Merry Christmas

This is just two gingerbread kits, some Christmas cake decorations and some leyladii cuttings. I think it makes a really nice table decoration. The sprinkles were done by a not quite 3 year old but even those work for us.

The house kit is from some random shop and was given to the small child who helped make it. I bought the tree kit from IKEA.

Have a great holiday whether you celebrate Christmas or not. 

Thanks for visiting,

Bracken 

Still keep the me- mades coming.....

I really must put that hose away before it gets much colder! Ignore the swing frame. Its waiting for a tip run to get rid of it. If you can see any broken flowerpots thats because Hugh, the dog with a white paw eats them and destroys any plant in them!

In all honesty today I am feeling somewhat depressed. Not in a serious medical sense but just an every day frustration type of depression. In a sewing way I am depressed.

My needle hex screws never arrived. I have since found an identical set on Amazon prime for £2 more. If tge original (Ebay) order doesn't arrive this week I shall buy them again from Amazon.

So no overlooking yet. I dare not sew the fur backed sweatshirting with my Janome overlockers. They near enough died last time and thats why I bought the Brother. They will come eventually one way or another.

In the meantime I have traced 117 and 118 10/ 2023 Burda Style tracksuit. I have not cut it yet but I have cut out a dress in sweatshirting so I feel I have done something useful this week. 

I have also finally finished two dog coats I have been making half heartedly for about a month. They were sewn on a sewing machine hence I got round to them. They are essentially free as well since I had the fabric left over from the dry robes I made last summer and I already had elastic for the waistband strap and leg straps and the clips for closure.they are the best dog coats I have made so far. 

I made a silver reflective waterproof version of these for the old dogs but those coats were always a little small for these current boys.

The waterproof outer is heavy waterproof canvas. Water drops just bead on it.

The fleece inner is, well fleece. 

I added inside leg straps though the current boys are quite old now and the coats don't seem to shift much when they walk. Of course if we are lucky enough to get some snow then these old darlings will become puppies for an hour or so and the leg straps will be needed. I had not in fact realised how old they are until we don't need the leg straps!

Their other coats all have them except the denim jackets I made for the very old dogs I had previously and which were simply an extra warm layer for cooler days (or when our heating broke in the winter for them to wear indoors.

The leg straps got nuddy first wearing! 

And these coats fit my current dogs better than the coats they inherited from their predecessors. Until now they just had cast-ons. Thats not actually so bad. Most dogs don't have 3 decent coats each but it is nice to make some to fit them better and these will last into their old age. Both dogs are over 7 now so they will enjoy coats I think. They seemed to like them even when I got them to try them on several times during construction to check size and fit.

Otherwise, all I have done this week is knit some of my jumper which seems to be taking forever, and also a bit of sock knitting. I am almost at the heel flap now of sock 2. Again thats also taking a long time. I am a slow knitter!

Not the most productive week but then, like most people I lead a busy life, let alone its nearly Christmas.

Have a great week and see you soon,

Bracken

Setbacks and trials just never stop coming do they?

 

This week I had great intentions to get some of the large pile of To-Dos done. The childs tracksuits age 4-5 have been on the to-do list for ages. When I bought this fabric said child was 6 months old! Well they do grow quick as they say!

Luckily, I bought 2m of each colour of this fur backed sweatshirting so I have enough even now and really I think its better used for a 4 year old than a baby anyway. This particular child likes playing otuside even in rain and ice so this fabric will be perfect in the next few months in the UK. Its hardly even winter yet so plenty of time thought me. It should work well under salopettes and even under snow gear if we get lucky!

I was doing OK and sewed one top ( except for the hems) and half sewed another top and two pairs of trousers. I tend to treat this kind of sewing like a factory sewist and do loads of similar seams and then finishing at the end for all garments. The second ( grey) top will be a hoody so there should be some choices with these items hence I had thought to mix up the fabrics.. 

AND well here the machine breaking its needle did do me a favour I think, though the subsequent loss of the hex screw that holds my needle ( in my Brother overlocker) has been a serious setback. 

These hex screws are tiny. I dropped the needle inside the machine. Its a "clever threading" thing where the whole of the bottom threader moves in theory to make threading easier. I prefer the more fiddly older style it turns out, because when you do something like drop a needle inside, its easier to access the older types. 

Not this model. Even a magnet would not get the needle out. I ended up turning it upside down to get the needle out. Then of course the threads went everywhere and tangled - so now I also have to totally rethread it. But more upsetting I never did the hex screw up right. I work in a university chemistry lab and some of the equipment ( for safety reasons) does up the wrong way to usual. I must have gone into lab mode and undone not done up the tiny hex screw. Disaster. I lost it and cannot find it anywhere. 

I completely cleaned the room ( well overdue!) looking for this. Cannot find it anywhere. It turns out both Amazon and Ebay sell them. Ebay are slightly cheaper and come quicker so I went with them. Both sites sell the exact same item from the same manufacturer so hopefully the things will fit. It is actually surprisingly cheap and £8.99 for 10 sets of screws and a tool. At least if I do this again I will have spares!

So having started this I am now stuck. I do have two older overlockers but I actually bought this Brother because this particular fabric which I previously made a dress from, sent the blades out of line as well as blunting them, so I do not want to use the older Janomes to sew this fabric. Not for the sake of waiting a week for the spares anyway. The Brother handles far heavier fabric and wonderful though this fur backed stuff is its very thick and heavy in weight.

Anyway, always one to look on the bright side I had decided to mix and match the two fabrics (so green pockets as in the grey trouser leg above and the top at the start of this post has contrasting sleeves, but since breaking that needle and getting stuck, I decided the items look better in just one or other fabric. The pockets on the trousers will remain and the almost finished top will too but I intend to cut a new body for the green hood and sleeves, and new sleeves for the grey ( and maybe a hood?) and do the trousers with matching legs now. I had intended to do green one side and grey the other on the trousers. 

Luckily, I still have enough fabric left to do this. The child these are intended for will end up with the one shirt with two coloured fabric, but they rest of the ensemble will be more conventional because it will look better. So, I expect to end up with 3 tops and two pairs of trousers. Possibly I may yet squeze a third pair of trousers out, but I don't know yet. I need to cut some new bits for the one colour tops first. If I do get a thrird pair of trousers then they may in fact end up in opposite colours rather than waste the last bits of fabric. I will show you some time soon when I get these spare hex screws. 

You know all my life its always been a worry I may lose a needle screw but until now I never have so maybe I should rejoice it took me around 45 sewing years to have this happen. Thats not so terrible when you think of it that way. I started sewing at primary school so have really been sewing all my life. And now I should have spares assuming I bought the correct size.

So I have not actually not sewn anything whole this week but I have had to take a sewing break due to unexpected problems. Never mind I should get the new hex screws by Friday so I can carry one then. I might in the meantime hem the one top but the rest will wait. 

The top is hoody Jacob from Made By Oranges B Trendy which comes as a download and the trousers are B Trendy B1965 which you need to trace ( though you can buy a PDF). I made both before though never blogged about the trousers but they should work out ok. 

Have a lovely week and thanks for visiting,

Bracken

Fixed, repaired and upcycled - my me-made tartan skirt.

 

I made this tartan skirt from very expensive hand woven scottish tartan a long time ago. Or at least it feels so long ago. I never made it fit right. Really the fabric was very expensive and I was so scared I would wreck it so I cut it two sizes at least larger than I was and since then I have dropped 1-2 sizes more. I ended up trying to get the skirt to fit by adding side adjusters in the form of faux leather straps. Did not work well. The garment was just far to big for me so raely got worn and being a very warm wool skirt that's very sad.

It does not look so different but in fact its now much smaller. Below is the original skirt:

Around this time last winter ( 2024) I decided to take it apart and put it all right and make it fit. But because of the fabric again I hesitated. Then summer came and it went on my UFO pile.

But having just upcycled my very old River Island skirt I have decided I should really have another look at this one because in the end whats the point of making clothes if nothing ever fits and you are too scared to sew them to make the do so?

It took quite a long time of pinning unpicking and unpinning, folding and sewing then resewing to make this right. 

You can see from the back its not quite even pattern-wise. My original pattern matching is slightly out but I am more skilled at that kind of thing now ( or so it would seem) and I did my best with what was available. I am not unhappy with the result. I actually removed excess fabric from the two side back panels rather than the sides because the pattern worked better there, so this has a different shape to the original Burda pattern. That does not matter. It works and the pattern is not too far out to get away with:

I then had to also take in the lining of the basque and make it match the tartan outer. 
It's come out a bit shorter though I think that is the length its meant to be on the Burda pattern and I prefer it. I had to lose a few cm from the skirt peplum (?). I also moved the CB peplum back seam to the side where its actually meant to be, but I messed up when I originally sewed this up. This makes the front (virtually!) the same pattern on each side of CF. Thats how I cut it and something that's annoyed me for yonks. 

And it now fits!

This is as close to perfect as I can currently make. Especially given I originally cut it pattern-wise slightly ( only slightly though) out. Its lined n the basque part. 

I finished the inside with overlocking and rehemmed the skirt where I needed to unpick and make it slightly smaller. I am happy and it's wearable and just in time I would expect for the cold weather to arrive. We have had a few cold frosty days but it's really just begining so I now have a warm skirt to wear and it's even in fashion. And I am enjoying upgrading/ upcycling my own me-makes. Much better than just giving them away though it does not help my rather large fabric stash which has grown recently due to me being unable to sew. Ah well. This skirt is a win and thats what I am focussing on.

These are the same photos but worth seeing together I think to get an idea of how this actually has worked.

The green polo top is here if you want to know more about that one.

Have a great week, thanks for visiting,

Bracken

Upcycled Tartan skirt

 

OK so this came out very frilly. Very frilly indeed. Its not my usual look. 

The original skirt is a very short Y2K from River Island. I loved this so much it has stayed unworn in my wardrobe for many years. It really is short. Even in my 40s I stopped wearing it so 10 years later its never going to be worn. I last wore it over leggings with boots and that was OK but I am now far too old to wear it even like that. But I still love it and want to keep it. Its also very warm being a wool mix. And the details are lovely. It lost the "RI" diamante logo many years ago. It still has most of the diamante on the belt loops. Which work with wide 90s and Y2K belts which I still have quite a few of. 

Well I had to think of a way to get this back into my wearable clothes. By chance my DIY scarf from left overs from my upcycled kilt a few years ago fell on top of it. At the time I was having a long overdue wardrobe clearout and this was on the "it should go but actually I need an excuse to keep it" pile. 

Well what a great way to keep this:

So its hand pleated so not perfectly event. I kept the overlap on the side so if I decided not to like the end result I can retrieve the scarf. Had to unpick my hem from one edge of the scarf as well but otherwise a very easy upcycle. My only mistake: well I should have overlocked the raw edge before attaching. I attached very close to the edge over the original yellow skirt stitching which is RTW so not much edge to attach to really but I managed it. I didn't feel confident I could overlock accurately without cutting anything off. Since I did not want to cut the edge off I went with zig zag edging. I never used to own an overlocker and zigzag worked well for most of my adult life so it should be fine. Items like this tend to get hand washed anyway so it should stand up to life.

Its a very twirly skirt

Well my end result is very "80's", but thats OK. I wore this out with my partner and our son last weekend and it does feel loud but it also feels nice. It needs boring colours to tone it down. Maybe I will not wear my purple walking boots with it again but otherwise this has been a resounding success and it means I get to wear my much loved tartan skirt again. And don't feel like I am too old for it anymore.

It actually came out longer than intended because the waistband is a basque but I had forgotten that. Its been so long since I wore this. When it was in fashion people had rear cleavage and very low waists. 

I am probably lucky this still even fits!

But it does and I am happier now to be able to wear it again.

The grey top is one of my very thin fabric pixie tops tucked in and it works really well like this so I think especially since I made two of these its going to be this seasons top of choice for layering. 

I am a bit late posting this but I have had the most awful cold and until today really just wanted to hibernate. My life does not allow for that really but it would probably have helped me get better quicker.

Anyway thanks for popping by and take care won't you. There are some horrible bugs going round in the northern hemisphere right now!

Have a lovely week,

Bracken

One sock finished

This is sock one which is just finished. Its made using 2.5mm needles in the Winwick Mum basic sock pattern. So all normal!!

The yarn is Summer Sunset from WYS.

 

Yellow at top is the waste yarn from the WATG sock kits. 

Also the blue heel is similarly the left overs from the toes of the same kits. Its the normal heel stitch heel from most Winwick Mum sock patterns, which I like very much. Its comfy to wear.

The toes on sock one is a new ball of WYS yarns that I had in my stash and have yet to knit into socks. The colour is Blueberry Bonbon. Lovely name! I may have to knit the rest of that ball up once I finish sock 2. 

I have just started sock 2. Its taken me quite a while to finish the first sock but as I said previously; I am not a fast knitter. 

I started sock one some weeks ago when I finished the leopard spot socks.

 

These are much longer than that WATG pair. I do not like the length on that pair (or rather the lack of length) but there is no way to lengthen them. 

 

I am however very happy with how this sock has worked out so I am aiming to try and finish the pair for Christmas so then I will be able to take part in the January Haven which is the yearly Winwick Mum knit-a-long. I am already looking forward to that.

Have lovely week, thanks for popping by, 

Bracken

Dryrobe style changing robe

Last time I had a holiday I decided dryrobes are easy to make so I planned them and started collecting fabric last year. 

I then spent months and months looking online and in shops at RTW dry robes. I made sketches measured etc and if you really wanted to make these the actual Dry Robe website gives you all the measurements and info you need. You can just screen shot their diagrams to work this out. So there is no pattern for this other than for the hood. I used the mens jacket pattern hood from Burda Style 08/99. I was just looking through it at the time of making and I am sure there are tons of similar hoods that could be used. You need one that zips right up to the chin to keep you warm but I have seen a couple of bloggers use a hoody type hood instead. That would be less warm and its not what the commercial dry robes have but would be ok rather than no hood. 

All they do not say of the Dry Robe website is their sleeve measurements are taken from neck to wrist. I never understood at the start of making so ended up shortening them on both robes, but now you know this, it will be an easy thing to make. I would encourage anyone to have a go at this one rather than waste cash buying this. Its such a basic easy shape.  

If you use a heavy weight fabric like this waterproof polyester canvas then it does get very heavy to hold while sewing so is best done on a reasonable sized table. Otherwise, this is easy to make and you could use patch pockets rather than welt. Some versions of dry robe copies do this. Adding pockets into the side seam is not a viable option though due to the width needed to use this as a changing robe. I went with welts partly because I need to get my head round making them and stop faffing around avoiding patterns that have welt pockets. It seemed a good way to deal with this personal fear head on. It would not cost too much if it went wrong but would really make me happy to achive it and I have.

I underestimated how much fleece I needed so had to buy more. This is a budget fleece which is £7.50 for 2m. Botht he outer and lining are from Pound Fabrics. The fleece comes pre-cut into 2m lengths. I began with 4m of purple so 2 if these lengths. But when I started to make I realised I will need a bit more and the purple has sold out so I had to go with royal blue. That's the reason the pockets have a contrast.

As explained above the main problem with these is my dislike and total incompetence at welt pockets. It put me off making for months! In the end I watched lots if YouTube and realised the bag making version is better for my purpose because of the bulky fleece pockets and the video I watched they have a facing then add the pocket after. 

So I decided stuff it and went for it. 

As you can see my zippy welt pockets are very far from perfect. Also, the video I watched made a huge point you need a half inch for the welt. This meant my original zip choice won't work and I needed wider zips. I have these khaki metal zips in my stash that I bought years ago so I used them. I just hoped the metal zips work, don't catch hands or hurt when it's cold. It's what I had so I used them and got very wobbly zippy pockets. But they are fine as it turns out.

I made the pockets as follows:

Sew on line, then cut

turn inside out

Clamp edges for a while to encourage to be flat. Unfortunately never took the next photos but I masking taped zips in place, sewed on right side and left masking tape there.

This is how the reverse looks after sewing: 

So very messy, but maybe the tape may even help stop water coming in? No idea to be honest, but don't want to risk messing up my zippy opening by removing so it's staying put on the reverse.

I reckon it's better than attempting this with this fleece. And the budget stuff is very thick. It's like normal fleece one side and almost sherpa on the other. I used the sherpa side as the side you can see.

In the end I had just two and a half weeks to make both of these so I missed out the inside pockets. It was a hard slog getting them finished, but I did it and with a day to spare. I made the welt pocket linings huge to make up for that, and I think in all honesty I do not need to carry a hot water bottle on the beach and thats apparently what the larger pocket is designed for. I do not surf in the middle of winter. We did one year go in, in October, but I probably will not do it again. I live in the middle of the UK as far as possible from the sea so there is really little opportunity do go in the sea unless I go away on holiday and I cannot do that as often as I would like to. 

These will double as warm winter coats, though my other half says no way will he be wearing his as a coat. I probably will.

I already had most of a whole roll of bright blue velcro so thats what we had to have. It looks OK though I think.

The insides on both robes are purple but the pockets are royal blue because I had to buy more and they had run out of the purple. I do not think it actually matters and the fleece pockets are so warm!

This was quite crushed up in the camper but the thick waterporrof fabric should hang out quite quick I think. 

Bearing in mind the dryrobe is £180+ each and these come out around £70 for us both including the fabric I have bought as extra I think slightly miss-shaped pockets is not so bad. And if I make again they will be better because I now know, yes, adjust for width of zip being used. 

Maybe I am being too perfectionist about my welt pockets? I had a look around town the other day at RTW clothing and much of it has pockets no better than these. I do aim for perfection though, or as near to perfection as I can manage. I do not feel happy with these realy but they do function well so I suppose thats a major thing.

 If we decide we hate dryrobes it's not much money lost and they will easily make into dog coats. Though I actually bought more of the camo waterproof fabric for dog coats as well. It's probably my project for November now I can hopefully get sewing again.

Thanks for popping by and have a lovely week and if you decide to make a dry robe and need any info please do ask because I have tons of diagrams and workings out and am happy to share. 

Have a great week,

Bracken