Feeling uninspired

It’s my first ever sewing competition and I was feeling very uninspired. I signed up to Top Stitchers because I love a challenge, but I think I got ‘challenge’ and ‘competition’ muddled up. The fact it was a competition actually stressed me out, I was certainly feeling the pressure (and not liking it).

Battle of the Stitches: Round 2. Going grey

Battle of the Stitches: Round 2 is a personal battle for me. A battle to be comfortable in front of the camera. I mean what do you do with your arms for goodness sake? What facial expression do I make? Dreamy? Pensive? Sultry? A cheesy smile? I could just imitate the model in the book and then call on my good friend Photoshop. Semi colon hyphen bracket.

Battle of the Stitches: Round 2

I write this post nervously because I know what tomorrow will bring.

The big bubble party dress

Ok, so I didn’t get Darcy’s party dress finished in time for the party, but as all the other girls went to the party in their school uniform (how totally uncool), Darcy would have been overdressed so it didn’t matter. Phew!

This bubble dress has turned out to be one of my favourite items I’ve sewn so far. I just love its simplicity and its bounce. Another great pattern from Heidi and Finn. Though the pattern says “great for those just starting to sew”, I think it was a little tricky and you need to be quite accurate to get a neat professional finish.

The fit was perfect on Darcy, a slim bodice and good length for someone as tall as she is. I was lucky on this one that I didn’t have to make any adjustments.

I used a beautiful grey linen that I bought from a shop in Walthamstow Market. Silly me didn’t check how much fabric I needed before I began cutting out the pattern. So I had to go back and get some more, fortunately they still had some left.

When I got home and laid the fabric out I was quite disappointed to find that the sales assistant had cut the fabric pretty much precisely 1.5m on the dot, not a mm over what I asked for. I expect to get a bit extra, say 5cm or so extra fabric than I asked for, just to be on the safe side, incase it’s not cut straight, or just to be generous and to keep me, the customer happy. Perhaps I’m asking too much, I would be interested to know what you think the correct etiquette is when it comes to cutting fabric. I felt quite cheated.

For the lining I used a bright pink cotton which is a stunning contrast to the grey. You can see subtle hints of it around the neckline, arms and at the back where it fastens with a soft, blue grey button.

As it happens Darcy has another party coming up. Guess what she’ll be wearing. 

Darcy loves her new dress, it’s the kind of dress where you can’t help but want to, jump, twist, twirl, spin, hop, bounce…

Should children wear grey?

You may have gathered by now, that I really like grey. I like  it for myself, I like it for my children and I like for my home. I know not everyone would choose to dress their children in grey, but I think it’s stylish and guess what, I’m even partial to a little black.

This little blue grey tunic was adapted from the heidiandfinn girlie little blouse pattern, it’s the kind of thing that I would wear myself, in fact that’s what I’ll do, I’ll make one for myself (grey or black?).