
My name is Bracken. I live in the UK. I make all sorts of crafty things but mostly I sew so this is a blog about making lots of garments and becoming who I really am after many years buying ready to wear. You will find the odd recipe for food and cosmetics or also knitting on here as well as sewing.
Tuesday, 15 July 2025
Muslin check tie front shirt
Tuesday, 8 July 2025
Leggings 2
This is my second pair of basic leggings made in a decent activewear wicking fabric and I very much loved wearing them. Not the best lighting but the mountain behind is lovely. Better photos below!
We went to North Wales for a week and it turned out to be 10degC colder than at home despite being only 3 hours drive away. Shocking. It was apparently really hot at home but just pleasant in Wales. The people were not very friendly though which is disappointing because we are actively trying to decide where in the Uk we want to move. The only people we met who were friendly were Scottish. Since we are both leaning towards moving to Scotland thats a nice discovery. Really I think its a toss up between Cornwall and Scotland so either end of the UK. I would have though seriously of France and Holand or maybe Germany but after the Brexit fiasco we no lonbger have the righ to live there unless we have a huge income and its unlikely we ever will so that is now out. We can in fcat only even visit the EU for 180 days at a time and then have to be stuck back on this island for a further 180 days. What rubbish these brits chose! It is so annoying that people tell me there was a huge number voting to leave but actually it was a 52/48 split with most of the leavers now being dead! They reckon the demographic has totally changed and we would choose stay in now. I hate the fact we are no longer european. I am and always will be but these ancients are convinced we should instead be solo. Makes me unhappy that!
OK rant over!
My new leggings are the same as the last pair just different fabric and I have a 3rd pair nearly finished too. I will show you those once done. All fabric is from Pound Fabrics for I think around £9 per metre. Top was made ages ago. Its quite tatty now even though its a raggy top , its seen better days but I love it. Its lightweight yet warm.
Look at that knee turning right in now. Definitely need a knee op and you can see now by the way I am standing. I cannot help this its just my joints no longer work right so probably its my last holiday before I become cyborged ( two knees and one more hip being replaced!!!). I do not actually mind being cyborged. If the first hip is like the next few joints it will be wonderful to get my life back. Its not they never hurt again though. In the wet which is lots here, I ache in the replaced hip but its nothing to the agony before they did it and I can walk and do everything. I can even sit cross legged like a kid ( or could before the second one went wrong!) and I could not do this before the op. I was an invalid. Its for certain better to be normal than in pain and unable to function which would be me if I refused these ops. The difference between being a disabled old woman or an active middle aged one. I chose a life.
But the hip they already did is strong! I really know that right now. Its all that keeps me walking. Enough of self pity. Leggings!
You can see the colours in this fabric better here. I want some more of this fabric. Just waiting for a tax refund to cash then I can buy some. Nice when you accidentally pay too much tax and get it back. I also made two dry robes for the holiday which I slogged daily for 2 weeks to get made. I have yet to get photos of them but will do so because it cost around £70 for the two instead of £180 each!
And they have no pattern as such and both work really well. I will post my dimensions with the photos once I get them. Sadly never took any on holiday but will find somewhere to take some here abouts so I can share this because possibly they are my biggest make ( and riskiest) in years and I am very happy with them. That will likely be my next post if you are interested but will have to be next week due to time and needing someone available for the photos.
Thanks for popping by and hopefully see you soon with a good blog on my dry robes!
Take care and have a great week,
Bracken
Wednesday, 25 June 2025
Skull culottes ( RP patterns)
Having a bit of a Goth day when I wore these!
Skulls and a black lace top- I would have been so happy to own these when I was 18!Again I am doing more sewing than blogging and its been ages since I sat down to write. Sorry about that but I decided to concentrate on the actual sewing rather than the blogging about the sewing. If you see what I mean.
Yoke ( waist) is just a black tubular ribbed fabric ( cut into the pattern of course because its a shaped yoke not a straight waistband) I had a scrap of because I ran out of the skull fabric so I needed something else. Orange strappy vest just seen is also a Rebecca Page pattern and I really need to make a few more of these vest tops. They are a good basic staple. Not sure but I think RP patterns may no longer be available? If they are back online this top pattern used to be a freebie.
I made a pair of these before in a wintery glitter fabric when RP was still owned by Rebecca Page, and a pair of shorter length fluorescent velvet shorts a little after that. I love the shorts but the longer length serves my current needs better.
I have also made a purple pair of these. Again they are a little large. I have not worn them as yet but may blog later about them. In both cases I had to take in the yoke. I hate unpicking stretch fabrics. I did achieve it both times though with no holes made but for the future I am trying to get through to my stupid head to remember to go down a size for RP!!!!!
Saturday, 7 June 2025
Basic leggings that fit!
I have not blogged for some time and there is a good reason for this slackness. This year I have spent a lot of time looking through my old me-made clothing. Some I have binned or recycled. A great deal though I have begun to alter because its pretty much all too big for me.
For example these leggings:
There is a very good reason for my ill fitting clothing when I began sewing again after many years when I had done no more than sew on a lost button. Well no there are two reasons.
1) I was scared of messing up my very expensive fabric and making something that did not fit. So long as the item was big it would fit. Actually, most of my early fabric was cheap rubbish but it was what I could get hold of and to be fair it was really good for practicing until I got good enough to spend more on my fabric. I still by cheap, don't get me wrong, but nowadays I also buy "nice". If its cheap then great but if not I will probably still buy it if I can.
2) I wanted to blog so much I did not care if I never made things fit so long as I had a post to write about. Yes agreed that is sad. But honesty means I have to admit that and I may as well be open with it rather than just saying it to myself. Well things have changed. Now I would rather do less blog posts and make things that are really nice.
So the last few weeks have been taken up re-making things. There is still a lot left I need to deal with but I am getting there and I have lots of well fitting clothes to wear now. And my wardrobe feels really nice ( although still somewhat over full!)
Anyway the reason for my silence with blogging is I spent a quite a few days recently remaking these old clothes and now at last they all fit. Three things I have remade are these leggings, skulls, camo and steam punk patterned - see above links. I will not waste your time or mine doing before or after pictures at least not until next Me-Made-May when I may get round to that. For now suffice it to say these now all fit and I also chopped off the ruched ankles as well because they are harder to wear. Having re-made these leggings I now also know what size actually fits and where I need to adjust the pattern - for example the ankles are just baggy on the pattern and I want proper leggings with tight fitting ankles.
The size problem was also compounded by my losing weight. I went down a dress size by accident. This meant my leggings were 2-3 sizes too big for me so that made it all even worse.
I then decided to buy some ( quite expensive at £8.95/m) new active wear (wicking) fabric which is 4-way stretch. Although from what I have read although sellers say ts 4-way really what they mean is 2-way. But thats a rant for another time. Look it up if this interests you. But now I have sorted it and made some new leggings as well. I have a better wardrobe leggings wise than I have had for around 30 years I think. Sometimes you need to just step back from blogging and think about what exactly you are really trying to achieve.
I love blogging and connecting with other sewers/ sewists but really I want to make nice clothing I like and want to wear and not just to make clothing.
I have cut 4 new pairs of leggings and I am very excited to be able to show you this first pair. Its actually the second pair I have sewn up but I have not yet worn the other pair so today is the first time wearing these and yes they feel good and I am really very happy with the fit. There is a snag though if you look at the back waistband right at the end of sewing I got a tuck.
I considered unpicking and redoing but decided no its really not worth the effort since its likely only me will ever notice and I also run the risk of making a hole in my lovely leggings when unpicking them so this is staying.
Have a lovely weekend and thanks for popping by my blog.
Take care
Bracken
Tuesday, 27 May 2025
Sun hat for child Burda style magazine #145/06/2014
This is a sunhat made for a child. Size is for a 52cm head. However the pattern is for a 50cm at biggest size so I cut it a little larger to take that into account and to ensure everything still fitted together right.
Its reversible because you may as well make it like that. You have to line it anyway though could have an inside seam but its not difficult to make this pattern reversible.
Its a Burda magazine pattern from an old issue I bought used but with intact patterns, from Ebay.
This is the issue with this pattern which has just 3 pieces to trace and is very easy to make larger if needed.
Tuesday, 20 May 2025
Jeans finished -prototype
I am quite happy with how these turned out though they took me ages to finish.
Sunday, 11 May 2025
Thai fisherman trousers
Whenever I considered making them I just never had the right fabric. Until I was gifted this that is.
And the thing about these is they are super simple to make and wonderful to wear. I have plans for a few other pieces of fabric currently in my stash in fact because now I know how to make these I want more.
You can wrap frontwise as these are or backwise for a different look. I will be going with the easiest way which seems for me to be frontwise wraps.
So here I have a double thank you to make to Pound Fabrics for the 2m of lovely fabric and to Laupre for the generous sharing of the pattern/ instructions back in 2008.