Jen Arnall-Culliford Knitwear

FO: Summer dress

I've made a summer dress! And bought fabric to make another one... I feel a sewing binge coming on!

The sewing pattern was Lisette for Butterick B6168, and I was booked to do a dressmaking workshop at Millie Moon on Monday evenings through January and February (a great Christmas present! Thanks family!). One of the lovely owners, Becky helped me to choose both the fabric and the pattern - she knows me too well!

I knew that I was planning to make this more than once if it was successful, so I carefully traced the pattern out before starting the first evening session. It was fiddly and time-consuming, but totally worthwhile as the tracing paper was much thicker than pattern paper, so it stood up to being thrown into and out of my bag over the 6 weeks of the course. And if I ever want to make it again in another size, I shall be all set!

The great thing about doing evening workshops rather than just deciding to make this at home, was that I was committed. I needed to go out each Monday no matter what, and I found that really helpful. I have too many plans and not enough time generally, so it was brilliant to have dedicated time for sewing each week. Anna Vickery who taught the class was full of helpful tips and tricks. I've not sewn a dress since I was 18, so I was very rusty on techniques, but this dress felt well within my abilities.

At Anna's suggestion, I've used bias binding to finish as many of the seams as was practical. I want to be able to wear the dress without worrying about seams fraying, and it needs to go through the was without too much bother either. Fingers crossed the extra effort will be well worth it.

As I worked through the pattern instructions, I did find a couple of things that were missing (ever the editor I'm afraid!)... There wasn't anything to trip me up as I had Anna on hand to ask for help, but if you were new to sewing and working at home the following bit might come in handy:

In step 10, you're instructed to baste the centre front where the bodice pieces cross. There's no later instruction to remove that basting, so don't forget to do that at the end!
Step 28 shows the side seams of the front and back bodices to be sewn, but there's no instruction to do so. I sewed those side seams between steps 27 and 28.
There wasn't much suggestion of which raw edges on the inside of the dress needed finishing. Perhaps this is considered general knowledge one should have before starting a project at this level, but it wouldn't have been much extra information to add, and very helpful for less-experienced sewers.

It's not yet quite warm enough to wear my lovely finished dress, but fingers crossed the sun will be out before too long, and I can potter in the garden in style!

I'm thrilled with how it's turned out. And I'm looking forward to making time to sew up the fabric I've bought to make the shorter version, which I hope will look great over leggings.

I particularly like the bodice detail, and the fit in the upper body is great for my curves! I'm definitely inspired to sew more.

FO: A Rainbow Quilt

I've been working on this quilt for years! I started work on it after receiving an Accuquilt GO! Baby Fabric Cutter for my birthday. I chopped up a rainbow pile of fat quarters that I bought many moons ago at Millie Moon. That must have been at least 4 or 5 years ago now, and the pile of strips of fabric just sat waiting for another two years or so.

Then some time around 2 years ago I started to sew them together. I used the Step Lively pattern from the Little Bits Quilting Bee book, the pile of rainbow strips and a Jelly Roll of white Bella Solids from Moda. Then it sat again for ages, unloved in a basket. About a year ago I started to take the long strips and sew them together - I blogged about it at the time.

And a few weeks ago, I finally knuckled down to tying the quilt...

And then I found a really clever machine sewn binding method on 52quilts.com: Susie's Magic Binding, and I knew I had to try it out on this quilt.

I need to practise this technique again - the Rainbow Quilt was MASSIVE and it made it really hard to keep the seams straight as I sewed the first side of the binding down. I wandered a LOT in the "in the ditch" sewing on the front of the quilt, but I'm assured that it doesn't matter! I would definitely use this method again, especially if I were in a hurry to finish a quilt.

And here it is, in all its 2mx2m glory! It's HUGE!

Sadly I can't show you the matchingly massive grin on the face of this quilt's recipient, but it has been in constant use since I tied off the final seam. Hurrah!

Mending

One of the many, many changes to life over the last two years has been the never-ending supply of things in my mending bag. I never used to have much that needed mending, but these days we all seem to provide a constant flow of things that need a bit of sewing.

I sew up small holes that have been nibbled into t-shirts, leggings and cardigans on a weekly basis. They mostly don't take too long, but it's strangely unsatisfying mending.

This is a pair of Jim's socks. I knitted them many moons ago, and when they went through the wash the other week, I spotted that the cast-on edge had broken, and stitches were dropping. I roughly sewed up the offending section with a bright contrasting yellow sock yarn. It's really not neat mending, but it won't unravel any more now. When I posted them to instagram, I used the hashtag #visiblemending - if you haven't already, then I highly recommend checking out the visible mending work of @TomofHolland and others. It's inspiring!

I love my Boden British wool coat. I've had it for years, but I couldn't bear to part with it. The navy woollen binding at the sleeve cuff had worn right through, but other than that, the coat was in great shape. I purchased some navy ribbon at Millie Moon months ago, and last week, I finally got around to sewing it around the cuffs. I used my sewing machine to stitch down one side, and then slip stitched it round to the wrong side. It took 20 minutes, and I reckon it has given my beloved coat another year or two of wear. Hurrah!!

Of course there is a never-ending supply of name tapes needing sewing on...

And sadly, sometimes socks need darning. I can never decide whether I can be bothered to darn, or whether to just chuck them and knit a new pair. I definitely like knitting a WORLD more than darning.

Are you a mender or a chucker?

FO: A Quilt

I started this quilt at a quilting weekend back in July last year. It then languished in my sewing bag for months, waiting to be quilted. I finally got around to quilting it on a dedicated quilting day in October. And yet again, it languished, needing only the binding to be slipstitched, for months!

The quilt is made from 64 blocks, so it's a really good size! I added a filet around the edge, and decided against adding anything in the way of a border - it seemed like the quilt needed to be kept simple! I quilted a foot width out of the ditch, in long lines, just inside each block. Again, keeping it simple. I'm not great at any other type of quilting!

Last week I finally pulled it out of the sewing bag, and set to work on the binding. It didn't take long to finish it off! These things never do - WHEN YOU ACTUALLY WORK ON THEM!!!! Ha! Why do I never learn this lesson?!

Many thanks again to Mélanie for the lovely charm pack and fat quarters. They've made a great quilt, which will be loved for many years to come. :)

FO: Simple skirts

We had a bit of a sewing-fest over the summer holidays (yes, I am that far behind - but hoping it will spur me on to do more of these things...), and over a week or so I made two skirts and eldest also made two.

This was my first attempt! We used a free online pattern from Oliver + S, which you can find here: Lazy Days Skirt

I've had some of these fabrics and ribbons in my stash for quite a long time, so it was great to find a use for them! In fact we had to hold ourselves back from making a daft number of skirts...

Eldest made this smart version, which she wears with leggings almost as often as it makes it through the wash. It's a great pattern with some really clever details that make the finished garment smart, but not at all difficult to sew. I made a second version with some pin cord from our lovely local fabric shop, Millie Moon (where they also gave me the pattern recommendation).

I tend to buy ribbons with absolutely no idea what I will use them for, and here was the answer!

While we were on this kick I also bought a paper pattern to make a skort, but I've not yet got around to doing anything with it. So I'm going to add that to my to do list... As a teenager I did absolutely loads of dressmaking, and it's brilliant to get back to some of these things.

WIP: Quilt

It's been a while, but I'm back!

I've made a list of things I want to witter about, and hopefully over the coming months, I'll get some of that list turned into actual blog posts, rather than existing only as ramblings in my head at 2 in the morning...

I spent a happy weekend in July sewing a quilt based on disappearing nine-patches. I used some beautiful Moda fabric - a present from a knitting friend and fellow quilter, Lilysunshine. And I'm pretty pleased with how it has turned out.

I absolutely love chain piecing like this - the sewing just flies by and before you know it, you have a lots of blocks that look like a nearly finished quilt top...

So how is it that it takes another whole day to get to this point (which in my opinion looks barely different)?

And two months later, the quilt is still sitting on my dining room table in exactly the same state as it was at the end of the quilting weekend! That's how life has been for the last few months. Heaps of fun, but no time to sit still and do things that are just for me.

Here I am though, doing something just for me. Regular blogging here I come!

WIP: Rainbow Quilt

This project has been on the go for absolutely ages!

It's the Step Lively Quilt from Little Bits Quilting Bee by Kathreen Ricketson. I've finally finished the quilt top, after my wonderful parents-in-law took our monkeys out for the day on Bank Holiday Monday. This gave me the time I needed to change all the beds, do 4 loads of laundry, and complete the piecing of this massive top. Result!

I used a set of fat quarters that I bought at Millie Moon, and sliced into strips using my Go Baby cutting machine. I got this gizmo for my birthday a few years ago, and I'm ashamed to say that I've barely used it. I'm sure that it's one of those things that I just need a bit more crafting time to get the most out of it. I combined my rainbow of strips with a white Moda jelly roll, also from Millie Moon.

This quilt is ginormous. It's absolutely MASSIVE! About twice as big as the largest quilt I've made to date, so I have absoluetly no idea how I will quilt it. I'm planning to hand-tie it, as there's no way it's going under my sewing machine. The finished size is approx. 215cm [84in] square - larger than the space on our largest clear bit of floor. O_o One of my knitting group friends has suggested that we gather a group of friends to tie it together, as a joint activity, but I rather fear that I'm too much of a control freak to do that! I will just have to sit patiently over a series of evenings and work my way through it.

At least once it's done, this quilt should have some longevity. It's destined for one of the monkeys, and it's big enough to see her through for a good long while. She's very excited about the possibility of it being finished at some point soon, as she helped with the early stages of the piecing process.

While writing this post, a suggested link popped up in my blog editor and informed me that Kathreen Ricketson, who wrote the book this quilt comes from, died in an accident while snorkeling last year in Australia. You can read more about it here. What a sad thing to happen, and my heart goes out to her family, particularly her two children, and friends.

The Cat in the Hat and some dinosaurs

We have gone back to school, and I'm hoping that this will give me a little time to pick up some of the strings of my life pre-children (a little bit of knitting, some sewing and a few blog posts perhaps). We have had an amazing and completely life-changing experience over the last 5 months, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the old and new will work together.

First up is a new quilt. This is a very, very simple design. Just fat quarters cut into 4 squares, and then joined together again. The fabric was chosen and the arrangement of the blocks was decided on by its recipient. The finished quilt has so far proved to be too exciting to be used in a bedroom, but gets lots of wear in front of the TV downstairs.

The backing is a very pleasing superhero print - one that gets pulled off the shelf every single time we go into Millie Moon (our favourite local fabric shop).

Next up will be some knitting, so keep your eyes out later in the week!

I've been a-bunting

Not content with just knitting, I've also squeezed in a little bit of sewing. Whoop!

In fact, I've turned into something of a bunting machine, with more than 20m completed in the last month. Not too shabby, I'd say!

Each stretch used 4 fat quarters, and made 20 flags. I then used 7m of bias binding to join them together. All supplies were purchased at Millie Moon (in Frome & Wells) - my awesome local fabric emporium. Bunting is a great sewing project for even newbies to sewing, so I can't claim to have made all of it single-handedly. We're all really pleased with how it looks. :)

Next up will be a humungous quilt that we can all fit under. I just need to find some quiet sewing time. Easier said than done!

FO: Rosa's Quilt & London Marathon stuff

I simply can't believe that this has taken me so long to complete. But it's done now, hurrah! I had completed the top and basted it together with the backing and wadding back in January. I knew that quilting and binding wasn't going to be a big job, but I've had a bit of a block about getting my machine out and just doing it. I really don't know why - I love sewing, and was really looking forward to getting on with a few half-finished quilt projects. Somehow there have just been too many other things to do.

On Friday afternoon, once I had finished our packing for London, I finally sat down and quilted. It took me all of about an hour and a half to do shadow lines around each of the main blocks, and then to attach the binding. I then set to slip-stitching the other side of the binding in the car.

We are staying with lovely Belinda this weekend, and Immy has been keeping careful watch over the quilt. She came for a sniff, to investigate what it was all about, but didn't seem too impressed with it!

We headed out and about yesterday - first stop was the ExCel centre to pick up Jim's race number. He's number 45699 and if you want to track his progress, you can do so at this link: London Marathon Tracking

I also want to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU to everyone who has donated or bought a Ready, Steady Go! pattern. Jim's fundraising has been more successful than we ever dared to imagine, and he is now flying past his £3,000 goal. As it stands just now, the totaliser says: £3,108.48 which is flipping incredible. Refuge does amazing work with people experiencing domestic violence and every penny of that money will be put to good use. We will continue to add pattern sales to the total as they sell. I also can't believe that there are still a few skeins of the GORGEOUS Go! Green for Refuge Semi Precious yarn by BabyLongLegs. It's £14 for a 100g skein and all proceeds from sales of this yarn are going to Refuge. Do treat yourself (or I'm going to have all the remaining skeins, as it's just my colour!!). Once again a huge thank you to everyone who has helped with any of the fundraising. You are all BRILLIANT!

Once we had picked up Jim's race number, we took the cable car over to the O2, and then walked along the river to Cutty Sark. It was such a beautiful day yesterday. And it was the first time in ages that I've been outside and done some exercise. Thanks Belinda & Neil for a lovely day!

When we got back, I collapsed on the sofa and set to finishing the binding of the quilt. And before I knew it, I was fastening off the last thread. I'm really pleased with this little quilt - it's got lots of lovely pictures and colours and things, and I hope that Rosa will enjoy snuggling under it as she gets bigger.

I really enjoyed making it for her. (It's a Riley Blake layer cake, backed with a simple blue and white spot fabric and plain cream binding in case you're interested.)

So that pretty much brings us up to date, I think. I should now get out of bed, as Jim is about to head off to run the furthest he has ever run. I am too proud for words of his acievements already. He more than deserves every single one of these cakes that his students made for him last week:

Legendary!

I hope to be back later with a marathon report, but I might not manage it as we have to drive home tonight, and tomorrow is a very big day for us. If nothing appears here, then head over to TrueBrit Knits, as Belinda has said that she will pop something up for us. :)