2015 round up

Wow 2015 was a busy year for making! I think next year will be less busy what with baby on its way. 

I also finished my triangle quilt for baby;

In 2015 I made my first pair of trousers, conquered knitting and fell in love with sewing knits. I also started teaching at Simply Solids and taught a beginners dressmaking class and a Staple dress class. 

It's hard to tell what my biggest wins were as I've spent most of this year wearing whatever fits rather than whatever I like. My favourites have to be the Miette skirt, the Monetas, and obviously the Marienne dress. 

The bigger fails were; my Archer shirt which was too small, the second pair of peg trousers due fabric choice and being too big and the stripe hemlock tee again due to the fabric being too stiff. 

Next year I hope to make a coat (ha! Unlikely with tiny human) and make a decent pair of trousers. Mostly I'll probably be knitting because it requires less brain power!

Unfinished projects: mustard cardigan which I expect will still be knitting in 2028!

Triangle baby quilt

I'm not a quilter by any stretch of the imagination, I lack the finesse and precision you need to make perfect quilts. However like anything practise makes perfect!

I made two quilts last year, an English Paper Piecing one and a simple patchwork squares quilt. Both of them had their flaws but the recipients loved them.

This quilt is better constructed but still not perfect! Despite this I LOVE it.
It's not my style at all, but I saw the sample copy at Simply Solids and fell in love with the colour scheme and knew it would be perfect as a baby quilt. The tutorial for this quilt can be found here.
I used a mixture of Cloud 9 and Art Gallery fabrics for the quilt top, in the same colour way of the original and Architextures extra wide backing fabric.

The last time I made quilts (which funnily enough was exactly a year ago) I found it really dull but I really enjoyed the process of quilting. My poor baby brain couldn't handle making anything more complicated at the moment! I used this tutorial to bind the quilt and this one to work out how much binding I needed because the tutorial wasn't clear (you need 190" of binding fabric at 2.5" wide).

I managed to make the quilt without a walking foot but I promised myself the next time I made a quilt I would treat myself to one, I think it will definitely help with the imperfections in the quilt. Well that, and not basting it together at 37 weeks pregnant on my hands and knees!

 I also purchased a 1/4" foot especially for this quilt which I love. Why do quilters get all the fun gadgets!?

Ta da!

 

I love it! Flaws and all. I've already got plans to start another quilt this time for me in a faded floral style, using the same fabric as my failed EPP quilt. Looking something like this:

All baby permitting of course!

The Lark Tee

When Jen first released the Lark tee I wasn't pushing people over to get hold of a copy, another t-shirt pattern I thought, I already have a few freebies like the hemlock and the plantain.
I've been wearing the hemlocks I've made and I'm just not a fan of the fit, it's too big in the shoulders and I get weird bust wrinkles. I made the plantain into a dress but not a massive fan of that either. Now that bump is growing out of even my baggiest t-shirts a seed was planted...

Then I saw a few cropping up on the blogosphere and I realised that it's actually the perfect t-shirt pattern. There are so many variations, crew neck, v neck, boat neck, then the sleeve options too so it's basically all you'd ever need in a t-shirt pattern.

I also feel like Jen is my spirit animal and can see straight into my head when it comes to wearable basics. We both like a similar fit, fitted at the shoulders and graded out with a little bagginess around the stomach and hips. Super comfy and I'm all about being comfy. It's why I don't own any heels.

Each variation is drafted separately and I painstakingly traced out the boat neck, scoop and v neck variations. Starting at a 2 for the shoulders out to an 8 with a little added length for bump room.
I raided my stash for suitable knit fabrics leaving left a small gap (which then led to a frenzied fabric buying spree) and immediately made up 2 larks.

You can always tell a winner when it's the first thing you pick out of the laundry basket and wear 3 days running (definitely did not do that...).

All the fabric were cheap ones from eBay, but I love buying jersey from eBay, it's dead cheap and I can never tell the difference like I can with other fabric types. Feel free to disagree with me here, I don't think I've owned any expensive jersey!

You can just see the V neck version here. The jersey for this one is lighter and so I wear the other one a lot more. I love the fact that they still cover my 35 week baby bump!

Just to reiterate: I love the Lark tee!

One last getaway

We recently found ourselves with a week off together and nothing planned so we decided to go on a little break, the last one before baby arrives.

We stayed in this gorgeous cottage just outside York. 

This isn't far from home for us but being 30 weeks pregnant at the time I couldn't stand to be sat in the car for long!

As well as shopping and eating glorious desserts we also visited Aysgarth Falls. 

Which was beautiful but a steep walk back and probably not the best idea in my condition! 

It was such a good few days away and I absolutely loved it! I can't wait until we can take baby on these breaks away.