World book day 2015

There seems to be a lot more more media coverage of World book day this year than there has been previously.  I got ready for work while the tv was showing photo's of children dressed in their costumes as I shrugged on the Beast jacket that had been made, but not worn, for the (not happened) panto.

It seemed an obvious and no work involved choice, but ended up with me feeling uncomfortable (not made for me) and fed up with the dangly lacy sleeves on the shirt getting in the way with every piece of writing I had to do.  It didn't last long I can assure you!

The next day involved grumpiness from some of the staff as social media had continued with this startling 'new' topic.

The main issue is the fact that it is world BOOK day!  Children are supposed to dress as a children's BOOK character but end up in an assortment of costumes that have nothing to do with books.

One of the best costumes at our school was a little boy turning up in his normal clothes with a gold ticket hung round his neck...simple, yet effective.  But his efforts seemed to be pushed into the insignificent corner by his classmate in his 'Hulk' costume, complete with mask that had an incredible assortment of flashing lights and gizmo's that must have cost a fortune (and unfortunately got broken during the day which will not have impressed his parents).

For those of you that will argue that comic book characters are from books, graphic novels are designed for adults.  Frozen, although the little girls look adorable in their dresses, is a film not a book. You can get away with the majority of Disney princesses as they come from Grimms fairytales or similar children's books, but Frozen is not one of them.

So I have made a decision to make up three or four costumes that are completely related to a childs book and rotate them over a three or four year cycle.

My first two choices are Smaug, from The Hobbit;

Who is an obvious red and gold dragon.

Choice two is The White Witch from The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe;

I am now coming to a complete blank on what else to do.  The criteria is...

• Must be comfortable to wear all day (don't worry, I have sorted out how to do that with the dragon!)
• Must be obvious what it is!
• Must be from a famous children's book
• Must be something I want to wear (I really don't want to dress up in normal clothes)
• Must have close fitting arms so that I can write without getting extremely irritated by flapping sleeves.
• Must not get too hot (I was way too hot in the Beast costume)

But I have now come to a halt on what other characters to do.  There is no rush, if the first two are made then it means I have three years for the third!

Mary Poppins or Nanny McPhee (aka Nurse Matilda) are possibilities, do you have any other ideas to help me out?

As an aside, eldest daughter has decided to have a second dress for her wedding.  Similar in style to the bridesmaids but in a pretty, white broderie anglais.  Why do I mention this?  Because she also wants a petticoat in the same colours as her bridesmaids, which means I now have to get all that net out again and cut another load of it for petticoat #4.  Then I have to also cut out white net for the petticoat for her actual wedding dress and a smaller version for smaller bridesmaid in the coloured net.  

I dream of dress net!

Goldfish have more fun

Well it may have taken a few weeks but I did manage my first quilt.  I don’t think I will be doing it again in a hurry even if it was just a cot quilt! 

I started off with the pinwheel patch being cut and rearranged that I had used on the cushion for my daughter.

It was during the process of repeating it 8 times that I began to lose the will to live.  I have the attention span of a goldfish and doing the same thing over and over did not keep the goldfish in me happy.  Having promised myself at least one finished quilt I persevered until they were all complete but they certainly were not as beautifully aligned in reality as they had been in my preplanning head.

I did have a bit of fun making the Scotty dog patch for the middle, but it was short lived.

I didn’t even take photos of the process as I desperately tried to finish it.  Layers of topping, batting and a plain blue backing were pinned together one night while my brain tried to answer the questions on ‘University Challenge’.  Then, of course, I planned to do some awesome quilting, but it turned into plain stitch in the ditch because it was quicker and more likely to be finished sometime this year.

The binding was applied in short bursts while I was upstairs for various reasons.  Then it was all finished and I looked at it completed and was suddenly filled with a sense of achievement!

It isn’t the best quilt in the world, I am well aware of that, but I finished it and it was delivered to pregnant mother before the birth so I did do as planned!

Just as the quilt was finished I moved on rapidly.  Did I move onto something less repetitive?

 

This is what I did….

Forty two x eight yard length x 9” wide strips of dress net for 3 poofy, 1950’s bridesmaids petticoats!  It took all day as I discovered that, even straight off the roll, all that dress net needs ironing before cutting!  Then I discovered that all the layers were too thick to use a rotary cutter and had to spend a few hours cutting it out with scissors that insisted on sticking to it at every opportunity.  Now it sits there staring at me, daring me to pull myself together enough to laboriously stitch it all together.

On the plus side, once the petticoats are made I get to play with the bridesmaids and wedding dress so it’s not all bad.

Adventures with a glue gun

We had an interesting Sunday afternoon last week.   Four generations of us sat around the table to make wedding invitations, although the youngest wasn’t very helpful at only 6 weeks old and was being passed around the rest of us!  Youngest stepdaughter was unable to join us as she had a bike accident on the Friday before and has a fractured thumb!  So eldest daughter, whose wedding it is, showed us the sort of design she wanted which was just some lace and an assortment of bows, flowers and butterflies.

The lace came from my stash and was pretty much using up all the odd bits I had kept in case they came in useful.  It’s quite gratifying to know that they finally did as I have spent many years wondering if it was worth it.

I followed her plan, youngest daughter followed her plan, my mother went off at a tangent and concocted all kinds of weird and wonderful things that really didn’t fit with the plan (these were later put into two piles, those that could be rescued and those that would not be used).

It was a lovely time, although mother did worry us with the handling of the glue gun!  Me and youngest daughter seemed the most prone to burning ourselves even though we have probably used it the most.  You would probably assume that we were being less careful as we thought we knew what we were doing, but anyone watching my mother wielding the gun with a completely carefree abandon would, like us, be wondering how on earth she managed not to burn herself as she merrily waggled it around and glue was dripping onto everything in sight, except for the bits she was sticking to the card!

All the invitations are different but here is a selection to show you how they turned out;

Onwards and upwards

Now that I have learned the correct way to do a 9 patch block I started looking around the internet to see what I could do with it.  Youngest daughter had commented on the cushion cover that mother had stolen so I offered to make her one.  Now youngest daughter is on the quirky side so I knew I had to put a bit more effort in for her. 

After scouring around a bit I came across this; http://www.popularpatchwork.com/news/article/disappearing-nine-patch/5294/

It seemed straightforward enough, but went a step further than the basic 9 patch I had already completed. 

I pulled out some more fabric and cut some more squares and sewed them all together as the chipmunk on helium had told me to (ok, I admit, I did sew all three of the squares in each row at the same time, but it didn’t seem to have an adverse effect on the finished product.  If there is a reason for not doing it that way could you please let me know as I don’t want to be messing it up all over again).

The instructions on this site are easy to follow;  make a 9 patch block and then cut it into quarters horizontally and vertically, rearrange the quarters of the block, then sew it back together again.

Here is the finished side of the cushion cover made for the quirky one.

Then I decided that there needed to be another side to this cover and started scouring the internet again.

It was then I noticed that one of the shopping channels on tv(Create and Craft) had quick tutorials on patchwork so I started watching it and was given another idea for a quick and easy challenge (I believe you can still see these tutorials on their website although I haven’t looked).  This time you make a pinwheel block that has finished measurements that are divisible by three (there are many good instructions on how to make one of those so I dont want to pick out just the one).

You then make cuts horizontally and vertically at thirds across the finished block.  This gives you 9 new squares.   You rearrange these squares, sew them together and end up with this;

I put a border around the pinwheel side, sewed it all up and had another finished cushion cover, this time one that daughter took home after I had taken a photo of both sides I am relieved to say.

Please don’t think for a second that I am saying patchwork is easy.  Both sides of this cushion cover were quick fixes using basic blocks that a far more experienced person would have made a far better job of. 

But what it does prove is that even a beginner in this craft can make a half decent patchwork cushion cover.  It also proves that a gung ho idiot like me can learn from some invaluable tutorials on the internet if they look around and pay attention, even if it is by listening to a chipmunk on helium.  If you have ever considered giving it a go then I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Next on my list is an Amish style quilt completely sewn by hand….ok, so I am lying, but I will certainly be having a go at a quilt next as I do believe I may have caught a new sewing bug.

Lets start over and learn how to do patchwork properly!

Having accepted my own shortcomings, and recognising the need to seek out someone who knows what they are talking about in the patchwork/quilting department, my first step was to go to Craftsy and see if there was anything on there that was free.

I’m not a big fan of video tutorials.  I like reading how to do things then I can skim over the bits that aren't relevant.  Video tutorials are always so slow with their instructions and there are only so many times someone can tell me how to thread the needle on my machine before I find myself bashing my head against the nearest brick wall.  Its also harder to skim through as you find yourself going backwards and forwards trying to find the part you are looking for.

Therefore I have a distinct non-desire to spend any of my hard earned (and pretty dam non-existent at the moment) cash on a tutorial that I know I will skim through 90% of to find the 10% I need.

But many people love Craftsy tutorials for the same reason they send me insane and I am pretty sure those very same people would not now be constantly looking at the patchwork cushion they have made wondering why they didn’t  think about it a bit longer and maybe, just maybe, find out a bit more about it before they started!

For once it was my lucky day and there is a free tutorial that I quickly signed up to, spent the first ten minutes working out how to fast forward, hit the 2x button and realised that I could still understand what was being said at twice the normal speed, even if she did sound a bit like a chipmunk on helium.

Did I mention I was ill?  It was one of those good ill type things that mean you can still do things without it knocking you sideways.  I couldn’t go to work as I had no voice (I work in a school, no good if you can’t speak or hear properly), my glands had swollen up so much it had blocked one of my ears so I was voiceless and half deaf, but still able to watch the video and half hear the chipmunk talk by turning my head in the right direction and having it up on full volume. 

I sat and half watched the part of the video that talked about what thread I needed, what needle I needed (this came up again later in the how to quilt part of the tutorial, and I’m wondering if I should have paid more attention as to why I shouldn’t be using a 90/14 for the patchwork - because I am!) and how to thread my machine, I half watched the part of the video that talked about the fabrics I should use and then I half watched the part the video that talked about how to chop up your fabric into squares.

It was around this point that I realised why it was I had just sewn together 9 squares of fabric to make a cushion cover but, for once, I persevered with the tutorial.

Finally I found something that was relevant, laying out your squares.

Ok, done that.

Now pin the squares from column one and two together.  Check.

Now sew the 6 squares together with a ¼” seam keeping them attached with the thread saving technique.   Er ok, not sure why I have to keep them together, but I will, coz she said so (maybe I couldn’t understand the chipmunk on helium explanation of why I had to do it that way).  Then you cut them apart?  Ok Mrs Helium, doing as you say.

There was another bit about what foot to use to sew a ¼ “ seam.  The lady on the tutorial has a Bernina, I have a Bernina.  The lady on the tutorial says that I need to get a special foot to quilt with, it’s a Bernina no 37 and it is a ¼” foot.  I have a ¼” foot but it’s not a no 37 so I am slightly confused and wondering if my foot is a different ¼” foot to the one the lady is using, or is it because I am in a different country and Bernina give away the ¼” foot as an accessory in countries where quilting isn’t as popular and make money from selling it separately in countries where it is (that killed my chances of a lucrative Bernina blog deal didn't it)?

Then I have to press my sewn together squares, in different directions!  Ahah!  Different directions, to the side…..lightbulb moment!  Thank you Craftsy lady/chipmunk on helium, good point…..this lady must know what she is talking about so I keep watching.

Sew the third square in the row to the two you already have and press it in the same direction.

I’m not sure why I have to sew the third square after the first two but today I am doing as I am told.  Tomorrow it is likely I will sew all three squares together at once, but today I am not…patting myself on the back here!

Then you sew the rows together by first pinning the two ends together, then line up the seams and pin them in place.  The way the seams have been pressed in opposite directions mean you can get a really snug fit.

You sew together carefully by easing the squares so that they match at the seams.  Thank you Craftsy lady, you have now filled that gap in knowledge.  As I sew towards the seams I can hear chipmunk on helium telling me to ‘take the pin out’ and it brings a little smile to my face.

This is four squares sewn together after careful matching and taking the pin out just before the needle hits it.

This is four squares sewn together after careful matching and taking the pin out too early!  I unpicked it and did it again.

There is no picture of the 9 squares sewn together because my mum came round just as I finished making them into a cushion cover.  She liked it so much it went home with her and it was only after she left I realised I hadn’t taken a photo.  But I’m not stopping with just 9 patch; next stop is playing with this new knowledge.

Herein lies the tale of why you should look before you leap!

I often think of the saying ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’ when I am sewing.  I get too easily bored repeating the same thing over and over again to perfect one aspect of sewing so I tend to stick my nose into everything at some point.  My latest desire was to try out patchwork and quilting as it was one thing that I had managed to miss in the last 30 odd years I have been sewing and knitting.

As I was moving stuff up into my new sewing space I came across some bits of material I had been saving for just such a play!  Anything less than 1 metre is a ‘bit’ in my book, it is not quite enough to make something decent with as I don’t tend to make separates to wear.  It didn’t take long for the noticing of the ‘bits’ to turn into a ‘let’s play with my rotary cutter, mat and 6 inch square template as I haven’t used it yet’ session.

I stood there for over an hour cutting little squares out of the bits of fabric and placed them lovingly in one of my pretty new boxes and I felt quite impressed at my achievement until I realised that now I had cut them, I had to do something with them.

In my usual way I considered for all of about 30 seconds, then decided that it was only a matter of sewing 9 squares together for me to get half a cushion cover, sew 9 more together and I have the whole thing (ahhhh the naivety of it!).

So I sewed the squares together (am I sounding stupid now?) then sewed my bigger squares together and in went a zip and here is my cushion cover, my first ever attempt at patchwork.

I merrily trotted down the stairs to show hubby my feat of sewing, he admired it greatly and then told me how well all the squares matched up.

It was around about this time that I looked at it, I mean really looked at it.

Ummm, no, the squares don’t match up really well.

Ummm, maybe I should have spent a bit longer than 30 seconds thinking about this.

In fact, I am only still impressed with the fact that I did press all the seams while making it so at least I did that right.

I slouched back up the stairs and placed my (3 minutes ago work of art, now a bit ok but those squares don’t match ergh) cushion with its newly made cover on my sewing chair.  After all it is only going to see my backside isn’t it?

I then crept back downstairs and took a proper look at how to do it with my faithful laptop search.  I will let you know how I got on in my next post but for now I am just hoping I am not the only person who can so quickly throw themself into something while deep inside knowing it is a skill not a quick fix! Luckily I realised my error before moving onto the quilting, there is only so much shame a person can take you know.

My sewing space

As I mentioned, after many years of sewing on the dining table or squished in the corner of the room, I finally have a dedicated sewing room.  If there was ever a reason to be glad your children have flown the nest … this is it!

I had very little thought in my mind of how I wanted it to look so while I was suffering over Christmas with my swollen glands and cheese grater  throat, I spent many hours looking at ‘pinterest’ and Google for ideas.

The only thing I came up with was I liked the look of white rooms and I wanted it to be ‘girlie’.  Luckily, the room was already painted white so that meant there was no need for decoration.  Next step was how things would be arranged.  I have been relegated to the corner of the living room with a sewing cabinet that just managed to fit my sewing machine and overlocker on the top.  I wanted the machine in front of the window as I have spent too many years looking at a wall but when the cabinet was shifted up the stairs I realised that there was still no space by the machines and that was now my requirement. 

After rummaging around the internet I found the solution, a fold up table that was 4 feet long and just £30!  It was rapidly ordered and I waited for its delivery.  The next issue was there was no storage.  Dearly beloved husband had decided that my sewing storage room (a room downstairs that is too small to be useful for much else than storing things in) should stay as it is, with its three filing cabinets and wardrobe filled with fabric.  Now I am willing to go with that but there are certain things you want nearby, and some things are too pretty to be hidden away, so they were going to make their way upstairs.

On a random trip to a local shop I found the collection of pretty boxes for £35.  They range in size from about 4”x2” right up to the largest which you can see under the table in the pic.  I also found the shelving/drawer system in the same shop.  The drawers are plastic baskets which I was offered for just £15 as one of the baskets was broken.  Once I got it home I covered all the baskets with some pretty floral fabric and filled with my ribbons,  lace and other oddments that needed a home (there are many tutorials on this but basically you use your box to make a pattern from the base and sides and voila….’tis done). 

As I had so much time available to me I looked on blogs for storage solutions and one that really appealed was using good ol’ fashioned  clothes pegs to wrap the smaller bits of lace and braid around.  I have to say it works a treat and all those odds and ends are now easier to find, take up less room and look a whole lot neater.  Have a look around to see what ideas you can come up with, I also saw people using pieces of cardboard, folders and boxes but they didn’t fit with my chaotic brain!

An old towel rack was used to store rolls of lace and the wrapping paper I use for paper pattern making.  I’m not even sure where it came from but it was never used for towels and has languished in various rooms around the house for a while now so it must be feeling very useful all of a sudden.

My mum donated an old kitchen cabinet that hubby put up along with a couple of shelves that were rescued from our shed from somewhere or other.  I decided I didn’t want the doors back on the cupboard as I wanted to be able to see my pretties that are stored in it but we have left the hinges on for now in case I change my mind.

The cabinet that had previously been my sewing table (and houses the Singer 411g) was moved into an alcove and has become my ironing board/cutting mat area for patchwork   (One thing I always wanted to do and never got around to is quilting, and I am pleased to say I have managed to venture into it the last couple of weeks and will post about that soon).

The table arrived and is absolutely perfect and I am constantly impressed by the space at the side and back of the machine and wonder how I managed in such cramped conditions for so long. 

The last step was to bring up the dummies that are now waiting for the wedding sewing to start.

My apologies for the rubbish picture quality, it was dark and I am rubbish at photography!

Magazines and patterns are now housed in the larger boxes under the sewing table and the other boxes have a collection of bobbins, sewing machine feet and needles, basically anything that previously was scattered in a variety of drawers and cupboards around the house.

There are still some bits and bobs I want to move upstairs from the storage room and I still have a practically empty cupboard that most of that can go in when I get  a free moment to do it. 

The room is lovely to work in with everything close to hand and even youngest step daughter said that she found it beautifully calm and could sit in there quite happily for some peace and quiet (I have no intention of encouraging this, my haven is now firmly….MINE!).  I am now looking for some ideas on how to decorate this in a truly girlie way but I will bide my time until I find things I truly want in there.

Edit: I just had to add this.  My other half came home from the shops today with this for me.

Apparently he heard my hint that all sewing rooms need a pink iron :D

Mind the gap.....

Between posts!

It's been a bit of a stressful couple of months so please be patient with my lack of writing!

Due to circumstances beyond everyone's control the pantomime was cancelled.  I wont go into details here but it boiled down to many minor, and one major, problems with the cast and illness and it was decided that it was better to cancel than pour money into lighting and staging and have to cancel anyway.  The mantra for the group was that there are many more things important than pantomime performances and on this occasion they had to be put first.

It was a very sad day when me and Auntie Em trundled all the completed costumes out to the caravan.  But then we sat and had a good ol' giggle on how many hours we had sat pondering which way to do things when we may as well have just stuck bin bags together with cellotape!  

On the plus side, if they decide to put it on again next year there is no work for the costume department!

Just as this news had sunk in, my youngest daughter suddenly lost the sight in one of her eyes.  Panicky visits to hospital revealed nothing.  They have no idea what has caused it and, apart from regular visits to hospital for them to check on it, she has been told to just get on with it as it should go eventually.  The good news is that all the horrible reasons for this has been eliminated so we are no longer worrying about all the worse things and waiting for it to go away (apparently she has a swollen optic nerve which is probably caused by a virus of some description).  

Just as we get this news (and I have spent many days at the hospital with her), I get a phone call at half three in the morning.  Yes, eldest daughter went into labour three weeks early!  So back up the hospital I trot and am lucky enough to see my grandson born just four hours later.

Because he was early they kept them in for a week (yet more hospital visits) but they were both home just in time for Christmas, when I decided I wasnt getting any attention and got ill.

I finally went back to work last week although I still appear to be deaf in one ear due to my glands swelling up!

So, that's my excuses and I am more than happy to settle down to normal and be able to post again.

On a positive note, the cancellation of the panto meant I was able to start on my sewing room earlier than anticipated.  Until now I had no dedicated space, but with only one daughter still at home there is now a room available for me.

The move was going to take place after the panto so that all the costumes were put away, hence why it was put forward.  This is due to the wedding in August and a desire not to have bridesmaids and wedding dresses hanging on dummies in the living room for all and sundry to see.

So now things are returning to normality we are on the road to the worlds cheapest wedding.

First step is next week when we are having a wedding invitation bee.  Me and daughters and mother are all gathering at my house to make invitations with an assortment of ribbons and bows and lace etc.  The invitations are a basic bit of card which will be printed on and individually decorated with bits gathered from my stash and liberal use of a glue gun.  That's the general idea anyway, and if it all goes horribly wrong we will be rushing out to buy some made properly!

With everything that was going on I have done hardly any sewing, but things are back on track now so watch this space for a new project I have in hand as well as the beginnings of the wedding plans.