To Blog or Not to Blog?

I have been feeling a bit ambivalent about this blog as I have so few followers I have been thinking what's the point if there is no-one to read? But I guess everyone has to start somewhere - it's a bit of a chicken and egg situation.

So, I'll write anyway and maybe I will gradually gather a few more readers!!

What do I have to report? My sewing has been a catalogue of disasters - there was the tea dress I hated I told you about in my previous post and then the net petticoat was a nightmare. After spending several hours pulling net out of the workings of my machine I wish I had never clapped eyes on it!! That's after cutting about 50m of 9" strips!!

I got as far as a two tier layer, tried it on and looked like a ship in full sail anyway!! So now it is hung in the sewing room taunting me with failure everytime I look at it!!

Then I started making view C of this dress out of this fabric:

It was much more of a challenge than the previous garments I have tried, there is three pieces to the bodice, as well as an underbodice and it is all lined .

Anyway, partly due to lack of room in my sewing room I stupidly only cut out the parts for the bodice and have spent a week working on it - it seems to have come together well and I am pleased with it
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Then I came to cut the skirt and I DON'T HAVE A ENOUGH FABRIC!!  It's supposed to be a circle skirt and due to my size I was going to do a circle and 1/4 and there is only enough for a 3/4 skirt!!!!!

A quick call to Fabricland and they tell me the are completely OUT OF STOCK!!

I was hoping to wear this to a friends wedding on 4th March!!

As a result of these calamities I have given up sewing for a few days in disgust!!

I have been busy being completely inspired by other peoples blogs, particularly (as I believe I said last post) Posy and also Coco Rose Textiles - both are girls after my own heart!! Was it Oscar Wilde that said surround yourself only with things you know to be useful or believe to be beautiful?

Let me show you my own dresser, the top two shelves I of which I love (apologies for the quality, light was fading):



The tea set belonged to hubbys Grandma and the plate on the top shelves with the cherubs belonged to my Nanna. The pretty mugs hanging from hooks came from my friend Lucy.

However, I am not so enamoured with the bottom shelf:

As you can see the TV and XBox doesn't quite fit in with the shabby chic lovliness!! But living in a house with three boys I have to make concessions!!

I have more china:

Some of it is my wedding china, some is from the charity shop and some of it is my lovely Cath Kidston Spray Flowers (I'd love the whole set but we're so slapdash with china it wouldn't last five minutes!!)

As you can see the cats have got in on the act here - on the windowsill is Bear and lounging on the radiator below is Jasper - both are Tonkinese.

This week I have also been busy putting up the stagecoach blinds I made from Cath Kidston fabric:

As you can see we're going to need to do some gardening in the Spring!!

(As I type the blind on the single window has just fallen off!! Blimmin' Velcro!!)

Off to repair it....

Sewing Matters....

In my previous post I told you how I recently learned to sew and am completely addicted.

Today I finished a little tea dress I started on Saturday enough to be able to try it on and - I hate it!!

It when together easily and fits fine - it's just frumpy and unflattering!! I thought maybe it was because the skirt was gathered unflatteringly so I took some fabric out of that but it's still not good so I've stuffed it in the back of the cupboard!!

How do you feel when you make something you don't like? I feel as though I have wasted lots of time, but in the same token I learned how to do buttonholes properly (after much trial and error) and it was all good practice.

I might take it out again in a few days and see if I can do anything with it, going to make a frivalous net petticoat now!!

Every girl should have a net petticoat, and even though I mostly live in jeans, joggers and jodhpurs I WANT ONE.

I made a 1950's style dress with a circle skirt that a net petticoat would be perfect with:

Incidentially, the hem is level it's just the camera angle!!

I want to make a petticoat like this:

So I have 10m of white dress net and some satin ribbon to bind the edges and I am going to have a go!!

Will let you know how I get on later....

 

A Trip To Blogland....

After becoming a little bit addicted to reading some of the gorgeous blogs written by ladies with the most gorgeous taste for vintage and shabby chic goodies I have been inspired to have a go myself!!

My favourite blog is Posy - her house is FABULOUS!! Jane has the most amazing sense of style and I just love her collection of vintage and ex-charity shop finds.

Something I have in common with Jane is her obsession with Cath Kidston - I am actually rather obsessed!!

I have been collecting CK goodies over the past year and was lucky enough to get a few bits for Christmas including this bag:

I love the print (it's lined in the same fabric as well) - the only drawback is the arms are a fraction short for my bingo wings *blush* - the red print is good for the winter.

I also have this one:

Which has the most comfortable wide strap and is my favourite for spring/summer.

A few weeks ago I re-decorated our bedroom in CK Antique Rose wallpaper

I made most of those cushions myself (including the crochet lace edging on the pillowcases) - Hubby says ten "fancy" cushions are more than enough for any bed!!

I have recently learned to sew after years of considering myself useless at it!! I did Textiles at school (many years ago now!! ) and would spend 45mins of every hour trying to get the machine to work. Snapping thread; tangling; faulty bobbins; broken needles - you name it!!

It was not just the school machines - I believe I give off some kind of electro-magnetic energy field that makes all sewing machines malfunction!!

I have also never been good at other textile crafts but last year I learned to crochet after never being able to crack it and am now hooked (pun intended!!) - I have made baby clothes, cardis and shrugs for myself, a garter for a friend who is to be married:

So, after being banned from making anymore cushions I have started to make clothes!!

I sit in my sewing room - formerly a junk room and somewhere Mr Trebus (you remember? The late octogenarian Polish war veteran hoarder from BBC's "A Life Of Grime") would have been most at home - of an afternoon listening to Radio 4 and sewing away!!

Anyway, that's enough for now - more later....