Okay The next few things done so far

So in this sewing frenzy I also made my daughter a bag for starting school............ I'm not too impressed as it looks a wee bit homemade try a lot homemade.... but she loves it.....

Also made my mate M a bag for taking sandwiches to school in........... its from Cath Kidston Sew book....

The next thing I did was applique on a next dress which had fabric rossetts on but oh they never dried right and had that hideous rotten smell however I tried to dry them......... so I removed them and appliqued on this big blue flower.... it was a hand stitched and machine combo.... and turned out okay....

and at least I wont worry if I smell any more... well from the rotten fabric flowers anyways............. from my own BO oh well thats another issue...

Dressmaking Project number 1

Okay so for the first venture into using a commerical pattern I chose Anna Maria Horners Socialite pattern http://store.annamariahorner.com/socialitedress.html

I had read a few reviews in blogs and was most impressed by the one in sew mama sew........ well it had pictures thats a god send when you are doing this with only sewing books and Art and Design Textiles GCSE to go on........... (This was my only A at GCSE level.......... so maybe I was okay at it but if I remember correctly we only played with the sewing machines.... a wee bit).


So I thought how hard can it be................. actually it wasn't too bad a few unpicking of seams but I think that will be a common theme to my sewing so I better get used to it.............



I did adore the cotton lawn from Liberty which I brought of Ebay...... but the pattern I got from http://www.backstitch.co.uk/ along with 100% cotton blue material which now thinking about it would not be right for this pattern..........

This is how it turned out and I wore it out to the pictures for MIL birthday on Saturday and I felt it didn't look too homemade.... always an aim but not necessarily achieveable with limited skills and experience....

First Creation

First Creation was a clothkits Rob Ryan skirt............. It was easy enough apart from the fact that I cut the lining too small so then well I just got rid of it............... not many of my shop brought skirts have linings sooooooooooooooooo now this doesn't either............. Lots of unpicking of stitches etc but I was happy with the end rest if it is a wee bit too big for me..... so more unpicking and resizing but I just cant bring myself to do that just yet......

Craft

So far I have been quite good at beading.............. above is an example of one of my creations...

Knitting well that is the thing I am deadly slow at.... and really it seems to hurt my hands, so am I doing it right???

Baking well thats something I should be good at as a chemistry teacher it is glorified cooking isn't it.... At least my previous positions S3 class seemed to love the baking and kept on asking if the replacement would bake............. I doubt it

Now I have decided as I love clothes, fabric and fashion I would try sewing.....

Having made a quilt for DD handsewing and using MIL auld machine..........

So off to John Lewis I tracked to purchase a machine not too cheap and not too expensive but just right.............. I think I got it right so the past two weeks have been messing around...........

Time to get started with Blogging

So I am a 38yr old reformed spendaholic who is now addicted to various crafty activities to help control the urge to over consummerism and running up credit card debit.
Let me be honest it has been nearly two years since I had a credit card and hideous debts now I have no credit cards, no debits and only limited access to my hubbies credit card (when he is feeling generous which isn't so often recently).
However the urge to buy is still there...... constantly nagging at me............... but I am good and check myself when overly tempted. Well it nearly cost me my marriage and my daughters stable home life to grow up in which is more important.........
Time to grow up..... and I have been for two years but its still painful...