Making paper hats: fabric giveaway!

Who'd like to win some fabric? We're up for that, aren't we?!

I've got just over a metre of this yellow Michael Miller print, to give away just for the joy of seeing it go to a good home!

It's 110 cm wide quilting cotton: Making Paper Hats from the Children at play line. Not yet pre-washed, but very well looked after :-)  The colours on these photos are as true to reality as I could get them; in person I'd describe the yellow as exactly halfway between mustard and custard: revolting in the mouth, but actually rather delicious on the eyes.

It comes complete with instructions on how to make, yes, paper hats - and aeroplanes.

I ordered it a while ago thinking I'd make something for T with it; a shirt maybe, or some treasure pocket pants. It's a good boyish-but-not-too-boyish print. But while I like the fabric a lot, it just hasn't grabbed me like I hoped it would. In a final test, I draped it around him the other day and the colour comletely washed him out.

But it's too nice a fabric to just sit in my stash forever. I want to see it used!

So, who'll use it for me? I bet some of you reading this already have some fantastic ideas - and I want to know what they are!

So tell me: what would you make with this material? Comments are open - leave one to win!

The Rules:

• Open to anyone, anywhere - I'll ship worldwide!
• Only one comment/entry each please.
• Giveaway ends on 7 December at 5pm/17h PST.

As for the criteria for winning, I still haven't decided :-)  I'd love to pick the most inspiring idea, but I'm sure it'll be impossible, and certainly unfair, to judge.

So let's go with the random number generator, and I'll honour the best sewing plans with a shout out as well :-)

Finally, if the fabric's not your thing - well, come back and see what I've got to give tomorrow...

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Give a little

The lights have gone up! The school commute was sparkly this week.

 And if your thoughts haven't turned to gift-giving yet, well... how about this?

Yes, I'm doing Giveaway Day! One of the things I like most about sewing blogland is the niceness (and I mean that in an entirely non-derogatory way) that permeates it. And of course one of the best things about Christmas is the giving and its getting flipside. These things are fun.

So, I'm counted in and will be holding TWO giveaways next week! I had high hopes to include something handmade because, you know, it's nice to give handmade stuff. But in the end it's... not! More news on my epic fail there later. In the meantime, check back from Monday to see whether you fancy winning!

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'Tis the season: stress, and booze-related sewing mishaps

Readers, I'm stressed. Do you feel it too? December is sneaking towards us and I haven't done any planning! I'm just revealing my own neuroses here, aren't I?  The thought of going into festivities without a plan terrifies me. And on top of it I have blog guilt that I promised you a skirt.

Instead, dear friends, you are going to get a confession of skirt mojo failure and a cautionary tale about sewing under the influence. Don't be tempted by the merriness! At least not till the last stitch on your gifts is sewn...

That doesn't look that bad, does it? That's another tidy zip there sandwiched into the lining.  All very harmoniously sewn while my son explored the engineering possibilities of a quilting ruler, some pencils and a box of zips.

 He even proudly took pictures of his mummy at work.

What I wear when I'm not posing in outfits. Glam!

But to present all this followed by pictures of a finished skirt would be to deceive. I got the waistband half-on and realised that the fit of this flared skirt was way off - it was much too big. And I couldn't get away with just wearing it a bit lower; it's meant to sit on the waist, and looked appalling.

So, I did what I had to do. I ripped the entire thing. I thought to myself: I'll take it round to friend S's house for our girls' night in, and I'll do it watching the X-factor and that's altogether an evening well-spent. Yeah. You know what happened? I consumed a glass of bubbly too many along with my maltesers, and left the newly-detached waistband behind.

Mmmm bubbly.

I'm not a Catholic, but cutting a size smaller out of the original pieces, making a replacement waistband and re-sewing the whole thing (much less neatly) felt like appropriately painstaking penance for such slatternly behaviour. I'm now purged :-)

So in the end it got done, and I might strong-arm my sister into photoshooting me at the weekend. She'll be here with my mum for the Christmas market, and this is about my favourite weekend every year. The girls get together and shop and go on the big wheel and consume hot beverages and it's lovely (though my other sister has dumped us to travel around South America, of all the unreasonable and unseasonable things to do).

2008 (how is that four years ago??) when I had a small bump and a babe in a pushchair.

So I'll chill out with the folks, and shop a bit, a remind myself that it's ok if I don't hand sew everything including the turkey, and by Saturday night I'll be raising my glass to December.

Are you all girding yourselves for maker's and planner's stress?? Or can you tell me precisely how you're keeping your cool?

My top tip: hit the mulled wine. Just don't rip seams at the same time...

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Skirts galore!

Have you had enough of me and my skirts yet :-)?

I got skirt number three of four finished this weekend, and am sitting here happily wearing it (guess what? It's rather lovely!).  The plan was to show it to you today too, but the photo-taking part has yet to happen, so I thought instead I would fill you in on the patterns I'm using.

This was the pre-cut skirt sewing pile, and on top there is the pattern book: Allemaal Rokjes by Mme Zsazsa.

OK, so, it's in Dutch - this is why I figured it would be fun to share it :-). Because there's a rather vibrant sewing and blogging community in the Netherlands and Flanders too, and this book has taken it by storm. In fact, on its launch a few months ago it rocketed immediately to the top of the bestseller lists, toppling Jeroen Meus' latest cookbook, and he's basically the Jamie Oliver of Flanders, so in fact it's probably fair to say that it's taken the entire Dutch-speaking publishing world by storm too. There's a sudden rash of sewing books coming out this autumn, in what was previously a pretty much non-existent market segment. Allemaal Rokjes is already in its sixth or seventh print run.

And basically this is because, regardless of the language, it's an absolutely fantastic pattern book.

These (above) are all the patterns included. Each of these skirts comes in sizes from girls' age two up to women's size 46 (I think). They're all very well drafted: the fit is true to size, and the shapes are great.

The book contains detailed picture tutorials for each one, as well as variations and customisations, and more tutorials for techniques like installing zips and sewing with stretch fabric.

Mme Zsazsa has a wonderful way of writing which is also deployed to great effect on her blog (although she's often hilariously colloquial enough to confuse the hell out of google translate). She's down to earth and witty and completely demystifies the sewing and construction process.

The title Allemaal Rokjes manages in two little words to convey both "All About Skirts" and "Everything About Skirts" - which very neatly encapsulates the whole book. Not being a proper translator, I can't think of a phrase that does this job so well in English. In my head I think of it as "Skirts Galore!" - which kind of echoes the exuberant circus photography throughout.

Well I'm guessing any Dutch-speaking readers out there have got this book already, right? If not, why have you resisted?? :-)

Do you ever use patterns/sewing books in languages other than your native one?  I wonder if it takes having a certain confidence in your sewing skills to do so? For example, I've learnt a lot of sewing vocabulary by using this book, because I was able to match up my pre-existing knowledge of the techniques with the descriptions in the tutorials. Needing to attack it with a dictionary as well would have stopped me at the outset!

And what about reading blogs in other languages? There's so much out there, and sometimes it seems like we're all inhabiting the same worlds but in parallell. One of the reasons I wanted to share this here was to overlap mine a little bit.

So, what other non-English blogs should I know about?

And last but not least: what's your favourite pattern book? You'll have guessed that so far, this one is mine :-)

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The skinny jeans skirt

Oh, denim pencil skirt, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

Yes yes, I LOVE LOVE LOVE this skirt, and for so many reasons. Let's be a little egotistical about the details first, shall we? I love the exposed zip:

I love the seam finishings:

I love the fit:

But most of all...

I absolutely adore how versatile it is:

This skirt is incredibly comfortable, looks stylish with very little effort, goes with everything and makes a lot of different looks depending on what you wear it with.

Basically, it's skinny jeans in non-trouser format.

I was, I think, inspired by 'So, Zo...' and her generally wonderful way of wearing classic shapes in a modern way.  Having recently been on a lengthy and unsuccessful search for a pair of black skinny jeans, a denim pencil skirt struck me as being a pretty good substitute. And I have to say, this is so true that I may never actually wear trousers again. I didn't get any pictures, but this skirt also goes pretty well with Converse on the weekends - super casual, but acceptable out-of-the house comfort.

My only conclusion, really, can be that everyone should make themselves one. Really. Do it! Go on, do it now!

:: :: ::

The notes

• Pattern: pencil skirt patten by Mme Zsazsa, free with GDL magazine - except that, even better, I didn't have to buy the magazine to get it, I just filled in the form on the website and they sent it to me for nothing. Excellent way to round out your skirt pattern collection! As with her book (which I used for my previous skirt), this is a nicely drafted pattern with excellent, clear instruction.
• Fabric: a metre of (non-stretch) black denim from the Maison Dorée.
• Conclusion: brilliant!
  
  
  

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