Tilly's picnic blanket skirt - on my sewing table

I needed something a bit different to sew and this little beauty caught my eye way back when I first started looking at sewing blogs. (The skirt that is, rather than Tilly, because whilst she is very pretty I'm not that weird.)

I stole this photo from Tilly's blog

I've cut it out in a lovely soft denim type material which I bought from the very same man at the market who claimed that thick cotton was lawn, so I shan't pretend I know what this is. I would stop buying things from him, but he's so cheap and apparently so am I. Besides, sometimes a surprise works out just fine and I do like to live on the edge (this is a lie).
Anyhoo, it's drapey and pale blue and rather summery. This weekend I'm off to a family do, undoubtedly in the rain, but next week I hope to be merrily sewing button holes and because I live in the dark ages they'll all be sewn by hand. Excities eh?

D&D Datura - The wearable muslin

Well. To be honest, I'm not that keen. It looks really homemade instead of handmade.

Lots of that might be to do with the fabric. It's too stiff for a top like this really. And I hate it a little bit. You might be able to tell by the right grump I have on in the picture above, that was probably down to noticing it had creased whilst I bent down to fasten my shoes.

But I've also had sizing issues. I made a size 40, but I then cut a lot out round the hips and waist to avoid huge flappy empty bits which has led to some oddness at the back (above). And I reckon the shoulders are too wide. So should I cut a size 38 or 36 and do an FBA? (I would actually need to find out what one of those was).

However, it's not all bad, it looks quite acceptable with a jacket. So I'm keeping it.

(Apologies to my lovely housemate/photographer who was trying to learn about diabetes in pregnancy when I hauled her off to take these at 10pm last night.) 




Whilst I'm not that keen on the finished garment, I can't be rude about the pattern. It is a beautiful thing and it does say it's not for beginners, I just chose not to listen. Some of the instructions had me scratching my head for a while and it doesn't hold your hand through every step. So common sense/imagination or experience is necessary.
The way the yokes are joined together at the shoulders was a bit of a surprise. I can't even think of a sensible way to describe it, however, once I'd worked out what they meant I did think it was rather clever.

So, will I be cutting into my beautiful liberty tana lawn that I've earmarked for a 'proper' version? Eventually yes. I just think maybe I need to get a bit better first, at pretty much everything.

The stash.

I've read a quite a lot of blogs on sewing. Many of the writers, whilst lovely, seem to have serious fabric hoarding issues.
Their "stash" takes up shelf after shelf, I've even seen entire walls covered in neat little rolls of colour coded goodness. The children/pets/writers seem to be well fed and exceedingly well dressed, so I can only assume that instead of being a money draining 'habit' these bloggers are just sensibly 'investing' in fabric.

And I can take a hint. I'm in.

Now I'm one of those people who actively enjoy decluttering (especially other peoples stuff). So I was pretty sure that fabric hoarding tendancies would be difficult to cultivate. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Today I went to buy fabric for the dress at Leeds City Market and walked away with two beautiful possibilities. ONE OF WHICH WILL PROBABLY WAIT FOR ANOTHER AS YET UNDECIDED PROJECT. I have a stash! Ha! Financial responsibility here I come!

Sneak peak - spotty navy cotton and a super soft drapey denim