Mick's matching luggage

We have collected a variety of tablets over the last few years but have proper cases for only one of them so I decided to make some to protect them since Mick has started to take his to work with him but it has no protective cover.

 

It took a few attempts to get  a case that was both the right size and folded over enough to protect the

 tablet. 

In the end I ended up with three variations on the same idea.

Each tablet case is a single piece of fabric which is heavy weight uphostery brocade lined with a piece of fleece.

Then a shoe lace serves as a tie to keep the tablet secure in transit.

 

All of these cases are simply a layer of uphostery brocade with a lining of fleece. They are made entirely using an overlocker. To get a neat edge you first over lock the one edge which will end up as the inside under the flap, at one end then fold over to form into the final case and overlock each side and take this right round to the opposite side. I curved the corners on the later versions and finally attached a piece of shoe lace to tie it up.
Sorted.

Thanks for reading,

Bracken

Leamington Peace Festival 2017

Well this blog post is a bit late and I have not made anything this week but I did go to Leamington Peace Festival which was lovely as usual. For once we actually had good weather as well. I think its the first time since we traded there in 2009 that the weather was good for both days, which was the first year we had a stall there. It was a bit too hot but you can't complain really can you. We were trading but never knew we even had a pitch until Wednesday due to the fact the organisers were very disorganised thisyear so we had very little stock really but hey ho it was still great fun even though we took very little money. I love LPF it really is such good fun even though its meant to be work!  Really though I gave up trading four years ago except for this festival. I do love this particular event.

So heres the photos:

I wore my red dress from The Monthly Stitch 3 dresses challenge here:
http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/61-3-dresses-from-one-pattern-monthly.html

Its very upcycled being made from two saris I bought from Oxfam when we moved to the current house to use as emergency curtains and then later I made my curtains into this lovely dress. To be honest I have never actually worn this out before but it was perfect here and three diffrent people admired it and said I should be selling them. Well thats an idea! And I was very chuffed.

This is our stall







And the main stage

And the rest of the festival

And our stall again but inside:

My lovely Mick who makes the tie dyed T-shirts we sell as you can see he is modelling one of them:

And of course IT IS a PEACE FESTIVAL and after what happened recently in Manchester, London Bridge and yesterday in Finsbury Park I thought I should post these photos I took of AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL who did a talk and marched all around the site.

Of course they are quite right too:

WE MUST STAND TOGETHER 

AGAINST HATE

against the terrorists because what is happening is terrible and we cannot let these evil people win!




Most of us love our multi-racial multi-cultural, diverse society and this festival brings everyone together and its just amazing to go to and meet interesting people.

If ever you get the opportunity to go to Leamington Peace Festival I would encourage you to try it out because its a free festival.............I think the oldest in the UK and has been going for 39 years now.

Thanks for reading,

Bracken

What next?

Well I finished my 100 Garments quite a while ago now and then Me Made may ended.

#MMM had a strange result this year where I have not stopped doing #MMM since but although I have not been taking photos each day I have still been wearing MM despite May ending.  I have a couple of photos but was not very dedicated since I never realised this would actually alter my  habits so completely.

I do not feel I quite tried as hard as I should have for #MMM17. Wearing me made has become the norm rather than being new to me. I make clothing and I wear what I make. That is now what I do and I enjoy it. This photo was taken on Friday 9th June. I am wearing both my flares
http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/pin-stripe-trousers-mmm17-day-15.html
and my blue top.
http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/92-pale-blue-top.html
Possibly it is because I never got round to wearing a large number of me-made items in May so have kind of made up for it since.It was kind of an anti-climax this year. It has meant I have got some new inspiration or aims though which I need if I am going to keep on blogging. I love it but without material it gets difficult so now I MUST make in order to have a reason for blogging. Yey!


Anyway, my conclusion after another Me-Made-May is I need to wear me-made all the time. Not everything because unlike for example Hand Made by Carolyn
http://handmadebycarolyn.com.au/ 

I have yet to learn to make shoes so I am not likely in the near future to be able to wear 100% me-made but I am going to aim to do this.I am feeling very inspired by Hand Made by Carolyn who wore MM for an entire year. Mind you I am far from being able to accomplish this to the extent of Hand Made by Carolyn without my learning to make my own shoes. I must admit this is a current interest although I have yet to achieve this. I have to try making shoes soon.

I am seriously interested in using flip-flops to make some shoes. I have seen these at several locations around the web.
http://makeanddocrew.com/crochet-boots-flip-flops-pattern-video/
They look make-able and wearable. This I might manage. I have yet to collect all my tools and supplies but I am intending to attempt this in the next few months.

The one thing I found with #MMM17 was I have no MM work trousers and to be honest very few RTW work trousers so want to make at least two pairs by December 2017.

These are the Tshirts I have been cutting up.

I also need to some items for my partner. He needs them. I tried a couple of tops recently - more on that later.

So these aims are pretty easy I think to accomplish. They will take a few months but I should manage to do them.





My most recent crafting endeavour is in recycling old Tshirts into a wearable cardigan. So far I have not made much. I got the idea from a Wool and the Gang video but cannot now find the link. It may be a YouTube. I am unsure. They cut up old jeans into strips and knitted them. I am doing the same thing but with old tie dyed Tshirts.

This is a quick preview of the eventually to be made cardigan - assuming I eventually finish it:

To make the yarn you need to cut the old Tshirts into strips. I know people used to make rugs like this in the 70;s. I remember several aunties having a go at rugs from old rags.

To make the yarn,
I open up one side of the Tshirt, cut out the sleeve  and cut off the hem. I save these because I reckon they could be usefule later. I never can throw fabric away!
Then I cut going round and round the Tshirt. I am cutting strips approximately 1.5 - 2cm wide. I have included the overlocked seams rather than cut the strip at that point and just knitted them in, though this may be a bad idea. I will not know till I wear it. Hopefully it will not fall to bits on me! Its knitted on 10mm needles using stocking stitch and I have pulling all tied ends to the front to give it a boho look.

I think it will look good once finished but as anyone who visits my blog reasonably often will know I am a slow knitter so it may not get finished for a while yet. It looks wearable though if you fancy doing something similar.

So other than dreaming of making shoes and attempting to knit I have been very unproductive these last weeks.   I find myself in need of a challenge now I got to 100 garments and am seriously considering men’s clothing since my partner has an increasingly shabby collection of clothing whilst mine has been enhanced considerably in the past year due to my 100 garments project.

I am aiming to achieve these goals over the next year or so. Again like when I began blogging on 100 garments I have absolutely no idea how long this will take to achieve so the time frame is open ended. So here are my aims:

Finish the jumper,

Make mens clothing

Make trousers I can wear for work 

Boots or shoes from flipflops.

Oh and if you do have a go at making a cardigan or anything using this idea please let me know because I would love to see what you made.

Thanks for visiting,
Bracken

 

Lime green slobbing slouch trousers

I wanted to make these trousers so much!

I bought the old issue of Burda Style 01/2011 from an ebay seller for this pattern.

They are made in pale lime green stretch cotton.

There is however one big problem with them. NO POCKETS!

I just feel I want to put my hands in my pockets and there are none. I am not yet sure whether to add some as patch pockets or just make another pair and add them to the side seam. These are serged so I do not really want to unpick them and lose fabric from the seam allowances so I need to just enjoy them I think.

I was kind of expecting something a bit more like Zouaves but they are still OK and very comfortable.

They do make great slobbing around the house/garden trousers!

 Thanks for visiting my blog,

Bracken

 

#MMM17 day 31 Onwards.......................

 

Well sadly its already the last day of MMM17 and I am sad to say I did not try so very hard this year. I have loads of things in my wardrobe that are Me-Made that I never even got round to considering to wear. I tried much harder last year to wear something different each day. Then though I was a student so what I wore did not matter although it did get a few comments! This year I am working in a "business" environment and its much more difficult. Having said that I still should have tried harder really.

Having said that nearly every day I change when I get home after work and I found I normally wear me made anyway. ALL THE TIME!

Most days I have changed from my work me-made to some more casual me-made. I rarely remembered to get any photos but it was satisfying to realise I do actually wear me-made all the time which I did not do this time last year.

Today I wore one of my favourites to finish the #MMM17. My lovely gingham top:

http://brackencrafts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/62-gingham-along.html

What I have realised is I have loads of Me-Made tops and dresses, leggings and track pants. Casual stuff.  I was already intending to make some new tops for summer but they a much less urgent now. I need some smart but comfy work clothes! In particular trousers!

Thanks for reading

Bracken