Geocaching

As a family we've started geocaching recently which involves wandering around the countryside with a satnav, drinks, things to swop etc etc etc so I decided to make a bag to carry everything in.  The design brief was to make a bag which would hold the satnav, a book, a flask, pencils and assorted junk to swop (usually old party bag toys and Happy Meal toys!), the bag need to have an adjustable strap as it would be carried by both me and my husband and due to that point absolutely no flowery fabric!  So I ended up with some brown corduroy and some stripy material for the lining.  I took all the things we wanted to carry and spent a while designing the internal pockets so that the lining was flat but the pocket was big enough to accommodate the object.  I got some heavy sew-in interfacing to give the bag structure and I ended up with.......

I had to google how to put in an adjustable strap and found this helpful tutorial from Nikki.

Inside you can see the pockets for the pencils on the left and a larger pocket which has hygiene gel and probably keys will end up in there.

The big pocket on the right holds a book with details in it and the pocket on the left has the satnav.  In between the pockets is a large 6" base which I will put some plasticard in as a firm base to hold the flask and swops. 

So there it is, it was tricky to sew such thick fabric especially with the interlining and turning the bag through was a bit awkward.  The top-stitching probably isn't the best I've ever done but given the thickness and the straps I'm just happy I managed to get round!

Try doing some geocaching, its a great excuse to get the kids out and about and find somewhere you didn't know was on your door step.  The kids love the whole secrecy aspect of it and how people who aren't in the know are called Muggles, in fact we're not allowed to say the word geo-caching out loud, we have to say You Know What!

Made By Louise Shop

Well I finally got round to setting up a Folksy shop to sell some things I've been making lately.  First in the shop is a personalised lunchbag.  I got fed up of having a restricted choice of lunch bags which are too small for water bottles, then they get ruined easily and aren't very hygenic IMHO so I sat down and designed my own which resulted in (drum roll.....)

Waterproof, washable, personalised lunch bags big enough to hold a water bottle and small plastic lunch boxes.  The bag measures 14" x 9" x 6" and is washable to 40 degrees. 

The fabric, name and images can all be personalised, see here for more details.

More items for sale soon!

Selling things.......

I've been a bit absent from blogging lately, I've been playing around with some garments that hopefully I can sell!  I have a friend who sells children's clothes through an ebay shop and she's going to sell them for me.  My idea is to see if they sell and then set up a Folksy shop to sell them and some other ideas I'm developing.  They are nothing too amazing or original but I think quite cute and hopefully someone else will too. 

They are babygrows of various sizes which have been decorated with appliques and had skirts attached to make it a dress.

and boys......

Here's my other plan......

....personalised lunchbags with waterproof lining!

What do you think?  Can you see anyone buying them?

What do I need to know?

I'm thinking of doing a dressmaking & tailoring course at college and went along last night for the Information Evening but unfortunately they had no information!   They are in the process of recruiting a tutor so they will have more information when they are appointed. 

What I was expecting was a syllabus of things that would be covered/achieved through the course but the details I have got are very vague - 'You will learn to understand a pattern and choose suitable material.  We will look at creating detail on your garment, including pockets and button holes.  By the end of the course you will be able to product a personalised garment from stratch.'  Now that doesn't sound very thorough to me, it sounds like you would choose your commercial pattern and then make it through the course (2 hrs/ week for 11 weeks) learning the things you would come across on THAT pattern therefore if you had chosen a simple pattern you wouldn't cover things that you would need for a more difficult pattern. 

So it got me thinking - what would MY syllabus be?  I grew up with my mother sewing loads of clothes both for me and other people and I would make dolls clothes as a child.  I later did sewing in school but at a very low level (pre - GCSE) and then did nothing until a couple of years ago.  So I have some basics but also lots of holes in my knowledge and definitely in my confidence level.  I have now improved lots of my skills (through blogs and web in general) but I know there are lots of things I don't know or am not confident about. So my question is what does a sewer need to know, I mainly make clothes and I'm interested in knowing about designing patterns so here's my brain-dump list of things I'd like to know or have trouble with:-

• making button holes
• fitting collars
• fitting yokes
• fitting sleeves
• fitting pockets
• handling fine fabrics
• expected sizings (e.g. children, womens)
• different fabric types
• accurate measurement
• drafting block/sloper
• lining clothes e.g. a bodice
• designing children's clothes, understanding proportions as they grow

Do I need to go to college to learn these things?  I guess not but I think the advantage would be someone to talk to about any problems I have as I don't have anyone in the real world that sews and could help me out.  Maybe I need to find a sewing circle or some other method to pick up this knowledge.  I live in Sussex if anyone has any information about sewing circles or course in the area.....

Bleuuuurrrrrggggghhhh

What the term for when you have a great creative idea but it doesn't quite come out the way you envisioned?  I keep having ideas at the moment which I'm kinda keeping under my hat as I'm not sure if they are gonna work and I'm inching closer to something worthwhile but its hard work.  I have all these ideas but when I try them they aren't quite as good as they should be or I want them to be.  I'm wondering if I'm moving towards something worthwhile or wasting my time.  I guess I'll have to plough on and give it a shot and see it through.  What do you think?  I know its hard to help as I'm being delibrately vague but is it better to aim for something and miss or to admit when you are beaten?  Guess I have to think, what would I want my kids to do in this situation, quit or try it? 

Pincushion

I'm not the tidiest of people and any work area I inhabit very quickly gets untidy, there are usually strata of projects anywhere I work!  I've recently commandeered the spare room for my crafty adventures and true to form its gotten really messy, there are bits of thread all over the floor (and pins!!) there are scraps all over the place and pattern pieces everywhere!  Its just not good enough and then I saw this pincushion featured on Sew, Mama, Sew and knew my life would not be complete unless I had one so I did what any respectable crafter does, ignored my family for a few hours and made one! 

I used some tea-towels I had picked up from Poundland so you know it didn't cost much!  Wotcha think?  I think it looks pretty nifty, I need to put some more weight in it, its weighed down with rice but I think I might get some gravel (maybe?) to make it heavier!   Just to show you the problem here is the before picture......

and here's the after picture......

now if I could just sort out the bed and the cupboard I'll be laughing!!!!!

any ideas to make me more organised?!

Failure and Success

Well in my last post I was debating whether to make a particular dress and whether it would suit my body type.  Well, I decided to go ahead with it, the suggested fabrics on the back stated, 'fluid fabrics, satin, silk' amongst others.  There was no way I was going to make it in silk but went to the fabric shop and looked at the kind of fabrics I don't normally look at, slippery, tactile, flimsy, glamorous(?) fabrics.  I ended up plumping for a pinky floral satin.  OMG, what a nightmare I've been having with it!  Its slippery, it frays easily, it snags easily, it puckers easily and it generally a bl**dy pain in the a**e!  The last 2 weeks have been tortuous, yes 2 weeks! (I've done a bit then got frustrated, thrown it across the room and then stomped off for a few days!)  Anyway, I've now finished the dress and it looks ok on although it clings with static (I believe fabric conditioner resolves this) but and this is a big BUT I have a problem.  Where the v-neck comes down and has a facing on the inside, I trimmed back the seam to fold over neatly but as I already said this fabric frays very easily....... this means that the bodice has started the fray leaving a hole at the seam line between bodice and the facing.  Here it is in full close up horror!

This is right in the middle of the v-neck!

So as you can see the hole is in a really obvious place, I've tried making a rosette/flower to pin over the hole but because the fabric is so blooming slippery etc its just not happening.  I've tried a flower, I've tried a ribbon, I make some bows from bias binding, ribbons everything and nothing looks good.  Even if I managed to get the hole covered the fabric is still really clingy and snags easily so I've sadly decided to cut my losses and abandon the dress.  Realistically I'm not gonna wear it (I was making it for a 90th birthday party but I have an alternative) so why am I bothering?  So what have I learnt?  Well, satin is a pig to sew, also the way it drapes is not particularly flattering to me, so I've learnt that cotton based fabrics are my friends and I should stay there! 

Well that was the failure, now for the success........

I've been wanting to try out sewing with knit fabric but hadn't been able to find it in local shops and even on-line its not a popular as woven fabric (unless I'm looking in the wrong places?  If you know anywhere let me know!) but the other day I found Vend and got some of what I though was reasonable priced knit.  I've been wanting to make a skort (skirt and shorts combined) for Miss M for ages and the other day I came across Carolines posting showing the skorts she has been making and I knew it had to be done.  I didn't have a pattern for the shorts so I made one based on a pair of leggings as I was having trouble with the shorts she has.   Following Carolines post I made................

How cool is this?

Miss M loves them and I loved making them, sewing with knit was easy-peasy and after the debacle described above a refreshing change.  The shorts I knocked up in about an hour but it would be quicker next time as I sewed the wrong leg up and had to get the seam ripper out!!!!  The skirt took a little longer but I'm so proud of it, its beautiful inside and out, the side seams are a french seam (as usual!) the raw edges where the tiers are sewn together have been finished by overcasting, there's top-stitching on the top tier and I even put a label in!

Miss M wore it today and she loved it and I think it looks really funky and I'm soooooo happy with it

I think she will be getting some more of these!  Maybe with shorts rather than longer leg lengths and a different woven. I want to wash these before I make another pair as I think the shorts should be a little tighter on the leg but the knit hasn't been pre-washed (didn't want to deal with rolling edges for my first time!) so I'm gonna wait to see what the shrinkage is and maybe adapt the shorts pattern from there.  The only thing I didn't do quite right was attaching the woven to the waistband & shorts as the woven has 10" of ease.  I realise now that the knit should have been stretched to meet the woven whereas I gathered the woven to meet the knit IYKWIM, that means I've lost the benefit of the ease going over the hips but on Miss M its not a problem.  Next time I'll know what to do. 

This might become a new obsession!  What do you think?