Making a Mortmain

Early last year I had the opportunity to pattern test for the Gather Kit gals and got my mits on their first dress pattern, the Mortmain.

The Mortmain pattern has now gone live and is popping up in instagram feeds and blog posts all over the land so I though I would share my dress with you.

Despite looking like a beautiful spring day these photos were actually taken on a bright but blisteringly cold February day! The bare trees are a dead giveaway.

I really love the fit of this dress, so flattering but still very comfortable, a must for me!

Because it was a pattern test you are never really sure whether you will have a wearable garment at the end, which is partially what influences my fabric choice. It is a vintage cotton sheet, but I did have a vision of a fun ice cream pastel coloured retro style dress and I was lucky that I got a wearable dress after the testing!

Because I was testing I did not deviate from the specified pattern, the only tweek I made was to add in seam pockets, I can't stand a dress without pockets! Next time I will line the bodice rather than using facings, as I much prefer this finish and find it more comfortable.

I just love the exposed zip in this pattern, its so me! If you are looking for a good selection of coloured zips then Jaycotts is a good source.

Here is a glimpse of me and my mini assistant at the end of the shoot, rushing back indoors to warm up! I am looking forward to stitching up my next Mortmain, this time with a few alternations, a gathered skirt and long sleeves I think in a lovely chambray I have had stashed away. If you want to make a mortmain you can get the pattern here or from many online fabric stores too. And if you are local you can see my dress in person in Social Fabric in Totnes, Devon where it is on display in the window, along with a nice supply of the pattern itself for sale.

Going off grid

Ahem, as you may have already noticed I have been having an extended break from blogging. How refreshing its been too. I have missed you all but I have been filling my time with teaching, sewing, lots of knitting and lots of relaxing. Life has been busy and I have been making a conscious effort to rest. I have been feeling unwell for months now but with spring on the way and lots of duvet days, slow knitting and reading under my belt it feels good! I have still been sharing, as you doubt have read from other bloggers I am loving Instagram. I feel like I am leaving those of you who don't use it out of the loop but I love its instant, no nonsense way of connecting and sharing. I also find SO much inspiration on there!

I hope to pop in a little more regularly now that I am starting to get that spring back in my step! I thought I would start off with something completely new for me, a knitting tutorial!

Annie at the Village Haberdashery is so great, she sent me this amazing Manos Silk Blend yarn when I told her I had an idea for a cowl. A really simple cowl with a lovely leaf motif, the perfect introduction to lace knitting. And her photos as always are amazing!

It knits up really quickly, full instructions for the cowl are over on the Daily Stitch Blog and you can pick up some of the beautiful Manos Silk Blend from The Village Haberdashery here, you only need two hanks! If you are local you can pop into the shop and see my cowl for yourself, it really is so soft, perfect to wear next to your skin.

This is the first knitting pattern I have written and I am so proud, especially as I only started knitting a year ago. I know I am hooked for life now!!

Sewing Tales to Stitch and Love

I am super excited to be part of Kerry's blog hop for her fantastic new book Sewing Tales to Stitch and Love

I knew as soon as Kerry asked me if I wanted to be part of the blog hop I was in! I just love a little fairy tale and have two girls who feel exactly the same!

Kerry is sweet and she rounded up the most amazing box of goodies from fantastic sponsers, they were so generous and they gave us some wonderful tools and notions to be able to make whatever we wanted from the book to showcase to you. Being a quilter this was brilliant for me as I didn't own any of these tools. But they are so cheap and simple and make the world of difference to ease of construction and your finished look.

Photo Courtesy of Kerry Goulder

So a huge thanks to the really generous sponsors!

What with the book being packed choc full of amazing projects and having all the tools I needed to make them, narrowing it down to one to show you was looking like a pretty hard task!

But after looking though the book I just knew it had to be Drifter the Orca. Both my girls adore sealife, we are regular visitors to our local aquarium and one of their favorite bedtime stories is The Snail and The Whale by Julia Donaldson. And my eldest daughter decided she wanted to help make him.

Despite the shaping on the whale he was incredibly easy to construct, Kerrys instructions are so clear and concise that my daughter was able to follow them herself, needing only a little help from me on the sewing machine. Aside from the hand stitching and a bit of help guiding it around the curves through the machine she made it all herself. She had a whale of a time (harharhahr!!)

So here is Eloise's Orca, named Dipper. We can't wait to take him with us on our next trip to the aquarium and of course he will be a happy prop during bedtime stories!

I on the other hand am scheming when I can set aside some free time to make up more projects from the book, they are too cute to resit!

Today is the last day of the blog hop, but head on over to Kerrys blog where she is giving away a copy of the book and one of the amazing goodie boxes from the sponsors! She also has some really cute extra projects not featured in the book for each day of the blog hop. I know I am most definitely going to be sewing up a little fur cape!

: : : : A huge thank you to Kerry and the Sponsors for giving me the chance to take part and for the             wonderful goodies, Elosie and I have had a magical time stitching up our own little sewing tale : : : :

A Birthday Pony for My Little Girl

My children can often be heard chanting the sterotypical 'Daddy, can I have a pony?'

They adore them, when we visited London earlier this year we treated the girls to a trip to Covent Garden Build a Bear store where my youngest chose a My Little Pony. That poor pony has been dragged hither and thither and is looking a little worse for wear! So I decided it was time to give her a break and make something new for my daughter to obsess over.

A couple of weeks ago I made a last minute birthday gift for a good friends lovely little boy

Probably the most challenging paper pieced project I've done to date, actually if it hadn't of been a last minute rush I would have probably thought more about it and not even attempted it!

But I am glad I did because its really helped my confidence and I knew I wanted to do something similar for Juliettes birthday. You may remember I shared this little fabric pull with you a while ago

Almost every pink solid from my stash and a little Tilda for the background, thank goodness for my Simply Solids So Solids Crew subscription!

And I turned them into this, using this fab free pattern from Liljabs. Originally sewn up on Liljabs as Rainbow Dash I decided to change mine to Pinkie Pie to tie in with my daughters Little Pony toy.

All that was left was to turn it into a cushion cover, cue sweet little pink scrappy patchwork with her favorite things, mermaids, owls, strawberries, and many more.

Then add an invisible zip, new new favorite closure for cushions, and the perfect vintage sheet fq from my stash (originally from Mary, check out her shop for more amazing vintage fabrics!)

I think Balloon the Pony approves don't you? My daughter did too, the cushion has not left her side since her birthday, she even wanted to take it in the bath!

(note: Mater pattern is also available on the same Liljabs page as the My Little Pony)

Playing around

Whilst I'm in the midst of the youngest's multiple birthday celebrations this weekend (seriously I'd love to be 4 again and get to celebrate over several days!) why not go and check out my latest tutroial on The Daily Stitch over at The Village Haberdashery. I've made a sweet hexagon playmat that doubles as a bag to clear away those toys in a jiffy! It is also very friendly to the frugal quilter, using just 6 fat quarters (with practically no waste!) and a little yardage for the backing but still gives you a generously sized playmat.

Go and check it out! I'm off to blow up balloons and make a pass the parcel!

Super Tote for a Super Me!

I'm directing this post at all you mums out there.

I know that's marginalizing the rest of you but someone needs to say this.

We are SUPER.

All of you who stay up in the night to watch over a poorly child, then end up sharing your bed with another. Then spend the next day fueled by caffeine and the knowledge it is your sole responsibility to get food into the house and onto the plate of said offspring, whilst also holding down a job, maybe even two and at the end of it trying to find a little time for something that makes you happy and feel like a person. You are the super mums, all of you. It may seem a little big headed to say this but its the truth and we are all to often too hard on ourselves, so here's a little reminder.

I'm reminding myself in a very literal way, see I may have booked a little treat for myself as a reward for all the hard work i've been doing of late. And this treat means travelling and a couple of nights away, which we all know means I need a new bag! Enter the Noodlehead Super Tote. I just love Anna's patterns, they are simultaneously simple and stylish and so well written. They come together really well and are a delight to sew rather than a chore. I had planned on making a weekender for this trip but actually I wanted a fun sew and the weekender was irritating me before I'd even cut the fabric so I cast it aside! I am so glad I did.

I used very special fabric for this one, a vintage wool skirt id been saving forever for the right project (50 pence in a charity shop years ago) a FQ of Hello Pilgrim for the outside pocket and also for the inner pockets, my only ones but actually as painful as it is to use such precious fabric its so nice to see it every day on your bag (quilt, pouch etc) than occasionally in your stash.

I used an Orla Kiely dust bag for lining the inside and the inside pocket, another 50 pence bargain at a garage sale.

You might also notice a bit of a gold thing going on here, I'm getting a little obsessed by metallic at the moment. I can't tell you which was more of a bugger to sew, the slippery yet somehow sticky gold piping or the tangley and awkward gold stitching on the handles (which I opted to sew after id put the bag together with my hand up through the turning hole in the lining because I didn't want my stitches showing on the inside of the bag) But I can tell you it was worth it.



So there you have it, a Super Tote to remind me that I am (even if only occasionally) super too!

Oh and yay me, here is my latest knitting finish, a Hitchhiker shawl. I think my best achievement this year is learning to knit, finally. I am so pleased I got it after many attempts at learning, at last!

I am off to referee the half term shenanigans with the children and somehow find time to turn this into a birthday present for the youngest by Thursday, whilst she is not looking of course!

a tale of two dresses

OK, so one is technically a tunic top but I'm not lying when I say that sometimes I am pretty jealous of my 3 year old daughter. This week she got 2 new dresses, I love them both and wish they were in my size. Of course I could sew clothes up for myself, but when they are little and cute like this they take practically no time and are a joy to sew!

Actually that's a lie, they take no time and are a joy to sew until you decide that you NEED to modify the pattern and make a long sleeve, which of course you need to draft yourself, which you have never done before. But you wouldn't let that stop you, after all this is how you have envisioned it and you cannot defer from the top you dreamt about. So I did draft a sleeve, from scratch using her measurements, and it didn't fit, so I cut another sleeve. Thank goodness this one was OK or I would have been out of fabric!

Speaking of fabric, the wonderfully sweet Trudi sent me this for Juliette, it couldn't be more perfect for her. I have never met  a  girl who is so mad on moving vehicles, in particular heavy plant and construction vehicles and trains!

The intended recipient was so pleased with her new top that she put it on and promptly went straight out to a party to show it off (again, this is why I am jealous of her, oh to have such a social life!)

Pattern, Geranium Dress from Made By Rae
Size 4T
Modifications, drafted peter pan collar & long sleeves
gifted fabric from Trudi, children at play by Sarah Jane Studios polka dot collar and vintage red buttons from stash

Earlier this week I refashioned an old skirt of mine into another dress for Juliette. Same pattern this time with no modifications. I just loved the colours in my skirt but it was a really bad style for me and I never wore it.

Pattern, Geranium dress from Made by Rae
size 4T
no modifications
Repurposed fabric from my old skirt and new glitter buttons chosen by Juliette

She choose the glitter buttons herself, it took a while! So happy to see the fabric on my daughter, if only I could stop her growing........