Following on from my Owl Button Up shirt, I rediscovered this metre of strawberry fabric I had purchased in the Abakhan sale last year, and thought it would be ideal for another Button Up*.
Rather than using poppers this time, I thought I’d do it the ‘proper’ way and use some fancy buttons instead. The only disadvantage is that the buttons really need hand sewing in place, because of their shape – I couldn’t get them to sit level for machine sewing!
I’m hoping this one won’t take too long to finish – they’re forecasting some more warm weather for September, so it’ll give me a great opportunity to wear it if I’ve finished it by then!
Something a little different today, and my latest Sunday “My Way” bag! I wanted to try out my sewing machine’s decorative stitches, and what better way than on the top stitching for the pockets?
I added in a clear popper to both pockets just to help keep it closed, while hopefully not detracting from the stitching.
I struggled with the curved edges this time – the lining ended up caught up in places, and even gets caught in the zip! I think that was down to inaccurate cutting in the first place…. maybe the lining is a bit bigger than the bag itself?
I had added in some extra height to the bag, so I can fit a water bottle in it – I forgot to change the markings to enable me to match the front and side pieces together, which would’ve helped tremendously if I’d remembered those!
It’s still a usable bag (as long as I’m careful with the zip) though, and that’s what matters.
Unlike most of my sewing projects, these tropical jeans never actually entered the UFO (unfinished object) stage! I’d originally purchased a metre of this fabric to make a t-shirt, but then realised that all my t-shirt patterns required either horizontal and vertical stretch, or 40% stretch as a minimum. This fabric only had 20% horizontal stretch, so it was destined to turn into a pair of non-denim Real Deal Jeans* (can you guess this is my favourite trouser pattern at the moment?).
I will admit I fluffed the buttonhole completely – I started far too close to the edge and once I’d opened the buttonhole, I realised it just wasn’t going to be practical to use.
So, to save trying to somehow redo the waistband with the bit of fabric I had left, I decided to just zigzag over the failed buttonhole (I’ll probably add some ribbon or something over that at a later point), and add poppers instead!
Unfortunately I didn’t put the popper over far enough, so the zip is visible (oops!)
The poppers still make the waistband nice and comfy, and although I haven’t (yet) added any belt loops, I might wear a belt with these trousers just for added reassurance that the poppers won’t suddenly unpop while I’m wearing them!
I do love the way I was able to be creative with my fabric placement for the back yoke – given this was all squeezed out of a metre of fabric, I didn’t think I’d be able to be quite so picky with my layout!
I’ve been busy working on another blog post as part of the Minerva Crafts Product Tester team. Head on over to the Minerva Crafts blog, to see what fabric I tried out, and what I managed to make from it!
Do you remember ages ago when I was working on the Jumbo bear pattern by Emma’s Bears? Well, I’ve finally got him finished!
Jumbo lives up to his name – he’s so big, he takes up the entire chair! So at the moment, he’s sitting on the floor, looking out of the window.
I didn’t have the right size eyes, so his eyes are a little smaller than intended, and I think I was a bit stingy on stuffing as his head really could do with a bit more padding in places. But for my first time sewing such a large bear (and having to hand stitch some seams because my sewing machine struggled), he’s come out really well!
A typical British Summer is a combination of relatively cool temperatures, cloud and rain. So when we get blue skies, high(er) temperatures and no rain, we don’t seem to know how to cope!
At the moment, it’s far too hot in my sewing room to actually work on any sewing…. so I’ve taken a week off from making things. Hopefully this week the weather forecasters will be right, and the temperature will be more like the average for this time of year!
I’ve been following BeeZeeArt on social media for a while, and loved the Stingrays she’d made, and was especially taken with the Mini Sea Pancakes she’d sold at a convention. Up until that point, I hadn’t realised that Stingrays are known as Sea Pancakes, but once I saw those, I knew I wanted to try making some myself.
Some brown minky fleece works really well for Daddy’s Sauce on top of the (sea) pancake, with a pat of yellow butter on the top of that.
I had a play around with different shades for the ‘sauce’, ranging from a deep brown Daddy’s Sauce style, to a more pale caramel shade (seeing as I thought the brown minky I’d ordered was going to be darker than it actually was!).
The larger Sea Pancake just has some pats of butter, with no sauce – after all, not everyone likes sauce drizzled on their pancakes, do they?!
A relative has already suggested some colour variations, so once I’ve got the right shades of minky fabric, I can get sewing!
Not content with my unfinished jeans, I decided to start another pair of trousers this week…. this fabric is the same type as the penguins, polar bears and astronomy designs and has just about the right amount of stretch to make a pair of Zen Pants* by 5 out of 4 Patterns. I bought a metre and a half this time, just in case a metre wasn’t enough, and picked out a vibrant pink for the top stitching.
I played around with the back pockets, making them a hybrid of the Zen pocket, crossed with the Real Deal Jeans pocket.
And what better way to try out my new smiley face poppers, than on the cargo pocket? This is the first time I’ve tried adding a cargo pocket to a pair of trousers, and it went surprisingly well.
* – affiliate link
Pattern: Zen Pants* by 5 out of 4 Patterns
Fabric: Cotton Elastane from Fashion Fabrics
