busy fingers

My faithful Bernina has been sat quietly taking a little holiday, I dont know about you but I just cannot concentrate on my sewing jobs in hand when it is half term and there are people around the house.  Of course it doesnt help that I am working downstairs and I dont have my little corner of the house to work from. 

My fingers have been busy though and I am so pleased with myself that I have finally managed to get to grips with knitting 2 socks at once on a circular needle.  I found how to with this video  from good old youtube.

I didnt use this ladies casting on technique but just followed the same proceedure.    To begin with it is very fiddly and it didnt help that the wool was the same colour as my needle, especially when keeping 2 balls of wool in order, as the rows increase it gets easier to work with.  I did have to work on one sock at a time when I got to turning the heel but later jiggled with them and put them back together.  Knitting 2 socks together is fantastic, because I kinda loose interest when I have seen the finished sock then have to start all over again. So working both together is ideal:->

Im on the home straight now. The wool I am using is Drops fabel, colour 330.  They have 30% off till the end of the month on this wool, so pop over and grab a bargain.  These are for my daughter, I shall put them away for that special time of the year when we give presents,C*******s.  Yes this girls starting early, because I love to give handmade presents, and I cant be raced.

  
Ive also taken delivery of 3 bridesmaid dresses that need altering, (when people know you sew, this always happens) for a wedding we are attending in August. Bought over the internet, Two ladies strapless dresses which at present have just 2 small pieces of boning to give support!! I have now put 6 boning channels all around one of them (the bridesmaid has tried it on and it feels and looks so much better) it just need taking up.  The second dress also needs shortening, boning and it fits on her back but big on the front bodice, so I am hoping I can just take the front bodice in on the sides. The material is not easy to work with so I am trying to do minimal altering, fingers crossed it works.   The child's white ballerina dress needs the sash anchoring and pleating, and it was easier to unpick the bodice and start again to make it smaller, the smaller size dress was too short.  These have taken priority over my own dressmaking. As you can imagine I want to get these finished and delivered, I am quite clumsy and accident prone,  so the sooner I return them the happier I will be.    


                                  

Kwik Sew 3267 & sewing organising

Its a while since I blogged, I lost my blogging voice, life's  like that sometimes.  I have however still  been popping in and seeing some great posts with marvellous makes.  

I finally finished hubby's trousers, a recap Kwik Sew 3267 

they are made from vintage wool suiting, a bargain £3.00 buy, the quality shows through as they hang beautifully.

All that worrying about the pockets are hardly noticeable

  I had been waiting patiently for him to try them on for a fitting (did I just type patiently).  Anyway I decided I would just make them up as it was holding me up. I'm one of those people that cannot start a new project unless the  current one is finished.  So I completed them, he finally tried them,  loved them, but they were far too baggy in the leg for him. So I slimmed the leg,  re-hemmed, and now we are both happy with them. He would like me to sew the welts down, something I omitted, wasn't reading the pattern there!!  He was so pleased he asked for a 'from No.23' logo to be sewn on the front.
I bought on Ebay a lucky dip bag of  bankrupt stock Coats sewing cotton threads  50 threads for £5.00 plus delivery (no longer available)

I haven't had a Lucky Bag since I was a child,  I have to say I was just as excited as back then.  I wasn't disappointed, there were 100% cottons, general sewing threads, strong threads  and also embroidery threads, only 2 duplicates,  52 threads in all. prices ranging from £1.60 - £3.00 per reel estimated value £85.00 This prompted me to sort my sewing notions out, with the help of  my pattern review book  for those interested

Here is what I did:-

my actual pattern are stored numerically in a box under the bed (I dont know why I havent sorted them numerically before, maybe because I only have about 30 patterns, this is great for putting straggler pattern pieces away) at the moment this system works well for me.

The  pattern sleeve I have put into a file sorted into catagories dresses, seperates etc

 My cotton reels I keep in boxes and vintage tins, these were all sorted and labelled, my spools I keep in purpose made boxes but I have numbered them with sticky backed paper so matching them up is now a lot easier.

 I also did a rough inventory of my uncut fabrics. I keep

 this in a sleeve with my patterns folder. This I have found the most beneficial for me. My memory is appalling so its great having this with my patterns so I can easily put A with B. 

 My trims, I have wound onto cardboard which is tons better, no more tangled messes  and space saving.

I really enjoyed this, I would love to be able to catalogue them on the computer, but we don't have windows and I have yet to find a suitable compatible programme for our computer.

My next project, I recently I bought  this piece of fabric

 the colours drew me instantly to it, though on hindsight it is a little busy.  I am going to cut it up today to make a skirt for summer (I believe summer has finally arrived, even though the spring bulbs are just blooming.)

Im not sure yet  how I will make it up yet, I'm thinking a straight skirt but I would like to add this blue grosgrain which matches up beautifully, I may just take a skirt from one of my existing dress patterns maybe this one, Vogue 8667. 

Last week I helped my friend organise a Cake Break Fund Raising event, in our local town, proceeds in aid of MS Society, there was cakes and a few craft stalls. One of the stall holders was Sally whose blog I follow.  It is quite bizarre actually meeting a fellow blogger for the first time. Sally had some great pieces of work on her table, a very clever lady, I came away with a lovely pincushion and badge she had made.  It was nice to meet her.  

Lastly I am road testing my sons camera, more advanced than my own, I'm thinking of upgrading.  Has anyone noticed an improvement in the picture quality. 

Happy Crafting





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