enid collins designs are fab, if a bit cutesy. and the gallery for the AGirlCanNeverHaveTooManyHandbags list makes me want to learn how to knit NOW.

but how cool is the sampler? i’m absolutely dying to sign up but trouble is it would only lead me to wanting to spend more money. deep breathing, try not to think about getting lovely things through the post (after all, the new ottobre’s on its way soon enough).

creative biz info at the switchboards

trekked around all our local charity shops today. we’re blessed with a whole streetfull, a bonus addition to the streetfull of fabric shops on the other side, if only they weren’t mostly home dec, though there’s a handful of sari shops to make up for it. found plenty of woolly jumpers for fulling, but nothing suitable for the bag project (was hoping to find a wool blanket or similar, don’t think i’ll get enough from a jumper). in the very last shop i spotted my perfect bag fabric, a rather lurid pink/purple/green 70’s flowered curtain fabric. my immediate thought was to find a purple lining and lo and behold there was a piece of decent quality purple lining hanging on the rail above. the main fabric is loosely woven, fairly thin (thin enough to need a pale coloured felt underneath) and stiff but seems to have softened up slightly after a soak. i’ve stuck a swatch in the wash to see how it copes. the burn test suggests acrylic with melting, acrid black smoke and a sputtering flame.

the fabrics were £3 the lot which made up for the extortionate price of the jumpers. couldn’t find anything decent for under £3, so the fulling (was hoping to do a blanket) is definitely not going to be the cheapo thrill i was expecting. glad i bought a plunger for the bathtub method as my machine’s a front loader which can’t be checked and stopped through the process and there’s no chance i’m leaving my expensive jumpers’ fate in the hands of the washing machine gods. i’m itching to have a try but i’ve got a meeting tonight and my coding to do later in the week so won’t be able to start till next week

the a-line ones halfways down this page look like a good start. prolly want to make the handle longer though.

on the weekend, once i’ve finished my coding for world peace i swear i’m going to sort this place out. i’ll fix the explorer bug, sort out the spam filters and comments (how come the spammers can post comments and i can’t eh? eh?) and fix the layout in the gallery. if i’m feeling really ambitious i’ll try and tackle the serif font too.

yeah, right… argh and i could do with sorting the smileys too. where’s :rolleyes: when i need him eh? eh?

oh look and my timestamp’s stuck on gmt too…

edit: okay so it’s sunday night and i’m only halfway through my coding. i have accounts work to do next week plus at some point i’d better get some sewing done before i forget how. looks like this is a project for next weekend. along with clearing up the spam, it’s really starting to get on my tits now

pix to follow…

the trousers went together in about 5 hours without benefit of instructions. this included a good couple of hours laying out and cutting the pattern as i wanted to use up the fabric from her dungies which is a perfect co-ordinate for the stripes. this meant piecing, which i wouldn’t have even bothered to attempt had i not assumed i only needed 1 trouser leg (1 front piece and 1 back) when preliminarily laying it out. once i’d committed to the idea i was damn sure i wasn’t going to give up and use fabric that had actually cost me something. i ended up cutting the knee sections on the cross grain as it was the only way to squeeze them in, and even then i had to add a little patch. was left with about 10 square cms worth of scraps.

i need to look up a method for adding the elastic into the casing as it’s a bit twisty in there. it’s also a fair bit too long which results in fetching nappy exposure out the back of the apron. my seam allowances were a bit haphazard, so the legs are different widths, resulting in one frill being too long and the other perilously close to too short, even though i’d cut them longer than the pattern piece just in case. i didn’t bother sewing and turning the frills this time, just joined them to the trouser legs zz’d the raw edges together and topstitched the lot. much quicker and more manageable. i did all the other seams with the overlock stitch and topstitched, seems strudy enough and quick too.

i’m totally thrilled by my thriftiness, the whole outfit cost £1.20 for a spool of thread, of which i still have most left. we’ve had loads of compliments on it and i’m even coming round to the stripey fabric, which is utterly adorably soft. now it’s turned out super wearable i’m a little ashamed of my shoddy sod-it-it’s-only-a-muslin techniques. the buttonhole on the apron is a real monstrosity - back side is purple thread cos i ran out and whole thing is stiff as a board as i had to go over it 3 times to get it the right size and go over cut threads.

i’m overall super chuffed with the look and the ease of sewing (though a frilled or contrasting flat trim would save a good hour’s hand basting work and add a bit of variety to her summer wardrobe, i can see this one coming around again with monotonous regularity).

since i’ve started hanging out at glitter and signed up for a handbag class at pr it looks like i might be heading down the slippery slope to fibre arts it makes sense to me to still keep everything in the same place, but it looks like it won’t be just making for madam for long (unless she reveals a hitherto undisclosed need for couture handbags :D).

on the search for class materials i found there was bugger all chance i’ll be paying £36/m for wool felt so i’m on the track of instructions for felting woollen wovens and knits. turns out this process is known as fulling, not felting as elucidated here (magnifying glass at the ready…). fuzzygalore also has a blog that has its fair share of sewing too.