Moving house and country

Dear All,

I have been super busy moving house and country, but finally seem more settled now. I have a few house projects coming up and also a sex and the city inspired tutorial. So stay tuned.....

Armani Inspired ♥

So I have had some grey tubing hanging around for a while and at first I thought I could make a super simple skirt from it until I saw this.....

Sorry about the quality of the photo but it's straight from a magazine. So this little beauty is from Armani and retails at 169 pounds. My mind went into overdrive as I was thinking how could I make this easily???

So I took a vest cut diagonally and add the mid section from the tubing, sounds easy right? It was...

I drew lines across the vest with chalk and then added an overlock stitch from my machine, a simple zigzag would do. Then I cut the pieces. With the tubing I just pinned it to myself and sewed it to ensure a nice fit. Then added the pieces together.

...and I now have my very own armani-esque little dress!

This was super easy to make and would have been easier if the vest wasn't knit. I absolutely loved wearing it last night and got some approving looks (so I hope).

✂ ✂ Happy Sewing ✂ ✂

Wunderful wunder under

So you know those moments when you're sat chilling on a Saturday night, then your partner comes up and informs you tomorrow is his friends little girls first birthday. Now in the UK it's not too much of a problem some shops are still open on a Sunday. Well here in Hungary you're lucky to find some shops open on a Saturday, you've a hope in hell on Sunday.

So off I go to my little fabric stash and see what I can whip up for the little beauties (turns out it's a joint party). I've just bought some wunder under (wunder what I hear you say), as the name implies this stuff is truly wunderful. It makes appliquing a doddle and easy for even the least crafty among us, so let me talk you through it.

First decide a shape you like, I went with a heart. Cut out your stencil, then use it to cut out from the wunder under.

You'll feel two sides to the stuff, one paper side and one rough side. You place the rough side onto the reverse of your fabric, then iron it for 5 secs without the steam on.

Once you've done this cut around the shape and then peel back the paper side....

Next place onto the fabric you'd like to applique on, place a damp cloth over the top and iron with steam for approximately 10 secs. Now your fabric shape is in place you just need to secure it with a zigzag stitch to stop it fraying.

I also made cute little hairbands to match...

Top tip: keep your wunder under in an airtight bag to stop it peeling away from the paper.

✄ Enjoy ✄

My worst nightmare!

So I cleaned the house, baby in bed nice an early a whole evening ahead of me to sew...I sit down to my sewing machine and it's not working!!!!


Then follows many google searches trying to think of ways to describe what seems to be going on (how would we live without it), from what I can gather it is a timing problem, which involves a bobbin hook . The reason why I'm pissed is it just got serviced last months after 3 good years of service. So I have learnt some new things about my sewing machine but I'd rather she just worked. So now I'm going to bed early thinking of all the things I could have finished. : (

Business Mums Unite!

As anyone who has read my blog knows I’m very new to this blogging world, however what I’m lacking in experience I am making up for in enthusiasm. I jumped at the chance for an invite for this event wonderful event Business Mums Unite (Thank you Charlotte). 

This event will bring mummies from all over the country to share experiences and ideas. There are super informative work shops with some amazing guest speakers too. 

The tickets cost 65 pounds if you would like to attend, which includes lunch and a goodie bag. The venue is Nottingham Albert Hall, which looks simply stunning! If you would like to advertise at the event it’s a very reasonable price of 30 pounds. This will get your cards or flyers in the goodie bag, and lots of social and media promotion. Click here for more info on that Advertising Booking Form. Trade stands available too.

So if this is something that lights a spark of interest within you, please join us for what will be an amazing event. I can’t wait to go. Follow any of the links below for up to date information. Hope to see you there.

Twitter: scandc

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=hp#!/pages/Business-Mums-Unite-Conference-and-Exhibition/162350760496576 

www.businessmumsunite.co.uk

www.businessmumsunite/blogspot.com

How to make a skirt from a man's shirt....

So here goes my first tutorial, hope it makes (some) sense.

Take a shirt, I've learnt that it helps to have a skirt corresponding to your size, so this one is a small and it worked much better for my frame.

Cut it underneath the armpit all the way across. Then measure a piece of elastic around your waist and add an extra 2.5 cms/1 inch. Fold the shirt inside out and pin down the top of the skirt ensuring that it's slightly bigger than the elastic for seam allowance.

Then place 2 pins about 2.5 cms apart leave this space open and sew around the rest of the skirt.

Now add a saftey pin to the end of the elastic and thread it all the way around.

Once you've done this sew the elastic together with 2 zigzag stitches reinforced to give it a strong hold like this...

Pull in the elastic and sew closed the gap you left and now it looks like a skirt! If you feel this is the maximum of your skill level you can stop here and it would still look lovely. However, I like to add a band and belt to the top it makes it a bit nicer.

So for the band cut two equal pieces slightly larger than your skirts width, they also need to be wide enough to fold over the top of your skirt with a seam allowance.

Then I also add a little belt this is two pieces approximately the same length as the 2 strips you've just cut and the widths are 6 cm. I choose an old denim shirt for my belt to be more contrasting. Fold down the middle on the reverse of the fabric and sew around the edge with a 0.5 cm seam. 

Then turn them inside out and now take the other two strips (stay with me here it may sound more complicated than it is!) fold them in half an iron, then fold in the edges so you get something like this...

Now we're going to sew these pieces together, you need to make sure that the belt will be on the outside, pin together and check before you sew.

Once you've sewn this top band together it should look like this...

All that is left now is to sew it to the skirt, now for any one who can sew professionally this bit may sound crazy so look away. I put the skirt on and pin the top whilst I'm wearing it (why?? I can hear people saying) I do this as I'm not sure if the skirt will still stretch properly if I don't. If you know the answer to this and I'm just being silly please say. 

So here is the final piece in use, I love it!! I always change the buttons to something cute too, these are barbie doll shoes. Hope this made some sense to someone.

♥ ♥ Happy Sewing everyone ♥ ♥ 

Too many clothes?

Is it possible to have too many clothes? As I was trying to squeeze in more clothes to my ever full wardrobe and slowly close the door. Acting as if it's completely normal for the whole of your wardrobe contents to spill on the floor every time you open it. Or do I have too many, my answer is yes so I'm downsizing and I'm going to be ruthless. If it hasn't been worn in a year it's going....


Managed to put aside a third of stuff to go, which feels very rewarding. Also found lots of stuff to cut up and make some new stuff from.


Nearly finished my shirt to skirt tutorial so will hopefully post it tomorrow.

Two t-shirts and a net curtain!

So I really love the idea of taking something old and making something new. Here is a project that taught me a lot of lessons. I found this tutorial and when I finally realised how it works (after watching it about 4 times) I gave it a go: http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to-sew-tube-top-lace-dress-for-prom-yourself-343522/

So here they are I have to say my motivation for using them was mostly impatience as no material store is open at 9pm on a Friday.

I'm not going to add all the pics I took but here you can see the two tees made into the tube and skirt.

All sewn in place now to just sew down the outside seem. Sounds so simple, which in reality it should be but I had to take it apart and re-do it 3 times but voila the dress and my dog.....

It's not the most perfectly made dress but the idea I absolutely love so I'm using it as a prototype and will buy some material and make a better one. Also going to be adding some tutorials soon, so stay tuned.

Nothing new

So I am setting myself a little challenge and I am determined not to buy any new clothes. I intend to make everything myself, my theme for this is all things pretty. So far this month I'm not doing so bad, I've created 2 skirts, a dress and I'm working on another dress as I write this (well not exactly as I write this that would be pretty impressive though). So I'm from the UK and have been living in Hungary for 5 years, my partner is Hungarian and my son is beautiful mix of the 2. We will be moving back to the UK in 6 weeks, anyway off topic but I wanted to say I'm doing a sewing class in Hungarian. This in itself has been pretty tough as I keep misunderstanding my teacher and cutting or stitching the wrong piece, but we get there in the end. So here is a cute floral skirt I made, this picture doesn't do the skirt or me justice but Dylan is cute on it! I had to laugh the British government are encouraging mums to ensure their toddler gets a least 3 hours exercise a day. This is Dylan in his 6th hour of action in about 40 degrees heat....this way mum.

Hello!

So after months of consideration I finally created  a blog, I hope to use this space to share things I love and occasionally things I hate too. Mostly it will involve sewing, over the last few months I have become a sewing addict. I have always loved to sew things but recently it went global. Ever picked something up in a shop and thought, how much? I could make that for cheaper. That's where it started for me and it continues to snowball.

My own personal work my very cute 16 month old Dylan (shorts made by mummy) Edible isn't he, I have to stop myself eating him on a daily basis.


I also hope to review some books and link things from the net that have inspired me. So let's see where this takes us. I'm pretty excited about it.


Back soon x