another blouse and skirt

Over the last couple of days, I've made another blouse using my adjusted pattern and another skirt using Butterick 4461.

This photo shows the design on the blouse fabric more clearly and shows the true colour of the skirt. I love them both!

The best thing about both of these garments is that both pieces of fabric came from the remnant table in my local fabric shop. The blouse fabric cost me £4 and the skirt fabric cost me £2. Now that's what I call a great deal!

The buttons came from my button boxes so no extra cost there but I didn't have the right colour of zip for the skirt so I went to the same fabric shop today to get one. Needless to say, I took a look at the remnant table and picked up another piece of cotton for £4. I'll be making another bargain blouse with that one soon. I do love a bargain! :o)

scalloped hemmed skirt and an experimental blouse

Here's the skirt I made on Saturday. Just ignore the threads hanging from the blouse! :oD

I basically used my go-to skirt of this summer - Butterick 4461 - and scalloped the hem. To do that, I used this tutorial which is one of the very first things I ever pinned on my Pinterest boards.

Source: via Anne on Pinterest

I'm really pleased with the way it turned out and will definitely add scallops on to more skirts - and maybe even tops!

The blouse I made was a bit of an experiment. I took a blouse that I had made previously but hadn't fitted me as well as I would have liked. Basically, I cut the pattern apart and put it back together again. I moved the bust darts, the front and back darts, moved the front neck up a bit, made it longer and wider and pretty much made up my own sleeves. The photos are a bit out of focus but I think you can see how much the pattern has changed!

This is how the blouse turned out.

In the photos, I haven't finished off the buttons and buttonholes which accounts for the pins and the hanging threads but it's looking good. If it fits me as well as it fits the dummy, I'll be counting my experiment a success! Yay! :o)

some serious sconnage**

I went to get the photos off my camera of the skirt I made over the weekend and the blouse I started this afternoon. They weren't there. I could have sworn I'd taken photos of them but they weren't on the camera so I couldn't have. What a numpty! :oD

So, until it's daylight again and I can get photos taken of the skirt and blouse, I'll just have to show you the sconnage we indulged in on Friday instead.

Douglas had a fruit scone with butter and jam and a cappucino.

Joanna had a cinnamon scone with cream and jam and a strawberry frappé.

I had a cherry scone with butter and jam and a pot of tea.

Personally, I don't think it's a hardship to look at sconnage - especially when it looks as good as those ones! :oD

**Sconnage - a word made up by Anne who blogs at frayed at the edge to define the eating of scones - a combination of scone and tonnage! :oD

all loaded in ... let the dressmaking begin (again)

This morning, after working on it for 3 days, I finally managed to get everything I've made over the last few weeks/months loaded into the tartan bee Etsy shop. 8 pinnies, 24 oven gloves, 19 bags, 74 photos making 22 Etsy listings all loaded in. Yay! Go me!

I might actually get some dressmaking done now. I have a few fabrics that I'd like to make into a skirt or two, a blouse or two and maybe a dress or a jacket.

Decisions, decisions! Can't wait! :o)

homegrown food

I've been really busy today taking what feels like hundreds of photos of stuff to get loaded into the tartan bee shop. I've got to crop all those photos and then write descriptions of all the stuff - a long drawn-out process and nowhere near completion.

To give myself a wee break from that, I thought I'd show a couple of photos of things we've grown - and eaten. First of all is an apple which Joanna grew in her garden.

She said it was the only one on her tree but, if you're only going to be able to have one apple, you might as well make it a good one! It was delicious! Tart and juicy and just what a homegrown apple should taste like!

And next a few potatoes which we grew.

Douglas planted the seed potatoes in a potato bag and this is what he pulled up last night. We had them with our salad and, boy, they were good. Plenty more to come which is fab!

We also have some tomatoes and peppers in the shed which are beginning to turn red and the raspberries are still producing a few fruit here and there. There are carrots and a couple of cucumbers which should be ready soon. Homegrown food really tastes so good! :o)

a walk in the park

I remembered to take my camera with me on our morning walk in the park. Here are just a few of the photos I took.

Looking through the trees over the bay to the other side of Kirkcaldy.

A zoomed-in view of the town.

I'm sure the park won't look so good in the rain/wind/snow of autumn and winter but, at the moment, it's glorious in all its sun-shiny green-ness. :o)

morning walks

Douglas and I have started going for a walk in our local park every morning. We're going before breakfast at about 7.30am. The park is really quiet at this time of the day which is lovely.

This morning, I said to Douglas that I was going to bring my camera with me one morning so I could take some photos of how the park looks at this time of year. He mentioned that he had his phone with him - of course he did, he never goes anywhere without it! LOL - so he said he would take a photo for me if I wanted. So he did. Here we are:

When he sent me the photo, I laughed out loud. Not at the shadows but at the bird poo on my leg! Next time we'll be more careful where we stand! LOL

top, skirt and oven gloves

On Saturday, I got down to making the top I had cut out on Friday. It was Simplicity 2892, view A - shown in white on the pattern envelope.

Here's my version of it.

Thankfully, my alterations to the sleeve pieces worked beautifully and the whole thing fits me perfectly. Yay!! To be honest, I'm not too sure I like the puffiness of the sleeves so, if I make the top again, I'll think about making the sleeves less puffy.

I didn't have a purple or lilac button that matched so this is the one I chose. It's perfect! LOL

After making the top, I decided to make a skirt to match it. You can vaguely see it in the second photo of this post - it's purple and my current favourite skirt pattern, Butterick 4461.

Today I finally sewed the last stitch in the batch of oven gloves I cut out on the 5th of June. More than 2 months ago! *gasp*

Anyway, they're all done now and that makes me very happy. Next I have to take photos of them and then load them into the tartan bee. I hope that doesn't take me 2 months to do!!

Debbie's blouse

I made a blouse for Debbie's birthday and I couldn't show it here before the day because it would have spoiled the surprise. Here it is:

This one shows the colours a lot better and the cute wee buttons!

The pattern is this one.

I've made it several times for Joanna and once for myself so I can (almost) make it with my eyes closed. It's been a well-used pattern!

Debbie had her new blouse on today and it fits her beautifully although it could do with being a wee bit longer. Apparently, she had to wear a tee shirt under it to stop herself bearing her midriff. See, that's what happens when you're tall. Not that I would know. I've been the shortest in this family since Joanna was about 12. *sigh* :oD

This afternoon I cut out a new top for myself. I messed around with the sleeves piece in the hope that they'll fit on the first attempt. If they don't, I'll just make the top sleeveless! :o)

33

Our first baby turned 33 today! Yikes! How on earth did that happen?

We took the train over to Edinburgh to meet up with Debbie for a birthday picnic. Poor Jason was working the stand at the West End Fair so couldn't get away to join us. We did save him some! :oD

This was Debbie opening one of her parcels - 3 books about canning and preserving. She told me they were on her Amazon wish list! I had no idea. Clever old me, eh? :oD

This is just some of the food we had. It was all delicious. There's just something about egg sandwiches and crisps and fizzy drinks and so on and so on that just taste so much better eaten as a picnic. By the way, nobody ate the apples - they're way too healthy! :oD

Joanna needed a nap after lunch! :oD

And this was the view we enjoyed as we ate - Edinburgh Castle in all its glory.

Happy Birthday, Debs. Have a great day! :o)

sconnage, baking and the last blouse

On Saturday morning, we headed out for some sconnage. I had an apple and cinnamon scone with butter and jam and a pot of tea. Very delicious!

In the afternoon, I decided to do some baking. Coffee kisses (recipe below):

And some apple muffins:

I finished the last of the four blouses I'd cut out a wee while ago.

I made a bit of a boob, though. Instead of 4" between the buttonholes (& buttons), I'd only made mine 3" apart. I didn't realise until I put it on yesterday and I kept thinking "why is this front flapping open all the time?". Thankfully, nothing was ever on view that wasn't meant to be on view. Phew! :oD The blouse is in the wash today but, when it's in the ironing pile, I'll just add another buttonhole & button to stop the front flapping.

Coffee Kisses

6 oz SR flour
3 oz butter
2 oz caster sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp liquid coffee or 1 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 tsp boiling water

Heat the oven to 190ºC.

Mix the flour, butter and sugar in a bowl until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and the coffee and mix to a stiff dough. Take teaspoons of the mixture and roll into small balls. Place on baking trays and bake for 15 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool.

Put two together with butter icing (2 oz butter, 4 oz icing sugar). Eat. :o)

more sewing

Yesterday, I wouldn't let myself do any dressmaking until I'd sewn some more bags. So I made 3.

I made yet another skirt using my new favourite skirt pattern - Butterick 4461. This photo shows the lovely material -

And this one shows me wearing it. I love it!

Today, I wouldn't allow myself to do any dressmaking at all. Why? Because the oven gloves had been sitting around unfinished way too long. I decided I'd sew on the bias binding on to some of them.

Once I'd done a few, I just decided to keep going until all of them had their bindings sewn on the fronts.

I spent a long time this afternoon pinning the bias on to the back of each glove. This isn't even half of them!

I've now got them all pinned and have started sewing the bindings on by hand. 2 done, 19 to go. But now that they're down to the hand sewing stage, I can maybe allow myself to do some dressmaking tomorrow. We'll see. :oD