ALL THE FABRIC

The Knitting and Stitching Show
The biggest sewing-related news we need to catch up on is that I visited the Spring Knitting and Stitching Show at London Olympia. I had a lovely time, and actually managed to be fairly restrained with my purchases!

Cottons from Montreux and Simply Fabrics

I'm not sure how long you need to have been sewing before you can start talking about habits or traditions, but the two fabrics above sum up what happens when I let myself buy whatever I fancy, without really engaging my brain - I am drawn to busy, floral prints, and I suppose I have it in my head that I'm more suited to muted colours. They were pretty cheap, but as soon as I got home they stopped looking like adorable summer top materials and started looking like old-fashioned duvet covers. The second one in particular is just set in my mind as being a pillowcase, so as yet I have no idea what I'm doing with either of them. I came back and bought the blue one after spotting it in the morning, though, so I would have regretted leaving it behind. Any ideas, folks???

      

From left to right these are from Sew Over It (not on their online store - 

I paid £12 for 1m of this but it's here for £9.50), and Sewbox

The next two are equally busy, but more practical, if that's a word you can use for crepe de chine. The first was from Sew Over It, and as I was paying Lisa I noticed she was wearing a top she'd made from it, and looked lovely in it, which was reassuring! The second is my long awaited first piece of Liberty fabric - this is the lightest needlecord, and I'm planning a skirt with it, but I need to do a toile first.

While I was there I went along to Gabby from Gabberdashery's first ever meet up, which was really lovely. We sat and knitted and ate Gabby's brownies, and I recognised so many vloggers but didn't have a clue what to say to all of them, since I knew who they were, which made me feel a bit creepy! So, belated hellos to Pigeon Wishes and Kittenish Behaviour: *waves*

My final purchase was some embroidery thread, which I hadn't intended on buying, but they looked lovely and seemed like really good value. Unfortunately sewing with it was another matter altogether, and I was really disappointed when I found the thread splitting and knotting worse than anything I've ever used before. Thankfully I didn't spend too much on it, and I've been doing just find with some old threads in my stash, mixed up with some 40p ones from lovely So 'n' sews. I've been using this embroidery cheatsheet from Mollie Makes website to learn stitches and I'd recommend it if you're looking for a place to start. I wrote out this little sheet to practise, as I haven't tried embroidery since I was about 8 and my mum taught me a french knot. I'd like to add some details to my Anna dress (yet another post on its way) once I'm a bit better at it.


Finally, I carried it all home in this excellent, free, cat toy!

I was a little bit disappointed not to find the fabrics that I was really looking for, in particular I really wanted to see some Atelier Brunette French Terry, because it's just the sort of price where I wouldn't feel comfortable buying it without seeing it. I also didn't manage to see any double gauze, either, but all things in good time.

While we're here, I have a few other fabrics that I haven't posted, so let's continue! First up is a red floral fabric that I'm going to call a crepe de chine from Steve Bane in Dorchester. This was a remnant hung up all on its own that I'm going to make into a blouse, once I find the right pattern. In the middle is a lovely jersey from Fabric Land that I ordered online for £3.99/m, and the one on the right is a cotton that also came from Fabric Land, but I bought it in store about a month ago. I've already made garments from the last two - which I promise I'll post about eventually - but still have quite a bit of each left.

 

Finally to my local fabric shop So 'n' sew's. The first one I want to call a ponte roma, but honestly I'm unsure of the composition - it's a pretty stable jersey and I think it was just under £12/m. It has very faint stripes, though I'm not sure I'd call it a marl either. I've already made a skirt from this but it's honestly so simple and plain that I'm not sure it deserves a post, even if I did wear it to the Knitting and Stitching Show!

The second is a gorgeous turquoise batik that also came from So 'n' sew's. I planned a blouse with it back when I had even less understanding of drape than I do now, but at the moment it's living as a skirt in my imagination. I have enough to make either a sleeveless top and short skirt (probably not to be worn together!), or a maxi, and I can't quite decide. I do like maxi skirts, but rarely wear them, and I guess I need to figure out whether this is just because I don't have a beautiful handmade turquoise one yet... Hmm!

Last up I can best describe as a compromise fabric, when I almost splashed out £22/m on a cotton lawn and went for this £12/m one instead. Naturally I now do not have a single clue what do do with it. I definitely want to make some camisoles (again I'm waiting to find the right pattern), so maybe this would be good for one of them. I think I bought 2 or 2.5m, so maybe I could get some sort of kimono, or summery cover up out of it too? Both are projects I'd like to try and draft myself, so by the time I've toiled they might just be ready for me to wear this summer.

Still on the hunt for...
I'm really feeling the need to invest in some decent, plain jersey material now, but my local shop doesn't have what I'm looking for (or at least it's too well hidden - it is a bit of an Aladdin's Cave!). I'm considering some lovely marls from Guthrie & Ghani, if only they had some slightly darker shades. The mauve and green ones below are pretty lush. I'd like to make a raglan top made up of a patterned and a plain fabric, but I've yet to find the perfect pairing. Likewise a stripy Coco top with a turquoise yoke - every time I come close to buying online I start to have crippling doubts and decide to save it for later.

Smokey green and mauve marl jerseys from Guthrie & Ghani

I have so many breton tops already, but they're mostly RTW, and I tend to wear the same 2 over and over again, so it is probably time for a clear out. I'd love some pink and white striped jersey, but I'm not sure if it's incredibly fussy of me to say that all the nice ones I've seen so far have much wider stripes than I would like? The best ones I've seen have high cotton content and are quite pricey, so I feel like it's reasonable to wait it out until I find something I really like. Then again, if I can't find "nice stripes" at the knitting and stitching show, then I may be waiting for something that doesn't exist...

Anyway, I'm also on the lookout for some heavier weight material for shorts and skirts over the summer. I'd like a heavy-ish navy cotton that will last as well as my Weird Fish shorts have (I've lived in them pretty much every weekend between April and October for a couple of years now!). I'd like to make a short-ish skirt from it, and my thinking is that I'll be able to switch out the shorts for the skirt and look a little bit smarter without changing the whole ensemble. One day I'll post a picture of me in said ensemble, and you can all tell me if that's an appropriate word for my summer look - I suspect it is a somewhat grandiose term for "shorts and t-shirt".

We've covered fabrics that I have, and fabrics that I need for projects, but have barely touched on all the fabrics that I'm lusting after, but can't justify without a project in mind. That list could go on some while, so I may have to compile a Pinterest board instead and lead you all over there instead.

If you have any suggestions of patterns or fabrics then do let me know - they would be very much appreciated!

xx

TL;DR (None of the sewing, all of the moaning)

Health matters have not improved a great deal, but I have returned to work and it is eating up the vast majority of my energy. I am on the mend, but it is a really slow process. I have only just noticed that it's been a full month since I actually published, which doesn't feel right as I've written at least five.

This has happened because I set myself a goal of taking some good photos to go along with all my posts, but this has become a reason not to post things, rather than the useful motivation to get my camera out that I hoped it would be. The truth is that while I enjoy writing, and I love making things, photography comes more naturally to me when I'm outside exploring, or with a cat, rather than in a poorly-lit room trying to make my handmade things look good laid out lain on a cheap laminate floor (which makes everything look heartbreakingly awful), because I just don't want to be in photos right now.

Please accept this picture of my cat looking faintly suspicious, in
the absence of sewing-related photos. 

In short, while I really want to make my posts look good - I know it's a lot nicer to read posts with pretty pictures than without - I'm going to give myself a break. If you decide to read along then accept my apologies and believe me that I am working on prettying up my corner of the Internet exactly as much as I can.

I promise the next post will be a lot more sewing heavy :)