Dino Blind

So I've been trying to tweak the bathroom, make it as colourful as possible to detract from the strange grey geometric tiling. I think i'd quite like the tiles if they weren't on every wall. I'm not a big fan of this in general, I think it has something to do with going to university housing where all the walls and floors were covered in beige tiles.

So anyway... dino blind! Not much to this one, me and Mr T each chose a dinosaur, (me being stegosaurus, his being a velociraptor, and we spent a happy evening watching tv and cutting out dinos from sticky back vinyl plastic pieces (from amazon, you can choose whichever colours you want!)

I adjusted the blind (got to play with a hacksaw), measured the blind and marked where the dinos would go, and that was it! Love this blind, kind of want to put ones in every room of the house now.

MMMay, Great Gatsby and a Pyjama Party!

I'm going to confess... I failed the Great Gatsby Challenge. I just didn't get inspired, I didn't have any really good fabric for it in my stash and in the end... I was lazy. Sorry ...!

Second confession... I didn't achieve everything I wanted to with Me Made May, I liked the outfits I wore, but I didn't get much sewing done at all and therefore once I'd worn those outfits I ran out of stuff to wear! I kept wearing my clothes but really it was pretty boring of me to put up more and more pics of me in a straight skirt and Mathilde (no matter how much I love them). So what did I learn? I need more me-made clothes! Plus, I need to adjust my New Look 6723, looking at amazing dress makers like Dolly Clackett, I'm just not happy with the fit, and so surprised myself by not wearing it at all through May. So, I've got the seam rippers out and I'm starting again. I'll let you know the results!



In order to try and redeem myself to the sewing gods I am immediately signing up for the Pyjama Party over at Did You Make That. This is a great challenge to try as I have already cut out some pyjamas! Though I did cut out one of the pieces the wrong way round.


All I need do is finish them before the deadline of the end of June. I can do this! ....Right? Never been good with deadlines, just the word sends a shiver down my spine. But I like that I'm trying to push myself to achieve things on time. That's got to be good for me.



And here's the reason I haven't been doing much sewing recently, I've been spending time outdoors! I can't help but play in the garden when it's this sunny, so difficult to stay indoors! Sorry, not sorry :-)

 Not sure how interested in this you guys are... but love my garden so here's another pic for good luck!

I've been working on lots of home things recently (and by working on I mostly mean going to IKEA) I've got an excellent dinosaur themed post planned. So happy with it, hope you like it!!

Sleeveless Mathilde

Here is my Mathilde Sleeveless Blouse as promised! I love this blouse, it's floaty, spring-like, work appropriate, and a stash bust, hoorah. The fabric was bought in my years at Abakhan and is a polyester-type chiffon-type material (not very accurate description I know). 

It's been a staple through Me Made May, as some of you may have noticed. Not sure why I'm pouting in so many of these pictures... maybe I was feeling especially posey. Apologies for looking so shattered in these, it's been a hard week! I'm shattered, but it's nearly the bank holiday weekend. Before I get into the ins and outs of this make, I wanted to let you know that me, my sis and best friend went to London last weekend and found the bridesmaid dresses... and they are amazing! Can't wait to show you, you lucky people you.

I put a lot of effort into this blouse, this is the first time I've ever worked with chiffon (?), and wanted to make sure it wasn't skew whiff. I took my time, and wasn't able to draw on the fabric with anything that would show up due to the pattern/ material so as you can see (just) in the above three pics, I traced all my markings with tacking stitches in orange. This was a very lengthy process, but totally worth it, as everything turned out straight, and my tucks are much better than with my black Mathilde.

I wanted to really highlight the best elements of this top (like the tucks and yoke) and didn't want them to get lost in the pattern, so I added some lace along the seam of the yoke, and was going to add some behind each tuck, but it just looked far too busy, so I settled on the top line and I'm really happy with it.

I also bought both ivory and pale grey bias binding to finish the seams, to see how both looked, and I settled on the ivory as it went so well with the lace. And I bought orange flower buttons to go along the back, but again it looked busy so I went for ivory buttons, but in all different shapes and sizes (relatively similar) this did take a while, as each button hole was different to the last. But it was a great stash buster, this has been good on the stash-busting all round. To complete, here are some pics of me looking silly and tired.

Storm Trooper Desert

This is our Storm Trooper blue desert, not much to explain really. We bought the cactii from a giant garden centre that has opened near my mum and dad, and I got the mini greenhouse years ago at the Gardeners World show in Birmingham. I love gardens, and gardening, and my sewing usually takes a back burner this time of year while I try and keep up with all the seeds and things that are ready at the moment.

I lined the base with a thick compost bag, filled it with compost and then placed the cactii (still in their pots) in between the compost, the cactus on the right was deadly! All I did was brush it and my whole hand was covered in tiny needles, I'm glad it's safely behind glass now. I then covered in the blue sand, and placed the all important storm trooper pride of place in his desert, he finds it very difficult to stand up.

This is now my favourite corner in the house, with the jellyfish from my previous post, curtains all hung up, and now a new lamp and lampshade which goes with the colour scheme in the room (instead of the red which Mr T was pretty attached to. More house things to come, including an in-depth look at my sewing room, the first room in the house that feels properly finished!

MMM'13 Week 2 Day 3

MMM'13 Week 2 Day 2

MMM'13 Week 2 Day 1

Apologies for the delay in last weeks posts, I have no excuse except extra special tiredness and Mr T's birthday... in order to keep some element of interest I'll post these once a day over the next three days, and resume normal service on Sunday.