Spent the first May holiday in the garden and making bunting for two important occasions:
– the Friends of Rock Road Library Plant Sale:
– the special birthday of my Writtle College RHS tutor – perhaps the bunting will be feature at her weekend celebration event in Beth Chatto’s garden:
I took advantage of a free, dismal April Monday with to mooch along Goldhawk Road’s many fabric shops to pick up material for various projects. Amazingly, I only succumbed to two lengths that were not on my shopping list!
From top to bottom:
– Wedding outfit (silk/cotton Liberty @ £13)
– Bridesmaid kimonos (cotton @ £3.99)
– lining/top ‘couldn’t resist’ (silk/cotton @ £6.00)
– ‘Gentleman’s’ dressing gown (hand-woven silk @ £25)
– Tie project (cotton velvet @ £10)
– Winter skirt ‘coundn’t resist’ (dog’s tooth tweed wool @ £12)
– recycling maternity cordory dress project (polyester jaquard lining @ £4.50 and jumbo cord (cotton @ £7.50)
– recovering sofa mattress (wool herringbone @ £8.00)
Two delightful dresses for Edwina’s grandaughters made from new remnants and recycled charity finds – note the excellent choice of buttons and zips!
March 1st seemed like a good day to plan a project using a donation from Eastbourne of a large bag of beautiful silk ties.
The plan is to make two gowns – but there is competition for the prettiest ties!
None of the configurations that I’ve tried quite work – but inserting some dark strips is an improvement.
Appalling weather did not deter my visitor from Eastbourne.
The outputs of this very chilly busy day were:
– progress of a Pat woolly creation;
– a recovered stool;
– and 50 bespoke lavender bag wedding favours.
A mother & daughter day – one vintage fabric and one new length from the Cambridge branch of Sew Creative, home-made soup and some excellent cheese. What better way to spend a Saturday?
Alas, there was not time to complete the outfits on the first visit – happily, they were able to return later in the month (and will be back to make a top to match the skirt)!
On two days between Christmas and New Year, we enjoyed sewing around the Christmas tree!
The 30-year, multicoloured house-gown project and a gorgeous Liberty blouse made a little progress; an elegant Japanese jacket was completed in a day; a cushion-cover with a promise of spring was begun and a chic 1950’s period dress began to take shape.
Dorota, Sebastian and Marta also joined in – but no progress on the Marta quilt was made – hopefully it will be completed in 2018 (project year 3)! It was lovely to see Sebastian’s quilt again!
(Note Sid’s absence – far too many people!)
While Marta played in the snow and Patty penned Christmas cards (‘dreaming of a white Christmas‘), the three layers of the quilt were assembled – the wadding was hand-stitched to the seam allowances to keep it securely in place.
Further progress this weekend – both sides are now complete (and Marta enjoyed collecting autumn leaves for a collage picture)!
We enjoyed several sessions in September and October and the tricky process of joining the squares (all of which are slightly different sizes) has progressed well and message has been composed for the reverse.
