FESA 2014

It's that time of year again when the weather is starting to take a turn for the worse, and thoughts of cozy knits and warm trousers begin to replace the summer dresses. We have had a spectacular summer here in the UK with lots of lovely sunny days, although as I write this it is raining (as it has been all day - booo!). Now it is coming up to September, it gets chillier, and I have a particularly dire wardrobe when it comes to the colder seasons. I spend a lot of time indoors, and I'm not afraid of central heating bills....so I never really put away my light dresses and t-shirts, I just add a cardi over the top. Only when I have to leave the house do I remember why people have winter wardrobes - I thus spend an hour staring at my clothes trying to figure out what I could possibly wear and avoid a soaking or getting frozen half to death. But no more! I am finally going to be sensible and sort it out, as you know, colder weather does make up approximately 8 months of the year here!

If you're unfamiliar with the FESA, it is hosted this year by Sarah over at The Creative Perfectionist and Lisette (formerly of What Would Nancy Drew Wear?) of That 70's Sew.

There are 7 categories -

1. Fashionable Foundations For Frosty Weather

2. Chic Chemises For Cool Climates

3. Fabulous Frocks

4. Underneath It All

5. Tender Tootsies

6. Those Cozy Nights

7. Baby It's Cold Outside

FESA runs from September 1st for 8 weeks, so plenty of time to get sewing and knitting!

I'm still trying to decide upon my plans and will post them up soon.

Is anyone else joining in this year?

Sew Nice To See You....

I can't apologise any more for the bad blogging, we're all friends here so I can say that it stands at a "If I do, then I do; If I don't, then I don't" situation!
I have been busy beavering away, and as per usual it is my terrible photography (or should I say reluctance to be photographed) that stands in the way of a finished item becoming a blog post. BUT I have just had a fancy hair cut, and am on a diet for like the billionth time, so maybe I will feel a bit more confident about having my photo taken.

In the mean time, I hope you will all appreciate the latest addition to my fridge ;) You can never have enough Ryan Gosling!

Sew For Victory!

Well I thought I would have to miss out on this but as the lovely Rochelle kicked back the deadline by a week I had enough time to get my project photographed. I made it at the beginning of April so it is just laziness that meant it didn't get photographed before....oh well!

First up my inspiration. I pinned a few different patterns on Pinterest HERE.

If you know me well, you will know I am all about the shirt-dress! I L-O-V-E them! So it seemed at first that this would be a no brainer. But then I decided that it wouldn't be anything special to crank out a TNT pattern for a sew-along. As I am not a frivolous sewer, I had to make something I would wear, and preferably that I need. One of my pins answered that, I needed a blouse!

So my inspiration is this -

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And from the four on here I went for a version of the bottom right hand one.

I didn't have a pattern, so I kind of maybe just bodged one....and by bodged, I mean really bodged!
However, it did work! I wanted to have some kind of bust dart for a bit of shaping, and some darts in the back of the blouse too. As I am a lazy SOB, I didn't want to change up my overlocker threads and french seamed it. Which was okay until I realised I could do with taking the sides in a bit (read as quite a bit). As a result my back darts are too deep but a belt/ my hair disguises this nicely ;)

I would also like to note that I do not have a suitable looking skirt so have opted to make this a contemporary look, Rochelle had mentioned about doing so and I think it is a good idea, especially for separates. It shows that a vintagey pattern is not a one trick pony, and allows you infinitely more choice when wearing it.

So eek! Here it is! I don't like pics of myself, they remind me about how fat I am that I try to forget ;)

Well I guess I should have ironed it! But never mind. White on white is hard to see in pictures but I decided to only have the frilly trim round the neckline, it would have been a bit much round the arms too I think. I trimmed either side of the button placket with lace and sewed a 3mm white ribbon on top to give it a little something extra. The buttons were in my stash having bought them for my doomed Mad Men Challenge dress (I'm not ready to talk about that yet haha!) and in true make do and mend style, the fabric used to be a flat bed sheet. It is unlikely to have been used much before it ended up in the charity shop, the fabric hasn't gone "old bed sheet soft"  yet and it is still very bright white.

Well, I'm glad to have joined in on Sew for Victory, big thanks to Rochelle for doing it again :)

Any one else joined in this time?

The Seamless Pledge 1 Year On

Well, I can't believe it has been (ok... just over!)  a whole year since I made this statement -

I, Lucy Lovell, take the Seamless Pledge, and vow not to buy any new clothes (except bras) and stick to the rules laid out below, until I sort myself out and am wearing a UK size 12 clothes. Once I have dropped the 2 dress sizes necessary I will re-assess my pledge and set another target. I would like to be free from the tyranny of corporation and this pledge is one facet of a multi-sided endeavour to become self sufficient and stick it to the man.

Sounds a bit cringe worthy now!

So, I'm not a size twelve, but I would like to re-pledge now, and this time, it's FOR LIFE!!

If you know me, you might know that for the past year, I have made all my own clothes, apart from a coat from a charity shop, two new bras, and a three pack of tights. As I said in my original post HERE, I don't buy a great deal of clothes anyway, but I was amazed at how few items I picked up in charity shops too! I am definitely not a shopper. My other half even laughed at me because not only was I not buying clothes, I was being super mindful of my fabric use too!

Off the top of my head I have made 2 shirt dresses, 1 kimono sleeved jersey dress, 1 mystery jersey fabric fitted dress, 1 pencil skirt with the remains of the mystery jersey, 1 cotton pj bottoms, 1 jersey pj top, 3 black tshirts, 1 pair of trousers, 1 smart skirt, 1 sew for victory blouse, and 1 unfinished pair of shorts. Oh and a few pairs of knickers :D I also upcycled a dress into a skirt. Seeing all this written down feels like a lot, but it makes up over half my wardrobe!

The tshirts are to replace 6 year old tshirts that all have holes in now (one is really shocking!) and the only other pair of trousers I have are in a state (chub rub thigh holes, so not classy!) and should be de-zipped and turned to rags.
I also used old curtains for one shirt dress, and old bed sheets for the pj bottoms and the blouse.

Looking at my previous pledge you can see I omitted bras, and I also was not considering shoes in this either. Bra making for hefty bosoms is something I am very cautious about as I don't want to suffer any back pain or lasting damage, so for now I will continue to purchase bras from M&S, but I will only do so when it is absolutely necessary. Not that I'm a frivolous bra buyer anyway!
As for shoes, well I hope to be able to save my pennies/beg father Christmas to be able to go on a shoe making workshop like Daniela from Ela Sews and Doesn't Sleep did a while ago. I will also make sure that I get maximum use out of my shoes by having them re-heeled when they wear out, and taking any other steps to prolong their lifespan.

I feel so strongly about not making a contribution to the evils of fast fashion and aiding (by consumption) in the poor quality of life that comes as standard for garment workers producing all the RTW out there. I missed out on the "who made it" event on the anniversary of the Rana Plaza tragedy, but I would have shouted loud and proud that it is ME!! who made my outfit. They might not be perfect, but I am happy to say I didn't exploit slave labour for cheap clothing. In a very sweet moment my other half told me that it was inspiring to him that I "go to all this effort", whilst I don't see it as effort, it did make me think that a) he is very lovely, and b) in "real life" I do not know anyone who sews all their own clothes, and even amongst the sewers there are none who regularly make things which is just crazy to me!

Any way, here are a couple of links I think are helpful and relevant here -
War on Want
Slow Fashion Forward
The Ethical Fashion Forum

I would love for you to tell me your thoughts on this issue.

Recycled Packaging

You know when you get a box from Amazon and it is filled with that brown paper in long strips?
Well hold onto it as it is a cute way to package things up!
I used it to wrap up some little packets of homemade gingerbread biscotti as you can see on the label.
Just wrap it round, thread a tag onto some ribbon and  tie it up - simple as that!

You don't even need to iron it flat if you don't want, crinkly adds to the charm - or at least that's what I'm going with....

Hope you are having a good day :)

Completed Puppycat - With Free Pattern Alterations

At the beginning of the week I finally finished my giant Puppycat!
Isn't he a beaut?!

Well the cat is still suspicious...Or jealous....

As you can see from this bad picture taken when he was just finished, he was sitting a little bit taller, but over the past few days the weight of his head has caused him to sag and I don't think there is much I can do about that - although if anyone does have any anti-sagging tips I would love it if you could let me know! I plan to make more giant crochets in the future, they're so much fun!

As you can see I made a few alterations to Twinkie Chan's pattern, because he is so big, I decided to put his back legs into a different position to aid sitting, and I also stitched his tail to the body because I couldn't get it to bend correctly and thought this was a good alternative. It isn't obvious but I also added an extra increase into the body.
This was my inspiration moment -

So here are my pattern alterations, which can be used on a regular sized Puppycat too. The only difference between the two sizes is that  I used a 7.0 mm hook, and crocheted 3 strands of dk weight yarn all at the same time like a super size yarn.

BODY ALTERATIONS
**American terms used here to follow with Twinkie Chan's original pattern and avoid confusion**
Follow rounds 1-9 as per Twinkie's pattern for the head.

10) [Sc 8, inc] round   (70)
11) [Sc 9, inc] round   (77)
12 -16) Sc round         (77)
17) [Sc 9, dec] round  (70)
18-20) Sc round          (70)
21) [Sc 7, dec] round  (63)
22) Sc round               (63)
23) [Sc 7, dec] round  (56)
24-26) Sc round          (56)
27) [Sc 6, dec] round  (49)
28-29) Sc round          (49)
30) [Sc 5, dec] round  (42)
31) [Sc 4, dec] round  (35)

Finish off with a slip stitch and knot, I used the tail from the head to attach the head to the body so no need to leave a long tail here. Stuffing at the end is fine if you are making the large version, if making the regular one, I would stuff before the hole gets too small - use your own judgement on this one :)

BACK LEGS

These are made in two parts, the circular part that is lightly stuffed and sewn onto the sides, and the foot part which is stuffed halfway and attached underneath.

The circle bit, make 2 -

1) Sc 7 into a magic ring (7)
2) inc round                     (14)
3) [Sc, inc] round            (21)
4) [Sc 2, inc] round         (28)
5) [Sc 3, inc] round         (35)
6) [Sc 4, inc] round         (42)
7) Sc round in blo (back loops only) (42)

finish off as before, leave a long tail for sewing onto sides of body.

The foot bit, make 2 - 1) In brown Sc 4 in magic ring (4)
2) inc round                              (8)
3) [Sc, inc] round                     (12)
4) [Sc 2, inc] round                  (16)
5-6) Sc round                           (16)
7) In white Sc round                (16)
8) Sc round                              (16)
9) [Sc 2. dec] round                 (12)
10-13) Sc round                       (12)
14) [Sc, dec] round                  (8)
15-16) Sc round                       (8)

finish off, leaving a long tail. Again, if making the regular size, start stuffing the feet after round 13 whilst you can still jam it in is best.


BELL1) in goldish yellow Sc 6 in a magic ring (6)
2) inc round                                               (12)
3) [Sc, inc] round                                      (18)
4-5) Sc round                                            (18)
6) [Sc, dec] round                                     (12)
**Stuff bell here**
7) dec round                                              (6)

Finish off, Leave a long tail for sewing on, and thread it through the loops of the last 6 stitches to ensure it stays closed. Cut two slim strips and 4 small circles from black felt and stitch/glue on to make the ball look like a bell. Either attach to collar, or slip a couple of stitches into the body like I did to secure it firmly. I have a cat who could spot a loose looking bell at 100 paces and would proceed to steal it, hence the extra stitches!

As usual, if there are any queries, do not hesitate to ask in the comments :)
Obviously I do not own the rights to Puppycat and this pattern alteration is not to be made to sell either as a pattern or as a completed toy.

So, is anyone going to take on the giant crochet challenge?! The only problem is where to keep him, at the moment he is guardian of the front room book depository (every time we buy a new bookshelf it gets filled up immediately and an even bigger pile seems to amass on the floor...until we move there is no more room for bookshelves, not that it stops us buying more books!).

Handbag Porn...

Seriously guys check out these beauties I found on Pinterest!!

These are all by designer Judith Leiber, and I am loving the unusual bling-tastic designs!

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I doubt I will be able to hand-make anything this fancy, but I sure will be keeping an eye out for an old clutch I can bling up!