Nightingale pouch progress

 

Lizzie and I stitched together over Facebook Messenger on Monday for two hours and completed most of the vinyl pocket units. On Tuesday morning I was keen to make some more progress so I made the strap and handle as I am slow turning the tubes the right way out. 

Lizzie contacted me yesterday to schedule some more sewing time, so two more hours and we had everything done apart from the binding. I machine stitched down both sides of the binding as I wasn't in the mood for hand stitching.

Having the fabric prequilted and everything else precut made this a fairly quick make. Now I must start on this month's UFO which is the Moon Bunny needlecase by Sew Quirky.

Florence dress

 

I purchased the pattern, fabric and buttons for the Merchant and Mills Florence dress from a shop at Sunny Bank Mills where the Great British Sewing Bee is filmed. The dress is voluminous and I measured as a 16. I had initially decided to go for the size 12 but chickened out when getting ready to cut out the dress and traced size 14 instead.

I think this is a perfect summer dress and should be cool as temperatures start to rise. I had finished everything except the buttons before I tried on the dress and realised that the buttons went at the back as the back hem was 12" lower than the front hem. I spent about 45 minutes unpicking the seam, overlocking and gathers. Annoying but it had to be done.

I love the vintage buttons and only one needs to be undone to get the dress on. I think I'll be wearing this a lot this summer.

Nightingale pouch

 

We were impressed by the array of Nightingale Pouches by Centre Street Quilts  so having purchased the pattern, Lizzie decided we would do another sewalong over Facebook Messenger. She works a nine day fortnight so has every other Monday off. Lizzie received her bundle of prequilted fabrics last weekend when her Dad visited her and Matt in the UK, so it's time for me to starting prepping ready to sew on Monday.

Whilst browsing my Tula Pink stash I came across a forgotten scrap bag of Tula Pink from Olive & Flo Handcraft. I marked out the correct size for the quilted panel with washi tape on my cutting mat as a guide.

I was surprised that the scrap pack yielded a large enough panel for the outside of the pouch. Most of the fabrics are not ones I have in fat quarters so it is very varied. I quilted the panel using a Karlee Porter Graffitti quilting digital design called pearls and feathers. I am now ready to sewalong with hardware and binding in black and white. This weekend I need to clear the decks and finish the dress I am amking.

Sherpa gilet

This is the last make from the May retreat. It's a free pattern from Purl Soho for a quilted vest. I bought the cosy sherpa at Pour l'Amour du Fil and the Liberty bias binding was from Ecolaines in Rennes. I just used one layer of fabric and overlocked the edges. I did seams at the sides and shoulders which I bound with binding. I then bound the armholes and around the gilet. I even remembered to add a label to the back of the gilet. 

I hired a new Atelier 6 at the retreat but I struggled to sew this fabric on it even when I used the walking foot. However, I switched to Lizzie's Atelier 6 and that did a lovely job. I'm looking forward to using this as a layering piece in the autumn.

Hello Autumn

 

I finished stitching this freebie Friday pattern from Primrose Cottage on Saturday, so it was a priority to finish it into a cushion on Sunday. I looked for matching fabrics on Saturday evening, but my stash was not producing anything, fortunately I found this Ruby Star fabric which picked up a number of colours from the stitched piece. I made a simple 6" pillow, and it is ready for autumn.

I have also stitched two rice bags as I mislaid my original rice bag which I rely on every day. The first rice bag was a little small, so I stitched a larger version on Sunday. I was just finishing the stitching ready to take downstairs to fill with rice and lo and behold there was my original rice bag next to my overlocker. We now have a nice collection of rice bags!

Tilly and the Buttons Frida shirt

 

I bought the Tilly and the Buttons new pattern for the Frida shirt at Stitch Festival in March. Lizzie and I started the pattern in April and finished it at retreat in May. The fabric is by Seasalt and could have been bought ten years ago. It was perfect for the shirt apart from the right and wrong sides looking identical which caused me some head scratching when installing the plackets on the sleeve cuffs. This was a new technique to me but after finding a good Youtube video, I was back on track. Lizzie didn't have that trouble as she did the short sleeved version.

We bought some lovely ceramic buttons in Nantes and Lizzie had those, so I had to wait until retreat to add the buttons. The cream buttons on the front were purchased from Fabworks in Yorkshire. A pleasing make.

Summer blessings

 

I am pleased to hae achieved one small goal for this month. I have finished the Summer Blessings Friday freebie from Primrose Cottage. I was pleased to find some of this yellow dot fabric from Moda to finish the piece. I put some crushed walnut shells at the bottom of the pillow and scraps of wadding to fill the top.

I have also found the Sew Quirky Moon Bunny pattern to complete the UFO challenge this month but the pack of fabrics wasn't with it. Today I plan to photocopy the pattern pieces so they can be cut out and look for the fabric pack.