I made a dress!

I had been looking for a nice loose summer dress, with a scoop neck, small sleeves and pockets and hadn't been able to find anything I liked.  Then I looked at patterns and the StyleArc Montana dress kept cropping up.  I took the plunge and sent for it.  I had seen on the reviews that the pattern was great and beginner friendly, but the instructions definitely weren't.  While I have made a few things to wear now and am not a total beginner, I am still not that confident, but thought I could manage this.  They were right about the instructions - they are confusing!  They suggest you make a double layered bodice but I wasn't going to do that, or add facings, but I didn't want to do that either, so in the end, I just made some bias binding and put that around the neck and sleeves.  I think it works fine.  I had to look up in-seam pockets and also how to gather properly, but I found lots of help online and in some of my sewing books.  

Here it is.  I used a dark blue with white polka dots cotton and made it over a few days.  Granted, it doesn't look its best on a hanger, but Chris said it looked nice and I felt it looked OK too. I have two more lots of material (bright pink with flowers and a blue/purple batik) so shall be making two more of these.  While it may not be quite warm enough to wear them at the moment (although if I put leggings underneath or boots and added a jumper or cardigan, I probably could wear them over the next couple of weeks), they will be ready for next summer!

Make do and mend - Bag number two

I spent a day last weekend sewing hexagons together and then machined them onto the second bag which had a logo on one side which I didn't want.  I chose shades of blue for the logo side and the hexagons did a great job of covering the logo.

 It was very relaxing sewing the hexagons together.

 As I felt that the other side of the bag also needed a bit of brightening up, I sewed more hexagons together.  Five of these were given to me in a swap by Dotty's Daughter, so I hope she'll be pleased to see I am using them!

Here is a close up of the greens and blues.
I am really pleased with the way both bags have turned out and have enjoyed these relatively quick projects.

A bit of upcycling - or should that be 'Make do and Mend'?

I was given two very nice thick cotton bags which was great.  However, there was a company logo printed on them which I didn't really want to see.  I made a calico patch and sewed it over the offending logo and then printed some patterns using wooden stamps and fabric paint.  I was really pleased with the end result. You can see the patched side above.

 The other side of the bag, without any logo.

The stamps I used were Blockwallah  stamp blocks which are hand carved in India out of a type of rosewood.  They are very decorative and beautiful in their own right and if I had an empty shelf, I would display them.  (I bought mine from Create and Craft  and I have bought them all with my hard earned money - no sponsoring or freebies here!)  I thought I would post about them because I really like them.
The second bag will be decorated with patchwork hexagons (once I have sewed them together...)

Buoyed by this success, I attempted another project.  I was going to throw the ironing board cover out because it had worn where the iron usually stands.  Then I had a brainwave and located an old cover which I had kept as a spare.  I cut a piece from that and patched it over the current cover and hey presto, a cover that we can still use.

OK, it looks a bit odd, but at least the colours work!  Now, what else needs sorting?