2.0.1.4

Well, I know I'm a bit (!) late in posting the 2014 review but I had such a busy Christmas!
My family came over from Canada and I don't think I had a minute to myself. It was wonderful to be surrounded by my family though, I do miss them lots.

I didn't make as much as I would've liked over the year but I really got into dressmaking.
I made a total of 10 dresses:

From left to right, a wool Lilou, blackwatch Eva dress, Merchant and Mills dress shirt, Stylish Dress book E, two basic dress from the Sewing Bee book, another M&M dress shirt, a Betty dress with a long skirt and the Cath Kidston basic dress from the GBSB.

I also made a Cambie dress from Cabbages and Roses fabric for my sister-in-law's wedding.

Out of all the dresses I made the Lilou and the blue dress shirt get the most wear. The sewing fails have to be the CK birds dress due to the terrible fit (the fabric bunches at the back) and the Betty dress as I dislike how the skirt hangs.

I also made an English paper piecing blanket from Tilda fabric for my gran.

And a homespun blanket for my mum and dad which was very well received. Sorry for the mid-make photograph, both blankets got finished very late and I did not get chance to take any proper pictures.

I also made my mum a Maggie Rabbit for her birthday (shown here with no nose or any clothes on!).

A baby blanket for my friend's baby

Above, I learned to knit!! But haven't actually made any thing yet...
And below, a glasses case for my gran's birthday:

Above a tea cosy for a friend's birthday and below a kindle case for my Gt Auntie's birthday

I haven't been as busy as I thought last year but I certainly made more than I remembered!

After trying my hand at sewing, crochet and knitting, sewing is definitely more my bag.
I absolutely love dressmaking and have many ideas for future makes floating around.
I'm desperate to get hold of one of those fashion books that you can draw the dresses onto the models so my ideas look a little neater.

I'm currently in the middle of making a Marianne dress and next up is a Staple dress for a class I'm teaching in February! Exciting stuff.

I hope you all had a happy new year

Amy

Tips for dressmaking

I am a complete sewing amateur. I started sewing in January 2013 when I first bought a sewing machine. I've done some hand sewing here and there but lack the patience for it. 

Dress making for me is a real no brainer. I like sewing, I'm really stingy and I like to be a little bit original. I admired the Cath Kidston Garden Birds dress but it sold out, I found the fabric on eBay and so decided to make my own!

Here are some tips for complete total amateurs like me:

First up, you know how sewing blogs and books etc tell you to measure your pattern and adjust it to your size? Well yeah. Do that. I stupidly assumed because I fit a certain size in a shop it would match the pattern. Nope. It didn't. Which resulted in me having to do some DIY on the back of the dress to make it fit. Make sure you measure the usual, bust, waist, hips but also across your shoulders, the length of your torso etc. 

Next up, make sure you have enough fabric! I can imagine you reading this rolling your eyes and saying "how much of an amateur are you!?" The answer is very and I still managed to make a dress! It's that easy.

Anyway, I did not read my pattern and realise that you have to double it up to have enough fabric which resulted in me having to do some jimmying of fabric and the back being a teeeeny bit longer than the front (but it looks like it's supposed to be like that, result!)

The whole thing took about 4 hours and cost £15. I highly recommend it, it's a very satisfying and makes you feel very smug when someone says "I like your dress" and you reply "oh thanks, I made it".

Next up, a felt wool skirt and a floral tea dress. When I have some pennies that is!

Wishlist

Forever trawling the internet for goodies to fill my basket. There are however a few things I "need", first up is some craft storage;

I'm desperately in need of something pretty and cheap to store all my fabric, ribbon etc in and this £35 set of drawers from Matalan are perfect! I don't want to buy something more expensive/permanent as we want to buy a house eventually and it might not all fit.

I've had my eye on a nice lamp base so that I can make a pretty lampshade and I think this one will do nicely!

It's from wilkos and is £22, I've seen a few other cheaper ones and I'm still on the hunt for that perfect base, curvy and shapely.

Something else I desperately need is a new wardrobe and this Next one made me gasp out loud

It's perfect, it's the right colour, size, style but most of all it's reasonable. It makes my heart swoon!

A wishlist of mine wouldn't be complete without a little CK, this apron will be perfect (and I definitely do not want to cut it up and make pretty things with it.... maybe I should buy two....)

Looking back I'm surprised how much of my wishlist is for the home, it's usually full of clothes, I'm turning into a real homebody.
Money is a bit tight at the moment so for now my wishlist shall just be a wish but soon my pretties soon.......

What are you currently wishing for?

Amy

Dressmaking

For a long time I have wanted to have a go at making my own clothes.

Whenever I go shopping and see things I like there's often one thing (sometimes tiny) that I dislike about that article, so I figure if I can make my own then I can eliminate these problems.

After seeing Cath Kidston's garden birds dress I was instantly in love and severely disappointed when it sold out. I sourced the fabric from eBay for £14 and decided to make my own.
By the time my fabric arrived the dress was back in stock. Instead of dropping £65 on a dress that I could make myself I decided to take the very scary plunge into dressmaking.

The pattern is from the book the Great British Sewing Bee, which comes with a free paper basic dress printout and a link to various other patterns, for example a circle skirt and jacket.

I had just enough fabric to make the dress, which led to a few anxiety induced moments when I thought the front would have to have the birds upside down (tip: cut out the fabric for the front first).
I also had a few problems understanding darts and how they work, my pattern did not have the dart width and therefore had to guess. This led to the dress not fitted quite as well as I would've liked.

I really enjoyed sewing this dress, I really got in the 'zone' and enjoyed the process not just the end result (like a lot of my sewing projects). To anyone wondering whether to take the plunge, is it worth it, how hard is it etc, I would say have a go. It's an extremely rewarding experience, you create something you love, AND you can save a bit of money by copying expensive dresses!

My brain is buzzing with ideas about things to make, and thinking of making a skirt next, inspired by this picture I saw on tumblr.

Would you ever make a piece of clothing?

Amy x

Learning to crochet

I follow a lot of people on instagram who enjoy crafts and one particular favourite is crochet. After seeing countless upon countless of gorgeous cushions and blankets I decided to have a go myself. I asked on instagram what the best way to start out was and most people recommended youtube tutorials and a book. I got this book from Amazon and it was only about £6 I think:

I ordered my book and crochet hooks (£3 from Amazon) and got started. The first thing I did was learn a few basic stitches. You can see above I did a row of stitches. 

I then attempted granny squares: 

These didnt come out how they were supposed to and I became frustrated and gave up. I decided I wanted to make my friend a baby blanket and started a very simple double crochet stitch blanket.

I think doing this really helped me to keep the tension right (which is the hardest thing) but I didn't count my stitches (rookie mistake) and it ended up longer on one side than the other. 

I gave up my blanket because I didn't want to give my friend something half done and I wasn't happy with the way it came out. 

I spent a few weeks doing this blanket and I lost interest when I figured out my mistakes. 

Next project was one I'd actually finish!!

I did an autumn themed swap and made some wrist warmers:

Again these were a very simple double crochet stitch which was easy to master and had the added bonus of increasing my confidence with crocheting. 

I decided to finally try a granny square again after my success of making 2 pairs of wrist warmers. I ordered some Cath Kidston inspired wool:

...and finally mastered the granny square!

Phew! I've been very busy crocheting the last few days. I love, love, LOVE how easy these are to hook up. It took me a while to find a pattern that was easy for me to follow but once I found one I was on to a winner! I find the middle parts the hardest to do because they're so intricate and almost never turn out like the picture. 

I found learning crochet difficult only because of how much perseverance it takes. I'm not a patient person at all and doing this craft requires patience with yourself and not expecting to be perfect at it straightaway. 

Crochet has quickly become my favourite craft because it's easy to do in front of the tv and I don't have to sit in my cold and breezy attic sewing room! I'd recommend it to anyone remotedly crafty but it would be easier if you had someone to teach you!

Have you tried crochet? How did you find it?

Amy x

Hello!

Welcome to my blog. I've decided to set up a blog to keep track of my crafty makes and to show progress on our new home.

This is me:

My name is Amy and I've recently started an interest in crafts, specifically patchwork. 
Like most new crafters the lure of Cath Kidston has sucked us in. For me, my mum has always been into handmade crafts, she made her own curtains and a patchwork blanket that currently lies on our sofa. When we moved into our house, it made sense to save money and make things myself (plus it gives me a fun new hobby).

My first patchwork cushion

I'll be doing crafty tutorials later so watch out for those. I really enjoyed making this cushion, I find patchwork quite challenging trying to choose patterns that work well together and making sure all the squares are in line. However I get a great sense of achievement from making my own crafty things.

I decided to set my own blog up because keeping track of all the beautiful things I want is starting to clog up my phone's photo albums and I wanted to share my ideas with everyone.

Thanks for reading and keep an eye out for tutorials and my new ideas. In the meantime if you want to check out my crafts and new home there's lots of pictures on my instagram (search _hello_amy)

Amy