Beware the YouTube rabbit hole!

image from Magnific.com

As promised ~ and before I forget again 😏 ~ here in no particular order are some of my favourite sewing and refashioning YouTube links:

https://www.youtube.com/@StephanieCanada

https://www.youtube.com/@gettheetothestitchery

https://www.youtube.com/@rachelmaksy

https://www.youtube.com/@shesewsseams

https://www.youtube.com/@AshLG

https://www.youtube.com/@tmyershandmade978

https://www.youtube.com/@HandCandylady/videos

https://www.youtube.com/@b_stephanie

https://www.youtube.com/@AnnasKitchenAndStitchin

And lastly, although he's not a sewing/refashioning YouTuber, I really love watching Jude's weekly videos about life in his cottage and garden:

https://www.youtube.com/@rewildingjude

Hope you enjoy them all as much as I do 😊

"Proper" sewists.....

image from Freepik.com

.....may I humbly suggest you look away now 😉

In a previous post, I threatened suggested I might humour the latest whirrings of my little butterfly brain and have a go at sewing myself some clothes.  But Sharon, I hear you ask, in your very-nearly-65 years on this planet have you actually ever sewed a garment???  Not so as you'd notice, nope 😏  Do I then hear you sigh and ask: but presumably you're going to plough on and have a go anyway???  Yup, I most certainly am 😏  No doubt your final question (before closing your eyes and wondering if I've finally taken leave of what little sense I had left) will be: are you going to take sewing classes and do things "properly"???  To which my answer is "have you learned nothing about me at all whilst reading this blog???"  Of course I'm not, my lovelies, I shall just blunder forth making it up as I go along and hope for the best 😏

Having said all that, though, I have found myself going down the proverbial rabbit hole of sewing videos on YouTube and have found some that I think are fab ~ I will share them with you in a future post 😊  I have also come across lots of ideas on Pinterest (many of which I've pinned to my boards, as you will see if you click on the link on the right-hand side of this page 😉), along with various tutorials from blogs that I have stumbled upon in my travels.  So I suppose in all fairness I'm not going into this new adventure totally clueless theory-wise, but it's certainly not something that I've had actual hands-on experience with!

There are a couple of reasons why I'd like to try making myself some clothes.  The first is that I really like the idea of making something from scratch, in a style and fabric that I like, instead of "making do" with what fits me and doesn't cost a small fortune 😉 

I'm finding that I am increasingly drawn to more colourful, perhaps slightly "eccentric" styles.  Mind you, to be fair, I've always had a hankering for the styles that I've saved on my Pinterest boards but haven't had the courage to actually dress in that way.  When I was young I think it was the thought of just fitting in with what everyone else was wearing rather than being confident enough to dress in my own style.  Then as I got older and put on more and more excess weight, it was a case of hoping that no one would notice me if I tried to blend into the background.  Of course that is a ridiculous way of thinking because no amount of dark clothing is going to hide the fact that I am a very big woman ~ albeit one who is currently over two stone lighter than she was 😊  I finally reached the point where I just thought "sod it" ~ hence my upcoming sewing adventures 😁

As I mentioned above, I am still on my weight-loss journey.  I have got clothes in smaller sizes but will definitely need some more in each size as I go down the scale.  I'm thinking that elastic waists on skirts and trousers, and billowy, breezy styles in tops and dresses will be very useful to bridge at least a couple of sizes ~ perhaps even more.  I also like the idea of upcycling clothes so hopefully I won't be having to send too many things off to the charity shop!

I mentioned in that earlier post that I'm going to start by making myself a skirt as I hadn't found anything that appealed to me.  Well, since then I have come across two that I really liked.  I couldn't make up my mind which one to buy though ~ so I've bought them both 😄  One has an elastic waist and the other is a wrapover-style, so I'm hoping that they will see me through some smaller sizes as I shed more weight.  I had also found a skirt from JD Williams (where I get most of my clothes from) that has a shirred waistline.  It's a size smaller than I was wearing and fits really nicely.  I think it will be fine for the next couple of sizes down.  

When I was sorting through my smaller sizes recently, I found a skirt tucked away that I had completely forgotten about.  To be honest I don't know why it was in the next size down pile as it easily fits me now.  In fact I'm going to have to alter it as it's a bit too long now that I'm not quite so "bloated".  It's in a border print fabric, so I'm going to hack it from the top.  It's got an elastic and cord waistband at the moment, so I'm going to cut that off and make a new waistband just with elastic.

This means that instead of just having one skirt, I now have five 😏  Despite this I think I will still start off this sewing lark with a skirt ~ or perhaps to be slightly more accurate, a petticoat to wear beneath my new skirts.  That way I will be more comfortable wearing said skirts once the weather starts to get cooler again in the autumn ~ layers are definitely the way to go, methinks! 

We've got such a lot to do out in the garden this summer that I may not have the energy to start my sewing adventures for a few months, but never fear as soon as I do you will be hearing all about it, my lovelies, so brace yourselves 😉

Changing my mind.....yet again!

No further updates on Beverly's jumper, I'm afraid, but I will have to stop procrastinating soon and get it finished.  I haven't really progressed with the leftover Aran yarn blanket, either, as my butterfly brain has been rather preoccupied with yet more things to make 😏  At least the shawl is coming along, though!  

What I didn't tell you in my previous post was that I had actually started to make this shawl a few weeks back, using more yarn from the stash.  I can't even remember when I actually bought this yarn but I'd never got round to using any of it.  It's King Cole Authentic cotton mix double knit (50/50 cotton and acrylic) and I bought three 100g balls of a few different colours.  I had a look on the Wool Warehouse website and couldn't actually find a yarn called "Authentic", although they do have a King Cole yarn called "Simply Denim" which looks very similar.

Anyhoo, I decided to use up the Black Denim shade to make this shawl.....

and really wasn't keen on how it was looking, most likely because black is definitely not one of my favourite colours 😳  The photo above probably doesn't show the colour properly ~ the lighting in the dining room wasn't what you'd call brilliant, as we've now gone from heavy snow to gales and heavy rain instead!

Another of the colours in this King Cole batch was Red Denim, with red once again not being a colour that I am particularly fond of and one that I very rarely wear.  So what's a girl to do???

Well this particular girl decided to combine the two shades together to see how that looked 😄  Of course I then had to use a larger hook (7mm) and decided to use a different pattern too!  I remembered the corner-to-corner shawl I made for my Mum a few years ago and decided that was the way to go with this one.  I really like corner-to-corner as the work seems to progress at a very satisfying rate of knots.  Once it's reached an appropriate size I'll work across the top to make a straight edge.  I probably won't bother to give the other two sides of the triangle any kind of border, as it's just meant as an extra layer to keep the draught off my poor aged neck and shoulders 😉

I mentioned at the start of this post that I've been thinking about other things to make.....I've got three big projects in mind (and no doubt I'll get side-tracked by smaller ones, too, over the course of the year!) and will share the "big" plans in an upcoming post 😊  

Finished ~ I think!

image from Freepik

Earlier in the week I showed you the progress I'd made with the sorting and rearranging of my craft room.  I've been working away out there some more since then, and I think it's just about how I want it ~ for the time being, at least 😏

As I mentioned in that previous post, the stuff I'd put to one side for donation was collected last Friday, so that left me with a nice space... 

which I have now filled with a smaller sideboard, moved from beside the door.  I still need to empty it out and sort through what's in there, but I'm pleased to now have more floor space to move around! 

My craft book collection has been considerably reduced, and as I mentioned previously it now fits in just these two narrow white bookshelves.  As you can see I have also gone through my doll collection, keeping only a few of them ~ another of those Very Big Decisions 😳

The brown bookshelf (which was actually where Adrian housed his LP collection back-in-the-day!) is now devoted to sewing ~ books, patterns, fabric, etc.  The fabric had previously been stored in the large pine sideboard that was donated, and as a temporary measure I have simply wrapped the pieces in bin-bags.  I will eventually sort the fabric in a more orderly fashion, though.

The white plastic drawers, which are filled with dolls' house odds and ends, fitted between the sideboard and bookshelves beautifully.  They are now tucked away, leaving more space within the room, but everything is easily accessible. 

And this is why I wanted to create more space: to make myself a little sewing area 😊 I did have a pretty old sewing machine, which I donated as it wasn't working properly.  Restart, I hasten to add, have qualified staff to check over and fix electrical items that are donated to them.

I decided to use some money I had inherited to buy myself a modern sewing machine, something I'd been wanting to do for a long time but felt that I couldn't really justify.  I've wanted to try my hand at sewing for a very long time and now I have the space and opportunity to do so 😊

I also got myself a dressmakers dummy as I thought it would be easier than just struggling to make alterations, etc, on myself!  She is, alas, not as chunky as your's truly so I will have to add padding to Miss Flossie at some point😳  I started off with the sewing table (which belonged to my mother-in-law and still has the original sewing machine inside!) and Flossie positioned as above...

but it didn't feel quite right, so I shunted them around to this position ~ you wouldn't believe how heavy that sewing table is 😒

I didn't really like Miss Flossie standing with her back to me, though...

so I swiveled her around...

which was, I felt much better 😊  I'm so pleased with the progress that I've made in the craft room.  It wasn't an easy decision to cut down so drastically but I know that it was the right thing to do ~ and who knows, I may yet decide to do little more downsizing once I get going with my craft projects again 😉 

Stacking up

After a few hours working in the garden I really don't feel up to doing anything that could possibly turn out to be even a teensy wee bit strenuous ~ so as you can imagine my decidedly patchy housework routine has gone completely out the window yet again 😄

That's not to say, though, that I've just been vegetating in front of the TV of an evening 😉 I have in fact been plugging away at the Christmas gift blanket I started back in August.  I estimate that I'm about two-thirds of the way through the body of the blanket but I confess that the making of it does seem to be crawling along somewhat *sigh*  It's also not as wide as the bonus blanket, and I don't really know why.  I can only surmise that I made a longer starting chain for the BB and/or used a slightly larger hook perhaps?  This is, of course, a good lesson on why I should keep proper records of the things I make for future reference!  To bring it up more to the dimensions of the BB, I guess I'll just have to make a wider border.

It is a very pretty blanket, though, and I am pleased with how the colour combination has turned out, but I rather think it will be quite some time before I tackle another interlocking block stitch pattern 😄

To make matters worse, my butterfly mind keeps flitting over to the latest blanket Beverly has asked me to make: a baby blanket for her friend.  Said baby is due in February, I believe, so provided I get a wiggle on with the Christmas gift blanket I should be able to leave myself enough time to make this one.

pattern from Dada's Place

This is the pattern that Beverly has chosen, the Rainbow Ruffle Blanket by Dada's Place.  Dragana has lots of lovely, free, patterns on her blog as well as many more in her shop.  I came across this particular pattern quite some time ago and it's been sitting in my stash of patterns waiting to be made since then.

Beverly decided to keep the colour palette very simple and neutral rather than the rainbow colours used in the pattern, and also to have the blanket made a little larger.  I got the yarn from my usual go-to supplier, Wool Warehouse.  It's King Cole Cottonsoft DK which, as the name suggests, is a 100% cotton yarn and comes in 100g balls.  The main body of the blanket will be in the lovely pale green shade, Sage, with the ruffles in Oyster.  I'm not very good at estimating how much yarn I'm going to need if I alter the size of a project from what is stated in the pattern ~ hence all that leftover yarn from Olive's blanket that I still haven't used up, despite making the bonus blanket 😲  At least anything that may be leftover from this ruffle blanket can be put to good use for making more dishcloths as and when I need them😉

So as you can see, the projects are starting to stack up a tad.....goodness knows when I'll get the guest bedroom blanket finished!  

Whilst I was very good and didn't let myself be tempted to add to my decidedly not-insubstantial yarn stash, I did succumb to the allure of a tapestry kit that I'd had in my WW wish list for a while.  After all, how could I be expected to resist the rather pleasing 15% discount 😏   

I had been planning to repot the houseplants in the living room on the days I can't get out in the garden, but I guess I won't now be disturbing my schlumbergera any time soon!  It seemed to just suddenly be full of buds although I should, of course, have been expecting them to be putting in an appearance now that we're into October.  The flowers are a very pretty pale pink, and really add a cheerful note to the long, dark, days of autumn and winter.  Oh well, Miss Schlumbergera will just have to wait until she's finished blooming for her repotting ~ I've still got plenty of her companions to keep me occupied in the meantime 😊 

A basket of middles

I haven't actually got 18 projects on the go, and I don't think that anything has taken me 27 years to complete so I'm way ahead of the average, eh 😉 That's not to say that I haven't got more than one or two WIPs.....possibly I may have a few more than that ~ I just can't seem to work on one thing at a time 😄

Anyhoo, I got this urge the other day to make a hexagon patchwork bedcover, using up some of my fabric stash in the process.  I tried to resist, my lovlies, I really did, but as you can see resistance was futile!  Originally I thought I would make the patchwork completely random but as I was sorting through my fabric, I decided to make flowers instead ~ hence the basket of middles. 

My fabric stash consists of small pieces of this fabric and large pieces of that, not to mention the odd very large piece oh, and mediums too.  The pink floral and green stripes were fairly small pieces, especially the pink, and have been more or less completely used up now ~ just tiny scraps are left, no idea what I'll use them for but I'm keeping them for the time being at least!  The blue floral (which was an afterthought choice) was a bit larger, so there is a bit left of that for future projects.  

I started off with the fabrics above and although I had decided to make flowers, at that point I was still thinking that I would place them randomly using all the different fabrics. 

After a lot of cogitation, though, I decided to lay out the flowers in a pattern and restrict myself to just the six fabrics with the arrows above.  I completely forgot to photograph those six fabrics arranged together in the order I'm planning to place them, so it'll be a nice surprise for you guys as time goes on, won't it 😄  Mostly the reason for a design rather than random is that I am a somewhat impatient maker.  If I had gone along the totally random route I would really have to make all the flowers so that I could then lay them out together to see which should go where, but by having a design I can make enough for one row at a time and then start to actually sew the bed cover together as I go along.  In fact, after the first row has been done I could even just add one flower at a time ~ like I said, patience is definitely not one of my virtues!

Ta daah ~ my first flower!  One down, only 143 to go!  I think this may well turn out to be a longterm project.....but hopefully won't take 27 years LOL