My Pregnancy Pledge - Seamless Pledge January 2013

Thank you @elenacresci for this button!! Click the icon for more details.

I, Bundana, am taking the #seamlesspledge until August 2013.

 

I, Bundana, shall ONLY make, upcycle and thrift the clothes that I wear during my pregnancy.

This includes:

• Maternity jeans
• Maternity tops
• Accessories
• Dresses
• Jumpers, Cardigans and Coats

This does not include:

• Shoes
• Underwear (including socks)
• Swimwear

In celebration of my pledge not to line the pockets of the high street with my hard-earned, I have been shopping and have successfully bought today:

Skirt, with stretch for €2. This is REALLY long, thus has loads of fabric! I am going to turn this into a shorter skirt and use the rest of the tartan fabric for maternity jeans waist support.

Beautiful woolly jumper €6... It still had the price tag on (?!) and it was a whopping €75 new... It's size 18, I'm size 8, but I am going to wear it the leggings and sandals (and bump) for a casual but co-ordinated look in SS13. 

Buttons to quirk up some booties that I have knitted and a Chanel inspired t-shirt.

Some Tweed Aran Wool to knit or crochet a cardigan for bambino. A nice heirloom Irish piece this will be for us to keep forever. 

Also have on-route... jersey fabric to make a loads of Megan Nielson long sleeve tees. Crochet needles. Quilting cotton. Burda GroBag sewing pattern.

I have loads of fabric to be utilising, I have too much of a stash as it is. I must admit it's 'nice' to have a load of fabric to use at your will, but now is the time to get using and wearing! As well as fabric, I have enough buttons, elastics, threads etc to keep me going a long time!!

I hope you enjoy reading about this journey as much I will do making my way through it!!

Know any good but (very) beginner knitting and crochet patterns for newborns? Please let me know!!

Until next time...

Bundana

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Bibs, yes, bibs... but not as you know them...*

* = For the expectant mother or the baby shower invitee**

**= I was both today. 

You don't have to be expecting to make these lovelies. 

Going to be an aunty (or uncle)? Friend having a baby? Boss having a baby (brownie points)? You could always think of them as a scrap-buster and money-saver, as I bought NOTHING to make these (except for velcro, which I had but lost).  

Today, I was the baby shower invitee... I made some bibs for my darling friend. This, readers, is an absolute winner and I really recommend that you give it a try for any friends, family and colleagues that are going to have or have had a baby. 

All you need is some scraps of fabric 25 x 30cm or sew smaller pieces together to create that size (which I did too and will explain how)

I made a bib pattern, easy enough to do.

Bib Length (Red Arrow) 28cm
Bib Width (Cream Arrow) 22cm
Neck Width (Green Line) 9cm
Neck Length (Light Blue Line) 7cm 

I used a very heavy linen weave fabric for the back of the bibs; this fabric is so soft, absorbent and heavy duty. Using this fabric, I stencilled 4 patterns for my base fabrics. I just used a jam jar and a Biro  this pattern is so small and simple, there is really no need to pin and stencil. 


Choosing fabrics was so fun! I patch-worked two of the four with scraps from previous projects and the tiniest snips and slithers taken from my stash. 

I neatened up the snips and slithers with my quilting ruler and rotary cutter... 

... I then pinned in place...

... and stitched together with the (quite simply) amazingly helpful 1/4" sewing foot... 

... this left my fabric looking like this... 

... and after a quick iron, looking like this...

... delicious!

Then using this patch-worked fabric as one piece of fabric, I cut out the same basic bib pattern on the chosen fabrics. 

Placing the two bib sides together (right sides together), I cut at the top where I wanted the opening to be (which would be behind the neck, generically placed... it is the yellow line on the picture on the right, obviously on the fabric). 

Pinning along all of the sides and then sewing together with a 1/4" seam allowance (using the 1/4" presser foot), I left a 5cm opening to then turn right side out.

I then turned the fabric right-side out, pressed flat and then slip-stitched the 5cm opening shut.

I added velcro to the back of the neck and then done!

Rear of bib

Front of the bib

Time Taken: 3 hours 
Spent: Nowt on fabric or thread. Velcro was an utter rip off @ €4 for 1metre, but I didn't have enough time to go to town
Make Again? Yes!! Many, MANY times over... I bet (5 pregnant friends and myself, erm, yes)

I am UTTERLY giddy about having a baby myself and I loved these bibs that I made as a present for one of my bestest friends, but in all honesty... I can't wait to make some for myself. The utter simplicity and scope to go berserk with details and quirks whets the appetite to say the least! 

You may have noticed that I have made some changes about the description of this blog; I am simply opening up the scope of what I write on this blog. I am still a dressmaker, first and foremost... yet I have started to dabble in other exciting interests from wine making to crochet to veggie growing to quilt making and all the with ultimate interest in creating beautiful things to enjoy with a frugal method! From the odd time, I will share what I have created outside of 'Sewville'. I do hope you don't mind, readers.

Until next time... here is a pic of Bambino

Bundana

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Heirloom jumper into heirloom hot water bottle cover

I was rushing the washing and I shrank my jumper. This jumper I inherited from Q who had already shrunk it once so it had gone from fitting a 6'6'' man to a 5'3'' woman. Now, after a dip in a hot washing machine part deux... I doubt that it would probably fit an 8 year old.

Hot water bottle time...

Did you know, if you wash an old jumper on a high heat and if you cut the woolen material and it doesn't fray- it is felted? True. 

So I used a pattern that I had made a while a go for a envelope style hot water bottle cover and marked on the jumper the outline of the three pattern pieces.

I cut out the pieces (with a shake of my hands and a clench of the teeth)

For a bit of colour, I chose yellow as a contrast colour to the grey. Using a strip of bias tape I simply bound the visible top flap of the envelope. I then sewed the three pieces together ensuring that the visible flap was indeed that- visible and not on the bottom of the envelope (easily done). I used yellow thread for this part on a slight increased tension so it would be slightly visible on the right side. 

I love the colour combination of yellow and grey at the moment. 

To complete, I added a yellow button and some piping elastic to close the bottle.

I really love this and as the weather is officially 'Hot Water Bottle Weather' at the moment, its getting loads of use. I love the fact that it has given new life to what was essentially an old jumper and will now be used and admired everyday again. 

In other news: 

• I'm pregnant! Expect a myriad of posts of me trying to make my own clothes, toys and quilts etc through this period. Tips, pattern change ideas and patterns are MORE than welcome...
• I'm back! After a 3 month break from blogging, sewing (for myself) and all such things.. I am happily back sewing again. No more doing bits and bobs for other people. I simply wasn't enjoying doing it (except the money!). 

Bundana 

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New Gadget! Rolled Hem Foot

I really like this new little foot that I bought from eBay this month! 

I have used it whilst making my latest project for a client (work colleague). It is the first time that I have used jersey and I used the rolled hem foot on the neckline and the hem. Worked well and gave a clean finish to the slip, so I was very happy. I can see this foot being especially useful for silks and shiny fabrics.

To use the presser foot I went to YouTube for instructions and it did not let me down. Simply search for "Rolled Hem Foot" and there is a wealth of helpful videos to show you how easy the use of this foot is.

Pros: 

• Easy to use
• Even result
• No ironing minuscule hems

Cons: 

• Only seems to work well on straight edges

 I must admit that the sewing has taken a break lately, but the nights are drawing in and although it is nice and sunny in these parts of Ireland, its cold.

If I'm honest, I have hated making this slip. It's been an utter pain in the posterior. I have tweaked and changed and bought two seam-rippers. I think that the main problem was that I self-drafted the slip and then made some discoveries along the way. Mostly including removing stitched and stages that in my head worked, but in reality was an absolute disaster!

I aim to finish the slip tonight and take pictures of it tomorrow and then do not attempt self-drafting ANYTHING again until I have at least one book or reference to help me along the way. 

The home-brew Blackberry wine is in the fermenter and the sewing machine has been dusted and we are ready to rock and roll for an autumn wardrobe.

More to come later this week.

I'm back, I promise!

Bundana

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Finished Project: Lisette 2059- The RWB Cake Dress

Red, White and Blue... I'm so proud to be British right now, with the Olympic Games! Also, it's the colours of the Dutch flag, too (my fiancee is Dutch, Q). In accordance with my promise that there will and indeed needs to be more cake in my dressmaking and less icing- I give to you a first in my new wardrobe!


I had a clothes cull (blog entry in relation to this to follow) and decided that although I love a girlie dress and a pair of heels, in reality and everyday life; I love leggings, some flats and a dress that will go over the posterior (I do not like to see a lass with leggings on show and a VERY VPL, nah). It's my day-to-day style. So after a hunt around- I found that in the May edition of Sew! Magazine (which I buy every time I am back in the UK), I had this pattern for FREE: 

I did make some changes to the original pattern. I am 5'3'' and the average pattern is aimed at the 5'6'' gal. So I shortened the entire pattern by 5cm 

This extensive length change left the cutting-line a bit skew-wiff. I merged the two lines at the waist. No major panic, just a pencil, french curve and a recognition of symmetry of the front and the back, ensuring that I merged them both at the same point and gradient.

By using a 160cm width fabric, I was able to fold the selvage edges into the centre, like a take-away menu, this evidently saved A LOT of fabric in the process. With the 5cm length change and this method, I was able to use only 1.6 meters of fabric and barely any waste.

For the arm and neck bias facings, I used a navy and blue stripe cotton, which I originally used for my second ever make: The Angela Kane Pinafore Dress (The Tattoo Dress) and because of the on-grain stripes, finding the bias was an absolute walk in the park. I just extended the bias grain line with a marker pen and lined up the pattern piece accordingly.

The construction of the dress was so easy and really well explained by Simplicity, it went together like a dream and in relatively no time at all. For some reason (my bet is on the fact that I reduced both pieces by 5cm at the waist) I lost 1cm from the back of the dress, obviously this caused a slight discrepancy with the hemming of the dress- as they were uneven. I used a 1.5cm hem for the back and a 2.5cm hem for the front. Using a hand-hemmed approach to dresses is far more time-consuming, but in all honesty, looks the business both inside and out...

Note: for the visible stitch of the Herringbone stitch, I caught the fabric on the dark and the lighter blue stripe, it is invisible from the outside! 


I love this dress, but being a reflective seamstress, here are some negatives about the dress:

• It's very baggy, the ease of the dress is 7"- which I now know to be massive. Next time I will shave off at least 3" from the whole dress and still be happy that it will go over my head without the need for any closures like a zip or button. I wear this dress with a waist belt and it looks fine for casual wear.
• I used the last of my 'new-to-sewing-liked-the-print-didn't-look-at-the-fabric' quilting cotton in this project, and it works... OK. It's very rigid, smells of a quilt shop (despite two washes) and creases like a microwaved crisp packet. 

So here you go, some pictures of my first ever 'less icing, more cake' dress:

Back

Gathered neckline, a subtle but very pretty addition

Some windy shots, Ireland weather...  

 

With belt, for sure

In other news:

• I am well on my way to learning Dutch, my Parents-In-Law-To-Be bought me a Dutch copy of Burda Style Magazine when they went to Belgium for a visit and it's a genius way of getting me translating to Dutch! I am hooked and learning fast! I started translating every word for the first few pages, but now I am picking up words and able to workout a few words, too! 

Two *temporary* best-friends

• I have 4 days off over this Bank Holiday Weekend and I'm not afraid to use them!

Bundana

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