Grey Tote Bag

I decided I would make a few more bags today to list on my store and on Folksy.  I looked on Folksy and renewed a couple of bags that had expired but to be honest it felt like a bit of a waste of time/money as they are hardly getting any views on there and on checking the forum lots of people are complaining about the same thing. Something has changed some internetty-complicated-thingy that is affecting everyone's views so that is a bit rubbish.  I  have sold on there before, only 11 and stretched over a couple of years so nothing wild! Better than nothing though. So I decided I would just list this new bag on my weebly website.Fab Bags

Fab Bags

I have a bag this size that I always use for swimming I can fit my towel, suit, and all my shower stuff in there no problem.  I have only put it on for £10 so no real profit to be made on this one really as the cottons were new, lining recycled and ribbon trim also re-used.  I just want to get some interest going for now, I would also like to do more clothing for sale but this is tricky to sell online with sizing etc. I suppose I need to be more of  a risk taker rather than just making the odd thing and thinking oh that hasn't sold I won't do any more as they are just taking up cupboard space.  If anyone has any ideas for things they would like to see made that they are having trouble getting hold of let me know. I can run a few items up and see if they get any interest, I think people are perhaps short on funds at the moment so handmade originals are not top of peoples list of priorities.

Bargain Garden Arbour

We have been wanting a garden seat to go in place of the children's trampoline and had thought about making one, I posted an idea from another blog where someone had used three dining chairs.  Well we had been looking and found that the price of decent second hand chairs was quite steep considering we would be taking bits of them apart, we also didn't see any suitable.  We may have been impatient but my husband had been looking on eBay and saw a nice bench and arbour that some one had started to paint and then got fed up with.  He bought it for £80, the guy even delivered it for us as they lived just in the next town.

  My husband spent the best part of the day painting it yesterday and we decided to leave off the back panel as we like the way you can see the bushes through the back. Here it is finished...

The total cost was £95 if you factor in the paint, I think it looks great and he has done a lovely job.  The people who were selling it were moving house and had decided it was one job too many to finish it up.  That was good news for us though as these are quite expensive when they are new.

This one here from Wickes that comes pre painted is £300 so I think that is a good saving.

Cotton Blouse - mark darts as you fit

I have had this piece of fabric since last year, I really likes the design but I only bought  half of a meter. (these cotton prints are so expensive) So I was thinking what can I make?

I decided to just get on with it and make a blouse, hopefully with sleeves if there is enough.  I cut around a button up blouse I have leaving quite a large seam allowance to allow for mistakes. Then it looked like enough left for sleeves and bit of facing for neck so I cut these out as well.

I then sew the shoulder and side seams and try it on, it is usually a bit big when I do this but it doesn't matter I pin where the darts will go, in this case I did some across the top of the bust as well as down the front as it was bulging a bit there. I also noticed it was stuck out a bit on the shoulder blades so I put some horizontal ones there as well.  I straighten them all up and make sure they are evenly spaced when I lay it down flat.

Back

Front

I tried it with the sleeves sewn in and decided to shorten them a little, I did a pleat at the shoulder and also at the bottom of the sleeve then added a button. 

My overlocker has been broken for a while so the inside seams are zig zig stitched, I faced the neck line then hand stitched it invisibly on the inside, the sleeves and hem are machine stitched. (looking at my picture I need to iron the sleeve and dart seems a bit more)

I had hardly any fabric bits left so I really did just have enough for this top, I didn't do a side zip or vent but you could do this to make getting it on easier. I just pull it over my head and it is fine, no room for weight gain though.

I had these buttons in my sewing box, I'm getting through my stuff that I have collected over the years I will have to start replenishing them soon.  I always pick the buttons off things that are no longer any use, I also save all the spares you get with things.

Unfortunately the horses heads and bodies get a bit disfigured during the fitting!

So that is another item finished and no need of any patterns, it really annoys me what they charge for patterns and that people buy them as they think it is the easiest.  It is better to take something apart and look at it and have a go. You can buy  more fabric with the £7 or £8 pound you will save.  

Ethical Clothing and a Skirt and Top Revamp

I posted last week about some items I had in my sewing fabric box that would be made into a dress. These are the items...

Now it is difficult to see but the skirt is long and has a rather silly ruffle that goes a third of the way down the front and a big bow at the waist.  The top has a small hole in the side and the straps a very low ( obscenely low) at the front, if I wore it as it is you would probably see my stomach! So I had thought of making a dress but as I was unpicking the ridiculous ruffle I thought I would do skirt and top as that way I could still wear the top with jeans if I wanted to.   I chopped a good 9 inch off the top of the skirt and cut the skirt front all the way down the front once the ruffle was removed so that the seam I had to stitch didn't look odd.  I added  quarter inch elastic to make a new waistband by just folding over the top of the skirt, inserting elastic which I had stitched to correct waist size by trying first and then just sewing by zig  zag taking care not to catch on the elastic as I went. ( This is very quick)  The skirt looked better a;already without the bow and ruffle.

I fixed the hole in the top with a bit of invisible stitching, chopped of about 2 inch  off the straps, reshaped the front of the top by cutting then hand stitching on the inside so that the stitches didn't show.  (I thought it was a bit too pointy towards the shoulders before.)

Here it is with a belt and shoes ( it seems strange to take a picture without shoes!)

It is wearable now. I have to say when I first saw it I thought what can I do with that. Then it didn't take much to get rid of the fussiness of it.  Another holiday outfit for free!  (Need some sun on those legs though)

I read The Thrift book over the last two days which came in at the library from my order last week. It covers lots of things most of which I do already and I did enjoy it but I did disagree with her take on clothes buying.  She admitted throughout the book how middle class she is and how fortunate she has been but goes on to rant about people buying clothes at Primark and the implications of this.  

Ethical Clothing

I do agree that people should be paid a living wage and child labour should never be used, her argument was if you buy cheap you are supporting this and if you pay top whack you can sleep easy as you have done your bit.  That is all very well for a middle class journalist/author to say but what she didn't mention is that many of the pricey shops also use workers overseas in this way and I don't feel families on low incomes should be made to feel guilty for doing the best they can to clothe their children or themselves.  

I agree it is obscene to go in every Saturday and throw away clothes just because they are cheap to make way for new, but for a lot of people they shop there out of necessity.  

Just out of interest I think it is quite difficult to determine which shops are ethical or not, I had a look around the internet and found some conflicting suggestions as to which were the best places to shop.  One site put GAP quite high but on two others they were near the bottom, I suppose it depends on the loyalties of the site owners!  I did find a list on Ethical Consumer which puts M&S  at the top, Primark are near the bottom but I might add so are Wallis, John Lewis and River Island so it is not so much about what you pay.

I think the best way to be ethical about your clothing is to make it last, recycle, swap and make your own.  If you need to buy cheap do so when you need to, but not every week! 

I would also like to add my mother in law got me the above skirt (Which is GAP) in the St Lukes charity shop sale last year for 50p! The top also from a charity shop I bought for £2 and it's organic cotton.

Four frugal things today

This week I have been reading 'Divergent' by Veronica Roth  and I'm sorry to say  I'm not enjoying it at all.  Sorry mainly because this is a book I bought and usually I try to get as much as I can from the library ( we do all pay for the library you know through our council tax so get using them!) but his time based on the good reviews I bought it.  It is dull I feel and yes I know it's aimed at the teen audience but so was the Hunger Games and it had  a good story and likeable characters.
So on to frugal thing number one, I ordered four books from the library online this one...

  and this one...

and these two...

                          

The Thrift Book and Fractured are not even in at the library yet but they are on order so you can still reserve them.  So that has saved me some money and using the library is recycling remember.

Frugal thing two is lunch at home we always do this but I know some people like to go out for dinner on Sundays and if it's five pound a head tell themselves its cheap. Well that is fine if that is what you like but it is not cheap, you don't usually get desert with that and there are drinks on top.  I think for a family of four that is still working out quite expensive.  We like to save meals out as a treat but even then I usually feel our cooking at home is better.  I think being a vegetarian also means me and my son don't have that much choice and I'm sat thinking well I could have done better than that.  If that sounds like you maybe you should cut down on the meals out.

Frugal thing three is a walk with the dogs, the sun made an appearance this afternoon and we had a nice walk I actually took off my jacket because I got warm, that has to be a good thing. 

Frugal thing four is after sorting through my box of fabric I found two items that I think I will turn into a dress  this week they are straight out of the box so that is why they are crinkly..

I also had a little bit of red fabric, so after yesterdays post I thought maybe three panels in the dress but looking at the colours in that skirt I think another panel would just be too much.  I have pinned where the straps need adjusting on the top and I will need to remove the big bow and ruffle from down the front of the skirt, it also has pocket but there is a join beneath so I think they will need to stay.  

So that will keep me busy for a few days. I am swimming tomorrow evening so I doubt it will be finished by then.

Spring Fashion Ideas

I had a little look on the desigual website today and found this little dress that I think would lend itself  very well to using up fabric.  You could choose three of your fabrics that are not quite enough to make anything with on their own, or you could look in the charity shop.

 I think I would make it longer as I want to be bare legged in the summer and that is too short as it is without tights or leggings I think.  I also think I would make the top panel a little bit shorter so that when you add darts to the top of the shift dress you don't have an interruption where the two panels meet.  I can't see any darts on the one in the photo but I would want it fitted with a central back zip.
I also think the colours of fabric you  use do not have to be similar you could use contrasting ones.  I think there are lots of possibilities here and I am going to have a look at what I can do.  If you use jersey fabrics there would be no need for fasteners you could just pull it on over your head.
So that dress is item number one I'm going to make for little or no cost ( a small cost for zip maybe).  I did say I had enough clothes for my holiday but that means I won't get to sew anything so scratch that! As long as it is very little or no cost it's ok.
The other item I would like to make is a black jacket casual but ok if I was dresses up, I don't want a formal jacket and I already own a black leather jacket so something more suited to spring.  I saw this but I don't like the shiny parts on it...

My mother in law works in a charity shop and said they are having a sale  around now everything 50p or £1 so if I can just get a larger black jacket in a cotton maybe I could come up with something I like.  ( The jacket above is £48 and the dress £78)  I will put these two images in my ideas book so that I don't forget.

I'm going to go and have a look now if there is anything I can come up with for idea number one.

Spring project ideas

This week has felt more like spring is here despite the strange smog/Sahara sand that has been hanging in the air.  The lighter evenings and less need for heating has had us thinking about holidays and doing the garden.  We have removed the children's trampoline as they did not use it at all last year even though they said they would so we replaced the net.  The net has just perished and left it looking like an eye sore, so my husband took it all down.  They did not even mention it was gone!  We have decided a pergola and seating area will look nice in that corner of the garden but we do not want to pay too much for this.
My husband is very good at building and repairing stuff so he has been weighing up whether or not it is worth making the pergola and bench or buying a second hand one from eBay.  Sometimes the price of wood means it is not worth starting from scratch but you can pick up some good pieces if people are moving or bored with them that might just need retreating and a bit of attention.
I found this gorgeous idea on instructables ....

Follow the link above to see the original and full instructions

How fabulous is that bench!  It is made from ordinary dining chairs that have had their padded seats removed,  secured with batons at the back, arms added and panels across the seat tops.  This is what the chairs looked like before..

I'm sure a lot of people have old furniture in their family that gets thrown out or donated as it is not the current fashion.  If you have something similar it could be something you  could use in your own garden rather buying expensive garden furniture.  If you are not skilled enough to tackle the arms I'm sure it would be fine without and the straight bits of wood you could have cut for you at the DIY shop.  ( Make sure you measure correctly first) It would also need to be treated with appropriate outdoor protection.

I also think this piece of furniture would look good inside the house, you could have thick foam cut  (Dunhelm Mill do this, I've had it for seating before) and make a cover for it.

If you have not looked on the instuctables site have a look now there are ideas for all kind of things.