Unselfish Sewing - Christmas Update - Part 1

Hi Everyone!

Long time no post! Well, I have rambled a bit in my last couple of posts but here is some actual sewing - yay! Unfortunately not for me but I have made good progress into my Christmas presents so here is a picture heavy post for you!

4 Little Girls

I have made the The Jezabel Skirt  (quite terrible name for a little girls skirt in my opinion!) by Sadie James for all four little ladies in my life! Luckily the bad naming does not stop this pattern from being brilliant and easy to follow. It is a PDF file but doesn't give you any pattern pieces to paste together as it is just a series of rectangles and the measurements given to draw your own. I did make a mistake but as it turns out a really good mistake I repeated for all four skirts. The wide waistband is meant to be quite fitted with the main part of the skirt gathered onto it and a thin elastic encased at the top. When I have made this before I wasn't super impressed with this (I had used fairly thin material and the girls underwear could be seen through), I also had 3/4 inch elastic to hand and didn't want to buy more. I cut the waistband length the same as the main skirt and the yoke and had it gathering from the waistband/elastic instead of from the mainskirt. I really like the outcome...

Emily is 6 and I love this skirt! The main fabric is cotton I got from eBay but I have seen Sew Over It with it in stock, the flamingoes are printed cross grain so it needed a wide project or a LOT of material for me and I only had 1 metre - I would highly recommend it washed and pressed a dream.
The contrast material is just some polycotton I had in my crafty stash but colour matched perfect.

Look at my lovely top stitching!

I am not so happy with the insides - I zig-zagged stitches the edges and topstitched down - I REALLY need (want) an overlocker! Santa will not be bringing me one this year unfortunately :(

The next version is for my 5 year old identical triplets - yes they are as much as a handful as you would think! ha

I love this viscose fabric! But it does not photograph well! Infact this looks a hot mess - sorry!

 As it is viscose it frays to hell and back and is much drapier than the cotton version above but I am still happy with these! All three are the same. As I wanted to  make these as neat as possible I have french seamed (my first time!) and top stitched, unfortunately this fabric does not photograph detail well - on the plus side will make any mistakes harder to see too! ha

The extra bulk at the seams isn't ideal but much better than so much fraying *dreaming of overlockers*

As a bonus I have enough of this fabric left to make myself a skirt if I ever get chance to sew for myself again!

3 Little Boys

Now to the little men in my life! Two friends boys' and a nephew, one aged 3 and the others are two in January.
I used a free robe pattern from Melly Sews and I was more than impressed with the pattern, the PDF is 13 pages but due to the sizes I was cutting I didn't need to tape all of them together, the instructions are online and REALLY easy! Very impressed

All three are the same and I just need to hand sew the belt loops on and all done!

The insides are pinked where possible - lets not mention the hole I put into a sleeve head by pinking the armholes - FAIL! 

This is where the band attaches to the main robe, I wish this was overlocked as would be much neater but it isn't seen when closed!

More glorious top stitching! Anyone else find this part therapeutic???

A Wedding Gift

I mentioned in a previous post that I was making a banner for a friends wedding. This turned out to be a labour intensive job as I didn't want to disapoint them!

I was going to put this on bunting but was just wayyyy too big! I decided to be lazy and fabric glue the letters on - this was a mistake, the glue stained the gold satin and looked horrific. Luckily glitter paint from our local stationary shop was enough to cover it and as a bonus I got to use a glue spreader for the first time in about 20 years! Before it was hung I raided my mums car dmaking supplies and put some stars and heart brads onto it to just jazz it up a bit. They were made up with it so was worth the effort and was a lovely wedding! Lots of dancing and wayyy too much prosecco!

Nan and two bumps

I decided to make my Nan a quilt and I have two pregnant friends due in January so I thought I would make 3 quilts for them. Not going to lie this has been a bit stupid as so labour intensive but I am making headroom. My Nans quilt is all cut and am now piecing together. My two friends are both having boys so I did some cutting for their quilt at same time as my Nans - with only half of the two bumps cut I have currently cut at least 1000 pieces of fabric! The rest of their quilts are going to be MAJORLY simplified just to save my sanity!

My sewing table is currently in this state...

Mother-in-law, Sister-in-law and 12 year old Niece

I decided to make dressing gowns for these lovely ladies from this pattern

I have only cut and sewn one so far - uses a LOT of material but it has come together amazing, it needs hemming and I have just received one of these:

Rolled hem foot

A rolled hem foot, which hopefully will make this much quicker as the bottom hem and around the edges is one continuous hem so I hope this will make it easier! This pattern is so quick and easy; I have done no fitting as it doesn't matter for a dressing gown but I love it and will do a whole post once all finished all three.

Wooo long post, hope you weren't too bored. Now back to work, more patchworking tonight and hopefully the end will be near with xmas present making!

Are you making any of your presents?

Thanks for reading xxxx

Kristy xxx

My Sewing Challenge 2016 ideas?

Hello Lovelies,

As I have previously mentioned I have trouble trying to organise my head/projects as I want to delve in and do EVERYTHING all at once, be awesome at everything then get frustrated when I am not!
The Made-Up Initiative really pushed me, gave me plenty of blogging material and I enjoy a deadline, so...I want to try and set myself a sewing challenge for 2016 but I am finding it hard to narrow it down to what I want to do!

Here are some of my ideas:

• Follow a book and make every pattern, picking up new skills as I go with a set agenda I cannot change - but which book? 
• Capsule wardrobe - pick a design each month and make a capsule wardrobe over the year - but my mind will change on each pattern each month so how do I pick?
• Each month set a new garment (rather than pattern) ie. woven top, skirt, shift dress - will I try to fit too many patterns to my body then end up with no actual wearable garments?
• Aim to make multiple versions of each pattern - if I set myself too much to do I don't want to fail publicly and then give up, this challenge has to be realistic
• one pattern many ways? will i get bored? will my wardrobe be full of the same item? will I push myself?

I can see good and bad to each idea - can anyone give me any other suggestions? 

Ultimately I want to challenge myself to:

• Learn how to fit patterns and get to know my body shape
• Learn new sewing skills
• Create wearable wardrobe items
• Push myself
• Give my sewing some schedule but not restrict myself too much

Maybe closer to the new year challenges will appear on my blog roll and this will help my choice! 

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated - thanks for reading :)

Kristy xx

P.S. I have updated the costs pages of my blog just to make it a bit more user friendly and readable!