I made a top...that I can actually wear!!

After the great trouser disaster my confidence took a bit of a knock but I didn't want to give up on clothes. Not being one to shy away from a challenge I wanted to try something a bit more adventurous. I had found some beautiful butterfly print fabric in the sale at Always Knitting & Sewing and had gotten the pattern free with one of the many sewing magazines I am obsessed with buying. It is a fairly simple style shell top with interfacing on the inside. The first step was to cut out the pattern and transfer it to the fabric. The patterns always come with a range of sizes and styles so this bit needs a bit of concentration. I definitely need to work on my attention to detail when it comes to cutting the fabric, if you aren't precise with this step, it will drastically effect the finished item. 

Sewing the fabric pieces together involved a whole lot of concentration and I ended up googling some things that I had never heard of before. I taught myself some new skills along the way including staystitching, darts, clipping curves and understitching. The internet is a really great resource for this sort of thing and there is always a friendly blogger out there waiting to help. 

Just as I thought I was getting somewhere I realised that I had stitched both armholes the wrong way round so my trusty stitch un-picker came out again. Perseverance won through on this project and the minute I finished the hem I let out a little squeal of excitement. I had made a top...but was it wearable? 

I rushed upstairs to try it on and couldn't wipe the grin off my face when it fit and actually looked pretty good. I was so proud to have produced something that I could wear out of the house, that looked pretty great and that I had made by teaching myself. It got its debut at work the very next day! 

The great trouser disaster

When I first got my sewing machine I had brought some remnant fabric really cheap and wanted to use it for something. I found a pattern online for some casual lounging trousers and thought the dark grey jersey fabric would be perfect for them. 

The pattern gave specific instructions for the waist measurement on the trousers but I couldn't get my head around why the waist needed to be so wide so I might had fudged it a bit....surely it wouldn't matter right? Well yes, it mattered quite a lot actually, more about that later.

So the trouser pattern basically involved 2 front legs and 2 back legs and the first step was to sew each front and back together at the side seams. In my defence, I was pretty tired by this point and I managed to sew two trouser fronts as one leg and two trouser backs as another. By the time I realised my mistake it was too late, the damage had been done I had a pair of trousers that were too tight around the waist and that had one leg wider than the other 😂😂 

Thankfully I saw the funny side of it and after sharing a few photos and laughs, I put them aside and moved on to the next project. 

My first baby gift

As soon as I heard that my beautiful cousin was expecting a baby I knew i wanted to make something special. I decided on a quilt as it is something that can be used in so many ways and that can last forever. I wanted to focus on getting better at simple patchwork and knowing she was expecting a baby boy I found this gorgeous fabric bundle at Always Knitting and Sewing 

I loved the giraffe print so ordered some extra of this to really make it the feature of the quilt. 

As it was for a baby I decided to go with smaller size than my previous quilts and managed to pull this together in a weekend. I layered it with a medium wadding, backed it with a matching lemon fabric and finished with a lemon bias binding edging. 

This has a lot less mistakes than my earlier efforts and I am really pleased with how lovely it is. The Mum-to-be loved it too so a job well done!