Red Gertie Hack

Happy Friday everyone! We've been having a heatwave here, I bet you're bored to death of hearing about it by now. Last night the humidity broke and it poured it down, so today it's a beautiful day with a light breeze, perfect. I've been getting a lot of sympathy due to the heat, which is lovely. However, the office isn't actually that hot it's just walking about that is warm, I am running low on work clothes now which I'm going to have to rectify sometime soon... in all that free time I have (?!)

I finally got a free evening to try and go swimming last night so off I trotted to the aquatic centre to give it a go. Mostly I went to feel the weightlessness of the baby in the water, as it is amazing! So I mostly just floated (whilst trying not to get in the way of the super serious guy who decided to swim fast in the slow lane that me and a lady were happily occupying). I was a bit surprised when I got out of the pool and felt the weight I'd been carrying around, no wonder I'm so slow getting about.

This top... no longer fits. Neither does the skirt! Ha ha! It's under a little bit of strain in this picture, and it only got worse I'm afraid. But I absolutely love it and can't wait to get it out of the wardrobe post-bump. 

The original pattern that I started from was the Gertie vintage blouse. I know there's actually a blouse really similar to the one that I made in the book, but I'm lazy, and as I'd already traced off the one below I just made changes to that. 

I scooped out the neckline, left the sleeves as they were and left out the large darts at the sides. I also left out the button closure at the back as I wanted this to be a very simple top. I was left with a roomy, comfy plain top. 

Construction on this was crazy simple, I followed the instructions for the BHL Anna, whereby you stitch the shoulder seams together first, hem the sleeves, and then hem under the arms. This means that you don't end up with tiny arm holes to hem all the way around on a delicate fabric, hooray!

PGP Update: I overdid it with the holidays (mixed with a bunch of unusual/ uncomfortable beds) which meant I was pretty sore last week. However, I saw the physio on Monday and have been much better since. I had my first full week in work this week, without having to work from home once!! As a note on what happens with PGP, just look at how crazy misaligned I was at this stage!! (This must be over a month ago now) Look at my shoulders! This is me thinking I'm standing straight, no wonder the physio said, ooh yes you are quite twisted ha ha!

Those of you with amazing memories may remember I talked about the embroidery on this blouse in my Sew magazine column a while ago. The plainness of this top made me want to add a little something, as you know I struggle with plain. Instead of trying to make flowers with any fancy stitches, I freehand drew the design I wanted onto my blouse and stitched this in tiny back stitch, sometimes simple is best. 

If you'd like to learn the art of embroidery, then come along to my next class at the ministry of craft, new dates to be published very soon. Ministry of Craft

I reinforced the section to be embroidered with silk organza, which worked perfectly, however I should have zig-zagged the edge of this as it has frayed as you can see here.

The neckline has also been faced with bias binding for a clean finish on the inside. I love bias binding, I know everyone says that but this a true and deep love that dares speak its name. It just makes things like this hack, (where I have drafted the neckline) so much easier as you don't then need to draft a co-ordinating neck facing.

I hope the weather holds for you this weekend, I'm going back to Blackburn for a family do and also going to a Brian Cox stars talk type thing on Sunday, looking forward to it! Though... not sure what happened to 'I'm definitely done with going anywhere' ha ha. Apparently I don't believe in taking it easy. 

Side note: my ankles are massive, that is all.

Exploring Embroidery

Something that I don't talk about very much on here are my other crafting adventures, probably because they are so slow! I always have one or two things on the go, from knitting, to crochet and embroidery, but not often do I have anything finished to show.

Recently I bought an embroidery sorting box... I doubt that's its real name.  I've had all of my embroidery threads in a little box all mixed up for quite a while, and they were starting to get knotted.

Ooh look at those lovely colours, I spent hours winding these on, it makes me very happy to see them all lined up in their rainbow. I used to spend hours sorting my felt tip pens like this, woe betide anyone who messed them up! Anyone out there have any idea how to use the pink windy thing in there? I think it's for winding on the threads, but it basically just fell off a lot or felt really loose.

When I went on holiday to Donegal, a couple of months ago now, I had an idea I would do some sort of craft, something small, and I love doing embroidery, so I took along all my bits and pieces. I came up with the below, it's still in construction, as with all embroideries these things take time.

Drawing this embroidery has really opened up something in me, I've been drawing on and off all summer, and have a few more ideas for embroideries in the pipeline. I'm also trying to develop my techniques so have started to collect new stitches, and ideas for new images on my pinterest board, take a look if you have an interest... Ha don't think I ever made the connection between interest and pinterest before.

I was hoping to knit a cardigan on that holiday, I've only ever attempted to knit something the size of a cardigan once, and I got bored halfway up a sleeve.... so wish me luck! I say 'was' and 'hoping', as the wool didn't arrive in time for the holiday, and it keeps being sent to the post office depot, and as I haven't been in home on the weekend for months I still haven't got the wool! I have finally now sent it to Mr.T's work so hopefully I'll finally get this summer cardie made... in time for winter ha ha. Sounds about right, have a great weekend!

Stars in their eyes interview dress

One of my goals for this year is to develop a 'work wardrobe', staple dresses and skirt/ shirt combinations that I can throw on in the morning and feel smart. I want to able to show my unique style, whilst feeling like a boss (not for sensitive eyes).

This dress is the first step on that road! I love this dress, I feel smart and stylish, I can wear dramatic tights of all colours and shapes, and I got to stretch my embroidery skills on something other than home projects which was cool. I might try and do some more of this, maybe some flowers like the one from this cushion on the bottom edge of a similar dress? I feel the need for a bit of a spring make.

The dress is a combination of the pastille bodice, and New Look 6128 (shocker of a skirt choice). I made a christmas party dress last year (yet to blog about) and I love the neckline for a night out, but for work it's a bit on the low side. I altered the neckline of the bodice by lying out the pattern piece on some medical paper, drawing out my adjusted pastille bodice and free-handing a scooped look with my french curve.

I then cut out my lining in black linen-look cotton from Minerva, which I bought to make another New Look 6128 (never blogged... hmm sensing a theme), which I made last year for something light to wear in the summer months. I've got loads left and have been using it to muslin dress bodices, and then using this muslin as a lining for the actual bodice.

I am very proud of the finish of this dress, it is fully lined, with black bias edging on sleeves and the bottom of the skirt. It really picks out the black of the embroidery.

I went for a non-static generic lining for this project. I like the way it swishes when I walk, and I know my tights aren't going to get stuck on it. Probably should have ironed the lining for this pic but you get the idea.















In order to do the embroidery, I completed the bodice, attaching the lining to the neckline, and under-stitching. I then tacked on some silk organza to stabilise the fabric, and to give a white surface to draw on. I then free-hand drew on the design I was after with a water soluble pen, and stitched with black polyester thread the outline of the stars so that it would show through on the right side of the dress.

I then filled in these stars with a combination of backstitch, french knots and brick stitch.

In order to create the design, I pinned some images of stars on my pinterest board, to give me an idea of what I was looking for. Originally I was planning on creating a pdf which I could use as a template, but once I reached that point, I found it easier to draw the stars on by eye. It was easy once I knew what I was looking for. I thought about doing free-hand machine embroidery for the stars but after some practice realised I liked the control of the hand-stitching.

I even got to match my pockets to the star-theme, with some stitched together very last scraps of my planet fabric.

And now, for making it through all the techie bits... me and an umbrella!... and yes, I chopped off all my hair! :-D

Accessories and Venue

The veil, I wanted to buy my veil by the time I had finished the dress, I was tired to be honest and a bit wiped out with all the other making we'd been doing. Unfortunately we couldn't find a nice one under about £100 so out came the sewing machine! I mean veiling is about £5 a metre for goodness sake.

To make the veil I picked up the 1 1/2 metres I had bought, clipped it to my head with a kirbi grib and marked on where I wanted it to end. I then led it out on the ground, cutting off any excess. I then folded it first in half lengthways and then downwards, and rounded off the edges. I looked up how to make one online but couldn't really grasp their instructions. But once I had the fabric laid out the material all became clear.

I had made the flower for my bouquet but as I had two it was making the bouquet unbalanced, so I used it on the veil! I used a variety of lace including that used in the wedding dress, and then attached a small veil comb underneath. To finish the edges I used 3metres of ivory lace trim, just sewing it flat onto the raw edge as veiling does not fray.

The bouquets were a joint effort between my mum and me, the two at the bottom were made using the excess off the bottom of the bridesmaid dresses so as to match my beautiful bridesmaids! The leaf you can see poking out of the top one is a felt cut-out of a leaf I picked up when Terence and I got engaged. I knew there was a reason I was so sentimental!

Here you can see a sample of the (over 100m!) of bunting that we made for the wedding. My sister and I cut out the majority of the triangles (with some help from Mother in Law), and my Mum sewed basically all of it together herself. Don't know how she managed to keep going, it was amazing! We used all sorts of colours and designs, trying to stick mostly with the blue and green but adding in the odd galaxy fabric to keep things interesting!

One of my favourite elements of the decoration were the centrepieces, they were made with hand-made flowers, spray painted candelabras, dinosaurs and animal toys and a whole mess of help from all of our amazing friends and family. Thank you to you all, I'll leave you with the pics as they tell the story of their construction better than I ever could.

You made it through the wedding posts! Well done! Just wanted to add a quick note to say thank you to everyone who helped us with this. It was the biggest thing we've ever done/ will probably ever do again. Thank you to all those who had a hand in our wedding, whether you made things, or just listened to us gripe for months on end about all sorts of nonsense. We love you guys! You made our day what it was.

Wedding Invitations

So it's been a bit wedding dress heavy over here in my last posts, so I thought I'd give you a break, and you can see me and Mr T's joint effort on the invitations. All of the drawn elements were done by my super talented husband (so weird to call him that still), you can see some of his drawing skills here. And all the embroidery/ fabric elements were me :-)

Hope you like them! We love them, I want to put them up all over the house. Maybe I'll have to settle for just the one.

Introduction to Embroidery, and teaching stuff

So over the past few months I have been hinting at a very exciting something coming up in the future. This is something I've wanted to do for the longest time, and I thought I'd share my feelings on why! But first, details of the course.

Dun dun du-dun dun duuuuh!

 

I will be teaching a hand embroidery class at Fred Aldous in Manchester for the wonderful people at Ministry of Craft.

In a three hour slot you will learn how to make this Russian Doll design on a classy tea towel, and take away two patterns for smaller Russian dolls to complete the set.

You will learn basic embroidery stitches, including backstitch and chain stitch, then progress up to daisy chain, blanket stitch and french knots.

The class costs £35 and you can reserve your place here.






So onto the philosophising! I'll begin at the beginning, when I was at School I decided to be a teacher, probably a secondary school teacher (because teaching teenagers for some reason didn't scare the bejesus out of me) and teach them English, possibly Drama. So I went to uni to do Literary Studies, Classic Civilisations and Drama. This was when the train became derailed slightly. I was put off teaching, I had exhausted my brain. I didn't want to go straight into teacher training, I wanted to do nothing, sit around all day and stare at the TV and not think about the future. This is something I've heard from alot of other people at university, that actually instead of motivating you to go forward you feel demotivated, lacking in energy and generally depressed by the end of it. Is this something you've encountered/ experienced? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

So I decided to take a couple of years off, whats the rush? I said, teaching will always be there, and what with the further study and the hell a lot of work involved when you get the job I just couldn't face it. So I worked, first in a fabric shop, where I learnt loads of new crafting skills, and then got into admin jobs (another thing loads of people from uni are now doing). I attempted to sew and sell stuff for a while, but realised that I don't like doing lots of the same item over and over, I don't have the patience for it. Also, selling to people who have that look in their eye (I could make that) became depressing. Therefore all power to those who manage this! I bow down to your patience and perseverance. If you do this, share your thoughts on how you manage it, I'd love to hear them.

And then I moved to Edinburgh, where I decided now was the time to apply for teacher training, so I became a Scout leader to gain experience. I also joined Granny Greens and started helping out on the workshop evenings, throwing in tidbits of help here and there, which then grew to become leading most of the workshops at the craft group by the time I'd left (bigging myself up here). Now I loved the teaching aspects of these (due to the aforementioned wanting to teach) but they took up a lot of my free time, especially Scouts. And it occurred to me that I enjoyed doing this more than I would teaching. I was doing the things I wanted to do, leading young people (Scouts) and teaching crafts!

So! In conclusion, my dream now is coming true, and I'm going to be teaching a classroom full of people the basic skills needing to embroider. I'm so excited, and can't wait to get started. I can do my day job, which gives me the perfect balance of money, challenge, and going home not thinking about work, and I can do extra projects which fulfil my need to teach. I hope I see some of you at the class.

A very excited Deborah

Not a pillow... not a cushion... but definitely embroidered

This is quite a picture heavy post, which I suppose is better than a word heavy post, so I'll try and keep the words to a minimum. You can see previous incarnations of this project here and here, and in this one I'm going to show you how I finished off the project once the embroidery was complete (another project finished, hoorah!).

To finish the embroidery I learnt a new stitch, fly stitch which I used to finish the lilac lavender/ reeds (?). I used these instructions, and it seemed very similar to detached chain.

The rest  of the embroidery was finished using a combination of detached chain, lazy daisy, french knots and backstitch. If you'd like a more in depth list of how to do this pattern, (and perhaps a scan of the pattern itself) please let me know and I will do a more developed post.

To finish the cushion, I started by trimming off all the edges with my new toy rotary cutter. I then pressed in the sides, giving 3/4" of border around the outside, pressing the bottom edge first, and matching the top layer to this.

To press in the corner, fold in the corner of the edge down to your pressed crease on the inside. Press the original crease again, with the triangle on the inside. Like this:

I then sewed in the pom pom edging I posted about here, between the two layers using my zipper foot:

Once I had a basic layer for decoration, I got out all the bits and pieces of trim from my stash that went well with the pompom trim/ embroidery. I laid these onto the cushion to give me a starting point.

I then attached all trims which would be treated as one. Such as:

 In order to make the plait as above, I stitched the three ribbons together with the machine, leaving the needle in. I then plaited from this point, stitching the other end together when complete.
 

 I then stitched the layers on in stages, one ribbon at a time, beginning with the layers on the bottom, and finishing with those on top (as you'd imagine). This was quite complicated, as I tried very hard to only stitch through one layer of fabric. This meant that I had to resort to hand stitching for some elements.

This is the finished project, what do you think? Should have taken the pics in daylight really, apparentl 7.30am doesn't constitute daylight anymore.

 

Deborah