The sewing thread

fuddle

It looks like you have an extra IMG on the code loocyloo. Maybe go back in and remove the one at the end of each picture? I'm no expert though. Hope you can suss it soon because I would love to see!

loocyloo

thanks.


trying one more time


not working!


I just copied the IMG code from photobucket and pasted it.


AHA! it needed the direct link not the IMG link? !!! I am so not technical!


waistcoat is done up with a press stud, as buttons would come undone! I may sew a sequin on, to look like a button. it also doesn't sit that far over when being worn! the middles cross by about 15mm!

maryb

It looks great and you've got that hem curve beautifully even on both sides

Cheapskate

I've just stumbled onto this thread, and so glad I did - thank you, kittie!! I've done little bits of sewing over the years, but not very recently. I have a decent machine, could do with a long run to get it going as it's not been used for a few years. I have a new table that's 8 feet by nearly 4 feet, so need some tablecloths and napkins for a start, and would like to make some new curtains for our bay window - that will take yards of fabric!!

I'd also like to start making clothes for myself and the littlies, maybe a shirt or two for DH, but that will be a little while ahead. If I get time, I will try the tote bag challenge!

My mum made lots of her own clothes when she was a young woman, clothes for me and my sisters when we were small, dressing up clothes, and all the curtains we had in out childhood home. She also made a couple of quilts, and I've inherited her patchwork templates (metal and plastic) with the hope of trying that one day.

Looking forward to keeping up with you all!

A xo

westcoastscot

loocyloo that's fab! such a cosy looking garment, and very handy. I'm imagining one in fleece or woolen fabric to pop on in the house - keep arms free for washing up etc. Well done :-)

Bumblebear

What a lovely thread to find (I was searching for some information about minimum credit card limits... ). I'm also making my first quilt this year, I started over Christmas. I am paper piecing honeycombs, and it's going to take a looooong time. I have found a day course in a town near me at a lovely sewing shop, you make a basic patchwork quilt in a day, but I can learn how to turn my own patchwork into a quilt (rather than teaching myself from library books as I have been). It's going to be too precious to *ahem* it up!

I've got a free blouse pattern and some fabric for it to give myself a break when my eyes go honeycomb shaped. Likewise I used to do a lot of sewing as a bit of a side-line enterprise, but I was a handstitcher mostly and am a bit scared of my sewing machine (and I'm in my 30s...). I'd like to get a bit more confident with it this year.

By the way, the Readly offer on MSE at the moment is very good, there are lots of sewing and patchwork magazines on there. There's also free PDF patterns to print at sewingquarter.com

[Deleted User]

I haven`t been sewing for a while, too flipping busy doing a marie kondo and knitting when I get a chance to sit down. However I shall be up and running before long and have ordered a Nora Batty wrap over apron pattern, it`ll be a good way of using bits and pieces of my cotton fabrics. Grandaughter is over at the end of the month and is bringing her new machine, so she will be making her first skirt. We have a full weekend, so will get it finished

I am loving crafting (ok and the clearing and sorting) in winter this year, it is making the dark days not so tedious, with very positive outcomes too

fuddle

Oh, a little apron kittie. Even just a frilly half pinny would be a nice, non pressurised easy task to relax to. Thanks for sharing, you've sparked summat.

Bumblebear

I thought I'd killed the thread! If anyone is interested, I made the free blouse pattern I mentioned in my post, incredibly easy, didn't use much fabric (i.e. I've now got good size offcuts for patchwork!) and the blouse itself is very nice, I've worn it to work, to the pub etc.


It probably took an hour to make, but that doesn't included all my huffing and puffing with sticky tape and scissors putting the pattern together in the first place.

PollyWollyDoodle

So very happy to have found this thread - most of my friends can't sew, in fact I have taught one of them to use a sewing machine. I learned as a child, mum used to make all our clothes using the hand-crank Frister & Rossman which belonged to her mother and on which her own baby clothes were made. I still have it, it was serviced a few years ago and it runs like a dream. I made a lot of my own clothes as a teenager, not bad when I look back at them. There was a company that made ready-cut out stuff (1970s) that you sewed up yourself and I remember a particularly fetching waistcoat, skirt and jacket in crimplene tweed!

As others have said, the cost of fabric relative to the cost of new clothes became such that it wasn't worth making your own stuff, and once I started working full time I just didn't have the time. Fast forward 30 years, I am now on a reduced budget and working part time and I'd like to rediscover some dressmaking skills. I'd particularly like to learn how to re-fashion second-hand clothes. I now have a Janome and I also have an overlocker, although I don't really understand how to use it properly. I would like to learn how to sew knit fabrics, as I wear a lot of T-shirts.

I have made curtains, absolutely hate it and I find large areas of fabric difficult to deal with as there is nowhere in my house that I can lay them out except the double bed! I've also made a lot of pencil cases, purses, little bags etc. I've got a really bad habit of buying stuff from charity shops with a view to remaking it, and it's time I tackled the fabric stash!

English paper piecing (we just called it patchwork) is something I grew up learning to do, time-consuming but a great thing for the evenings in winter. Quilting isn't for me – too fiddly, and I just don't see the point in buying brand-new fabric and then cutting into little bits! Apologies to those who love this, my sister is a quailter, but I find it a bit wasteful. I love reusing scraps of fabric to make things.

So, plans for this year are to get to grips with the overlocker, make some new cushion covers, reupholster a small sofa (loose covers only) and generally spend more time sewing. I really enjoy it. My friend has a little boy aged six months, I would love to make him some things – does anyone have recommendations for patterns for children? i