You can take the girl out of Yorkshire....

... but you can't take Yorskhire out of the girl! 


€35 for a Tailors' Ham?! You having a laugh?! Now, I love spending money on sewing, don't get me wrong, but what I can find hard to swallow is the amount of money that you can spend on the things that you are not actually going to wear. For instance, a cutting board over here is going to cost me €25 for an A2 sized one, I really had to look around and ended up finding my little beauty for €11. The thing with Ireland is that you have to pay such high postage on goods, usually coming from the UK and with a population of less that 4million people... some items can be a rip off. But I am learning to negotiate myself around and grab some bargains when I can!


So for my latest venture, I did my research, had my shopping list for my next project- The Sew Retro 'Bombshell Dress'. I have watched the first few lessons and quickly saw that a Tailors Ham was used a lot... must be needed.  I was also sure that the end of my ironing board would not suffice for this job (has done previously, I must admit).


The Bombshell Dress- this is the project that I want to take my time with, to learn and take it slow... I really want to feel like I have made a very good version of this dress when I undoubtedly show it off at every opportunity, and I mean EVERY opportunity. Sorry world. So I had to have a Tailors Ham, but I was not going to pay over the odds for anything, not when I could spend that money on a luscious 3 or 4 metres of fabric.


So I made one....

Diet Coke Can: fabric weight and fuel

I cut a pattern out of greaseproof paper, about A4 size and rounghly what I thought a Tailors' Ham should look like... a little bit eggy but more hammy.


Using two pieces of fabric for each side, for stability and integrity... I used my cutting mat and rotary cutter to cut the fabric.

1/4" zipper foot on... stitched around, leaving a 5cm gap. Flipped it rightside out. I then stuffed until my hearts content, I read somewhere that it needs to be full to the brim. So thats what I did, I stuffed the little bleeder until I thought I could stuff it no more... then I stuffed it more. It's really stiff and doesn't buckle when its pressed.

I then used catch-stitch to sew up the 5cm gap

Huzzah! Tailors' Ham done. Money spent... zilch! 


I used this tutorial from Burda to help me on my way

Bundana

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