Shades Of Me Series: Blues Edition

There's a fun series going on right now organised by Welcome To The Mouse House and Petit a Petit and Family encouraging people to sew for themselves.  The twist?  A rainbow spectrum of colours to build your outfit around!  Everyone is welcome to sew-along, there are linky parties on Hayley's and Celina's blogs as well as a Flickr Shades of Me pool, and a HUGE giveaway to boot.  The series kicked off with yellow, followed swiftly by orange and white, but there's a veritable rainbow still outstanding.

Each day, there are three bloggers building an outfit around a single colour.   In 'well duh' news, I had blue.

I wasn't sure when I started planning how much license we had to deviate from our pallet so I pulled out the fabric that was the most Blue and Blue and Blue All Over, this swirly stretch cord from ye olde stash.

See? All the blues.  With some monochrome black, grey and white for good measure.

I drafted up some skinny fit trousers, and admittedly some might think I look crazypants in my crazy pants but I love patterned trousers and no one can stop me.

I was all set to cut into some plain petrol jersey for a coordinating tunic when I remembered that I had, in fact, made a petrol blue Renfrew a couple of years ago that was a perfect colour match.  There are compelling reasons to have two (or more!) petrol blue tops as it's my favourite colour, but probably not compelling reasons to have two basic petrol tops without any adornments.  With busy trousers, the neutral Renfrew won out.

To celebrate the series, there's an amazing giveaway with a tonne of prizes (including my Lady Skater pattern).  To see what's included, you can click through, or if you like surprises just blithely enter by clicking this: a Rafflecopter giveaway

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This Just In: New Supplier Käpynen and more delights from Lillestoff

Words cannot describe how happy I am to add another supplier to my shop! Käpynen are a Finnish company supplying great prints on cotton / elastane jersey, but also on really amazing sweatshirting.  Patterned sweatshirting, how I love thee.  The two colour ways of Diamonds and the Sugar Skulls are all 150cm width 95% cotton / 5% elastane sweatshirt blends, so there is good stretch recovery, and they have a soft looped backing.  Nice and sturdy, but not at all bulky.  The Sock N' Roll (which is undoubtably one of the best named fabrics ever), is a 95% cotton / 5% elastane jersey in a massive 170cm width.  There are striped, dotty, starry, and heart-print socks arrayed in a non-directional fashion so you can flip your patterns pieces up and down.  The sweatshirting is the same!

Also crossing the threshold yesterday was a massive box from Lillestoff.  It included a lot of restocks, including Bunny Good Night (which sold out in record time so I quickly put in another order before it's gone entirely), Missing Duck, Vichy, and the ever-popular plain petrol jersey.  The Jeans Jersey that has sold out three times in blue has now been replaced with Jeans Jersey in black.  It's not an overall black because the ribbed texture softens the colour, and the backing is the same brushed texture that makes it omg-so-soft.  I've also added two skinny stripes (petrol / aqua and blue / raspberry) that measure 1/2cm tall.  And, and, AND.  Two more prints!  Hippie Day is designed by Sari Ahokainen of Bunny Good Night and Rainbowphant fame, and has camper vans, hearts, flowers, peace signs, rainbows, butterflies, and hearts in retro technicolour.  Maritime Dots is a seaside print with seagulls (some wearing crowns because obviously), anchors, and an array of multi-coloured dots.  The colours are just really, really lovely and I think it's be excellent for some grown up clothes.

January is proving very busy.  On top of the perpetual revolving door of fabric coming in and going out, I got my first Mac which I'm struggling to get to grips with.  Googling how to do even the most basic things is almost a full time job and to add to that I'm also trying to learn Illustrator before my free trial runs out and I have to decide whether to pay Adobe mega bucks in perpetuity until I die.  Over the next month I'm participating in fun series and a pattern tour and of course I also have both year-end taxes and VAT returns due because procrastination and avoidance are irresistible.  Once my commitments to others and the HMRC have settled down, I hope to have an official sew-along for the Penny Pinafore which will cover the construction in greater depth, lots of fabric and fitting advice, and some ideas to play with the pattern.  And here's a sneaky peak of a pattern I'm working on...

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This just in: Inuit Kids and Whales, Wonderfly, Dotties, and OMG BUNNY GOOD NIGHT

The first box of fabric of 2014 arrived today and it's a doozy!  We've got from left to right, top to bottom: Bunny Good Night, Wonderfly, Inuit, Inuit Whale, and Frau Holle Dotties*.   So desperate was I to get my hands on Bunny Good Night that I took my laptop down to the library after hours to sit in the car in the dark and freezing cold to use their wifi to submit my order.  I REGRET NOTHING.  It's by the designer of the most popular fabric in the world- Rainbowphant- and despite putting in a larger order than usual, I think it'll go pretty fast. Because I'm using it all for me.  Wonderfly is a large scale retro-style butterfly that would be particularly good for the ladeez, Inuit and Inuit Whales are too adorable by at least half, and Frau Holle Dotties is a great blender as well as being pretty badass on its own.  All of them are uploaded to the shop!

It's definitely 2014 now despite the fact I'll write 2013 in all correspondence for at least nine more months and with a new year, we all say 'out with the old, in with the new', amirite?  So I've discounted (by at least 30%!) twenty of my older fabrics in the sale section to make some room in the fabric vault.  Three new suppliers are on deck and I need the space.

Be back soon with a looking back / looking forward post!

*Germans- What does Frau Holle Dots mean?! Google translate makes it 'hollering woman' without the umlaut and 'Hell Woman' with.  Surely, surely not. 

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Holiday Sewing: Simple Leather Christmas Ornaments Tutorial

I'm bringing Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom's Holiday Sewing Series to a close today with a super speedy tutorial:
I know, right? So easy I actually feel pretty guilty about posting it but but BUT I did some googling when I had the idea and surprisingly there wasn't anything too similar.  The tree and stars are complete no-sew, but the baubles require a tiny bit of sewing (although you could omit the detail and just use the outline).  You can download the templates for the three shapes here, but there are a tonne of Christmas clip art templates if you want to add more shapes... Reindeer? Stockings? Snowflakes? Candy canes? Leather ornament all the things!

Cut out your shapes and trace them on your leather.  Using sharp scissors, carefully cut around the outlines.  If you're going to sew the zigzag detail on the baubles, cut the zigzag from a second colour.  Use a glue stick to position the zigzag on the bauble.

After the glue is dry, put a heavy duty needle in your machine (specific leather needles are best but general heavy duty needles are fine too). To stop the leather from waving / distorting, I use a slightly longer stitch length of 2.8.  Start sewing close to the edge, stopping at the corners and with the needle in the down position, and pivoting to continue sewing around all the edges until you get back to where you started.

Use an awl or craft knife to make a hole at the top for hanging.  If you have the hardware, grommets would be pretty nifty too.

I used leather cording with a simple knot at the top for hanging.

And that's it!  They took me fourteen times longer to photograph than make and our tree looks (marginally) more classy so that's a result by all accounts.

Make sure that you check out the series for lots of Christmas sewing ideas, including yesterday's tutorial from Jamie herself with reversible holiday placemats.  There will be a linky party on Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom tomorrow for everyone to link up their recent holiday sewing, and there's a even a giveaway for a Brother 1034d serger closing tomorrow!

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The Mini Penny Pinafore sewing pattern is go!

 

You've maybe already seen the announcement on other social media outlets that weren't being jerks last night but let's smack it down here for posterity's sake too.  Please, Blogger?  The Mini Penny is also finished and available in my shop!  Let me show you two that I made eons ago and never blogged...

I needed to make a short sleeve one for photographic proof that short sleeves were a possibilty so it was lucky that we were going to Spain the next day for some heat.

Prettiest photographic location to date.

MOST DIFFICULT TO ACTUALLY PHOTOGRAPH.  Seriously, blinding white hot light.

Back to darker / colder / more familiar territory (ie our back garden), here's a tunic length version I did in ye olde French terry from the stash.

The fabric has around 10% stretch so this pattern is definitely doable in winter-weight knits.

Like most of my other Mini Pennys, this one has pockets.  I made the executive decision not to include the pockets in the pattern as with 12 sizes in two lengths each the pattern pieces are very crowded without pocket placement lines but I'll be offering them on the blog in the new year as a free add on.

And here's a selection of the testers' Mini Pennys!

Katie even made a matching Penny and Mini Penny for her and her daughter!  Based on this picture alone, I'm going to have to try this to improve my relationship with Maia. I have never seen two people more delighted to be in each other's company wearing matching clothes.  If mini doppelgangers are your bag too, from now until Christmas Day you can use PENNY at checkout for 20% off two or more patterns.  It's good for any of my patterns, it doesn't specifically have to be the Pennys.  If you have bought two or more patterns since Monday, expect a refund!


 

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The Penny Pinafore Sewing Pattern is go!

Release the hounds, release the kracken, release what you have at hand but The Penny Pinafore is finally available in my shop!  If you haven't heard me talking about nothing else for the last month, here's a description of the pattern:

This striking knit dress has shapely princess seams, a scooped banded neckline, a gently curved a-line shape in three different lengths (tunic / mini / knee length), and options for banded cap sleeves, ¾ length sleeves or long sleeves. It's designed to flatter the figure with a close fit through the bust, subtle waistline shaping through the natural waist, and then gently skimming over the lower waist and hips. The separate panels and princess seams give ample opportunity for fitting to individual shapes and adjusting to preferred ease. In a single colour or overall print the dress lends itself to a casual wardrobe staple that's cute thrown over leggings or tights, or use a contrasting print or colour in the centre panels for an striking hourglass shape. There are eight sizes included in the pattern, ranging from a 30” to 44” high bust, and a 24” to 38” high waist. Due to the slightly challenging nature of sewing princess seams and easing different curves into each other, I would class this an intermediate pattern but essentially it's a very quick sew.

And just to cleanse the internet's visual palette of only me wearing the Penny Pinafore round these parts, here's a fraction of the makes my awesome testers made.  I think they made nearly twenty between them, they are the absolute best.  And my mum tested for me this time so I am nearly a family business.

Also the best is my digitiser, Susan, from Crafterhours.  If you're looking for a digitiser she's a joy and a pleasure.  Better comb your hair, though, as she really likes Facetime.

Want to wear coordinating Penny Pinafores with your little doppelganger?  The Mini Penny will be released tomorrow!

I released this pattern specifically for the Designer's Challenge (initiated by the awesome Andrea from The Train To Crazy), where designers were challenged to come up with the unique 'original' pattern.  It's being going strong for over a month now, there's some fun patterns!  You can check them all out on Pattern Revolution.

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This just in: a new retailer and lots and lots of prints

I'm absolutely delighted to introduce Hilco from Germany as a new retailer!  You might recognise the designer, Hamburger Liebe, from the Simply Apples and Supahero that I have stocked in the past but she has now teamed up with Hilco and it's every more exciting to have her great designs on sweatshirting and woven babycord.  You heard me correctly, sweatshirting.   You're lucky I'm not saving all of these for me.  The three on the left are 95% cotton / 5% elastane sweatshirting and the three on the right are 100% cotton babycord.  They are slightly narrower than some of my other fabrics, coming in 145 cm / 55" width, but as they're not directional you can make the absolute most of your cut.

Also arriving yesterday was a huuuuge box from Lillestoff!  I've restocked deep turquoise plain jersey (which is just as well as I recently sold out of the very-close-shade petrol plain jersey) and the popular Light Blue Scandiflower, but also added another six prints.  We've got the top two AMAZING feather prints (my favourites), two apt-for-British-winter Rain themed prints, the gorgeous Christmassy Fall birds with holly berries, and a glorious Woodland fabric with bears, deer, rabbits, hedgehogs and squirrels.  The rabbits are giving the side-eye, guys, so despite the fact I sold out of the brown side-eye foxes this week the cosmic balance of judgmental animals is maintained.  Somebody really needs to write Phd thesis on the use of the side-eye in Scandinavian fabric design.

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