I Spent Valentines Day Making The Most Matronly Nightgown In Existance

I haven't been around for the last two weeks because I was moving my entire life into my parents garage. I have far to much stuff, especially fabric, and even if I get a flat reasonably soon I'm going to have to jettison a good deal of it. Most is stuffed behind the futon and piled up high so it literally hangs over my head while I sleep.

It doesn't look like much but it'll do the job just fine and I don't have a load of uses for blue gingham. My dad saw it and though school uniform just like I did. I don't think anyone who's gone through a british state school wouldn't.

My next project will be my new pattern of the month, a nice, simple shirt. I counted my patterns today and found out if I keep doing one new pattern every month the ones I have should last me well into 2016. That's a bit sobering. Maybe by then I'll have worked through half of my damn stash?

My New Nightgown

As you know, I'm going to be moving back home soon, but a few weekends sleeping on the sofa has made me realize that I really don't have anything to wear during the night. When you're living alone you can pop to the kitchen for a snack just wearing a t-shirt and no one will ever know or care, but I'd rather not do that in a house with other people.

I decided to make myself a nightgown using Kwik Sew 3538, the first pattern I ever used and one of my favorites. I'm making it long with short sleeves using the rest of my blue gingham and I'm hoping to get it finished in time to move.

I've only got the cutting out done so far and it's going slowly because I've got a dozen other things to do but it's not very complicated.

Gingham Dress

I finally got my gingham dress finished! It's now too late to wear it outside the house but at least it's not weighing on my mind any more and it'll be hanging in my wardrobe ready for spring.

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this dress. I started it as a stash busting project because I had five meters of gingham and I'm really not a girl who wears gingham. I don't know if it's just a really nice wearable muslin or something I'll actually go out in, though.

Everything seemed to go wrong with this dress, especially the buttons and the elastic. I originally bought black elastic but I was afraid it would show through the gingham and went back for some white stuff. I think I was worried over nothing but it's too late now. Turns out the white elastic and the white bias binding where exactly the same size, making it pretty much impossible to sew along the edges of the binding and leave enough room inside.

I ended up sewing along the crease of one side and then wedging the elastic in as far as it would go and going along the other edge with my zipper foot to try and make it even. I think I did pretty well but since my bobbin tension's been acting up it doesn't look very good. Thank god it's hidden by the gathering.

This dress has put me off buttons for at least a year. I first bought both buttons and poppers planning to only have fake buttons, and then I got it into my head that I should at least try and make real button holes. You know what they say about good intentions.

I would have to sort out my sewing machine tension but I also needed a buttonhole foot. I got online and bought the cheapest one on Amazon. Big mistake. It didn't work quite right and the top layer of metal was flaking off when I got it out of the packet so now not only do I not have the buttonhole foot, I have the trouble of sending it back. I looked into hand sewn buttonholes but soon realised I didn't care enough about this dress to do them, I just wanted it to be over.

Then I cried a little.

Turns out I ended up doing exactly what I had planned in the beginning.

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..

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!

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.