Things am doing

Things am working on at the moment, screen prints for various projects... need a couple more to work on...

New patterns to trail for the classes. Dresses and more dresses. One from Hot patterns which I love

So many things! Right now though, the new trampoline has been delivered and needs putting up before Miss and Master come home :)

Over the last month...

My brither and sister in law came to visit in April, this was a real treat. I have not seen them since before christmas and the kids simply were over the moon. It was a short but very sweet holiday. We shall miss them very much and hope to see them soon. 

On my sewing table has been this trial run of the Colette Iris shorts pattern, which I really like. The pattern is well written and has a invisible zipper (which I am teaching the students to do this term, hence my shorts trial) and my image of my garment really does not to this justice. I increased the lenth of it (it originally had a 4.5" inseam, eeek) and now is a better suited to me 8" which does change the pattern from slinky shorts to mummy shorts. Sigh. I will add a better picture soon.

I was determined to make a dent in my sewing list. Master A,picked out some fabric for himself a few months ago and wanted me to make a shirt out of it for him and here is my offering to him. I winged it and did a size 7 which was very very genenrous and I think he will have to grow into this!  I used Kwik sew 2951 and it really sewed up really quickly. 

I love the guitar printed fabric!

And finally I have been crafting more with Miss T and she was interested in screen printing so...

Ta Daa... am not sure what we will do with this but am sure it will make it into their room soon :)

Am working on sewing kits next, these are different and I think quite special... more on that later...

The Sewing Directory London Meet up

           Saturday was a wonderful day. The weather was warm and the company was brilliant. The Sewing directory London meet up was in Islington in the afternoon and I was fortunate enough to be able to meet up with some of the lovely people who I only know on line.

          Susan from the Sewbox was there and was very kind in donating beautiful liberty fabric for us to sew with.  Jen from Sew Happy Geek led us all in making lovely book cover tutorial (she was kind enough to gift me her hand quilted sample which I LOVE! and I finally got to meet Fiona from the Sewing Directory. I signed up for the service three years ago when I first started Seams So Easy and have not looked back since. 

          As I sat beside the very talented Anna from Superstitchers  who was super helpful and Arianna from the Saturday Sewing Session who was very sweet and lovely to chat to as well. Pippa, Fiona's mum was there as well as a lovely lady from Cloth magazine. It was amazing to be able to connect with people who have the same interest and also understood the challengers of running a craft business. It was great to be surrounded by all that talent as well. The sewing community really does feel amazingly helpful and welcoming. There was lots of chatting and nibbling while we sewed and we made some lovely book covers, all in all a wonderful afternoon. We also got lovely little goody bags to take home with some gorgeous fabric and a prize! (there was enough for everyone :) Mine was a voucher from Never Forget   A personalised embroidered gift service. It will be hard to choose something from their rather extensive list of services.I felt very grateful to be part of this amazing community and look forward to more meet ups. A very big thank you to Fiona for organising everything and getting us all together.  

The Sewing Directory London meet up.

Jen's lovely book cover

My version of the book cover

Sorry for the upside down pix but the inside of the book cover.

Mathilde Blouse

I have to admit, I rarely sew for myself. Most of my time is trying out patterns for students to sew, sewing for the kids, making presents and sometimes I sew for myself. 

I decided that I wanted to try a new blouse pattern out and decided to try out the much acclaimed Mathilde blouse by the very talented Tilly of Tilly and the Buttons fame. The instant downloadable pattern was a hit from the get go. An easy to use, very well explained pattern with (and I LOVE this) picture tutorial on her website covering all aspects of the making. 

This is the way forward...and a very big plus to buying from this independent pattern designer. 

And my handiwork in pictures below. 

Lace detail on the front bodice

I did scootch the neckline down 1.5" from the original pattern to suit myself better and take in the sides as I always seem to fall in between sizes! I added the lace to the front bodice and sleeves cause that's just how I roll :) 

Handprinted fabric swap

The new handprinted fabric swap is in the works, organised by the very talented Lesley keating of Maze and Vale fame. Armed with my swap partners names and likes I set off on my print journey

Here they are, some are for me to work on and some are for the swap. This time I chose to block print. I love the organic feel and I the colors I felt came together well.... most requested colors were grey and blue with some green thrown in... 

 And after all of this was done and dusted the studio was a happy mess and I was a very happy bunny...

Hand printed Fold over clutch how to...

So it's my birthday today and I have lots of things I wanted to do for myself which will I hope happen before the next one comes along! And I wanted to use this wonderful bit of fabric that got off the last  hand printed fabric swap I did, organised by the very talented Lesley Keating from the Maze and Vale . So I made myself a fold over clutch. 

There was just enough fabric from the fat quarter for the outer layer and the strap. I used a lovely grey check (which was very soft) for the lining and used an iron on wadding to give the outer fabric a tiny bit more body. 

This needs 2 pieces 11" x 15" of outer, inner and lining fabrics

one piece of fabric for the interior pocket (mine was 6" x 5" 

one piece 3"x 15" for the strap (I wanted to be able to dangle this of my arm)

Zipper to fit

D ring with 2" of webbing for the strap. 

1.  Using the instructions, stick the wadding to the fabric. 
2. Iron on some interfacing to the pocket piece, iron down the top hem and sew this down. The picture shows the inside of the pocket.

  3.   Iron down the other 3 sides of the pocket and place this on the one of the inner lining pieces. I placed mine with 2" on either side and 3" up from the bottom. Sew the three sides down. 

4. Now sandwich the zipper in between the layers of top and bottom. I have not added pictures of this or instructions on how to do this. If you need to know how to do this I like Javajems wristlet tutorial which has tons of lovely pictures to help. :)

5. Once the zipper is done, top stitch the outside of the zipper. Now make the strap, to do this, fold the strap in half width wise, iron down, open and iron in half again. Sew this down. 

6. I used a D ring to attach the strap and a piece of webbing to attach the D ring to the bag. Not necessary step.. 

I used my over locker to finish the inside once I had placed my strap where I wanted it to be with the strap inside. I placed mine just below the zipper top. 

and my finished clutch...

Screen printing with the girls

Fabric printing fun...

Hello again, if you read this blog then you know how much I love fabric printing. I have printed and dyed and made marks on my fabric :) and loved every  minute of it.

Last term we were screen printing, our first pulls were interesting and fun to do and the instant gratification of seeing a design out there in print is amazing. Here it is in pictures...

Are'nt they lovely? So proud of the students for a job well done. Some of these were tea towels, some were embellished and made it as art for their walls...