might have noticed my other picture as well. That's right, I got a treadle! When me and Chris were coming home from registering with the doctor I noticed a shop full of sewing machines. These weren't little home sewing machines, this was an entire building of old machines from factories and a sign offering fixes and tune ups. I went in and gorped for a while then Chris said his mum might have an old metal sewing machine. She brought it over when he moved in and it was a treadle! It's not quite in working condition, the belt is dry and crumbling, but it makes a nice ongoing project.

Finished Tracings And A Change Of Plans

I finished copying out Style 2289 yesterday ready to get cutting. I washed the blue gingham for the main body of the dress and I've also got out the pre-washed white cotton that I've decided to use for the sleeves and collar as of my boyfriends's suggestion.

When I showed Chris the other pattern, though, he told me something I already kind of knew but really didn't want to hear. The Cravat Dress, made of all gingham, would just be too much. it's a dress that really needs block colours and big repeats like on the illustration and I just wanted to get on and make it. I don't actually have a whole lot of block stash fabric in my stash that's eligable for the Stash Busting Contest over at Pattern Review so I don't know what I'm going to do with this one but you will be seeing a Cravat Dress from me before the years end, I promise you that.

A Slightly Unproductive Day

I got a huge total of nothing done yesterday, unless you include buying supplies. I got buttons for Style 2289 even though I'm just going to sew them on the front placard and put poppers on to close the actual dress.

I was hoping for white elastic but they didn't have it in the right size. I'm pretty sure it won't be visible and even if it is it won't look that bad.

I did discover one thing. My boyfriend is a genius when it comes to planning projects. He may be afraid of the sewing machine but I'm definitely bringing him in on the next dress!

Quick Update

I didn't update here yesterday and came very close to not updating today because my relationship needed a little TLC. Chris was in a bit of a funk because I wasn't giving him what he needed but once he was able to tell me it got better. We're both learning here.

In sewing news, I just got a bit of outlining and cutting out done yesterday while I watched Rosemary's Baby.

Getting Things Finished

It's day five of the stashbusting challenge and I still haven't cut fabric. I will by the end of this week, but still. Yesterday I got the last parts of Style 2289 traced off and I just need to darken the lines and cut them out.

That and find the piece I've lost. I had to trace the collar onto it's own piece of paper because I'd run out of space and now that paper isn't with the rest. I know I'll find it but it's still a pain. Oh well.

Gingham: Good Or Bad?

When I first pulled five meters of blue gingham out of my fabric stash I was a bit worried about making a whole dress out of it. I was worried that I'd look like an idiot.

The last time I wore gingham it was my summer school uniform. There's something about blue gingham that makes people think little girls.

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Maybe it was always like that, or maybe it's because of our friend Dorothy? I've never actually watched 'The Wizard of Oz' all the way through.

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Still, since I'm at least a couple of years away from trying for a kid I might as well give it a go.

It might be a little bit late for looking at inspiration pictures but maybe these will help some of you. That and I need to figure out what to do with the five meters of red gingham I have.

Maybe just a top is better for something this striking? Something like this with black jeans? Even if I don't make it up in the same kind of fabric it would be lovely for summer.

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On the other hand, maybe the way to deal with it is to go all out? Embrace the craziness and know that if it's over the top at least it's intentional. I think the dress below is made of printed fabric rather than pieces sewn together but I could see myself doing block work with some black gingham and some red.

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Maybe something a little bit more adult? This dress really looks sophisticated and a little bit south american. If I had something like this I'm sure I'd feel the urge to dance!

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This last dress is a little slice of vintage. It's both feminine and grown up. Maybe you have to go vintage if you're looking for that?

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What do you guys think? Do you wear gingham? How would you use it?

Second Pattern

Yesterday I got about tracing my second pattern, Style 2289, ready for cutting in my blue gingham. I want to cut them both at once to get the pieces laid out as economically as I can.

It's actually quite a long pattern, coming down to my mid calf, so I'm going to have to extend these pattern pieces as well, but it also has a much larger hem allowance. It's 7 or 8 cm and I know I'm never going to have it that long so I'm just going to copy it shorter. At this rate I'm going to have more fabric left over than I was counting on.

In other news, this was my first day volunteering at a local charity shop. I was inducted with another newbie but until lunch it was just us and the manager and he can't be put on the till for legal reasons so I kind of got thrown in the deep end. I think I coped pretty well.

Turns out, at least in the British Red Cross shops, being a volunteer doesn't get you first dibs. The items have to be on the shop floor a day before we're allowed to buy them so that shoppers get the first shot at them if they're a regular. One lady comes in first thing in the morning to get a book about once a week. Maybe if I start doing refashions I can mine the local shops.

First Steps Of Stash Busting

 It was the first day of the Stash Busting Challenge yesterday and I got off to an okay start. I didn't cut any fabric but since I'm a tracer instead of a cutter when it comes to patterns, even ones I bought new instead of vintage ones, new patterns take a bit longer to get started.

I spent yesterday copying the Cravat Dress from Silver Needles. I've never heard of this pattern company before so I'm looking forward to it and it looks like a dress I'll make a couple of times in this challenge and then again afterwards. If I start trying to sew with silk then this might be the one I start with.

One thing that did make me pause. I was copying out this pattern and got to the bottom, about 10cm from the edge of the tracing paper, when I noticed the little line of writing at the bottom. That's right, it says extend 48.5cm.

I'm used to that kind of thing from pattern cutting but I've never seen it in a printed sewing pattern before. It kind of makes sense.

I traced the other main piece along the long side of the paper instead of the short one and was left with about 40 cm of room to extend my dress. I made it 35 cm because I'm short and not exactly the most modest of people. The other one I just extended with another strip of paper.

I went over the lines with a black pen so I could see them better and cut out everything so when I get to cutting fabric it's all ready.

I'm posting this a little late today because I went to a car boot sale then a coffee shop with my boyfriend this morning. I hate to say it in a place this public but I'm scared if I don't I won't say it at all, I sometimes think we have a different understanding of goals. I've talked about my weight loss before and I've got about a stone to go but every time I talk to my boyfriend about it he talks about the 6 stone (84 lbs) he needs to loose and maybe we should do it together. That sounds great until you take into account our differing motivations. I'm quite happy to subsist on salad and determination if it works and I really want this, but ten minutes after bemoaning his ballooning waistline my boyfriend suggests making a cake 'just because'.

Don't get me wrong, I want my boyfriend to succeed and have shared goals but if he just ends up dragging me back then I'm not going to be too happy. It's the same with blogging. My boyfriend has a letsplay profile on Youtube that he hasn't updated for a month and keeps talking about but when I say 'I should probably update my blog for today' he tells me it's not that urgent. I'm starting to get fed up with it because I'm a rather lazy person and sometimes I need a cheerleader. I'm happy to be a cheerleader for him because he needs it, but I need the same in return.

Maybe I'm putting too much on his shoulders. Maybe I'm trying to stick to an agreement that hasn't even been made. Maybe I should look inside me for a cheerleader and stop looking to other people. What do you guys think? Do you find being in a group helps you or holds you back? Does it depend on the group?

Ebay Addiction

I've been on a little eBay binge lately. I've bought a few patterns, partly because with all the stuff going on with my boyfriend moving in I haven't been able to sew very much. He's finally living with me but he's brought four or five loads of laundry with him and I'm in charge of washing clothes (he gets the dishes) so I've got that on top of everything else. The house is a mess and there are trash bags and boxes of stuff all over the kitchen and the living room.

These are the patterns that have arrived so far:

I'm going to be pulling out some of them for the stash busting but I'm starting with the two bellow. They're both the right size (one multisize and ones just a 92cm bust) so I'm going to copy the pieces off today and try to get at least some pieces cut out. I'm doing them both in blue gingham that I bought at the Birmingham Rag Market. It's maybe not the fabric I'd choose if I was planning this from the start but that's the point. I have it so I'll use it.

Contests

Some of you might remember the accessories contest I talked about entering on Pattern Review a little while ago. I was planning to make a red dress in poly-cotton to enter but with the two holidays I took and life in general I didn't even get the pattern pieces cut out.

To be fair, I wasn't really prepared for it. I didn't do any preparation before the contest started and I wasn't exactly quick off the starting block. I only chose it because it was the best fit out of the ones starting soonish.

I learned a bit from it that I can take into my next attempt. I learned the importance of preparation, that I shouldn't leave anything to the last minute, and to not beat myself up about it if I don't do as well as I wanted.

I'm thinking of entering the Fabric Stash Contest, also over at Pattern Review, and using some of my home made patterns for that. I'll have ten days to make some up and I don't have much work to do at the moment. The best thing about this challenge is that I have such a ridiculously big stash. Even if I only do a little bit of sewing I'm winning in a way.

The person who won last year sewed about 100 yards, so maybe there will be a lot of circle skirts and full skirted dresses in my future? I think I have enough fabric.