recent sewing projects

My brave old Elna sewing machine has been kept very busy over the last couple of weeks!  Here are just a few pics of some recent projects... more on the way as I have a couple of days off work booked in the next week or two... hooray!

The first is a pair of linen trousers which I had to employ some forensic techniques to make.  My favourite pair of trousers gave up the ghost by the end of last summer - lovely big holes in the inside leg - and rather than trawling the shops in the hope I would find something similar I decided to remake them using the old trousers as a pattern.  After what seemed like years of unpicking, I managed to get the waistband, fly and one of the legs dismantled, keeping one leg intact as a guide.  It wasn't easy (I've only made one pair of trousers before and that was to an easy easy Burda pattern)... and I had tricksy things like proper pockets to negotiate... but I'm fairly happy with the finished result.  I think it needs a bit of remedial work around the fly - the zipper sticks out which is annoying me - but hopefully that will be fairly simple.

My favourite part of the trousers is that the waistband and the pocket linings are in Amy Butler fabric, tres funky!

Ok, so what else have I done?  Well, I sold my spotted owl and striped iphone holders I made a while ago, so I've made another and cut out cloth for another two - I have finally run out of interfacing, so think I will probably have to go and buy 5m or something next time!

The fabric for this one is a gorgeous olive green linen which I plundered from one of my skirts which I know will never, ever fit me again, so it was good to be able to reinvent it.  The contrast fabric is Amy Butler Daisy Chain in Sweet Jasmine which I think I have fallen in love with.

The iphone holders I have sold so far have all sold on ebay rather than etsy or folksy, so think I will stick with that, and pop it on folksy to keep my shop looking nice :-)

The other thing I experimented with at the weekend was machine embroidery, something I've been meaning to try for a while, but have been a bit scared to do, to tell the truth.  Am now totally hooked, so will have to think of some things to embroider! Here is an aquilegia, or columbine:

And this is my favourite - a pecking hen, based on one of my own lovelies:

Happy sewing!

sewing and weaving update

Argh its been one of those busy weeks where everyday I have thought 'I must post some more stuff on the blog' and then haven't had access to my pictures, or the time to compose my thoughts.

I had a productive day's sewing over the bank holiday weekend.  I bought myself a SciPhone (the Chinese version of the iphone) so thought I would sew myself a cosy for it in the meantime whilst I was waiting for it to arrive in the post.  I am really pleased with the phone cosy... I was a little less pleased with the phone (in fact I have sent it back as its rubbish), so the holder is now up for grabs on Etsy.... I do love the Alexander Henry spotted owl print :-)

I also thought I would have a go at customising the phone holder for a small laptop or netbook.  Here is the finished result, I think it works quite well, and matches a camera or small phone holder I made a while ago.

Next on the list was a peg bag, as ours is a horrible brown thing from the dreaded Tesco and has been left out in the rain a few too many times.  I need a better pattern for this - I think the bag bit that holds the pegs needs to be a lot deeper and I had to fudge the edges.  However, I do like the fabric, and was even inspired to embroider a peg on the front!  Excuse the fuzzy photo, I need to take better ones :-s.

Last, but not least, I would like to introduce Lucy - my pretty hen doorstop or paperweight.  I was inspired by my own hens and wanted something which was decorative, but also functional in some ways.  The material is from an old top that no longer fits me (ooh how liberating it was to cut into!) and she now happily sits on my desk.  I'm really, really pleased with her, so hopefully there will be some more in the pipeline soon for sale :-)

On the loom front, it has arrived!  She's now called Millicent (aptly meaning hard worker) and was taken to pieces and put together again in our top room.  She is a 4 shaft counterbalance floor loom, made locally in the 1970s from solid beams of mahogany.  I spent the day on Sunday cleaning her up and linseed oiling her, and she now looks a beauty.  Hopefully, if my yarn arrives on time I will be threading her up and starting to weave some samples later this week... hoorah!

This photo was taken pre-cleaning and oiling, I hasten to add ;-)

Bye for now,

Kx

cosy sewing and sewing cosies...

I bought the Lis iphone holder pattern from Flossie Teacakes' site last week and after going and raiding the fabric shop for some nice linen-y stuff and interfacing I settled down to some sewing.

It took me a while to get all the pieces cut out as I decided to make two in tande-m rather than going through the whole process again after I'd finished one.  It took rather longer when I realised I had my perspex cutting guide the wrong way up so I had cut some of the pieces out too long (which can obviously easily be rectified) and some pieces too narrow (which can't).

The instructions were really clearly written and the photos were helpful.   The only trouble I had was that on one of the holders the accent fabric didn't come down quite far enough, so I ended up having to make it all a bit smaller when it came to sewing the whole thing up... but it is the perfect size for a small camera, so can't complain really!  I think when I make the next one I will make that piece a little bit longer to compensate (its probably just my sewing...).

So here are the finished holders... only took me 3 or 4 hours, so not bad going!

I'm really pleased with how they've turned out: the pattern is really nice, and I like the way the fabrics contrast.  I'll definitely be making more of these, thanks Florence!