I'm moving to Japan.

It must be the best place to live in the world, if their standard of sewing books is anything to go by :)

Buoyed by the success of the mushroom skirt (I'm still sorting the bow out, pictures when it's done), I started on the little bloomer / pantaloons, which looked equally as simple.


And they were! I remembered the seam allowance this time, so no hiccups. The fit on Munchkin is perfect. They're made from a bog-standard denim from the magic fabric shop, and they'd suit any other medium to heavy weight fabric. I have some nice red cord that I think I'll use for another pair.

Me and Munchkin had an outing to Skipton last week with Grandma pickledweasel, and we went to The Fent Shop to have a browse. I picked up a few bargains, including a lovely piece of babycord that was just crying out to be made into a top to go with the new pantaloons :)

I couldn't quite get munchkin to replicate the poses in the book :)

There were faults on the fabric, so I had to cut the pattern pieces carefully, but it looks pretty good. This pattern was slightly more advanced, and I did spend a long time staring at the diagrams for the sleeves before my little brain was able to make sense of how they go together. I made a size larger, as I wanted it to last til next summer, but the fit is still pretty good. It would maybe be better sewn in a fabric with a bit more stretch, as the chest is a bit tight when munchkin pulls it on over her arms / shoulders.


Three garments in two weeks is pretty good going for me, so you can tell how easy the patterns are :) I'm going to give it a rest for a while now and start on my quilt, but I'll definitely be making more from it. It goes up to 130cm (roughly age 8), so Munchkin can have a new pair of pantaloons each year for the next six years :) I bet Japan is so cool that pantaloons are standard issue school uniform.

Appearances can be deceptive...

Here is Munchkin in a new top I've made - the Ofelia pattern from Patterns by Figgy's. It was quick and easy to sew, and as it's made from a cotton lawn I was fancy and did French seams (ooh la la!) because it's such fine fabric. I *heart* the trim very much, and it goes perfectly with the print on the fabric. The pattern also includes bloomers, which I'll make up some time next week in some soft denim I've bought. The other pictures are of a top I've made for a friend's little girl as a present - I know it looks teeny, but that's just the elastic bunching up round the neck!

Munchkin looks pretty harmless in these pictures, right? A little gormless maybe, and not very well dressed, but fairly innocent. Wrong. The only way I could take photos of her in the top was to turn the TV on, hence the spaced out expressions as she stands rapt in front of Fifi and the Flowertots.

She has begun reciting a list of demands before getting into her cot each night, which has turned into some sort of 'Rider' - tissue, Pinkie / teletubbie / dolly (basically whichever teddy bear or soft toy is downstairs under a big pile of things which means you have to look for it for five minutes), daddy, hug, sat down hug (a hug whilst sitting on the futon sofa in her room), music (wind up mobile over her cot), and the ultimate demand usually shouted in desperation as I'm leaving the room: eyes (wipe her eyes with a tissue, although I still haven't worked out the purpose of this, other than to delay bed time).

She is becoming very bossy, with Mr Gizmo the cat usually on the receiving end - 'Geemo, tie-et!' (Gizmo, quiet), although mr pickledweasel was targeted yesterday when we were driving through an area where there had been muck spreading and the air was a little whiffy. She said, very sternly, 'Daddy! Bottom pooey!'

We have recently had spates of foot stamping, screaming till she's red in the face, writhing on the floor in anguish, and the classic rigid body pose that means you can't physically put her in a car seat / pushchair. So why all the bad behaviour? She's obviously practicing - it's her 2nd birthday in two and a half weeks :)

Pinafore mania

I am in love (again, I'm always in love with something or other, whether it's fabric or mr pickled weasel) with this little pinafore.



I went to Sewing for Pleasure at the NEC last Sunday and found a stall selling Australian craft magazines. I was chatting to the nice man and flicking through one called Homepsun, and saw this project for a pinafore dress with a Matryoshka applique on the front and back. It was pretty late in the day and I had been looking for a pattern to buy but hadn't found one, so splashed out just over a fiver on the magazine instead.


Earlier in the day I had very conveniently bought a metre of this fab Michael Miller fabric with the words, 'Ooooh, I'll make a dress for Munchkin with this!'. It was obviously destiny. It's lined with the last of my pink heavy weight slightly stretchy embroidered cotton - the remnant I bought cost 90p and has been used as lining for three tunic tops as well as this dress, so has been completely bargainous.



Brilliantly the pattern was in three sizes, 0-1, 2-3 and 4-5, and was very easy to follow with lovely straightforward instructions. I am intending to make the Matryoshka version, I'm just waiting for a trip to the magic fabric shop so I can get some cord, and I think I'll be sewing a couple as presents as well.


And yes, dear reader, I have done buttonholes. BUTTON-FLIPPIN-HOLES!!!!1!1!!! We still haven't done them at college (don't get me started), but amongst the other bits and bats I bought at the NEC was a book entitled 'How to Make Buttonholes and Pockets' published in 1960, and that, along with my sewing machine manual, helped me master them. There's no stopping me now folks! There'll be buttons on everything, mark my words :)



Sorry you can't see the dress very well, munchkin was having a bit of a supermodel tantrum, and I only managed to get these photos with the assistance of the lovely grandma pickledweasel who you can see in the background.

Beach Bum Hoodie - Patterns by Figgy's

I have been looking for a decent boys pattern for a while. I'm not quite advanced enough to start drafting things myself, but while I work at getting to that level I wanted to make some clothes as presents for little fellas that I know. I found this pattern slightly randomly - Shelly from Patterns by Figgys was taking the same one day online class from Craftypod as me, and I started having a browse around her blog and then her shop.

The pattern came really quickly, considering it was from the States, and was beautifully packaged. The pattern and instruction booklet were in an envelope, which in turn was in a sturdy plastic bag with a resealable top, which meant when I had traced the pattern pieces off onto greaseproof paper I could keep them safely with the pattern in the plastic bag. Hurrah!

I got on OK tracing the pattern off, although I think there were some blips in the printing, as some of the patterned lines for the different sizes were wrong. I wanted to do a dummy run first, so I decided to make a hoodie for Munchkin out of some cotton / linen blend I'd had sitting in a drawer. Although it's marketed as a boy pattern, it works just as well for girls.

It took me a while to put together, and there was a bit of seam ripping and re-pinning going on. This was partly due to my lack of experience (it's rated three and a half thimbles, which would make it intermediate), and also partly because of a lack of diagrams in the instructions. Although I must admit, I am a diagrammy person, and ideally I like photos of each individual step so I know that what I'm doing looks right, so I think for a slightly more experienced sewer the instructions would be fine.

I really struggled with the facing on the neck, and had to email Patterns by Figgys for help (and Karen and Shelly replied very promptly, thank you!) and eventually I got grandma pickledweasel to show me what to do. I got there, but the end result looks terrible on the inside. I'm going to do a practice sample of the neck again before I make it as a present so that I can get it right. Fortunately Munchkin is not remotely bothered about neck facings and their neatness, so I've got away with it :)

The USP of the pattern is the seams. Karen, who helped create the pattern with Shelly, has a super-sensitive son who doesn't like scratchy clothing, so all of the seams are enclosed in some way. I found that this made for some pretty bulky sewing at times, especially when hemming the sleeves and main body of the hoodie, as the arms and sides have french seams. It does look very neat though. I especially liked the yokes on the shoulders - you sew the shoulder seams wrong sides facing and then top stitch the yokes on, which keeps everything smooth. Definitely a technique I'd use again.

I think I'll make a few adjustments when I next use the pattern. The sizing isn't very generous - I made the 2/3 for Munchkin, and I'd say she'll only get one summer's wear out of it, even though she's only 23 months (and an average 23 months at that, she's no giant). One way round that would be to have basic seams instead of french ones. That way you'd gain a bit more room across the chest and on the arms. I'd like it longer in the body too. I'm going to unpick the bottom hem and sew on an extra band of fabric just so it comes to below Munchkin's crotch. The hood is mahoooosive! It really is huge, and I think it makes the rest of the hoodie look out of proportion, especially with it being a bit short in the body. I'll do a bit of a Frankenstein and use the hood from Heidiandfinns' pattern instead, which is still quite generous, but much more in proportion.

Obviously Munchkin's little photo shoot isn't really representative of the context it's meant to be worn in.... you'll have to imagine her running round a beach with a spade in her hand and the sun shining rather than standing on a windowsill with a woolly polo neck underneath :)

(Success + Fail) x vomiting child = Cadbury's creme egg

I am having an 'awkward' sewing phase, a bit like some sort of stitchy adolescence. One week it's all finding out I've gone up a cup size and getting a nice smile of that boy in the lower 6th and the next it's a zit in the middle of my forehead and falling over with my dinner tray in the middle of the refectory.*

My glowy success was being asked by Kitschy Coo to test a pattern for her (which is an honour in itself), and finding that not only was it quite an easy pattern to follow, but that I did a good job of it, it looks great, and Munchkin asked to keep it on after we had finished our 'photoshoot'. This does not normally happen. Earlier this week I had laid out her clothes for the day and she was picking each thing up, and saying, 'yes' after looking at each one - tights 'yes', vest 'yes', t-shirt 'yes', dress that mommy made 'no no no no noooooooo'.

Anyways, these are the pics of Munchkin in her new cowl neck tunic. The pattern isn't quite ready for buying yet, KC's doing a few last minute tweaks, but you may as well go and buy all the rest of her patterns in the meantime, as they're all equally as fabulous.

My fail was my very own pattern number two. Buoyed by the success of pattern number one, I got straight down to a second one, this time a little cardigan for munchkin. As much as I love knitting, I don't have the patience, skills, or time to do full on garments, so I thought it would be nifty if I could make a little fleece cardigan to pop over dresses when it's a bit nippy. I called it 'Big Button Cardi', and knew exactly what it would look like - round necked, open fronted but fastened with one button at the top, so you could see the pretty dress underneath, and it would be made of fleece but lined with a nice cotton print.

Only I'm on draft number three and I'm losing the will to live, as well as running out of scrap fabric to make rubbishy toiles with. My sleeves are too tight, but I can't seem to make them wider without changing my body block, and when I came to make the last toile up my fleece exterior sewed up beautifully, whereas my cotton interior had sleeve tops that didn't fit armholes, yet I used the same pattern pieces for both.

I've not taken any photos of the resulting monstrosities, because they're proper Frankenstein affairs and I want to present you with lovely pictures of the finished garment in all its perfect glory, not terrible crimes against pattern cutting. So you'll just have to wait. You might be waiting for a while...

To top everything off Munchkin has been poorly with a really tricksy 'one minute I'm fine and playing with my Duplo and the next minute I'm throwing up and crying' illness. I thought she would be better today, but she's eaten very little and has been flopping about on the sofa for most of the day, bless her. Unfortunately illness didn't seem to have any effect on her getting up routine - 6am as per usual. And I'm stupidly tired as I was up til all hours trying to make arms wider and necklines curve properly.

Which leads me to the Cadbury's creme egg. Not everyone's cup of tea, I know, but I love them. I sent a text to mr pickledweasel asking if he could get me one on his way home from work, and he gave me a big hug when he got home because he said he knew things were bad if I had to send an emergency creme egg request :) I've just eaten it, and the world seems a much better place.

* This actually happened to me. Only I didn't just fall, I sort of tripped and landed on my knees and then did a knee skid for about 5 metres.

Fake sheep and buckley things

This is the second waistcoat I've made from my pattern, and it's for Munchkin's friend Harry, who was two this week. The outside is an old pair of trousers of mine that I had been saving to turn into something else, and the inside is fake sheep :) The buckley thing (that's the technical term) on the back was originally on the back of the trouser waistband - I just shortened it a little so it was scaled down to fit a two year old. I cut the back piece using the side seam of the trouser leg as the fold line. Nifty, huh?

I had yet more problems with construction on this one, and ended up nearly crying over the shoulders (don't ask), but I got there in the end, albeit in a slightly wonky manner. My lack of knowledge on how to put things together is slightly annoying, but I'm trying to remedy it by reading a few books and making more toiles. It just seems to be a bit of a steep learning curve...

I've had a slow craft week for one reason and another, but I'm back to normal next week so am hoping to crack on with a few projects. Including putting together a tutorial for a little activity me and Munchkin did when we were snow bound :)

My very first pattern :)

It's not revolutionary, but I designed it from scratch and I am ridiculously proud of it. Mr pickledweasel bought me Metric Pattern Cutting for Children's Wear and Babywear for Christmas, and by Boxing Day I'd drawn up a basic body block for Munchkin :)

I then drew up a sleeveless body block and started working on a waistcoat pattern. After I'd done my first draft I made a toile (although mine was made from spare sheeting, not linen like Chanel do). And realised I'd sewed all the way around the armholes on the wrong side, so it wouldn't turn the right way out :D

I also realised The scalloped edge I'd put at the bottom really wouldn't work, so I went back to basics and started again. I made another toile, and did a fitting with mademoiselle munchkin. I was happy with the fit but added an extra half cm everywhere as I wanted to allow a little bit of growth room and the fabric I would be making the waistcoat from was a fluffy sort of towelling and babycord, so I had to allow for extra bulk.

I'm really happy with the finished product, although my construction method was slightly haphazard - I ended up leaving the armholes open to turn the garment through and then found it very difficult to sew them together - lesson learnt.

I'm making another one for a lovely little boy whose birthday is on Sunday, using fake sheepskin for the lining and a pair of my old trousers for the shell - it's better than it sounds, honestly :) My next job is to make a trouser block for Munchkin, and then draft up a trouser pattern with added room in the bum for cloth nappies, which is my biggest gripe with shop bought trousers. Then on to grading so I can do bigger sizes. It's all very basic, but I'm learning so much, and it feels brilliant!

And this is what happens if you ask Munchkin to smile for the camera :)

Hoodie Love

I am very much in love with the pattern for this hoodie from Heidiandfinn. I saw it about 3 weeks ago but was very restrained and held out til pay day on Monday before I bought it :) At about £3.70 it hardly breaks the bank, but it was a treat rather than necessity.

It's a fantastically easy pattern. It was sent as a pdf which you then print out and cut and stick the pattern pieces together. There were really detailed instructions too. It took me an afternoon and evening to make, but that included printing off the pattern and tracing and cutting the pattern pieces.

My fabric choice probably wasn't the easiest option - a medium weight baby blue fleece and a chenille stripe stretch jersey - but I found it surprisingly co-operative when I was sewing. Ok, ok, I broke a needle sewing the hood to the body, but after I put in a chunkier needle I found it surprisingly co-operative when I was sewing :) Lesson learnt.

It is super soft and snuggly, and will do a good job of keeping Munchkin warm around the house. I'm trying to ration the central heating after our recent gas bill :/ We're off to the magic fabric shop tomorrow to try and find some other fabrics to make it in.

I have this fabulous grey stretch fabric that looks like knitted cable, and I want something bright pink to go on the reverse. Incidentally, the top seems entirely reversible, but for some reason this isn't mentioned anywhere in the Etsy listing or the pattern instructions. Maybe I sewed it wrong!

I had added the rest of Heidiandfinns patterns to my Christmas list, and if Father Christmas didn't come up with the goods then I was going to buy one every pay day. But then I went to leave feedback today and saw that they had a special weekend sale on - buy 2 and get one free. And my hand just slipped and I pressed some buttons and oops I've bought three more patterns :)

What I are not lerning

The few of you who read my blog regularly might wonder where my college course updates have disappeared to. They haven't been written for a variety of reasons - one week was an assesment week where we re-organised our folders for submission (booooooring), one week was half term, and last week I missed because of some evil cold flu virus thing which currently is making me feel like someone has stuffed a whole packet of cotton wool in my ears before submerging my head in a goldfish bowl.

But the main reason I haven't posted about my course is that I'm really not feelin' the love for it. It is not what I thought it would be AT ALL. We do lots of sketchbook work. We have to look at architecture. We have to choose an artist to research. We have to do mood boards every bloomin' week. Which is great, if that's the sort of thing you want to learn about, but not so great if you still don't know how to do button holes. Or cuffs. Or place a sleeve. Or do a placket, whatever one of those is.

I'm not going to drop out, as I paid a lot of money to enrol (a lot for me, anyway), and so I want to see it through to the end. But there's really no point me writing any more updates on it because I don't feel there's anything useful to pass on to you peeps. I might post some photos of the jacket we're currently making (which involves no real technical skills - we're given the pattern to use, it's open fronted, so no fastenings, and it has no collar or cuffs). And our final project is turning a design of our own into a pattern, which I'm hoping I'll be able to develop and test and eventually maybe even *gasp* sell, so there will hopefully be a few updates on how that's going.

The one thing I have learnt is that I want to make my own patterns. By the end of my course I should have the basic skills to be able to do this, which is great. Although they'll have to be patterns for garments without fastenings, cuffs or collars of any sort :)

Knitting and Stitching Show Part One

I am not feeling well - you know when you get that cotton wool head feeling just before a cold / flu? I was going to write up a report of my visit to the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate yesterday, but I'm tired and my legs feel like they're going to fall off and it wouldn't make much sense, so you'll have to make do with pretty pictures of all the things I bought instead...

Too many magazines and patterns :)

This for my sister-in-law for Christmas - she loved the Bimble I made for Juliet, and said she might use the idea with her GCSE textiles students, so I thought she might like the book.

Two vintage knitting / stitching magazines, one for the fantastic 'evening jumper' pattern, and one for a lovely 'Noah's Ark Workbox' which apparently is perfect to 'hold all the nursery mending things' :)

One fat quarter and a little bundle of scraps, which included some Beatrix Potter bits. And a little pack of vintage bits and bobs that made me think of the forties - I might try and do a collage with it.

And I went to a workshop where I made this jazzy hand print applique bag and got a load of gubbins free! The jewel bits aren't stuck to the bag, they were part of the goodies. Although I might stick down one of the big cabachons so it looks like a ring.

Hopefully when I'm feeling a bit better I'll post about the wonderful textile art I saw, which was amaaaaazing. Til then, back to bed...