Bank holiday sewing...

Yes, I have been sewing... but as so often happens, just too busy, and some secret bits, so it does not get itself up here!

 The last of my Lazy Bums Flying geese has got itself started... This is for Laurie, and will need a few more to go with it.  She asked for a grey, low volume background and bright colours against it.  So, here is the first of four 6" blocks.

Then, we have the fat Stash Brit Bee. It is DD1's month this time, and she has kept it simple. Log cabins, with a good red centre, and low volume on two sides, and cheery brights on the other two sides. Some low volume strips were sent, and one bright, and the centre square, the rest to come from stash.

 A second block whizzed up in next to no time..











 It will be a bright and cheery quilt when she gets it all together.





















And the big event happened yesterday. We had a tutu bodice sew-in.
Our lovely teacher had some tutu bases to use, but wanted pretty bodices to make the girls feel special and different. There were three of us, but four tutus, so, as it was a learning day as much as anything we played with fabric and selected what seemed suitable for three of them, and we each made one. Some fabric was brought, some came from my stash. And the effect of some fabrics is very different depending what lies below...

so this red organza looks delicate and pretty over white, but quite different over a red backing. Quite solid, really.

and is a pig to sew... but enough of that! we did not use that one this time.

 This delicate printed sheer fabric was mounted over a pink, and again, is a bit of a trial to sew, as it stretches in it's own fashion, and slips, but can be tamed with a wee bit of patience and an overlocker!
 
 My poor old overlocker is seeing plenty of use, and I trust it will go on providing its great, if temperamental, service...

 Elaine was an overlocker newbie, but within seconds she was confident, and got all her pieces neat and ready to go in short order.


between the three of us we used four machines... including my elderly Singer, which came out of retirement to fill that gap...

And she sewed the gold ribbon at the bottom of the net...

She has made a beautiful job there... Just hope these actually come near fitting- Having no child to fit on is a problem, as I do not finish edges before fitting usually. but hey, It was as much an exercise in how as anything else...

'I really made it!'

Yes, it will need trimming yet, but, the basic is there!


and both new to boning as well!

And, yes, I made this one. But then, I have done a few before...

In the middle of all this we had lunch- just quiche and salad, and then stopped for tea and cream cakes in the afternoon.... I had fun, and I hope the other two did as well, .... and, just perhaps, next time, I may have someone else doing tutus with me....

Dressed

You remember that fabric?

This was found at the Cloth shop, in Culcheth, if you are anywhere near it is well worth a poke around- she does all sorts of haberdashery and trims, as well as other craft supplies..

 well, it progressed, to this,












 and then to this...

and my daughter was kind enough to take a few photos.

Yes, the head is cut off deliberately...  it is the DRESS you are looking at, not me!







Oh, all right then- I will admit to being me!

and just for good measure, the next couple of shots are what goes on after midnight, when your self timer on the camera is maximum 10 seconds!

The invisible woman struck again!

















For the record, I cut most of the fabric out, all bar the black sections, on Friday night, and worked on Saturday 'morning', so after I had had lunch, I started sewing. There is an invisible zip in there, but I do not have an invisible zip foot, so I checked out the Burda tutorial for fitting one with the wrong foot- hey, it worked!!! and that took some time, I took a break for supper of about two hours-ish, and I finished sewing about ten past midnight. I reckon I took 6 1/2 hours to complete it, down to hems and everything.

I used my walking foot for a lot of the seams, and also my overlocker,  ( serger for the American element) so most seams are sewn twice.

On that showing, I reckon GBSB is safe from me, don't you? 

but the walking foot was a dream for sewing the jersey fabric. and I would definitely use it again!

Burda pattern 124 from magazine 9-2012