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Thursday, March 29, 2018

What should I sew next? - Vote closed

Edited to advise the results:

Dress - 5
Vest - 3
Coat - 7

I've got 3 choices, all have good reasons to be sewn, none have been used by me in the past.  Help me decide!


1:  Butterick 5951 which is a retro style dress; I'd be doing  a mash up of view C for the top and view A for the skirt.  This would make a wearable winter dress.

2: Simplicity 4923 The start of an 18th century outfit for Dh, probably starting with the vest which would then tick off the fastenings challenge for the Historical Sew Monthly

3: Burda 8124 view B.   I think I have enough of the purple wool out in stash, if not then I'll go hunting in stash for something else.  I need a wool coat that's not as 1990's as my current one and in a colour that suits me.



Saturday, March 17, 2018

March Historical Sew Monthly

This month's challenge was Comfort At Home and I chose to make myself a wool skirt.

What the item is: 1780's wool skirt
Material: A wool blend, haven't done a burn test but it presses like wool and I suspect a bit of mohair too.
Pattern: Koshka the Cat's tutorial
Year: 1780's, made to go with my bum pad
Notions: Polyester thread, twill tape
How historically accurate is it? I used Koshka's instructions so probably fairly accurate on that front, it's all machine sewn though as I'm not willing to put my RSI through 4m of hem. I'd say 70%
Hours to complete: 6?
First worn: Not yet, I'm 4 months post abdominal surgery so not wanting to put the stays etc on yet; that and I don't have the jacket to go with it for wearing out in public yet.
Total cost: $10? The fabric cost me $10 for the whole bolt, then there's the thread and the tape, both of which came from old stash.

I'm figuring this is the sort of skirt you would have worn around home for pottering in, it's short enough to be out of the way but still suitably modest and it's a good hard wearing fabric too.  I'm wearing it over the bum pad and a linen petticoat here.




Once I've made the jacket to go with it and reached the point of being able to wear the stays as well I'm going to go grocery shopping in it and possibly drop in to the special needs unit to show my son's classmates.  I suspect they'll love it.

In other news I've been knitting and spinning and making T trousers for work.
This fabric was a freebie from Levana, a wool poly blend I suspect

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And this one is the same fabric as my skirt, lovely to work with.


My combo spin on Esme, first bobbin still not full.

My spinning, a little more than the last photo

A new shawl in progress using up stash, including handspun on the top tier when I get that far.
And my finished socks for Sock Madness, the next round starts any time from now.
I've still not got my warping done for the loom, but that's next on the list for between socks as well as next month's Historical Sew Monthly project if I can work out what I'm going to make; I won't have time for the stomacher with Sock Madness being on.

Wednesday, March 07, 2018

Not Impressed!

It's only just hit autumn here and youngest has already brought the flu home.  He had a very mild case, eldest also fairly mild (both had 3 days off school).  School told me it was a cold, but eldest and I had muscle aches and a temperature too which says flu to me.  Mine is still hanging around a week after starting and has headed into my ears and sinuses giving me tinnitus and pressure issues; not fun!  However despite that I've been doing Sock Madness and I now have 1.5 socks in 5 days and hope to finish by tomorrow.
First sock finished

Second sock at heel turn
 I've also done a smidge of spindle spinning, been a while since I did this so I've dropped it a few times.  The spindle is a Whimsy Wood and Wool spindle and it's lovely to use.  The wood is Mahogany and Tedge made it especially for me.
The fibre is dyed by Anna Harris who does lovely dyeing and sells at The Wool Yarn and Fibre Shop at The Tannery.  Unfortunately they don't have an online presence and nor does Anna.
I've also got cut out one pair of trousers for Dh and got the fabric ready for another as well as cutting out an 18th century skirt for the March challenge, and I've started the warp for my fabric on the Macomber loom.  Socks come first though so I can get into a team for Sock Madness, after that I should have a week to get the sewing done and maybe a bit more warping and spinning.

I can also show you a t-shirt I made a few weeks back as a test sew, love this top as it's comfy and looks good.
This is the Ostara Top by Jennifer Lauren Handmade and I'd seriously recommend you go and buy it.  It uses stretch knits, mine is a cotton lycra.  Obviously I still need to lose some stomach to show this off properly, but that's a WIP following surgery and will take a while.
The pattern was easy to print and cut out and the instructions were good, the only place I had some issues was with understanding the gathering at the centre front to get the sweetheart neckline; this has been fixed with photographic step by step in the final pattern though.
On the fit front I found it worked very well for me in the body, a little tight in the upper arm unfortunately but apparently I was the only one who found that so it may well be my body shape rather than the pattern.

Oh, and I think I'm going back to sugar free again, Christmas derailed me horribly and I've just not got back on that wagon properly since.  I'm showing signs of candida issues again and I'm suspecting that might be why this flu hit me harder than it did the kids too.  I've got an appointment with a nutritionist and she's got my latest blood test results to help her.  I've also got an appointment to be assessed for fascial stretch today, my SIL went to these guys and is feeling much more flexible and pain free as a result, so I've some hope they can help me too.  Would be nice to have a pain free neck/shoulder and my left upper arm is a bit stuck too.   Plus the lady I'm seeing has experience of working with internal scarring from surgery which I can guarantee I have even with doing all the things I could think of to keep things from seizing up (I've been taking serrapeptase and stretching)

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