Beautiful day

The weather is gorgeous here today – lots of sun. I’ve pulled up some potatoes from 2 of the 3 tubs, but the 3rd I’m going to leave a little longer as it hasn’t flowered yet. I have lots of strawberries growing, and some peas are sprouting and so all is well with the world. It sounds silly but I get a real buzz from looking out at my food growing efforts 🙂
Oh, and I’ve been sewing…
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[Let’s play a game. The first picture I have GIANT hands, and TINY feet, so guess what angle super tall DB took the pic from… The other two pics show a certain lazy sun-loving cat in the background. Can you spot him?]
For my birthday work bought me (amongst other things) a fabby fabby book called Sew What! Skirts, which I’d already seen Ruth review, and lusted after 🙂 It helps you plot out your own skirts without a pattern (you can make your own pattern too, but so far I’ve been happy to work straight onto the fabric), and it is so easy I could barely believe it. I’ve struggled with finding the right fit, or even just making something, from a shop bought pattern in the past, and finally I feel like I can sew, fix mistakes and alter what I’ve made. The book is never patronising, just very straightforward, and perfect for anyone who is scared of sewing garments. I’m in love with it.
First up I made the a-line drawstring with some cheap fabric from the market (this is NOT the skirt in the photo I should point out). Unsurprisingly drawstrings and my body don’t go together, but I wanted to try the easiest quickest one just to get started and build my confidence up. It worked 😀 Yeah it doesn’t do much for me, but it fits, and it worked, and I won’t be ashamed to wear it in the garden on a sunny day like today. And because I went straight to marking the shape to cut on the fabric, it made my sewing confidence go sky high. I might still take a bit off the length to shorten it so I can wear it lower with less ruching. I also messed up in some spots – misplacing the buttonhole for the drawstring, and next time I’ll finish the fabric edges first instead of after the side seams like the book suggested, but in spite of those it is still a wearable skirt 😀
The pics are of the a-line fitted skirt in Amy Butler’s Wall Flower fabric, which I have fallen in love with completely. I didn’t do an amazing job with this skirt I’m afraid – the waist had too much ease, so I first tried taking in the side seam, and then realised AFTER fitting the facing that it was still too big so I added some last minute darts to the front. That’s the lumpy bit you can see in the front of the skirt 🙁 I didn’t do a great job of those darts I confess, so I’m debating whether to unpick them or not. BUT I could use opinions of other people – DB is being all manly and tells me I can wear the skirt wherever I want if I feel comfortable in it, and refused to tell me if I looked stupid in it. Is this something I can wear in public e.g. to work, people? Honest answers please (and especially opinions from sewers please!). I still intend to go and buy more of this print and try and do a better job though 😀 I loooooove this print… I’ve also got a Free Spirit fabric (the green and brown mod dandilion type one from the Sole range) sitting on the radiator waiting for me to pick a pattern. I’ve got enough for a pleated skirt but I might just have another go at the fitted a-line with it till I nail that style properly. At least I can fit a zip reasonably well though now 😀

In hiding

I apologise for my little hiding away absence there. Actually, no I don’t apologise. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself 🙂 I’m dragging myself away from the desire to post every week, and just sticking to posting when I have something to post instead! Last week was my birthday, and I didn’t really get all that into it. Considering it was only a week ago, it feels like months :/ I got some fab kitty goodies though to remind me that at least I am mentally still very young 🙂 And a PS3 (hence not so much time for knitting, although I’ve been quite restrained really!). And this, which frankly is the best present ever 😀
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Kyuk! Not sure if my mate Sarah (the recipient of the pirate mittens) is telling me that I need lessons or just a source to fund the habit… 😉 You can’t see it too well, but underneath the knitting lessons bit it says ‘Is wool your dirty little secret too?’ On the side of the tin it says ‘I need a half gram of wool and quick! I’m starting to come down…’ 🙂
And just to prove that I have been knitting:
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In spite of my lack of posting, these are pretty quick and easy to knit – the PS3 indicates that I probably could have had nigh on a pair by now, but I don’t care 🙂 I’m just enjoying the st st on the foot after the entrelac. And holding back on the weaving of all those ends. Gah! I had a look inside to see if I could find a way of just weaving the yarn through at change over points while knitting without having lots of ends, but nope. The second sock will also require about 14 ends weaving in…
I should point out that I have been knitting other things too, but they are gifty ones and a secret. I will say that one is on VERY fine yarn, and that another involves travelling stitches. Shhhh!
Finally, Roo tagged me for a meme.
1) What was I doing ten years ago?
I was in the middle of my English studies degree, busy having a whale of a time 🙂 That degree experience was so much more fun and enabling than the year of law, but I’d stupidly thought I couldn’t do much with an English degree. And yeah I was right, but life is too short, you know? The careers department had a computer prog that suggested I look at moving into banking when I graduated. Yeah, right, but then apparently it suggested that for everyone.
2) What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today:
1. Order DB some amazon vouchers for his birthday
2. Pot up my chili sprouts
3. Iron 🙁
4. Take photos for this post 😀
5. Do some gift knitting
3) Snacks I enjoy:
If I’m being good, I really like dried mango, but if I’m bad, then the usual chocolately naughty goodness. I’m feeling quite good that my birthday chocolate is all gone now – I love getting it, but I also can’t feel comfortable till it is all gone!
4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
Hire a housekeeper first of all. I’d probably still work in information and books somehow, to keep my dibs in, and make sure my family are all comfortable. But I’d like to think that I’d still be relatively down to earth and happy, just that the pressure to find X job by X time and Y travel expenses and Z bill payments wouldn’t be there anymore. And I’d buy a spinning wheel.
5) Places I have lived:
Manchester, Wakefield and Huddersfield. Not much to that really!
6) Jobs I have had:
Chocolate sales assistant (not made of chocolate – I worked on a Cadbury’s stall in a shopping centre)
Once I spent a few days making up those annoying signs on suckers people stick in their car windows. Not the baby ones, the crap ones with rubbish rude jokes on.
One day at a cafe where I did everything wrong – broke glasses, nearly set the place on fire… Unsurprisingly they didn’t ask me to go back. Luckily it was owned by a guy who was rumoured to like little girls too much. Nice.
7) Peeps I want to know more about:
If you are reading this, consider yourself tagged, but I think nearly everyone has done this now! Not convinced that Abigail has though…