Outlander Skirt

If you'll excuse me I'm about to go a bit hipster on you. I was in to Outlander before it was a cool. Before it was a TV series full of attractive people with improbably good teeth.

I had been given the first book to read by my Aunt and Uncle when I was a student staying with them in Oz. I spent a truly sweltering day sat obsessively trying to finish it before my flight home, panicking that my baggage was likely to be over the weight limit (which it was).

I became entirely hooked especially as the protagonist was a nurse. Their job is like my job! She also spent most of her time getting up to ridiculous rumpy pumpy without being entirely spineless and insipid *eyeballs Fifty Shades of Grey disapprovingly*.

So when it came out on TV I was all over it especially when I realised I had Amazon Prime. I have absolutely no recollection of signing up for this but I will tolerate the machinations of corporations in this instance. Some binge watching later and I was ready to coat myself in woad, wrap myself in tartan and run across a field bellowing 'FREEEEEEEEEEEDOM'. I am aware that's from Braveheart what are ya gonna do?

So on to the sewing. If not running around in woad I did at least want to have on the tartan (also my body weight in woollens but that's for another day). I already had the Grace sewing pattern free from Love Sewing; View A being one of my bridesmaid's dress. This skirt was intended as a quick palate cleanser after the more complex Archer popover....which was also tartan :)

I love this skirt. The fabric is a polyester and viscose tartan suiting fabric from Minerva Crafts. It's a nice medium weight fabric with a good drape. I love this fabric and it'll make a nice transitional spring and autumn piece. During sewing this I learnt the ongoing lesson that always leaves me as soon as I finish i.e. might be a good idea to overlock your fabric pieces before you sew them together as doing so once you have sewn them together is an almighty pain in the arse.

I also realise that I have absolutely no idea where my waist is or what size it is. This one I tried to fit to around my belly rather than to my actual waistline. This turns out to look like you've wandered out in your grandmother's skirt and not in a cool retro way. So 4 1/2" removed inches and the skirt sitting at my natural waist later and it's working much better. Also means I can put my hands in my pockets without slouching like a hungover teenager.

So Jamie I'm suitably attired, head over at your earliest convenience.

The Cadillac of Skirts

The great thing about sewing your own clothing (apart from discarding all size labels) is that when observing a garment on someone else that you like you can go off and recreate one for yourself. Which is precisely where this Grainline Moss skirt in green pleather comes from. 

For anyone who doesn't know pleather is plastic leather. Now although I'm not against the concept of leather altogether I'd rather not sew with it if it doesn't feel necessary. This fabric is and ebay purchase and is intended to be used to make car seats hence it is the Cadillac of skirts. I'll be honest when I set out to do this I really didn't know how it was going to go. When I pre-washed the fabric it felt very stiff and I was concerned it'd be like trying to make a skirt out of a cardboard box. None the the less I persisted.

Lovely Liberty Isle of Wight cotton to line the waistband.

Stitching it actually came together a lot easier than I thought it might. I used scraps of fabric for the pocket bags and the waistband facing. The fly zipper was the only place where I got in to difficulties. It's serviceable but not terribly neat but to be honest I stitched a skirt out of something intended to be used in cars; I'm gonna cut me some slack. My machine didn't particularly have any trouble handling the fabric while using a leather needle (a needle with a specific tip for piercing leather rather than one made of leather) apart from making the button hole. She did not like doing that. 

Look how terrible it is! It's not so bad from a distance though so I not gonna get bogged down in it.

As is fairly standard for the Moss skirt I added about 3" to the bottom as I don't like my skirts too short and I didn't really want the addition of an extra panel.

From a colleague to me in a slip of a needle. Ain't sewing grand?

Twinsies

Following on from my Outlander and all things tartan obsession came plans for a Grainline Archer popover in a gorgeous brushed cotton blue and green tartan again from Minerva crafts. Although I had this shirt in mind when I bought the fabric I realised that there was a special little guy's first birthday and I wanted to make him something. 

I was little burnt out from the bulk of stitching for the wedding but frankly a shirt for a one year old is so teeny what's the harm? I used the free pattern and instructions from small dreamfactory available here.

Maybe the fact I had to do it twice because I didn't pay attention to the instructions? Yeah, probably that.

This is why you concentrate when clipping the collar curve. Yep cut a gash straight through the shoulder. Hasty patch for the win.

Anyway the little boy the shirt was intended for I refer to as my nephew. He's my best friend's little boy so no actual blood between us but sometimes family is more than blood. I think of this as my twins shirt as frankly the best advice I can give him in life is the secret to everything (not just take away eggplant Parmesan) is add more cheese.

So details of the popover. I wanted the popover rather than the proper button up as A. it's rare I find a button up that doesn't gape at my bust and B. I'm always wary of too boxy silhouettes as I think it makes me look manly. The popover seemed to me a nice combination of the masculine style with feminine details.

Olive my dress form wears this necklace as the first time I put it on I broke it. Yep I broke Feminism. Doh!

Turns out no matter how many times I read the instructions for the tower placket that said DO NOT cut off the little triangle...I did. My plackets therefore are not perfect but I think they're acceptable. 

The sleeves have also been through some variations as initially I found them much too long  and so flappy that they didn't roll up nicely. No matter, I thought, I shall just cut them off at elbow length as it's very rare I wear long sleeves not pushed up to my elbows (you can take the girl off the ward but you can't take the ward off the girl).

Unfortunately that gave me a loose t-shirt like sleeve which is a look I really really dislike. After a couple of wears it occurred to me to unpick the cuffs from the discarded length and stitch them back on to the shorter sleeve with pleats put in to make them marry up. Perfect. The sleeve is taken in and once again looks like a shirt sleeve. I didn't add buttons as cuff is the perfect size for that part of my arm and can't be taken in any further with a button.

It still gapes a teeny bit at the bust but meh. I like it so much I'll forgive it it's foibles. Much like a good auntie.

Oh also on a side note. In order to take these photos I had to commando style around the fence because the fella is seeding the grass. As you can see below however it's one rule for one and another for another in this dictatorship of cats.

So I started the year as I plan to go on, being woken every 15 minutes from 11pm because I was going to miss it.

So the first big event of the year has come and gone. New Years Eve. The fella and I spent it in catching up on the telly of the year and eating a rather fine fishy smorgasbord that I prepared for us. We wore matching Christmas jammies and put the cats (briefly) in Christmas jumpers.

I did debate doing the dark haired visitor carrying a coin to keep wealth in the home, salt to keep food in the home and coal to keep heat in the home. As the fella is ginger I would be the closest thing to this as I do have (very fair) brown hair and some of my references only say a person visitors and doesn't specify it has to be a man. When it came to it though I was nodding off by 11pm and when 12am came I was willing the fireworks to just get on with it so decided to just go to bed. We also didn't sing Auld Lang Syne so frankly we just weren't taking it seriously. I have had it stuck in my head all day though.

I know there is a fashion for skipping the resolutions due to the cliche that they just get broken before the month is out. Accepting you're doing your best is admirable and I would advise it at any opportunity but I do like a resolution. I found this quote which I think sums it up and what is a resolution but a point of focus?

Every positive change in your life begins with a clear, unequivocal decision that you are going to either do something or stop doing something.

If I don't do it then I just need to resolve again, and again, and again. I'll keep doing it til where I want to be pays off. It's all we can do really.


Resolutions:

• Take care of yourself, dammit woman. There are situations in your life that are making you miserable. Do everything you can to change them. Even if some of them strike you as a bit wanky. Switch self conscious for self care.
• Stop mucking about on Instagram/Buzzfeed/Simpsons Tapped Out/ Facebook etc etc etc. You said this to yourself last year and you're saying it again now. This is why you don't achieve half of what you could. 
• Finish your book. Don't care if it's crap. Finish it. You turn 30 this year and you've been telling yourself this story for the last 15 years. Get. It. Finished. Then do the next one.
• Take care of your surroundings. You are chaotic and cluttered little toad. You don't have to be. Keep your home tidy. Make that vegetable patch work as a kitchen garden. You also told yourself this last year but you didn't do it. Probably cause you were mucking about on Facebook. 
• Try to be a bit kinder

I woke up this morning and got the first one started. I also cut out all the fabric for my two flower girl dresses as it occured to me that my wedding is no longer next year but now is next month. Turns out floor length, four tier dresses in guaze are a chuff load of pieces. Who knew? 

Make Something of Yourself May

How do.

Your brain on sewing

Deer and Doe Bruyere shirt which is about 60% complete

I'm going to put it right out there and put myself forward for the post of Queen Procrastinator. If there's slacking to be done I'm all for it. Buzzfeed is my bestie. This however means you pass whole months feeling like you were sleep walking thorough and have nothing to show for it. 

This is starting to bother me. 

I justify this to myself on the grounds that my day job is hectic so  when I come home I want to stare vacantly at things that are meaningless. This is all well and good in small doses however too much and you end up starting to feel like your days are get up, work, home, bed, rinse, repeat. 

With this in mind I decided to get back in with Me Made May. I have also signed up to Outrun May where I'm planning to run between 30 and 80 miles over the course of May for Macmillan. My justgiving page is here if you fancy chucking in some pennies for the good people at Macmillan https://www.justgiving.com/amy-hurrell-outrun. 

Cookie Blouson Jacket

 Basically I'm up for anything that is an incentive for me to actually do something. I know I was supposed to sign up to MMMay16 before the 1st of May but meh. I'm doing it now. I will not be taking daily proper photographs. I will do slightly crappy ones on my phone to be posted on instagram. This feels much more achievable and frankly it's only to document for myself anyway.

So without further ado, here is my pledge. 

'I, Handmade Humbug, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '16. I endeavor to wear a handmade garment each day for the duration of May 2016. A handmade accessory will only be allowed as an addition to a handmade garment and not to act as the garment in of itself. I will put up what I'm wearing daily on Instagram. I will blog at least once a week though this does not have to be related to MMMay16. I will complete the 3x garments I have had cut out and ready to go for months(!) and one 

crochet garment.'

   

       My crochet Un Finished Object (UFO)

Sencha Blouse view 3

 

Baby on Board

trousseau

 (ˈtruːsəʊ)

n, pl -seaux or -seaus (-səʊz)

the clothes, linen, etc, collected by a bride for her marriage

[C19: from Old French, literally: a little bundle, from trusse a bundle; see truss]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

I decided when my best friend told me she was pregnant that I would make a baby trousseau. As you can see by the above definition that I'm using the term wrongly. Don't much care to be honest.

I had a whole raft of projects in mind however due to my previously mentioned difficulties with the concept of time and being a painfully slow knitter I didn't manage to get half of what I wanted to do done. 

By the time of her baby shower I'd only four items made (one took me six months to make to be fair). Some I have in the cut up and ready to be constructed stage so they will just have to be birthing gifts for when the little man finally comes to meet the world. 

Shout out to Baby Denman's grandmother's contributions. A raft of handmade jumpers that means that this lady must knit like the wind! and grandma on the otherside who came up with the brilliant idea of bags sorted by age. So clever. 

So without any further ado here are my minion's baby shower pressies.

Tin Can Knits- Fly Away Blanket

Love sewing issue 15- Very hungry caterpillar baby towel

Simon Francis- Baby Moccasins

Vanessa Moonice- Puffer fish 

I wanna hold your hand

It causes me a great deal of irritation when other sewists refer to a sew along or particularly in depth instructions as 'hand holding'. There are some very seasoned sewists who only give instructions a cursory glance before using the techniques their experience tells them will result in the finish they want. Others however are new to this game and need you to be a bit more thorough in the explanation, preferably with step by step photography for those that struggle to translate the words into the objects in front of you.

I consider myself an advanced beginner. I can add in a few steps that the instructions might not mention because my experience tells me that it will improve the fit, form or longevity of my garment. I however am still relatively new and sometimes need a little extra help to make sense of what is in front of me. I also have a great loathing of being 'wrong' so dammit I want to know I'm doing it right. 

My pockets came out a bit awry, but if it's wool surely it can just be blocked?

This leads me on to my latest make which I had to give myself a little bit of time before blogging about so I can be constructive rather than descending into childish name calling. Especially as the one who deserves the name calling is me. I have mentioned previously that I have a tendency towards baseless optimism and an almost Whovian approach to the nature of time. This often leaves me in the position of trying a complex new skill to an impossibly tight timeline. 

This was something lovely that hadn't occurred to me but really helped. Tacking the lining in place so it doesn't show when you stitch it down properly.

I had decided for Christmas to make the fella a new winter coat. I had repaired his old one several times and it was starting to look very threadbare and ropey. Enter the Thread Theory Goldstream Peacoat. I made him another of their patterns the Newcastle Cardigan for Christmas last year and really love the aesthetic they have. 

Bit of old quilt cover to act as a pocket stay giving the area strength.

He'd picked some lovely Brown wool and a Red and Green shot Viscose and Acetate Twill Lining  which depending on which way you look is either red or green both from Stone fabrics. He then picked some gorgeous buttons at Abakhans and frankly I was quite proud of the fella's taste. 

Now the problems come. 

I gave myself four days to do this. This might have worked out ok if I'd just followed the instructions but as there was a set of instructions for tailoring I though heck the Fella is worth that degree of work, why not. If I hadn't I would probably be much happier with the finished result. 

Wah la no pocket lining on show

The problem I feel is that the tailoring instructions are done by a lady called Dana who is evidently very skilled in her craft and writes as such. It reminds me though of the challenges on Bake Off where they're given deliberately sparse instructions to test the bakers knowledge. In this case instead of 'make a custard'  you get 'make a welt pocket'. Which I imagine if you've done a few before is simple pimple however my difficulty is even if I looked up instructions (of which Crafty does an excellent set ) I'm not familiar enough with the technique to see how it could be applied here. Now to be totally fair she doesn't instruct you to make a welt pocket, she just says that's what she did and considering it looks so beautiful why wouldn't you want to do that?!?! 

Cheeky flash of the lining

It's also difficult as it's not overly clear which of the pattern's instructions you need to skip and which to follow when following the tailoring instructions leaving me unpicking things that I stitched from the pattern instructions and then found shouldn't be done until later in the tailoring instructions. I also found I needed more pictures which were of a wider angle to help me work out how things fitted together. 

Even though I had no idea what I was doing all the tailor tacks did make me feel proper

This brings me on to the Peacoat kit you can purchase from Thread Theory. Another place where the instructions are very very few. The kit you get is obviously of very high quality but there isn't even an indication of which piece is which. The coat fronts are easy to work out, as are the shoulder pads but the sleeve head and collar took some noodle scratching. There's also absolutely no indication of how to use them.

 It would be really helpful if the kit is being sold for this particular pattern that there were instructions for how to use them. I had no idea where to place the pieces or which way up to place them. I tried googling it but ended up on a professional coat makers forum where, for reasons I don't really understand, they descended into a heated discussion of Punch and Judy??? 

New skill that I was quite pleased with. Catch stitching. See there was so much to love in these instructions. Just a tiny bit more of the larger detail would have made them perfect.

I had to do some just winging it which as mentioned previously I really didn't like to do especially with expensive  materials that are intended as a gift. In the end I just didn't use the undercollar or sleeve heads. I was too fed up of googling fruitlessly for anything that might be of assistance. Obviously I was annoyed at myself for not giving myself time but really really frustrated with the instructions. I can imagine that if you know what you're doing you can make sense of it all and come up with a really lovely piece. Although the peacoat is intended as being at its most basic to accommodate a beginner the tailoring instructions don't appear to account for the person who is trying to push themselves in terms of skills and therefore will need things explaining that the writer may consider obvious.

The idea of the tailoring instructions is lovely I just think it needs the input of a rank amateur such as myself to be able to ask all the stupid questions and therefore make them a little bit more accessible. 

I had however winged it so that the hood was attached permanently to the coat as per the fellas instructions. I wish I had interfaced the hood as it is so floppy it's a tiny bit Jedi. I've had to come back to it to sort out the buttons which I did too quickly and therefore stitched on wonky. 

Final piece photographed by the lovely Mr James Denman.

I am told from the recipient however that I am nit picking and that he loves it which is the main thing.  I do love the style and the combination of the lining and shell fabric so maybe with some time I might come to love it too. Hopefully once the feeling of being irretrievably out of my depth passes.

The lining. I'm crouched behind this holding it up