Dressmaking

I’ve been pretty busy sewing over the past few weeks.  When it was too hot outside, I came in and sewed!  I did a little photo shoot in the back garden with Maurice as my photographer.  Here are some of the things I have made:

First off, Prefontaine Shorts from Made by Moxie.  I got the pattern in the Perfect Pattern Parcel.  This is the second make out of that PPP.  I made these in gorgeous red and yellow quilting cotton, with yellow pockets and binding.

This blouse is from a free pattern with the magazine Love Sewing.  The pattern is by Simple Sew.   I must admit I needed some help with this one! The instructions weren’t very good!  I go to a dressmaking ‘drop-in’ on a Tuesday morning at More Sewing. I love this fabric!  The photo doesn’t really show it off to it’s best.  It was a remnant from  C&H Fabrics in Brighton.  With it’s 3/4 length sleeves, I think this will get a lot of wear in the autumn.

This blouse is probably the best thing I have ever made!  The pattern is New Look 6104.  It did need a little altering across the back, which Laura at More Sewing helped me with.  The fabric is an off white broderie anglais from Fabricland.  It will go with lots of things in my wardrobe so will get a lot of wear.

Finally – a kimono!  This is a free pattern from Sew Caroline.  I do love a free pattern!  I find patterns very expensive, and if you add the cost of the fabric, it is often not a lot cheaper to make clothes these days!  This kimono was made from a remnant from C&H fabrics which cost about £7, and the trim was about £3, which makes a total of £10, not bad!  I had to make the kimono about 1” shorter in the length and the sleeves as I did not have quite enough fabric!  But I think it looks OK.

My next project is the Lilou dress from Tillie’s book, Love at First Stitch.  I have it cut our ready to begin sewing.  After that I’ll be looking for some ideas for autumn/winter sewing.

Scavenger Hunt–The bike show

We went to a vintage motobike show at Ardingly back in July.  I was hoping to tick a few more things off my list, maybe a horn, or a person with a tattoo?

So without further ado, here’s a horn!  In fact, this was the only horn I found, as most of the bikes from the 1970s and 1980s, and don’t have such an elegant looking horn.  This was on a bike from the 1930s.

On the other hand, there were plenty of tattoos!  Look at these arms!! Quite a work of art.

How about this mascot – another work-of-art – on the petrol tank of a Honda Goldwing.  It is beautiful, and the bike is pretty splendid too!

Finally, here’s a parade of motorbikes in the car park.

I still have a few to get: a sign welcoming people into my home town, a juggler, a photo bomb, and me holding something representing the season. 

I’m linking up with Rinda for August Scavenger Hunt.

August–Month in Numbers

Welcome to my month in numbers for August.  As usual I am linking up with Julie’s blog. 

It’s been a productive Summer in the garden.  I have harvested 6 different vegetables: beans, chard, tomatoes, cucumbers, courgettes, sweetcorn and beetroot.  My largest cucumber measured 13 inches long, and weighed 1lb 8oz.  My largest tomato (so far) weighed 14oz.

I picked 3 corns and we had them for lunch one Saturday.  They went straight into the pot from the garden, and boy! did they taste sweet!

I visited 2 stunning gardens this month.  Christopher Lloyd’s garden at Great Dixter in East Sussex is somewhere I had always wanted to go:

This last weekend, we visited Charleston House, country home of the Bloomsbury set in the early part of the 20th century.  It is in East Sussex too, just past Lewes.  No photos allowed inside the house, but here’s a few of the garden. 

We loved the inside of the house!  Every piece of furniture had been painted by Vanessa Bell or Duncan Grant.  Such lovely muted colours and designs!  I really want to have a go myself.

There was 1 very large wasps nest that was in our loft.  The wasps were very busy, there must have been thousands in there!  The Pest Control man from the council came to cover it in toxic powder, and now the wasps have gone.  6 wasps escaped into the house, 5 of which were killed by his spray and 1 survived to be let out of the window.

We had 2 rides out on the new bike (Triumph Bonneville). 1 to Charleston above, and 1 to Petworth, a pretty little village in West Sussex that is full of antique shops!  Within a walking distance of half a mile radius there are 24 antique and interior design shops!

 

That’s it from me this month!  Do pop over to Julies blog to have a look at what everyone else has been up to in August,numerically of course!

Kitchen makeover–finished!

It’s finally finished!  We hung the curtains last weekend.  (Actually we still need to get a blind for the window over the sink, but apart from that it is all done.  I spent this morning tidying up and cleaning so I thought I’d better take some photos!

WE are delighted with our new kitchen, and it is easy to work in and keep clean and tidy.  Look at these 2 cupboard inserts:

First a double shelf kidney shaped insert that pulls right out so you can get to the items far in the back of the cupboard.

Second, and my favourite, a very sturdy basket pully-outy thing!  Here it is inside the cupboard:

Pull this bit out and slide it across,

and then pull the second bit out.  Hope that makes sense!

Hope you’ve enjoyed a tour of my new kitchen!

Postcard Swap

Sian organised a postcard swap this Summer!  As soon as she mentioned it I signed up, I love postcards!

Here are the 6 that I received:

Clockwise from the top right:

Scenic Toole County in Utah, USA from Hazel who lives there

Crete, Greece from Becky, who was on holiday in Crete.

Texas USA from Liz who has recently moved there from Scotland!

Bretagne, France from Helen who lives there.

‘Go through your wardrobe’ from Julie who visited the WW1 exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London.  (Somewhere I’d like to visit)

Animal Kingdom from Nicole who spent her honeymoon at Disney World.

Good Craic from Sian our lovely organiser!

 

Thanks!  I love them all, and they are all pinned up on my new notice board in the kitchen.  It is inside the pantry door so I see them every time I go there.

Make do and Mend

I’ve had a bit of a clear out in my wardrobe recently.  I needed to find room for my new dresses and blouses that I have made!  I got it all out and tried everything on.  Some of it is Ok, it still fits, despite my weight loss, so those items went back in.  Some items, I was just not going to wear anymore, so they have gone to the charity shop and a few of the better items are for sale on eBay.  For the rest, I wanted to try and alter them to fit.  So last Friday afternoon, I got my sewing machine out and took in several tops and trousers.  I even took in some jean style trousers in, undoing the waistband and sewing it back together!  I‘m pretty pleased with them!  Unfortunately, I didn’t take a before photo, so I can’t show you.

But here’s a dress I also had success with.  It’s the first dress I made last Summer.  Here I am in it last Summer:

I must admit, I didn’t wear it much as although the fit was quite good, it felt frumpy!

It was too big now I’ve lost all that weight so I took the sides in by quite a lot, and chopped 4” off the bottom.  I’ve been wearing it today, and it feels much better!

My Garden in July

What a difference a month makes!  Especially such a sunny warm month.  Here’s my border at the beginning of July.  Still lots of bare earth.

And now at the end of the month.  I have planted out some sunflowers, and they love the hot dry weather!  Look how they have grown!  The blue hisbiscus is beginning to flower.  It has taken over a bit and hidden some plants beneath, so when it finishes flowering I will remove the bottom branches.  My dahlias have begun to bloom, a red Bishop of Llandaff and a gorgeous orange one.  I have not grown dahlias before because of the slug problem, but these were started off in pots and planted out with plenty f slug pellets!

Here’s a couple of photos of our resident Mr Fox.  He loves to sunbathe at the back of the garden!  He likes the old carpet that we put down under the gravel paths!

I am linking up with The Patient Gardeners Weblog for an end of July look at our gardens!