While the cats away

The mice will play !

Mr P went away to a friends for the night (I couldn't go because of air guitar knee) but it was nice to be able to get the toys out, set em up and leave em out for a 24 hour period.

Wanna see my play room ?

I am NOT a playroom
I am a dining table.

I really loved being able to do a spot of sewing whenever I fancied, even if it was just for 15 minutes at a time.

I feel well jel of all of you with dedicated sewing spaces ! How easy to take a seat and sew whenever the fancy strikes !

I have almost sewn my Jasmine - just got the sleeves to finish tonight. I found following the instructions that my collar was all lumpy and sticky uppy - machine basting it to the garment.
I tried it like 3 times, and each time out came the seam ripper to try again.

In the end I had a brainwave ! As I was trying to pin a curve it was no wonder the flippin collar kept bunching up - why didn't I use Dolly to pin the collar onto the garment ?

Dolly.
Ever her gorgeous self.
Invaluable in photo 'shoots' as she never minds taking one for the team.
Letting us get up close and personal

The names Dolly.
And I am a bit of a pinning legend.

I then hand basted the collar onto the garment (while still on Dolly) using silk thread. Friends it worked a treat. The collar is flat ! No flappy flap flap.

Hooray !!

I must say - I found the fabric (extremely) difficult to work with. It is the first time I have sewn bias fabric and the fabric itself is a silk/cotton blend - tres slippy ! I am not sure that I want to repeat the experience in a hurry. BUT all in all I am pretty pleased with how she has turned out - even Mr P said its my best make yet ! Praise indeed !

I do want to make another Jamsine - but will use a cotton fabric next time. I also think its a little big for me so will try the next size down, with an extension of the waist on the pattern pieces (like I did with this one). As the fabric is so floaty the bigness does not really show, but I feel it will look much better slightly smaller.

I will show the finished article later as I have hand basted the sleeves in, I just need to sew them in with the singer and finish with the serger/overlocker.

Can I just say how much I LOVE my  serger/overlocker. Look how nicely it finishes edges.

oooo look how gorgeous my face is !

I have re threaded that thing like 10 times now - for the practice - and it literally takes 5 minutes to do now.

Friends ! Dont be frightened of your serger/overlocker ! Its not hard to thread -I promise !

So - I shall post the finished garment later - I am very pleased with it and cant wait to give it a good wearing.

Next up I am making a brown linen skirt to go with it. I am going to set myself a (breakable) target of trying to sew one garment a month. Sew far sew good !

I hope that you are all having a lovely week.

K xxx