A new top

I've been working away on my magnum opus, aka Simplicity 5238 and on Sunday, decided that I'd been so good at trying to do it all properly, that I was due some instant gratification. I got the facings and zip ready to slip stitch and tack respectively in front of the telly one evening later in the week:

 Then had great fun sewing up this nifty blouse from Sewing Vintage :

I skipped the fancy neckline details, though they're lovely (I was after really instant gratification ...), and made it out of a heavy silky polka dot fabric, which I suspect was intended as a lining material. And I'm delighted with the end result! Dead simple, but a really nice, useful, alternative to a t-shirt.

And it means I'll have something to wear with trousers for  Me-Made May!

Weekend activities

These included an allotment visit, to see which seeds had dared to germinate this cold month ... the carrots and beetroot were happily defiant; the peas had poked tentatively up, only to be chomped by rain-fuelled slugs; and the parsnips were clearly hedging their bets. Still, it was a lovely day, and I came away with flowers to arrange (er, stick in a vase) and herbs to cook with (lovage, mint and chives). This is a warts-and-all photo: the brown bottle is the cat's laxative ...

I aired bedding, and admired my new just-for-sewing ironing board, set up right next to the trusty old Husqvarna inherited from my grandmother:

I made use of the sewing machine to stitch one of the items in my rather full mending basket, a charity shop print dress which my oldest daughter wanted the hem taking up on and the neck ruffle removed from (she does floral but not frilly). Other items included younger daughter's coat (ripped lining) and other half's new-to-him hat, which is a lovely one, but with an inner band which itched something awful apparently, till I covered it with a wee strip of soft black and white polka dot cotton.

NB It is EXTREMELY unusual for anything to resurface from my mending basket in less than a fairly large number of months. When they were younger, the children had an annoying tendency to outgrow things before I got to them ...

Buttonhole

Well, not really, but I can't think what to call this wee ribbon flower brooch I wore midweek ... it's nowhere near grand enough to be a corsage ... and anyway it's got a button in the middle, and that made me think of a buttonhole ... 

I stitched it  together in about five minutes flat, because I really liked the old ribbon, which is wired along the edges so the 'petals' don't droop. I'm not really a brooch person, but I enjoyed wearing this that day.

Librarian chic

With yet more chilly weather, on Friday I took the chance to indulge in a little tweediness for work. 

This is a dead simple straight and just above knee skirt made out of fabric I bought at the 'Knit n Stitch' show at Alexandra Palace ... I think my cousin bought some too. Although it's basically brown, it goes with almost anything because there are so many different coloured flecks in it. As a nod to Spring, I took this bag, hand sewn while on holiday at my mum's caravan, out of a piece of 1970s curtain fabric from the remnant crate in the amazing local charity shop.

Granny squares

When I look at this bag I find it hard to believe I made it; it was all charity shop oddments and I can't imagine getting the colours to work together like that now.

I got the granny squares pattern from My Fun With Wool, which I picked up secondhand. 

I used to have the My Fun To Sew in the same series when I was little, but I don't know what happened to it.

Monochrome Monday ...

I shall be very British now, and talk about the weather, which has been varying shades of grey and cold and grey and wet and grey and windy for most of the month it seems. Certainly for long enough for the colourlessness of it all to end up reflected in my choice of this outfit to start the week. I drafted the pattern for the black A line skirt, which I like to think is actually a bit more stylish than this awful photo suggests (I took it just before leaving work; it had been a long afternoon; I was very tired ...). 

Admittedly the fabric is rather polyestery (I'd managed to convince myself it was almost a wool crepe, but it's not, although this does make it very 'wash n wear'), but I made a very neat job of the lining and top stitching the front centre seam, though I say it myself as shouldn't! I also had my black leather bag that day, made from a cast off black leather jacket, with a big orange button I found ... quite possibly the only spot of colour on a very dull Monday!

Bus travel

Last weekend was super busy, with an extra day's work on Sunday ... but at least starting late enough that I could catch the bus into town with my dear other half. Quite aside from the pleasure of his charming company, it meant he could take this photo of me in my flowery green dress, pretending to peruse the bus timetable ...



The dress is another incarnation of the 'coffee date dress pattern' from Burda, this time made out of a lovely weighty brushed cotton fabric, very kindly given me by an elderly volunteer at work, who turned up with a whole bagful of stuff (including the sea green lining for this too)when I said I was doing some dressmaking. I love the colours and sheer floweriness of this dress. I'm also very fond of the zip bag I'm carrying; I bought it in a Gap sale for £2 a long, long time ago, having deemed it sadly far too costly when I saw it several weeks before. And my matching brolly is another favourite charity shop find; it reminds me of a black one I bought in a proper old brolly shop in London  with birthday money from my dad ... sadly that one got its lovely wooden tip shut in the door of a commuter train (I'm sure the proper old brolly shop would have done repairs, but I never got round to taking it in). And finally, I'm really rather fond of bus travel ... as long as it's not rush hour ... and I get to sit at the very front once in a while ...