Red camo trousers

I have been really busy the last week and signed up to a new fitness course which took far more time up than the actual attendance at the course. Never mind, though it has made me much later getting round to posting on the blog.

Ah and I changed my hair colour though not too sure about this right now. I am still getting used to it. Worn with a similar coloured (and me made) tartan hair band its been a good change I think. I really like this hair band with my new hair!

Not sure how long I will keep this though, the hair that is, because its a semi-permanent so is already washing out. Top is indigo and underneath supposedly bright pink but I did not bleach my hair first so its all over natural blonde. The end result is a kind of burgundy colour underneath.

 

OK so about my trousers: I decided the last few items I made in velvet should be the last for a while because its all getting a bit same-ey. That is both my blogging, and also my wardrobe variety.

 I do love velvet clothing, but it has some downsides. Well also some upsides in that its warm and cozy in wet, rainy Britain. But the downsides - well its not a good fabric under things like fleece or knitted jumpers. It tends to move up or down and twist about if you wear under fleece making it uncomfortable so its a great fabric in winter ( in the house) when you tend to stay at home more and hiberate and maybe have a fire going, read a book or knit and snuggle under a blanket, so its nice and cozy to wear - hence also velvet is great for lounge wear. But velvet when worn in winter under fleece which I really do need when its cold, is not so good and not really comfortable. Now its spring I want to go out more so I am wearing fleece quite a bit and fleece lined jackets when its really wet and nasty. So velvet is really not working well right now.

Velvet though is also good when its just a bit warmer because you can get away with no jacket when with other fabrics like cotton jersey, you need one, but then once the summer hits and the hot weather its only good in the UK for evenings. But now I have loads of choices. Its getting now so that I have velvet tops, trousers, velvet dresses, sweatshirts etc and little else. So its time I start to make some "spring"clothing. And time I use different fabrics - like cotton.

 

A while back - I think January or February - I bought a pile of cotton french terry fabrics. All Oketex as well so will be nice to wear and I can use the small offcuts for baby clothes - a project in the back of my mind only at the moment, but still there in my thoughts. And a great use of smaller bits of fabric which I tend to store for ages usually and thats not good from a stashing view point. I am still trying to reduce my stash despite the recent purchase of these french terry fabrics.

Ok so not a new pattern but very much a Tried 'n' Tested (TNT) one - the Lekala Sports Trousers. I made several items recently using this pattern ( glitter sweatshirt trousers, christmas red furry trousers etc etc - I could list loads but you would probably find them a bit boring really cos they are pretty much all the same), and actually the very first clothing item I ever made using an overlocker used this pattern so I really love this pattern. Its not super fashionable but for some reason these are my track pants of choice - again and again - and again!

The red camo is about £8:50 a meter from Pound Fabrics in the UK which is about half the usual price I think and its very good quality. I have added the link incase you want to check it out. No I am not affiliated in any way with them. Just think they are a good supplier and reliable and so far have not ripped me off which is something I cannot say about their nearest UK rivals. Last time I looked they still stocked it. Its actually about a third of the price of similar (identical?) fabric in my local Arts and Crafts shop!

Its a loop back, not a fleece back, so is a good lighter weight french terry and I like it so much I bought an extra 2m of this in fact to make a hoody for my partner. Its exactly the sort of fabic he likes for tops. We will just have to be a bit careful who wears what and when because I do not go in for that "His and Hers" look and even if mine are trousers and his a top I prefer to wear something different to him.

Here I am also wearing my black lacey top made using a My Image pattern. I really want to try a few more My Image patterns. They are Dutch and produce a magazine similar to Burda.

Also my blue furry hoody

So these are the photos: 

I am also making another pair or maybe even two pairs of these trousers out of french terry - different patterns though. But bearing in mind my problems getting motivated with sewing which has been an ongoing problem since December, this week has really perked me up. Maybe its doing some exercise? Not sure. Maybe its just that the weather has been nice and my sewing room is based in a conservatory so its very cold when the weather is cold and hot when its hot etc. But personally I like hot.

Also, I think the change of fabric has also helped me to get my sewing mojo back, which is a bonus. And with a bit of luck I should carry on sewing steadily now, and maybe make a few items for this spring. I really want to cross off a few "wishes" from the new year wish list  as well over the next few weeks. I have actually got round to cutting some of these wish list items out this weekend too. Just need to get round to the actual sewing up bit, which is often the harder bit to actually do I find. I have lots of cut out garments still stored in plastic sandwich bags in my stash and some have been there years now.

 

Have a great week won't you and hopefully see you back here sometime next week,

Take care

Bracken

Patterned velvet leggings with a bat fabric waistband

These are really just my usual basic leggings pattern made up in a very nice (quite large!) scrap of much loved stashed fabric.

 

Possibly not shown to their best here when worn with my comfy blue top. But this is a REAL photo after all. This is how I actually tend to dress.

They do look better for the blog without the blue top:

The basic red vest is a dress I made yonks ago and I cut off the bottom a couple of years later. I do wear it much more now though. The fact I made that dress back in the summer of 2017 kind of proves this blog is not just about making fast fashion though. I tend to keep most items until they are either worn out or I hate them in which case they get donated to charity.

 

The waistband is just a scrap of bat fabric left over from the bat bikini. I am currently looking for some fabric to make a longer version of this bikini. I want to go swimming at the local baths and prefer a more covered costume for that. I wear the bat bikini under my wetsuit when we are surfing in Cornwall, so modesty is no issue there. May be its my age, but I do not feel confident about my body right now and prefer a more covered up look at the moment.

 

I decided the swim suit offcut would work better than using velvet because the leggings made with velvet waistbands last year were much more bulky than this is and as it happens I am happy how these have turned out so its something to do next time I make velvet trousers of any kind.  Though you can only just see the bats but never mind its working well as a waistband. And I get to see the inside of the waistband too, and it makes me happy. Small things!

The velvet has lycra which should keep them in shape. I have found the usual polyester stretch velvet is not very good for leggings (and flares as well) because the knees go baggy very quickly, though makes acceptable ( and much cheaper) baggy trousers. Eg the Cerena pattern worked well in cheapo ( non-lycra) velvet - I must make a new pair of them at some point in fact!

I seem to wear the Cerena loads now I changed them to seperates - or the trousers part get worn loads anyway. I cannot remember when I last wore the top. It needs to be bra-less or worn with a very small strapless bra and I do not really want that look. I am just too old now to carry it off well. But the Cerena pants have become part of my everyday lounge wear. Next time making them though I really must add the pockets.

I think  these leggings will be the last item in velvet for this winter / spring. I have actually packed away my remaining bits of velvet fabrics until next winter. Even though my fabric stash has diminished loads, I still have far too much ( useful and wanted) fabric so I bought some heavy duty and rodent proof storage boxes. 

I don't think my shed currently has rodents but its well known that if you stick fabric in a shed the rats and mice move into it so this is going to be stored in a nice dry shed in black strong storage boxes. I have done this before in summer and its worked well for me. Not that I reccommend sticking fabric outside in any environment but where I live we simply have not enough space so its the only way to organise my life ( and my fabric). In fact we really need to move to a bigger place. Thats something we are currently considering because its very expensive where we live right now and just a mile up the road we can get a much better house for less money and thats still in a nice area. 

So I digress - leggings: The pattern used is McCalls 6173. They are all one piece - well two legs but no side seams. Very, very easy to make so long as you cut them on straight grain else the side seams will twist. I found out the hard way! 

But generally if you line the SG arrow on the pattern up to the edge of the fabric ( use a tape measure or ruler or even a stick with a line drawn on it) then they will be brilliant and being just two seams plus crutch seam they are fast to make up. Oh and waistband and hems of course but really with stretch fabrics you could even just miss off the hem and go for a raw edge and they will work. Very easy. In fact the pattern actually has a fold over waistband so is one piece with the rest but I find this is too short for me, so I add the extra waistband from the jeggings pattern which is included in McCalls 6173. I have never yet tried the jeggings pattern out. 

There is really not much else to say about these because they are just another pair of leggings from a basic pattern but so far since adding the waistband - they stayed half made for about 6 months! - I have worn every week at least once for about a month so these are a big success. 

In fact, the fact is I like my most basic clothing and therefore the basic patterns I use, over much more interesting designs ( and makes)  which does kind of make me ask myself why do I keep making other items? 

But then there is that fact that if you never experiment you never discover that latest much loved new pattern so I suppose its fine to re-use the best patterns a few times every year. At least I know those clothes will be worn.

Now though its time to start to think of summer clothes. I am thinking of lots of terry jersey I bought back in January and Tshirt cottons and such. Terry because its not as warm as full on sweatshirting but is warmer than Tshirt weight jersey and yes its spring here but to be perfectly honest its really cold here right now. Not at all the weather to cast off your woollens. My Granny used to say " Cast naer a clout till May is out" - or dont go putting your cold weather clothes away till May is fiished with here because we even sometimes get snow and often get frosts at the end of May. 

It does also make it very hard to grow tomatoes early in this country unless you have a greenhouse ( heated) or similar and have the space for them to grow. I am thinking though its time I sowed some now inside and they will be big and strong to be planted out at the end of May / early June.

And also I would like to make a few nice original items for our latest familly baby. I have been enjoying the odd small baby item I have made over the last few months. I am thinking maybe make stuff for when he gets to the 9-12 months bit to give me time to get it together to find patterns etc and get them made before he outgrows them.

So have a great weekend, take care

Bracken

No-sewing week

 So this week has been eventful, but unproductive from a crafting view point so there is not much for me to blog about. We went up to Scotland for 5 days - or at least to Glasgow for one night, the Highlands for 3 nights and back to Glasgow for another night before coming back home. Normally the journey home from Glasgow to Kilsby is around 7:30 to 8:50 hours. Not this week! it took us 14 hours and 30 minutes to get home. There were for some reason loads of accidents and diversions on the M6 south. Probably down to people driving too fast to get to relatives before Easter!

At one point we just got out of the queue and had a cup of tea - a brilliant reason to keep the camper on the road! If we had been in a normal car we could not have done that so easily. It also gave the dogs a break which after how ever many hours stuck in the back of the camper they needed. They do have room to move around but of course all dogs need a wee etc so they were very happy to be let out even though there was just a rubbsh filled layby at the side of the A66. At that point the M6 had been closed for 3 junctions and everyone was being diverted accross the country to the M1. By the time we had stopped for about half an hour for tea and biscuits they actually had reopened the M6 though most people stayed in the queue to go down the M1. Thank you to Google maps we got an update! 

Anyway, 6 days for having fun and I have done very little to talk about in the way of crafting.

I have started to knit a baby jumper. Its a pattern from Ravelry

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/frog-sweater

I knitted the same pattern back in 2015 for a different baby and it was fun to knit. I do like making baby clothing because its so small. This is the frog prince jumper and last time I even knitted it with the crown but I am thinking it was a bit OTT and my friend did dress her baby in it once but only once. This time I intend to just do the eyes and mouth on the hat. That is really more wearable. Again, like my last attempt at this ( which was a success and looked just like the pattern but I never got a photo) this is for a boy so the backgroud will be the conventional blue but not pale wishy washy baby blue because I hate the way people dress babies in pastels. So 1950s! Why can't they wear bright colours?

 Anyway I did knit the back and have now begun the frog on the front panel. Its the 6 month size so should hopefully be finished before baby gets that old.

Back

Front

So really this has not been a productive week but I have had some fun which is great. And I went to the highlands, saw Lock Ness and on the way up the Glencoe as well. We actually got stuck there because of an accident too but that diversion only added an hour onto the entire journey. So driving wise this was a very long week but its the only way to get around here. We even considered (whilst stuck in a traffic jam!) how much t would cost to fly to Wick from Bimingham airport but the average price was coming in at £550 each way (each and not including dogs) and that was with a 24 hour flight because all flights go first to London then stop at Glasgow before going to Wick - one flight even stopped at Belfast first. So thats a No-No for us. And far too expensive.

We have decided if we can sort it though we will move to the outskirts of one of the scottish towns/ cities. Especially if Scotland goes indepepndent because ultimatly that would probably lead to Scotland rejoining the EU and as someone who liked to be European, I hate Brexit and the rising food prices etc. Of course the non-Eu fans( Brexit believers)  blame it all on the Ukraine-Russian war but much of what is happening in the UK was actually predicted if we went through Brexit. 

Also I am not racist! I liked being part of the much bigger european union and have a few very good friends who were from the EU and have now retured to other EU countries because they felt unwelcome here due to Brexit,  It seems many people here are simply racist biggots. I am ashamed to belong to this country if I am honest and I feel no allegiance to Britain at all after Brexit. So moving to scotland may right now be just a dream but its something we intend to look into now.

Maybe next week I will have more to show you nd to talk about, In the meantime I have several other blogsto visit and to get up to date with reading.

Thanks for popping by,

Bracken