Stitch and bitch thread #3 Sewing is harder than it seams

[NutellaEllaElla]

And i'm very glad to have you clever sewists to selvedge what's left of my dignity .

Oh Jins, I'm so sorry for your loss.

Glad you're not on your own with it. Take care of yourself x

Loads of love, Jins. I lost my mum a few years ago, it took a while for it to sink in.

I’m currently making things from her fabric so she lives on in my sewing :)

Sorry to hear that, @Jins. Take care.

Total lurker, but de-lurking to add my sympathy. A horrible thing to go through, but hopefully knowing it was her time will give you some comfort. And when you're ready, you know you've got plenty of people here to distract you. x

Thanks all. I really appreciate your words.

@dubyalass

Loads of love, Jins. I lost my mum a few years ago, it took a while for it to sink in.

I’m currently making things from her fabric so she lives on in my sewing :)

I saw on Facebook the other day that someone had made a teddy out of a loved ones favourite jumper.

I'm sorry, @jins. Glad you're not having to deal with this alone.

Finally, after having the pattern almost a year, I'm tracing off my ginger jeans. I need to lose about 6" off the leg. I've taken 2" each off the thigh and calf, for now. I'll fine tune the final 2" at hemming time!

I just sewed the front band onto my Sinclair cardigan and it's moved while sewing so the bottom doesn't line up. Annoying.

Gah i'm not enjoying the last steps of this cardi.
One word. Cuffs.

Well it's complete! Just a plain black cardi but sorely missing from my wardrobe. I love how I get to make good quality classics. Feels so luxurious.

I have not been not been on here for a while. Its by taken a while but been on a Xmas homemade mission with a tree and bunting.

Hey welcome back! That looks great!

Connecting all the triangles together took a bit of a knack but I am really happy with it if I don’t look too closely.

I have to stop myself from focusing on the tiny imperfections in my makes as well

Hello again. I've quickly made a toile of a pencil skirt. The Stanwick skirt. I've got to say, I haven't had a great understanding of the instructions and botched parts like the waistband which i'll need to do properly on the real thing. The hips and bottom are unattractively baggy, can I just take it in at the seams or is that oversimplifying it?

@NutellaEllaElla are you taller/shorter in the hip or leg than the pattern is drafted for? If your fullest part isn’t lining up with the fullest part of the pattern that can cause it to look wrong. Taking in the seams should be fine, just check you don’t overfit and you can sit down/bend over without splitting your seams!

The waist is too big as well annoyingly. I think the proportions are ok, there's just too much ease.

That’s interesting, I’ve followed Gertie online for years (assuming you mean the charm patterns Stanwick skirt?) and she’s always had a very streamlined fit on her pencil skirts, so I’d assumed she would draft them with minimal ease.

Yes and the instructions say so, I'm not sure what's happened here. I graded the pattern as I was between sizes as well. Yes it's that pattern

Shame about the skirt drama, sometimes it’s the things that should be straightforward that give us the most hassle.

No sewing for me yet. The funeral is next week and I’m not settling to anything much. I finished setting up my sewing space though and my stash is sorted ready for action.

I’m going to have to make some trousers. It appears that I sent the ones that fit me to the charity shop and left the ones that don’t in my wardrobe. I picked up an emergency black pair in Matalan this week but I need to plug that wardrobe gap fairly quickly.

Earlier this year I had visions of making a dress for Christmas but it’s going to be a low key day. Next year I hope to be more organised and get some of the stash used up

I'm hoping to bump into a colleague next week who is an expert dressmaker. Trouble is, she's not the kind to take any notice of instructions! I live by instructions so I hope we're not poles apart in our ability to understand this.

Don't expect too much of yourself Jins. This is such a difficult time. What a PITA about the charity shop mix up.

I had to pack away my sewing stuff from the dining table! We're hosting a spreader event neighbours mini get together this evening. I made Baba Ganoush dip, mostly because I love saying the word, and it's turned out totally delicious!

We are all taking tests if you're feeling shocked...

Take care of yourself, @Jins - it's a tough time of year to be losing someone.

@NutellaEllaElla can't beat Baba Ganoush!! My sewing stuff is on and off the dining table! I've almost finished my godson's Gruffalo quilt - just the binding to do tomorrow; then I can get on with his dinosaur trousers/jumper set, which I cut out yesterday. He will look very cute in it! After Christmas I'm hoping to make something for myself again.