New baby quilt

The fabric world is full of fat quarters and they are in the most fun patterns, colours and styles! It was time to find out what the patchwork world was about.
Our friends Joe and Hannah were expecting a baby so what better time to make a quilt/baby blanket/play mat than that.

I spent ages searching for the perfect fabrics and finally chose six fat quarters from My Fabric House.
Patchwork is fun, but you do have to be accurate in your measuring and cutting! In my first year of my degree we had to cut squares out of calico, these squares had to be perfect! Perfect angles, perfect lengths and not off grain... a lot harder than you think!
This is not a project too be rushed, something I'm working on in life, apparently I'm turning into my mother - a self confessed rusher of life! So if you look closely not all the points meet up and some of the stitching is out of the ditch... but altogether I'm pretty pleased!

  

  

Three things I have learned...

Take the measure twice cut once rule very seriously!
Use lots and lots of safety pins (not normal pins... they fall out) to pin all the layers together when you are sewing.
Bias binding is a great way to finish the edge quickly (or in my case when the baby arrives 2 and half weeks early and you need it finished ASAP!)

Beach robe

Finally the summer is on it way and so is my holiday!

I have high hopes for my holiday in France this year (last year we had no sun all week... lame!) So I'm dreaming of days by the sea, in and out of the swimming pool and the smell of suncream on my face! With all that in mind Amelie needs a swimming towel, even better... a beach robe!

This pattern is from Dana made it. I particularly like her blog and videos. The bright colours and super friendly tutorials are right up my street! And obviously I like her blog name too :)

You can buy the beach robe pattern for about £5 on her website. She sends you a PDF with everything you need to know and links to tutorials on all the potentially tricky bits!

What I loved most about this, is I didn't have to source the fabric, I just hit Primark and bought the biggest towel I could find. The bias binding and striped fabric are both from Dunelm.

This is a great little project for any sewer with a little person. I used my overlocker to finish off all the inside seams, otherwise a zigzag stitch will be fine. Make sure you buy double fold bias biding, I didn't so I ended up pressing it all before I pinned it in place.
Don't look too closely at my bias binding round the curves of my tie - its not the neatest by far buuuut its fine for the one summer Amelie is going fit into it!

Really looking forward to its debut, hopefully on a hot sunny beach in France in a few weeks!

             

Free pattern playsuit

I love a free pattern, why buy a pattern when there are loads online!

This free playsuit pattern was from here, a little Pintrest find! The pattern is really simple with instructions and pictures to follow. You can print off the size 12-18Months pattern, however she does show you how to make your own pattern from a pair of shorts and a top!

I used this soft denim and pink polka dot cotton both super easy fabrics to sew with. I overlocked all my seams which saves a lot of time in finishing seams. Im all for making things quicker! It's fastened with poppers on the shoulder seams, I ran out of silver so I have used one white popper on each shoulder. Quirky!
Poppers aren't the easiest of things to put on, I want one of those industrial popper machines which they used on the GBSB for the eyelets on their corsets. But I don't have one of those so I used the handheld one which was fine, but the poppers are a little dented!

Im planning on making a few more of these for the summer, with a few variations! Watch this space... or my Instagram! :)

     

Summer bucket hat

Today I made a summer hat.

I have had this fabric in my stash for a while, hoping to find the perfect project for it. It didn't take me long to come across this free Oliver+S bucket hat Pattern and I knew this fabric would be perfect.

Super easy to follow instructions and a few little diagrams to look at. I had to do a fair amount of easing which isn't my favourite thing but all good practise. Loved sewing all the lines of stitches on the brim, totally makes it look more professional. And I was amazed at my neatness! 

Unfortunately I managed to make the hat a little small for Amelie I'm not even sure how?! So I will be giving this one away to a little lady with a smaller head! Tomorrow I'm actually going to measure Amelie's head and make it all over again... I don't mind, this make is fun and I'm excited for summer!

Oh and did I mention its reversible! Bonus!

             

    

          

  

  

Happy Christmas Everyone!

Me and the husband spent a day (literally) putting up the tree! The little one kept getting in the way! Thank goodness for nap times...

Happy Christmas x

Winter is here and so is my cape!

I have always wanted to make my own coat... so until I do, here's a cape!
This is New look pattern 6073, I used a boiled wool in this very autumnal raspberry pink. The lining is in Lindsey Tartan, I only know its Lindsey because my very Scottish Granny pointed it out straight away!

I blimin' love what I've made here, this is rare. Usually I make something, take a few snaps, do a blog post and it sits in my wardrobe until I eventually feel brave enough to wear it. But this, I LOVE!
Love the colour
Love the Tartan
Love the fact its going to keep me warm all winter!

  

I added a few extras like the top stitching up the centre front and around the hood and hem. I also stitched back my seam allowances towards the lining so I could get really clean edges. And of course I added a 'Jacq Made It' label!

Now the toggles... they were tricky! You can't pin leather because you will put a permanent hole through it. So I put it off for a week until one evening I just did it. Im not gonna lie they are a bit on the wonky side, but I like to think no one notices once its on :) 

I won't show you with the hood up, my mum thinks I look like the lady from the Scottish Widows advert... or a wizard... Yes the hood is huge!

      

The slits in the centre front seams come in pretty handy, especially when picking up a little person who wants to have her photo taken too... what a poser! ;)

Blog Hop...

I'm blog hopping….
The lovely and slightly insane Lou from "In which a bit of an enthusiast sews six patterns in a year"...go check her out! She is hilarious and she plays the bass guitar! Anyway, she has sent me a bunch of questions which I have been mulling over and will now attempt to answer. Here we gooooo…

Why do I write?

Good question. I'm not a lover of writing haha! Seriously my housemate practically wrote my dissertation at college! (lets hope my tutors aren't reading this) Why on earth do you have a blog I hear you say! I started this blog a few years back because I was making lots of things and doing nothing with them. I needed a little focus so I started blogging just to give myself some amusement. In the last year or so I have tweeted a few pics and blog posts, it turns out other people are actually interested in what I have made. Really I'm a lover of a photo. Nothing pleases me more than a blog post full of photos! I'm a keen instagrammer too if your interested! 

  

 

What am I working on?

As any of you creative bods will know the list is endless… until recently for me! I have stopped buying patterns, fabric, wool, thread etc until I complete all of my partly finished projects. So recently I finally used my 80's curtain fabric to make a skirt. So much love for that fabric!

Of course I do have my next project lined up and something I have wanted to make for a few years is a coat/cape for the winter. I want to make in a bright pink wool so I'm on the search for a perfect pattern. Let me know if you have anything to inspire me!

An on going project is my little Etsy shop. I make kids T-shirts and baby bloomers. This all started with me making  a few clothes for Amelie (thats my baby, see pic below for the most amazing mono brow expression) Friends kept asking where I got her clothes from (I once caught a friend searching for a label in Amelie’s baby bloomers!) so I decided to sell some stuff. I opened a shop and its good fun! 

How does it differ from others of its genre?

It doesn't have much written going on! I did a three year costume production degree which involved writing down every single process we did for everything we made. I left college nearly 6 years ago and I am still not ready to write another step by step guide!

How does my writing process work?

It goes like this.... finish project, take photos (usually with my remote in hand), sit on photoshop for hours editing (my favourite bit!) do a bit of writing, publish the post. Then I send a panicked txt to my husband and mum to check spellings and grammar. I must learn to get them to check it before I publish...I get way overexcited! This year has been a quieter year on the blog due to the baby arriving in January. I'm hoping now I have a routine going on I can do a few more posts and keep everyone entertained! 

Check it out, I was huuuuge! 

And so to my nomination… Zoe from Tadpegs. This blogger amazes me with the amount she blogs knowing she has three little children and a part time job. Where does she find the time, nobody knows! I have known Zoe for a very long time, we used to go on camping holidays together as kids! Tadpegs is a all about the homemade lifestyle, food, craft, sewing and photography. Zoe is on a journey to make life homemade and inspire you to do the same! Go check her out next week when she will be joining the blog hop. 

Im now exhausted after all that writing... laters! x