Arielle meets Astoria

At the beginning of March it snowed so hard that the world slowed down for a few days. We cosied up at home and ate lots of homemade soup and stews. With outside plans cancelled I suddenly had extra sewing hours which had me whooping with joy. For a while I'd had a picture in my head of a colourful barkcloth mini skirt and I kept kicking myself for not having saved a piece of my favourite floral mustard cloth. Ah well, move on Lisa, there's always more cloth. As I'd already made three Tilly and the Buttons Arielle Skirts in a knee length, I knew I loved this pattern and it's shape suited my style so this was the one I chose. I had a good search in my stash cupboard for a bright barkcloth and as the mini version can just about be squeezed out of a metre of cloth I had a few choose from.  

I also decided to line this skirt as barkcloth can go a bit saggy stretched tightly across a bum. 

Another search in the cupboard and I found this cotton that I'd won as part of a bundle from Higgs and Higgs in the Cosie Cardi Challenge on Instagram hosted by The Stitch Sisters.

Cloth picked I got on with the stitchery business.  Arielle is a quick and enjoyable skirt to make and I loved every minute of sewing it. I made another mini Arielle a week later which shows how much I love it.

Skirt all finished I found just enough cream vintage buttons in my tin to to give it the final touch and make sure it didn't fall off too. I wore it the next day for a pre-Mother's day outing with my girls and felt good wearing it. 

Paired with an Alice Temperley jumper that I'd altered at the back as I didn't like the loose back flap and Rosey's cast off shoes I was super pleased with the bright pop of colour my new skirt gave this outfit. 

 

A week later I was picking cloth to make secret outfits for Millie's upcoming 16th at the end of March. I chose a starry baby cord to make a Tilly and the Buttons Cleo dress and then just after she spotted a cord online that she really liked and hinted that would make a great Cleo. Hmmm, my cogs started whirring as I thought this starry cord goes brilliantly with the blue sweatshirt I'd also bought to make an Astoria jumper. Another mini Arielle was planned and to line this one I chose a quilting cotton that had been sitting for years feeling unloved in my stash cupboard. 

It had been waiting for this moment to shine it seems as the colours work perfectly together. I even found the just right buttons in my bottomless button tin.

I thought the name of this cloth was lovely too, so I cut a piece from the selvedge to sew into the waistband. 

This skirt is as lovely to wear as the barkcloth Arielle, but for some reason the lining sticks to my legs making the skirt puff out on my bum. Solution, I have to wear a slip underneath to stop stickage and looking all pouffy and odd.

Now before I show you the skirt in all its glory I'm going to tell you about a great pattern that I've wanted to make for a while now. I added this pattern to my Makenine2018 list on instagram and I'm slowly ticking each of my wish list makes off it. 

The Astoria Jumper by Seamworks appealed to me as I love how it sits at the waist, making it perfect for high waisted skirts like Arielle and for wearing over frocks too. I bought this as a pdf which I do with all the Indie patterns I use. I think it's the impatient one in me as once I decide I'm going to make something, I want to get on with it then and there, not wait for the postie to bring it to me.

As with all knits, this was a lovely quick project and satisfied my pure pleasure working with this type of cloth. 

As I'd hoped, it also went really well with my Arielle mini.

 

Expression courtesy of me giving the photographer a look because I was standing there like a wooden lemon apparently. 

Now the front might be plain, but on the back I couldn't resist blinging it up. 

I'd made silver jersey appliques for everyone else's makes, but not for me and I just love silver I do.

I drew up a large heart on bondaweb and then stitched it to the back of the jumper before sewing all the pieces together. 

I'm very happy indeed with how that looks and it still leaves me with a plain front to pin colourful brooches on. 

That's all for now as my sewing machine is calling me. It's been ignored all week while I work on other projects and that really won't do will it.

My Family and other Jerseys

My love of sewing with jerseys, pontes and sweats hasn't just been confined to sewing for me. Nope, I've kitted out my family too. 

This week my lovely Millie turned 16, which I guess is fairly obvious in this photo. I'd been doing a bit of secret sewing for her birthday and then the night before she asked for a birthday badge to wear to school. Out came the felt and pretty quickly a birthday badge was born.

For months before I'd been showing her endless fabric photos to find out her favourites as I'd already pinned down the clothes she liked best. I'd already made her a Tilly and the Buttons Cleo for Christmas, in a grey denim, which she loved so I knew another one would be a winner.

As the corduroy chosen from Textile Express was a lightweight one I decided to fully line it to give it more structure. Baggy bums in dresses aren't a top look are they. I simply cut another dress out of the cloth I chose for the lining. There was only just enough of the cactus print for half of the lining so I cut the top half of the lining from this with a seam allowance and then added a polka dot with seam allowance to the bottom half of the lining.

 The T-shirt underneath I made in a gloriously soft jersey from Art Gallery Fabrics bought from Sew Me Sunshine as was the cactus cotton. Millie doesn't like tight fitting clothes so I altered the Fitted Sweater from Gertie Does Vintage Casual by going up a size and grading the sides of the top.

Next I made her an Astoria Jumper from Seamworks which I found at Colette Patterns. When I was making one for myself Millie said she'd love a pink version so this was added to the list of birthday makes. I also made her a tea cup pincushion after seeing them on Sew Me Sunshine.

Now going back in time, to just before Christmas, I knitted my love a bobble hat and stitched him a Metro T-shirt from Oliver and S as anniversary gifts. 

Back when we were first together as teenagers, he played American Football, in fact he played it for many more years than that. His player number was 22 so rather than leave the top plain, which looks wrong to my eyes, I appliquéd silver jersey numbers on it.

 

 Now we're in the Christmas pressies part of this post. For my mum I whipped up a Tilly and the Buttons Coco. I've never seen her wear it which reminds me I must ask her if she actually has worn it.

For my man I made the Burda 6718 Men's Hoodie. When I went to buy the cloth this super soft sweatshirt from Paul Smith had just come into Anglian Fashion Fabrics. I buy a lot of my cloth from here as it's ram packed with more than you could even realise you needed. 

I also thought I know what I'm going to use that shiny skull patch I'd already bought for now. He wears silver skull rings and loves shiny stuff just like a Magpie so how perfect was this skull. 

 I also made my Rosey some sweatpants from the same Paul Smith sweatshirt and blinged them with a silver jersey R. I adapted these from the Trouser part of Tilly and the Buttons Marigold Jumpsuit. I'd already made the jumpsuit for Rosey so I knew these were a good fit for her. 

That's the issue with secret sewing, you have to know the fit is already a good one on your victim and not choose anything that requires an actual fitting with alterations or the secrets blown.

Well everyone was thrilled with their gifts and they've all been worn lots, apart from the Coco, who knows????

My mum did ask me to make her something for her recent golfing holiday though. She wanted a hoodie, the same as the one I'd made for Jason, so we went to choose cloth. She loved this silver sweatshirt I pulled out and asked if she could have a silver heart on hers. She's since bought silver converse too as I said they'd look great with it, plus the silver handbag Rosey bought her for Christmas and she's one cool granny. 

 

My last make for this lot, for now at least, is this 70's style Metro T-shirt for my man.  I kept looking at this jersey and loved it but couldn't think how I'd wear it, then suddenly I thought I know a man who would.  

It makes me think of MASH and all those lovely colours our parents decorated with back then. It's childhood and fun and luckily he loves it.

I absolutely love to make clothes for myself so I have something new to wear, but to be honest I just love the whole process of sewing and gifting it is an especially good feeling to be sure.