January's sewing

Well I've been crafting non-stop through January trying to cut my fabric stash down and at the same time trying to teach myself new things :)

I'm trying really hard to recycle and use up my fabric stash AKA old clothes and no longer used curtains, bedding and charity shop finds. I'm finding it's a great thing to do... it's not only 'green' but while you are teaching yourself if you use stuff from the recycle pile it doesn't matter if you make a mistake, so I'm finding I'm allowing myself to be more adventurous than if I had gone out and bought brand new fabric.

I took the above picture halfway through making a 'Seaside Dinner Mat'. All recyled fabric apart from the wadding. 

• Polo Shirt = sky
• Yellow Duvet Cover = sand
• Turquoise shirt sleeve = sea
• White skirt = left hand beach hut
• Childs Duvet Cover = green beach huts
• Cloud, doors and windows = Old bed sheet
• Pillow case = Dark blue beach hut

 I did my first real go at quilting with this. It was a lot of fun. As you can see I also did satin stitch waves, they were a test of patience, the thread broke about 10 times on every run, and that is no exageration. Ages ago I bought a box of assorted threads from Argos, they seem to be very poor quality as they continuously break through projects and shed fibres something awful! I know it is the thread and not the machine as no other thread breaks like this in any of my machines and this breaks in each of my machines without fail...so moral of the story, buy named brands you trust when it comes to thread. Mr D said throw them away, but I really don't like to waste things so I put up with the frustration. I wouldn't use them on any 'important' sewing, but as this is a bit of fun and I am just playing and learning it's acceptable....on a plus note, when the bad thead is all used up, they came in a lovely organiser box I can use for other threads so all is not lost lol.

This is after the quilting. Not bad for a first go and for someone who was just winging it and making it up as she went along ha ha. Oh by the way, the cloud I made separately, stuffed and then sewed it on...I thought this made it look extra puffy than if I'd just done flat applique. Can you see that I did little Seagulls? I sewed them in a skinny satin stitch :)

I sewed a strip of rectangles together and cut this up to make the binding. I have slight regrets about cutting it up as I think it would have worked well as a base for a runner for a table...but there will be other fabrics on other days....sigh...

Here is the completed mat with the binding. It looks quite cute and I don't think it looks too 'scrappy'. Over all I am pleased. I had never attempted anything like this before. I have since made another ( with birds on ) and we do use them for every meal time. I don't know why I never used dinner mats in the past...they certainly pretty-up the table and it's so much easier to wash and dry a mat than the whole tablecloth if something gets spilled off the plate!

I've been sewing lots of other things and will post more pics soon!

Happy 2013 and a new challenge for me...

Well this year is coming in with new challenges right at the beginning. From tomorrow Mr D will be away from Mon-Fri routinely. We don't relish the idea but a new job dictates it be this way. We've only been apart 4 times in our nearly 25 years together and each time was a fortnight.

 I won't be completely alone, my adult son is here and of course oodles of pets but it's not going to be easy. Mr Doxie always describes us as being "very married" and that really does paint a picture of who we are...so from tomorrow I start a "new normal" and it's going to be weird!

Mini lemon meringue tartlets

I'm back into the cooking and baking big time at the moment. I've had a bit of a craze on lemons just lately and thought I'd try using the usual lemon meringue recipe to make mini pies or tarts. I used a recipe from my Mum's old cook book and made sure I followed her little handwritten notes that she had scribbled next to the recipe.

They turned out okay, very tasty actually but not how I hoped they would look. I got the piping bag out and planned to pipe pretty swirls of meringue on top...sadly it didn't hold it's shape enough. I remember from food and nutrition lessons at the school that you must have an absolutely scrupulously clean bowl with no hint of grease at all for meringue and ensured this was the case....so I can only assume that I didn't beat it enough. Oh well, as my old Dad used to say " the proof of the pudding is in the eating" and we certainly enjoyed them even if they weren't that pretty! The usual recipe made 7 tartlets, not bad really, I think if it had been the normal sized pie we would have just had 3 very big servings instead of making them last 2 days lol.

Mini quilt from old clothes

Last weekend I started a little project I've been meaning to try for quite a while...a mini patchwork quilt made by recycling old items of clothing. I've got as far as the top.

In real life the pink does not overpower as much as it does in the photo

 The hardest part was trying to find fabric that would match.  It took me two evenings to cut out the pieces and arrange them, but the actual sewing I did in just an evening . The look has turned out quite old-fashioned but that delights me as I like the vintage look. I haven't bought the batting/wadding yet. I think I want to bind the edges in white....so it may look vintage but will look fresh at the same time.

At the top of this picture you can see the items of clothing I cut up to make it.

I cut up a dress, a top and a skirt.The skirt ( fabric on the top  right of picture ) was originally a child's dress which I had combined with the top of a pair of jeans, remember that idea was all the rage a few years back?...well I think I only wore it once lol...anyway that fabric is on it's 3rd life now so is quite used to being recycled lol.

It's a miserable day here, rainy and windy so I think I will spend the afternoon cutting up more rectangles from my fabric stash in preparation for making more of these. It's the kind of thing you can do bit by bit...I'll put the rectangles in a box and then one evening if I have enough and the mood takes me I can get stuck into the sewing.

Not long until the festive season now...my how time flies, I don't know where this year has gone. I should really get my butt in gear and start making some gifts. Not sure what I'm going to do this year, although one person has requested something with owls so that gives me a starting point :)

awesome paper weaving site

I'm enjoy paper crafts just lately and found this rather amazing site, I think I will play safe and start with a heart garland...just love the little lidded pots they've done, WOW!

The PaperMatrix site here

Mr D's new boxers

just a trial pair

 In my last post I talked about making our own underwear. Well one thing I have learned these last few years of sewing is the importance of prototypes...so the pair above are the prototype / trial pair. I made them out of old cotton sheeting so as not to waste expensive fabric. They were a success but when we discussed the sizing Mr D thought maybe they could do with being an inch or so bigger seeing as I wasn't going to be making them out of stretch fabric. He thought he might need some ease when he sat down.

My fabric choices below were all 100% cotton so they needed to be washed before I did any sewing to allow for shrinkage.With it being the Queen's Jubilee year I thought the London prints were very topical! I bought the bluebird print just because we like birds and it looked nice and fresh and cool!

love these fabrics :)

ta-da! I actually made some for real.

And here we have the first pair finished apart from the buttonhole. It is years since I've done a buttonhole and I have a new ( well second hand but new to me ) sewing machine, so I think I need to practice buttonholes this weekend before I do them on the finished boxers.

I have a small amount of fabric left which I could use to make a pair of knickers for myself but I will probably make a headband or something like that instead as I like the fabric so much I think it's a shame to have it hidden from view :-)

So there you go, men's boxers are certainly a do-able project...As long as my man thinks they are comfortable I don't think I will be buying underwear for him again, all homemade from now on...I hope he has a sense of pride in his unique undies when he gets undressed in the changing rooms at karate :-)

Trying new things in the sewing room...

At the moment I am trying something new....I'm dabbling in making our own underwear. It's something I never really thought I could do in the past, like there was some kind of mystery to it. I've found this is the complete opposite and it's really quite easy if you just go for it. Sorry I don't have time to put any pictures up at the moment but I will do very soon as this is my current project.

So far I have used the boxer shorts tutorial from the Weekend Designer blog to make a trial pair of underwear for Mr D...it worked very well I am pleased to report...and today I created my own pattern for a pair of ladies hipster knickers...I made a practice pair and again they have worked well, it's all very exciting. As well as being a less expensive alternative to shop bought underwear, it'll be nice to have 'original' undies that nobody else has :)

I hope all is okay you readers :)

Catch you again soon, hopefully with some photos!