Catch up: Joel Dewberry's Meadow Spirit Skirt and Colette's Zinnia

Good Morning! I had a pretty intense weekend sewing (and watching BSG) and didn't actually get round to getting pictures of my new makes. Plus le Baz went out for drinks with his friends at Lunchtime on Saturday and didn't come home until 2 am Sunday morning!! He was a little tipsy and then spent most of Sunday feeling rather sorry for himself. He must have had a great night!!

I mentioned previously that I had gotten my Joel Dewberry skirt out of the UFO box and completed it. Yay for me! The pattern that I used was Joel Dewberry Eclectic modern, Meadow Spirit skirt in Joel's Modern Meadow fabric. Ya I know, not very imaginative considering this is the fabric they used on the envelope. You can also see that I did not add the pleats to the bottom, this just added far to much length for my liking.

I should have really switched that TV off...

This skirt was a bit of a nightmare for me last year. I tweaked and tweaked and couldn't get it to fit. Thus, in an angry rage, the UFO box was born. Back when I started this skirt I hadn't actually had much experience of fit. I'd pick a size off the envelope that looked like my size and hope for the best. I'm a little bit more savvy than that now, or at least I hope I am!

The problem that I had was around the back of the waistband. It was almost as though it was designed for someone was a big juicy butt as I had two baggy bum shaped bumps sticking out. When I returned to the skirt I realised that was down to my lack of hips and all round boy shaped figure. I pinched the fabric round my hips and as if by magic the weird bumps disappeared.

I'm so pleased with the results, however, it's not summer here yet. It's still pouring with rain on a daily basis, so I was a little premature in the making of this one, but I can definitely see me pulling this back out when the rain dries up.

The next make was another Colette Zinnia skirt. You may remember that I made one as a gift for my bestie at Christmas. I liked the pattern so much that I just had to make one for myself. 

Well why not?

The fabric that I used was Moda's Bluebird Park. Unfortunately, you can't really see the detail of the design on the fabric but it kinda looks like a yellow chambray. 

I'm not sure it's possible to have awful fit issues with this pattern as the only measurement you need is your waist. So it's just a case of measuring the waistband in the correct place.

I don't think that this was a particularly good fabric to make the skirt out of. It was a bit of a pain to hem and to me it doesn't look very sharp. It's also a little see through so I'd definitely wear it out with a slip.

Besides all this I think it's a wonderful skirt. Again, it's not really the weather for it yet, but just you wait until it is!

Where has the last week gone?!

Time is just flying over here, so I must be having fun!

The weekend seems like a long time ago now, distant memories of a shooting weekend up in sunny Warcop...

OK, I'm lying. It was actually snowing. At 0800 we were stood outside of the Armory collecting our weapons, gazing at the sky thinking 'I must be crazy'! For those of you who've never been out shooting in the snow, I'll tell you this - it's pretty darn chilly.  Fortunately for us that's where the snow finished for the weekend. I got a little wet, but nothing too bad, but it was definitely chilly. Not only was I wearing waterproof trousers, but also my scarf and gloves. 

Armed with several cups of hot tea I ventured out for the shoot. I was feeling pretty darn confident. A couple of practice shots at the targets and we come to the main shoot. I'm loving it - Ye haw! So I'm about to do this shoot where we stand a few paces back, watch for the target popping up, then have to run to the firing point, throw ourselves on the floor 'belt buckles down' and then fire 5 shots at the target. So I throw myself down for the first shot and clumsily the iron sight hits me right in the shooting eye with the recoil from my first shot. [Swear word] then my eye decides to to leak and I can see nothing! I came out of that with 15 rounds still in my magazine out of 65, but only 1 point worse off than my neighbour who had fired all of his rounds - bonus! But I was still shit. Never mind, I had a great time.

Sunday I got to take part in Clay pigeon shooting. This was by far the best activity of the weekend, but also my worst ha ha! I had 14 cartridges and I hit zero clay pigeons boooooooo... [sad face]. Still had an awesome time and I'm looking forward to more shooting later on in the year.

So I haven't actually done an awful lot of sewing. I've managed to fix a UFO that I started back in July last year. I'm particularly proud of this because I'd been having really awful fit issues and had ended up sacking it off to try something else. That's my Joel Dewberry Meadow Spirit skirt which I originally posted about here. Back then I had little experience of fitting garments, I just picked the nearest size and hoped for the best. So I've finally completed this skirt, but I'm yet to take some pictures for my blog, so I'll probably post that this weekend.

I've also started to make myself a Colette Zinnia skirt. I previously made one for my best friend for Christmas and I've been dying to make myself one ever since. You can find that here. I'm still on with this, doing a little bit here and a little bit there. 

On top of all of this, and possibly for the last few weeks I've had a go at quilting. A friend of mine bought a quilt from the States for her baby to be from Etsy and it took something like 6 months to come. It was such an anti-climax as she's not so fond of it and it cost a fortune. When I saw it myself, apart from the designer fabric that had been used I couldn't see why it took so long to arrive or why it cost so much. So, I thought why not have a go myself?

Unfortunately, I've had a few motivational issues with it and I'd run out of materials to finish it off. But this is how I started:

To save time, I very lazily bought a couple of charm packs from eBay. (I won these at like 99p each woop woop!) I then stitched them together in rows and then stitched the rows together, pressing the seams out as I went.  That is the picture that you can see above. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out.

At this point I should probably mention that I have absolutely no experience in this area, I've not even made a coaster! So I think I've done it a little wrong! So what I did next is sew the batting to the piece of fabric I was using for the underside (An old white Egyptian cotton sheet that I'd cut down). I've since found out that this is not exactly how it should be done! Finished article to be finished soon.

Colette 1027 Zinnia

I made this skirt for my bezzer mate as a gift for Christmas. Now that she has this gift I can post it!

This is the first time that I have made anything for anyone else and as you can imagine I was so nervous as I passed the wrapped, final product to her.

This pattern was so simple that I knew it would work as a gift and have a reasonable chance of fitting. You only need your waist size to make it, what could be simpler?

I really sailed through this one. Even though I took my time as I wanted to get it right (and I only had just enough of the fabric to make it once!). 

The fabric that I used was a Linen Cotton/Poly blend from Minerva. I went for the blend as I thought it would be easier to care for than 100% cotton. 

The only hiccup that I encountered was that the skirt was too big for the waistband. However, I remedied this by putting in some extra pleats.

I also made this small elasticated belt to go with it. I wanted to buy one, but I couldn't find anything appropriate in the shops. 

I like this skirt so much, that I think I'll have to make myself one in the not too distant future! It was a dream to sew and honestly it looks better in real life than my photos!