Crafty weekend and learning new skills

Well finally something new to blog about. I have been beavering away at my Granny square blanket for so long now that i've had nothing new to say boohoo!!

I spent this past weekend with my bestie (Cringe! But what can I say, I like saying it) I also dragged poor Mark along but he survived.

So what did I get up to?

This weekend was 'learn to sew' weekend. I wanted to learn to make myself a dress, so I made plans with my fellow crafters/textiles teachers Miss Marlow and Miss Akumaniy otherwise known as Leonora and Kukua.

First of all we took a trip over to Lewisham to go to a fabric shop. Which was a bit of a task as dear Leonora hates driving in London and particularly this area of London. But we made it there alive despite the rage she was emitting.

Before we went fabric shopping we made a pit stop at Brockley Market which is the local sort of farmers market. It was lovely!

  

We had fresh made wood fired sourdough pizza for lunch Yum! We sat and ate at the entrance to the market. Prompting almost every person that entered to first say oooh look at those lovely pizzas and then go and purchase one for themselves. I think next time we should ask for free pizza for all our advertising.

So we went on to the fabric shop, and after a little bit of misdirection we found the place.

It was actually quite sunny I had to borrow this picture from  192.com

We opened the door to find, that the whole of lewisham had decided that today would also be a sewing day and had all dropped by Rolls and Rems to purchase their fabric. We fought our way through the crowded shop to the back where the patterns are kept, and began flipping through the pattern books till we found something we liked.

I went with the Vogue V8727 Misses' Pattern 

I was initially hoping to make a few of the dresses from the pattern, but as it turns out the price of fabric has gone up considerably since I last bought any. So I settled on just the fabric to make one dress.

. Which with the pattern came to a pricy £25. I think Leonora ended up spending near on £45 on her purchases. So with the time and money it costs, its not as lucrative to make your own dresses as it once was.

Anyway so once we fought our way back through Lewisham traffic and Leonora's temper simmered down. We set to work at making our dresses. ( excuse the pj's I forgot I intended to blog these photos)
 So with direction from Miss Marlow I made a start.
First I had to identify the correct pattern pieces for my dress. Then cut them out. Once I had done that, I then needed to lay the pattern pieces out on the fabric making sure to use the fabric economically to have as little waste as possible. Whilst remembering to place the pieces marked with "Grainline" correctly inline with the straight edges not diagonally as this will cause puckering later on. The pattern pieces needed to be pinned in place before I cut them out.

Fabric for the top part of the dress

I really took my time, I have learnt my lesson with rushing things or expecting to just be able to do things. Once my bodice fabric pieces were cut out, I began sewing them together.

 I don't have much love with sewing machines. I think this is because when I was younger and just expected to know how to sew and that a sewing machine will just work when you thread the needle. I didn't know anything about bobbins and threading up so Miss Marlow educated me on all these processes as we went along.

When I initially began sewing I took it very slow, only applying the lightest pressure to the foot pedal so not to sew wonky lines and also because I didn't want to sew through my fingers. As I got more confident I sped up but still not to full speed.

Deep in concentration 

I went on to prepare the skirt pieces and follow the same procedure as the bodice. Once it was dress shaped I tried it on to see what alterations were needed. There were a few loose bits that needed taking in, and the skirt was not quite as I wanted it. I wanted to have a more pencil skirt shape so to alter these parts I  put the dress on inside out to expose the seams so the dress could be re pinned.

Meet Miss Akumanyi 

The skirt is not as wide as it appears in the picture, its just because its inside out. Kukua is pinning it out here so it can be re sewed and the excess fabric cut off. Unfortunately as I was really taking my time, I didn't get round to finishing the dress there are still a few odds and ends to do like the  Hem, bias binding around the arm holes and I will also need to reposition the zip.  I resewed the adjustments we had made, and then I could not get in or out if the dress without assistance from Kukua. So this is why I will need to move the zip so the dress has a larger opening for me to get in and out of.
As I don't know when the dress is going to be finished, I will post this now and add an update later on.

Thanks for reading

   

I'm still here!!

I know it may seem like I have dropped off the map but I am still working away at things. The problem I have, as I haven't been blogging for very long is I forget to take pictures of things that i'm working on as I go along. I get to the end and I'm like Duh!!! could have put that on the blog. Here are a few examples of this

This was an Easter wreath I made for my aunt. I took the first picture than
forgot to take anymore after it was finished and before I gave it to her. 

I got inspired to make some bread. I took my picture at the start
but none as I went along. Although I did take one before they went
in the oven.

I have also made a few crochet roses and another passport holder which I of course do not have pictures of.

I'm still working hard on my Granny square blanket.  I'm about 114 squares into my estimated 400 square blanket i'm still enjoying it. I'm researching other types of squares to add to the mix as I don't want to have just plain granny square. I will keep you posted as I progress.

I think my next project is redecorating our small down stairs toilet. I will try to remember to take pictures as I go.