Done: Baby quilt!

I am currently a rather excited soon to be aunty. My sister is due to have her first baby in two weeks time and I can't wait to meet my little niece or nephew.

When she told me she was pregnant all those months ago I immediately started scouring the Internet looking for inspiration of things I could make. Knitting was banned so I turned my attention to other things and decided to make a little quilt. The sex of the baby is going to surprise which made it a little bit trickier to make something unisex but I eventually settled on Les Amis from The Village Haberdashery.

See, from far away it kind of looks ok.

I went for a simple pattern mixing up the peach and teal colour ways on a plain white background. For this and the backing I used organic flannel with a bamboo wadding sandwich from Raystitch.

I made binding out of the grey tree bark print and hand sewed it down along the back edge.

My biggest mistake was deciding to topstitch in both directions. I don't have a walking foot so the backing bunched up along the way which meant the quite ended up an inch or two shore than it should have done. Then the top of the quilt ended up with lots of gathers and pulls, it's not my best sewing but it just about looked passable from a distance.

Also, here's a sneak peek of the cakes I made for her baby shower today...

Look how cute those babies are! I used a tutorial from Sheeren's Cakes and Bakes for these lovelies.

Great British Sewing Bee!

I loved loved loved the Sewing Bee! And, I want, no NEED that haberdashery in my house!

Well done Tilly! There is no way I could have done half of those challenges especially with those scary judges watching over me. It was great to see such a variety of sewers and although I'm already an avid sewer it's definitely inspired me to sew even more and just keep trying to improve.

My aims from today's episode:

1. I must master the invisible zip. I've been putting it off for far too long.
2. I really should slow down when I'm sewing and spend more time on the detail and finish. I'm always racing myself and then disappointed when something's a bit wonky.
3. Find out what that balance issue is! I totally have that issue but I don't know how to fix it! Somebody tell me!

Scary but lovely.... ?

Masterpiece!

Eek, my first PDF pattern! And isn't she a beaut!

I've seen some really lovely Moss Mini skirts on other blogs recently and I'm desperate for some wardrobe staples so I was inspired to buy the pattern. I can't wait to make this but I was nicely surprised by how therapeutic and satisfying it was to put this together!

I have bought and printed another PDF before but I took one look at it and didn't even attempt to get the scissors out. I don't if it was my poor attempt at printing but something happened along the way to make it impossible to understand!

This pattern was so easy to put together, a perfect task for unwinding after a day at work! Now for tracing...

P.S. Sorry for the crap phone photo, my house has no daylight despite the lovely sun/snow outside!

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Christmas promise

Dear Lone Reader,

I'm coming back, I promise.

It turns out that I'm not a very good blogger but whilst I haven't been posting, I have been making! As the holiday season is upon us I'm planning to spend some time photographing my me made projects and preparing to share.

I've got posts planned about my two sencha tops, half circle skirt, first ever quilt, quit a few aprons and most recently my christmas party Elisalex dress!

In the meantime, check out my army of sugarpaste penguins!


Back soon!

Pin-crastination

I've washed my duvet cover (fresh sheets are the best things in the world!), folded my washing, made some soup and pre-ordered Gertie's New Book for Better for Sewing. What am I doing? You got it, procrastinating. Whilst I should be writing a CPD plan for work instead I thought it would be the prefect time to do a quick post about my new pin cushion kilner jar.

Here's one I made earlier

I think I must have first seen this on Pinterest but I can't remember exactly where. Since then I've found tons of tutorial's online. I made this as a gift for a friend who sadly just left work (no more tea breaks talking about sewing) and filled-ish it with sewing goodies, although admittedly some of was my seconds. Sorry.

Anyway, I made one for myself at the same time and I love it! It's so handy sitting right next to my machine. The pin cushion is much softer than my others so the pins go in really easily and it can't roll around anywhere. Perfect for keeping all my bits and bobs in too.

PS. I had a very productive sewing weekend last week and will blog the fruits of my labour this weekend!

So many projects, so little time...

This post is just to point out how rubbish I am at blogging, and also to draw your attention to the new page I've created which lists all the things I am dreaming of making at the moment.

I've just traced out the pattern for the Pastille dress in the Colette Sewing Handbook and I also have V1190 cut out in some horrible black poly jersey waiting to be finished.

However, I'm really waiting for my Sencha pattern to arrive tomorrow so I can get stuck in to that!

What's on your wish list?