May - the month of the skirt ... and other things!

I started off May by making another Rivi blouse from Chalk and Notch. This is made with the other side of the downie cover I talked about in last month's post. Don't you just love the way those stripes make the blouse so fun? I do!

Next I made a poo bag holder for Jo - or is it for Tilly?? The one she was using was looking the worse for wear so it was an easy job to make another one.

Talking of things looking the worse for wear, my two main pincushions were definitely looking tatty. I dug back through my blog and found I'd made them in 2017 so, considering they are used every single time I sew, there was definitely no shame to them! Here's what they look like now. I used some sewing fabrics and made a 4 patch for both of the tops. They are already in use!

I decided I wanted to make myself a tiered skirt but didn't have a pattern and didn't want to pay for one. Have you seen the price of sewing patterns these days? Goodness me, they're so expensive!

Anyway, I had a tiered skirt in my wardrobe that I'd bought a couple of years ago and I liked the length of it - 30" approximately. So, I decided I'd make mine with 3 tiers of 10". I did some measuring of my waist and calculated what I'd need for each tier by doing some sums. (Once a mathematician, always a mathematician!)

After a lot of gathering and stitching and elasticating of the waist, this was the result. Oh my goodness, I LOVE it!

In fact, I loved it so much, I made another one.

And then I made another one. The colour of this one is more accurate in the photo of me wearing it!

The skirts are really comfy to wear and I'm really happy with all of them. The first and the third one are made using fabrics I bought in Canada last summer and the black floral one is fabric Jo gave me for my birthday.

A month of fun sewing again for me. 😊

piano topper and more holiday sewing

Jo asked me if I could make a topper for the piano which is now at her house. She told me to do whatever I fancied and this was what I came up with. It never ceases to amaze me what you can make out of scraps of fabric!

Jo loved it and here it is on the top of the piano. I love that tiger lamp! 🐯

Next it was more holiday sewing for me. Another couple of blouses using McCall's 5359.

I worked hard to get Emily's cardigan finished. With arthritis in some of my fingers, it's not always easy to knit but I knew I had to get it done and I did. Like Isla's one I showed earlier, it's going to be huge on Emily but that's the way they like their cardigans so who am I to argue?

Next I made myself a bag to take as my handbag on the plane. I wanted one with a zip, with pockets inside and out and the inside had to be big enough to take my iPad. I used the Mia Messenger Bag pattern from Blackbird Fabrics. I am really pleased with how it turned out. It was hard to take good photos of it but here it is:

The zip:

An inside pocket for my iPad:

and another sipped inside pocket perfect for passports.

Next I amused myself by making us luggage tags on my embroidery machine. These are for our suitcases:

On the back we have our names on them.

I made two like this for our bags for inside the plane. Obviously, Douglas's has his name on his! I made his blue - I can't find it right now to take a photo of it! I think he's already attached it to his bag!

I also decided to make the girls their Christmas ornaments just in case Canada Post goes on strike again this winter like they did last year! I'm very happy with these!

Last, I made myself a spec case for my sunglasses. I don't think it even took me half an hour to make but it will be well used!

So that's all my holiday sewing done. We head out on the 8th until the end of July. It will be wonderful to see Debbie and the girls again. It's nearly 4 years since they left and I miss them sooooo much. See you when we get home!

sewing for Canada

May was the month where I seriously started sewing things to take to Canada - both for myself to wear when there and for the girls.

First I made some shorts for the girls. I decided not to elasticate the waists until I got there so I wouldn't have to guess their waist sizes.

Next I made a pair of dark navy shorts for myself:

Then I made a couple of nighties for the girls. I self-drafted the pattern and am hoping that they will fit!

Here's a close-up of the fabric. Isn't it fun?

Next I made another couple of vests for myself like the white one I made last month.

Next a couple of blouses from that old favourite pattern McCall's 5359 - long out of print!

Then I made the girls dresses out of whale fabric. I wasn't too sure about this fabric when I bought it but Jo was with me and persuaded me that it was fab. Now that I see them sewn up, I have to agree! the pattern is the Camille dress from Puperita. I can't link to the pattern right now as her site is down at the moment.

Lastly, Debbie asked me to make Emily an embroidered seat belt cover indicating that she was deaf and wore 2 hearing aids. This is what I came up with.

Of course, I also made one for Isla.

That's a lot of sewing this month! I suspect even more holiday sewing will be done next month! Bring it on!

the rest of May

I spent most of May sewing the quilt I showed in my last post but I did make a few other things.

First I made some pincushions to hold the new pins I'd treated myself to. Let's face it, pins don't last forever so I decided to renew some and, naturally, had to make pincushions to hold them. I made some square-in-a-square blocks using sewing fabrics for the tops. For the backs, I used the same sewing fabrics in single pieces - ie not patchworked - and I filled them with crushed walnut shells. They're just perfect.

Here they are all filled with my new pins. I love them!

Next I made myself a couple of new blouses. These are made using the StyleArc Monty dress and shirt pattern. I always buy StyleArc patterns from Etsy as they come in PDFs and there are 3 sizes in each so you can adjust the pattern to fit you if you're not the exact size. Luckily I am so no adjustments for me - other than lengthening the pattern by 6" as I really didn't want it as short as they had it! Anyway, I LOVE these blouses and they're never out of rotation!

Lastly, I made myself some new shorts. I'd been hunting in the shops for knee length shorts and couldn't find any anywhere. I'm not of an age to be wearing short shorts any more so I decided I would just have to make some.

I used my favourite trouser pattern - the Jalie pull-on pants and shorts. I realised the shorts on the pattern were the short shorts kind so I measured the shorts I had in my wardrobe to find the length I wanted and went from there. These are soooooo comfortable! I don't think I'll be buying any more ready made shorts any time soon!

I have already made more Monty blouses and more Jalie shorts but I'll show them in the June makes post.

my sewing journal, a quilt and some blocks

I started the year by adding the year to the front of my sewing journal. I only used up half of the journal with last year's makes so decided, rather than starting a new notebook, I'd just keep going in this one so it needed the numbers added. Thankfully, it was easier than I expected it to be!

Next I added sashings and cornerstones to some blocks I'd made last year. These are blocks that I'd learned from a work colleague I worked with in a fabric shop a long, long time ago - actually, it was in the last century!! I had found the instructions in an old notebook and played around with them to make them bigger and I'm delighted with the results. I'd called them "Janet's cross" in that old notebook so here's the "Janet's Cross quilt". I LOVE it!!

The back is - believe it or not! - a bottle green fleece.

I spent the rest of January making some diamond scraps blocks. I had made this quilt last year and blogged about it here. I had always thought I'd make another version. This time I used yellows for the diamonds and, even though I used a ton of scraps for the strips, there are still masses left. I swear they multiply when I'm not looking!

There are 24 blocks facing left.

And 24 blocks facing right.

My next job is to join them all together into a quilt top then quilt it and bind it. That shouldn't take too long. Hopefully!