Looking forward to September

 I cant believe it is almost the end of the term. I have looking through the albums of all the wonderful makes and am blown away by the creativity I see in all of them. The collage below is just a snap shot of the many makes but also what we cover in class. They start with the basics of how to sew and move from there on to hand and machine embroidery, free motion embroidery, appliques, fabric manipulation, dyeing, block printing and of course clothing... I  adore the clown embroidery. I find my self smiling every time I look at it.
It's gratifying to see more than half the class take textiles as a subject.

New spaces open up in September as some of our students leave. For more information please check the Seams So Easy website

Introducing.... Simply Fabulous Embroidery and Sewing Kits!

After much prep work and working out kinks and screen and hair pulling here they are, my first venture into the world of sewing kits. 

I have created these sewing kits for those of us who love to sew and embroider. The kits come with a quirky screen printed fabric panel (hand pulled by me!) that you can embroider using any of your favorite stitches to transform into something unique. The kits also have everything you need to make them up. The printed panel is on organic and hand woven fabric giving it a wonderful texture and feel. There are three kits to choose from, The Madam Butterfly Wristlet, The Love Birds Cushion and the Mr Fox Tote bag.  I hope you enjoy making them as much as I enjoyed creating them. 

To celebrate, we are having a giveaway (several in fact), with the help of the lovely Fiona from the Sewing Directory.  Please head over and check out all the details on how to enter. There are vouchers from the Sewbox and Sewing Kits to be won! 
To check the kits out please check the Sewing Kits tab on this blog or go to www.seamsoeasy.com shop.  

DIY Couture dress, Kwik Sew skirt 3744 pattern and the end of term happenings...

I love summer sewing, the girls all break out in color and the dress and skirt patterns get taken out.

The two patterns that end up being the easiest to work through the term and allows scope for making it different is the DIY couture dress pattern booklet and the Kwik Sew 3744 Skirt pattern . easy to sew up and while there are variations to make this shape, the dress and skirt are really is quite easy and satisfying for the students to make up. 

This was made by a student who used a lovely bird printed knit for the body and woven cotton for the upper gathered bit. 

There are a few more in the making and the girls want them finished before the pictures are taken. I will  post on completion! 

And  this one which I made in under an hour to wear on a hot sunny day. Sorry for the grainy picture quality...

Kwik sew Skirt 3744

Made up into...

 This was a variation made up into a skirt. made up by one of my youngest students, The picture is not the best but she had a lovely contrast pocket with trim!  

Nothing like a bit of twirling to celebrate a great make!

There are two competitions happening next week and I look forward to posting the new make pictures next week. Meanwhile lots going on with the sewing kits that I am working on and that have finally made it to sale. available on the tab at the top of this site, under sewing kits... Have a great week. 

Of shopping trips and the Chelsea Flower Show...

Almost there! There is a project I've been working on that has had me working late, pulling my hair out but also has been really really exciting. More about that later. 

I was out looking for a book case for the children's room and I could not find one but here is what I did find..

An original cloth kits skirt pattern! the packet was missing the zips and fastening but the fabric is amazing and it's my size :) cant wait to see this finished. The price was a very nice three pounds. :) I completely forgot about the bookcase in my haste to buy this. :) 

I also went off to the Chelsea Flower show and it was amazing. I could not wear my lovely dress as it was chilly with showers coming down. but here are a few of the fabulous things I did see.

This was a sight garden that had different visual aspects. Cant see it very well  but the silver beads were simply amazing...

The Waitrose garden display which has amazing fruit and vege incorporated

The lord of the rings one...

My lovely friend Ivonne who I went with...

Are'nt these bronzes amazing? would love to have  any of them  in my garden.

A thoroughly enjoyable day. I will take more time to wander round the next time....

Hot Patterns Uptown dress , done.

The last couple of weeks have flown by. So much for me to do and so little time. I have made more progress into the my project which I cant share as yet. Anyhow.. my friend was kind enough to get tickets to the Chelsea flower show and I cant wait to go. In honor of this I pattern tested, read, made for myself a dress with the Hot Patterns Uptown Dress pattern mentioned the last time.

I used this fabric. (I took the picture on a lovely warm day with my newly washed fabric flapping in the wind!)

I adjusted the pattern slightly to better fit me, I dropped the waist down by an inch and added some lace, I cut a 12 top and a 14 bottom as I prefer a looser skirt and made the neck bindings half their original width. Though for next time I will drop the neckline further. I used the sleeve bindings at the original width which I think I will change for the next version of the dress and I added two rows of stretch lace to the bottom hem as I really love lace.. I am sorry I did not include pockets or something else into the pattern though I can see myself wearing this right through the summer. I used my over locker to finish the seams on this and was happy with the results.

A word on Hot Patterns the company, I LOVE the patterns, they are stylish and I always end up learning something from their methods. However saying this I found their instructions sparse. They very much assume you know how to put things together and not everything is clearly explained.. Saying this they do have a great sections of video tutorials done by the owner Trudee on YouTube, something I discovered when I realized there were a few holes in my understanding of their patterns. Find them here. They have tons of tutorials for lots of their sewing patterns and were well worth checking out.

Things am doing

Things am working on at the moment, screen prints for various projects... need a couple more to work on...

New patterns to trail for the classes. Dresses and more dresses. One from Hot patterns which I love

So many things! Right now though, the new trampoline has been delivered and needs putting up before Miss and Master come home :)

Over the last month...

My brither and sister in law came to visit in April, this was a real treat. I have not seen them since before christmas and the kids simply were over the moon. It was a short but very sweet holiday. We shall miss them very much and hope to see them soon. 

On my sewing table has been this trial run of the Colette Iris shorts pattern, which I really like. The pattern is well written and has a invisible zipper (which I am teaching the students to do this term, hence my shorts trial) and my image of my garment really does not to this justice. I increased the lenth of it (it originally had a 4.5" inseam, eeek) and now is a better suited to me 8" which does change the pattern from slinky shorts to mummy shorts. Sigh. I will add a better picture soon.

I was determined to make a dent in my sewing list. Master A,picked out some fabric for himself a few months ago and wanted me to make a shirt out of it for him and here is my offering to him. I winged it and did a size 7 which was very very genenrous and I think he will have to grow into this!  I used Kwik sew 2951 and it really sewed up really quickly. 

I love the guitar printed fabric!

And finally I have been crafting more with Miss T and she was interested in screen printing so...

Ta Daa... am not sure what we will do with this but am sure it will make it into their room soon :)

Am working on sewing kits next, these are different and I think quite special... more on that later...