Adam's Input to my crafty room

We have had this mini set of drawers for a while - they were bought with a purpose to start with but have since become redundant. They look like they should be really handy though so as with most things, we didn't want to get rid of them "just in case" they might be useful in the future.

They were pretty boring and plain to start with  - just plain wood - but Adam recently had the idea that if he were to paint them up for me then they could be really jazzy and would look really good in my study/crafty room.

If he had the idea then I thought I would leave him to execute it. I would help with the fun bit of course! So we went out to choose some paints.

A nice variety of really bright colours should do the job nicely and really cheer the drawers up.

Adam started off by spray-painting the outsides of the drawers in a plain white and then set to work painting the drawers with these little tester pots of colour

They go well with our crockery really as well! You can just see one of the pots hiding away in the back of this picture.

I am really really pleased with them and they are filling up very nicely. They are incredibly useful for keeping all sorts of my new fabrics and soft crafty things.

There will definitely be more blogs coming up soon so that you can see what I have been doing with all of the things that are currently filling the drawers.

My Sneaky Crochet Project - Discovered!

For a little while now I have been working on a little sneaky crochet project for myself.

I don't know if I ever mentioned it but almost exactly a year ago now I went on a trip with my local yarn shop (Knit Nottingham) to a new craft fair that had been arranged in Skipton. Last year was it's first show and it was so successful that it is running again this year. Unfortunately I can't make it this time around due to work commitments but it was a fantastic event.

Anyway, I got a little side-tracked there...a year ago when I went to Yarndale I bought this lovely 4-ply yarn. I found the picture!

It is hand died and was quite expensive so I know I certainly didn't want to knit socks with it (4-ply is what is used for sock knitting) but I had no ideas what to make. I have asked around a fair bit, spoken to my friends and looked on the internet for ideas but nothing really grabbed me. I even bought some dark blue 4-ply that would go with it nicely incase I found something to make with it that required a little extra than the one ball of this fancy stuff that I have.

I kept looking and looking and the only thing that anyone could really suggest was a scarf/shall type thing. I am not normally one to wear one of these triangular scarfs so I had been trying to avoid it. As most of you I'm sure have figured out by now, I really don't like all of these fancy stitches or decorative things so even if I were to give in then I certainly hadn't found a plain enough version for me to wear.
Until I found this.

I have seen pictures of these all over Facebook and other crafty sites - they seem to be all the rage at the minute. I think just about everyone who crochets must have made at least one with the amount that I have seen around and about.

Again I don't really like to go along with crowds or follow examples set by others but this did seem like the best option I had for what to do with my beautiful yarn.

I know I have a lot of projects on the go at the minute so I was slightly worried about starting another when I already have so much else on - I thought my hubby might have a little moan about me having so much stuff everywhere and that nothing was getting finished. So it has really been a secret project. I have made a conscious effort to try to only work on this at times when I am hanging around - so sat in the car waiting for him to finish work (or for me to start) - it is called a road trip scarf after all - or waiting for college to start when I am hidden away in the study at home waiting for my lectures etc. Any time really when I have a few minutes peace and quiet.

It is called the road trip scarf as it is designed to be done whilst sat in a car - I love the story behind it. Well it is slightly gruesome/sad to start with but the idea behind it is great from there. A lady was crocheting as a passenger in her car and the project she was working on required her to change yarns. As she was using her craft scissors and cutting the ball of yarn from her work there was a sudden movement with the car and she ended up cutting herself with the scissors. She therefore decided that this was far too dangerous a pass-time in the car but really didn't want to give up on this perfect crafty time. This is where the road trip scarf pattern came from. It can be made using one yarn (variegated is usually used to give a colour change without the need to cut the yarn) and is a really simple pattern so can be done relative easily once you get going, without a pattern.

I started this with my pretty yarn in the car one morning whilst waiting to start work. The first few rows are the tricky part as they are slightly fiddly with the size of the piece as it begins but after the 4th or 5th row the continuing pattern starts and all becomes clear. From here on it is plain sailing all the way and so obvious what is to be done that there is no need for a pattern. 

I do have to admit, I have been pretty good at keeping this as my little secret - it has been hidden in my handbag since I started it - but last night I left this out after I had been working on it before college and it has now been spotted by Adam. The good news is that he really likes it and wasn't at all upset that I had been working on this while I have other projects on the go.

I think I will enjoy the making of this almost more than the wearing of it once it is done but I do love the way that it is turning out and you never know, I might turn into a shawl-y sort of a person.

I have chosen to start my scarf in the pretty yarn from Yarndale but I will be including a little of the blue that I bought to go with it just to break up the colour a little bit.

It is growing fairly slowly as I have really only been working on it in these little snippets of time between other things but I love the way that it is starting to look.

I like the fact that it grows from the middle and as there is no real pattern to it, you can just keep going until you get fed up or run out of yarn. I am sure that there should be an edging on it once you have made it to the right size, but I'm sure that even this wouldn't be 100% essential. We will see how it looks when I get that far.

Skirt

Oooh scary - my first attempt at making a garment for myself.

I was looking through my new book - The Great British Sewing Bee - at all of the patterns hoping to have a go at making something for myself. As a first attempt, again, I wanted something that wasn't too complicated or fitted in case it would need any adjustments to the pattern or anything.

So although there are a couple of things in the book that have taken my fancy, this box pleat skirt to me looked the most straight forward and was able to be made using cotton fabric. A lot of the other patterns seem to require specialised fabric depending on what they are and if nothing else, I had no idea what some of the other fabrics were let alone where to get anything else from.

I didn't have too much of a look around for fabrics although I did remember from the last time that I had visited Hobbycraft that most of their fabrics seem to be more oriented towards patch working. They are either sold in rather small pieces or are too patterned for me to be able to get away with wearing especially being that I am not really the most flowery person in the world, I don't think these elaborate patterns would suit me.

I was racking my brains and looking online but to be honest I found that almost impossible to imagine what the fabrics would look like in real life, let alone how they would feel and how the small samples shown on the websites would translate and look when they were expanded to the size of a full skirt.

So, as always, it was hubby to the rescue - he gave me the idea of looking at other things that were pre-made but using big pieces of material. We had a trip out that same day and went to Asda of all places to take a look at their home section. After looking around for a while we settled on this duvet cover - checks on one side and stripes on the other. Weirdly I think the most difficult thing about choosing from the home wear section was that all of the colours that seem to be used for home decorations are very different from the colours that are commonly found in clothing.

What I found was sort of the best of a bad bunch as the others, were either too bright or really dull brown-y colours. The other problems were that the patterns on some of the items we really large so as soon as the full item was cut down to a size that could be used the pattern would be completely lost.

There was a stripy side to the material as well as a checked side - I hadn't decided until I got home which side would be best to use. The biggest problem I found was that neither of the patterns were symmetrical. This I found the biggest challenge when it came to making my garment as one of the major criteria is really is both sides are even.

For this reason I chose the checked side as I hoped that the full-ness of the pattern in this material would mask the un-symmetrical-ness the best.

I don't have any photos of the pieces of the skirt being cut out unfortunately (sometimes this can be the most exciting part!) but there had to be some photos at crucial points.

Lining up the pleats front and back to ensure that the pattern matched - or as well as it could with the un-symmetrical pattern. This involved using the lines drawn on from the pattern and linking them together. I then pinned each one in place and as per the recommendation from the pattern, tacked these into place to be sewn into the waistband later.

Each one would need to be lined up separately and the pattern matched the best that I could. I chose the largest green line to use down the middle of both the front and back pieces of the skirt as I thought that this was the most dominant design feature and would therefore look the best at the centre of the design.

As well as lining each fold up to ensure that they met in the middle, I also did my best to ensure that the horizontal lines were are the same level and therefore carried in lines throughout the skirt.

Once everything was matched up and tacked the sewing could begin. First down the side seams of the skirt. I used my mannequin (Rosie) to test out the size and fit of the skirt once the pieces were attached and the pleats secured.

I am not sure if you have met Rosie before but she was a little treat from my husband around my Birthday time when I decided to give sewing and in particular, dressmaking a go. As with most things in my life, she definitely had to have a name so welcome to the family Rosie! I think that she is pretty accurate in size and proportions to me and has been incredibly useful. It is sooo much easier to keep dressing and undressing her throughout this process than it would have been to do the same with myself (and less spiky with the pins too!)

 Looks like this is going to be a fairly good fit I think. Now for the zip - decisions, decisions… I went with the cream one in the end as this seemed to match the best so that it was least obvious.

 I had been told how difficult the whole invisible zip thing was but I am not too sure how much I believed anyone - it is definitely more difficult than it looks! I tacked in in place first, as suggested in the pattern and I was really pleased I did as it is zoo tiny and fiddly.

 And this is the outcome. Not completely invisible - I think I needed to overlap more of my fabric over the zip on each side to get it to be completely hidden but not too bad for a first attempt I don't think.

And finally, with the waistband attached I finally plucked up the courage to try it on again and even to wear my first creation out in public today. This was my work outfit from earlier on. I know that this is by no means perfect but I really am quite proud of myself for how this came out. I have very little experience (this is only the third thing that I have ever sewn in my life) and with no real instruction other than what I have seen on TV, in the book that I bought and a little bit of internet browsing, I really am quite pleased with the way it came out.

My first garment and it is even suitable to wear in public.