Last week I decided to make a skirt from a sewing pattern I’d spotted on Pinterest ages ago. I made it last Friday. The night before, I drew out the pattern pieces and cut out the fabric ready for the next day. The pattern is for a summery skirt on sewinglikemad.com, which has the basic formula for the skirt and you kind of work out for yourself how it goes together. It has a useful link for making the waistband, which is much better than a plain elasticated waistband. I also found a video tutorialto help me put the pockets together. I can’t remember if I’ve ever done pockets before.
Pocket Facings
The above photo shows pinning the pocket facings onto the front of the skirt. It was very easy to do and quite good fun. A step up from my normal sewing level, which isn’t usually adventurous.
Once I had sewn and pressed the facings, I added the main pocket piece to each side.
What I should have done next was gather the whole piece across the top. However, I had already gathered the front main piece of the skirt before I attached the pockets. I should have waited until this stage. I had to do a teeny extra bit of gathering at the pockets to make it the same size as the waistband, ready to sew them together.
This is it all stitched together. It didn’t take very long to get to this stage at all. It was definitely helpful to follow the link in the pattern to make the waistband. I was so impatient to get it finished, I kept to my usual of 1inch elastic rather than three lots of thinner stuff. However, next time I will be up for making the smaller casings as it creates a really nice finish to the waistband.
Sewing a Summer Skirt with Pockets
This is not a particularly good picture, but it is good enough to demonstrate what my new summer skirt looks like. I’m enormously pleased with my new handmade skirt!! My favourite bit is the deep pockets. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be adding pockets to everything now.
Okay, I think little crochet brooches are the only finished crafty thing this week. But there are more crafting projects on the go.
The crochet pattern for the raccoon is from issue 33 of Simply Crochet magazine. I made the fox so that he had a friend. It’s the same pattern, just different colours. The raccoon pattern is designed by Becky Garratt. I looked at her blog, and I like it very much.
More Crochet on the Horizon
This new wool, Drops Karisma, is for a granny square blanket that has been “commissioned” (my sister-in-law has asked me to make it). The colour inspiration comes from painted tiles from her Victorian fireplace. I’m assuming that once the blanket is finished, it will drape beautifully somewhere beside the fire on a cold winter’s day. I have made a tentative start to making some granny squares, but the pattern I’ve chosen might need tweaking.
Last week I started the Petal Patch crochet blanket. I found the granny square pattern on Betsy Makes, and it makes a change from the standard granny without going crazy. I really like it. I have pretty much pilfered the colour scheme from Attic 24’s Harmony blanket.
Crochet Blanket Choices
I can’t decide whether to complete this blanket first, or put it aside whilst I concentrate on the fireplace blanket. I know what I should do, but I also know what I want to do. Actually, they will both be fun to make, so I guess it doesn’t really matter.
This Petal Patch blanket will take at least a few weeks more, though, as I want about 100 squares, and so far, I think I only have 25. I haven’t been working as fast as usual either. This is because of a hurty wrist and a yarn-tangling toddler.
Sewing Too
I bought this poly cotton floral fabric in May, I think. It isn’t posh quality, but it was less than £3 a metre, so I don’t care.
I made a bag out of it first, and this week I hope to sew a summer skirt. If, once finished, it looks good, I will post some pictures. I should probably take a picture of the handmade bag, too. I have found what looks to be a good free sewing pattern for the skirt.
Other Handmade Crafting
This isn’t my hand; it belongs to my blanket-wanting sister-in-law. She is into embroidery, and when she visited last Friday, she whipped it out whilst me and some other fab people crocheted. I wanted to share it simply because I like it!
Obligatory Garden Snaps
Moving on from the crafting projects, I am reminded that the garden is thirsty. These Anagallis are my new favourite flower. For about five years, it was a Salvia, which I think is called Cambridge Blue, but my Mum gave me some Anagallis seedlings after I spotted it in her garden last summer. These guys look like they need a drink; they are a bit hot.
Both the Salvia and the Anagallis are here. I expect the Salvia is feeling a bit miffed now. I love all blue flowers equally. Just some more equally than others.
Down at the bottom of the garden, the Crocosmia is just beginning to flower. It was here when we moved in. I don’t mind it too much, so it has been allowed to stay. This picture doesn’t show the Lavatera that has come up behind it but it does show the Salvia, which looks so much better in real life.
I went upstairs and took a picture. Everything is looking quite nice from this angle! Hopefully, I will get the sewing machine out tonight. I’d like to make a start on that skirt.
I made pretty embroidered felt brooches, inspired by the real thing growing in the garden. Then I had to crochet a purse for one of them to live on. So here, I talk a little about how I designed the elderflower brooch, and then how I made up an on-the-spot crochet purse pattern!
Elderflower Cordial
I think it was the weekend of Father’s Day that we saw lots of elderflowers blooming in Grandma and Grandad’s garden. Six year old and Daddy filled a little trug with elderflowers because six year old wanted to make elderflower cordial. I hate the stuff, it sucks. I do not get why everyone loves it so much. Blurgh. Anyway, seeing as he’s only six, I obliged and helped him make a drink out of the pretty but stinky flowers.
It was a made up recipe because we didn’t have things like citric acid. To go with the collected elderflowers, I whacked in a tonne of sugar and loads of lemon juice. It was far too sweet, but mixed with fizzy water, we got away with it. My six year old made me drink some.
Anyway, playing with these flowers gave me an idea for an elderflower without the stench. I quickly sketched out my idea and got stuck in. I decided to sew a brooch using felt. The last time I did felt sewing was when I made a cherry blossom needle case. It was one of my first blog posts so no one saw it!
Elderflowers Made of Felt
Cutting out the little felt flowers was a fiddly job. I didn’t bother using the templates I’d made for those, just cut little circles and snipped petal shapes into them.
I have white felt and off-white felt. They are both different sorts of felt. I wanted to use the off-white but I think it must be 100% wool because it is mega fluffy and breaks away at the edges very easily. I decided to make two brooches as I wasn’t sure which felt fabric would be the best.
In the above picture, you can see I have used off-white flowers on a white felt backing and vice versa in the other bloom. The extra woolly felt was definitely not good for the small flowers.
Adding Crochet
I’m going to pin one of the finished flower brooches onto a new crochet purse. Originally, I was going to do it applique style and have the flower as the purse’s design feature. It turned out I couldn’t be bothered to do that, so I added a little brooch clasp instead and that way I had a removable brooch, or bag decoration!
Crochet Purse Pattern
I used a 4mm hook and double-knit yarn.
To make the purse, I chained 34+1 and did enough rows until I was happy with the length, approximately 46 rows of UK dc / US sc crochet stitches.
Then I began a few regular decreases to shape the purse flap. I dropped the first stitch of every row for about eight rows (it might have been ten rows!). I then did six (maybe eight?) rows with a UK tr2tog / US dc2tog at the beginning and end of each row.
Adding the Buttonhole into Crochet
To add the buttonhole to the top of the purse flap, just before the last couple of rows, I missed two stitches in the middle of a row and chained two instead. In the following row, I made two single crochets in the chain space and then did the final row normally.
Apologies, probably not the best instructions in the world, but I didn’t write them down, so I’m remembering. Before fastening off, go around the edge of the entire piece with UK dc / US sc stitches for a neater result.
Adding a Simple Lining To Crochet
I sewed on the lining by hand and cut a hole for the button to go through. The buttonhole is hand-sewn, so a little messy, but I still like it.
I measured a piece of fabric against the finished crocheted piece and folded the edges in to hide the seams. Just eyeballing it all, really.
Finishing the Crochet Purse
I folded the straight section in half to meet the bottom of the flap. I then crocheted the sides together (a sewn whip stitch would be good too). I actually forgot to go around all edges first with the single crochet, so I botched it, as usual. To rectify my error, I attached some yarn to one of the corners and just single crochet stitches along the flap edge. Seeing as this is a prototype, it’s not bad. You learn as you go, I suppose.
I absolutely prefer the brooch on the right. It is brooch number two. The first one, I used a darker embroidery thread for the middles of the flowers, and it doesn’t work for me. I also went crazy with some dodgy French knots, but they don’t work for me either.
They look lovely! I’m pleased with how they match the crochet purse. I think, if I were going to get brave and open an Etsy shop, this is the kind of thing I’d want to sell.
So, that is the new thing I made. Sewing and Crochet, two fab hobbies!
Back to just crochet this afternoon, I reckon. And after a week of feeling rough, I have my appetite back just in time for slow-roasted pork and veg from the garden. All is good. Hurray!
On a gloriously sunny weekend in Dorset, we went camping. It was hot. There were eight of us, four adults, four children. That’s two families. We had a lovely time.
Two Adventurous Nights in a Field
There was only one heavy tumble down into a badger’s set (resulting in lots of bruises) and only one incident with a hand saw (involving a quickish trip to a Minor Injuries Unit) but they somehow have added to the weekend, making it more memorable… and good for story telling.
Our shoes had to dry by the fire after a short but heavy downpour.
We briefly took refuge in the woods but it got slightly soggy so, in a break in the rain we went back to the tents.
Camping By a Fire
We had delicious meals on the camp fire. The first night was a chicken and chorizo stew with new potatoes. The second night we had carbonara with homegrown courgettes.
We camped in this very green and clovery field.
Lots of West Country Sunsets
I took a ridiculous number of sunset pictures.
It was a beautiful and peaceful place to be. On the first night, we had to listen to music from a nearby party. It went on until 2am, ugh. In the first photo, peaking out from behind some trees is a white marquee. That is where the party was happening.
Camping On A Dorset Farm
We stayed on a farm I know. I’ve been camping there a few times, but this is the first time since having kids. I was worried it would be a nightmare, but the children had a fantastic time. I didn’t like them waking us up at 4.45 but at least it was only for two nights.
More Silly Adventures
Unfortunately, we forgot our sleeping bags, so Husband kindly drove back home to get them. It’s only about fifty minutes from home, and I don’t think he minded tooooo much. I just can’t believe we forgot such fundamental camping equipment. Duh.
Intense Stuff
This is our new tent, bought so that the boys could have one section and we could have the other. It has a porch in between. Nice and roomy.
Camping isn’t camping without a proper fire to cook on and keep warm.
This looks messy in the photograph but in reality, it was very well organised. Instead of crafting, we set to work making an awesome drying rack for dishes and a washing line for clothes. There is a rudimentary rubbish bin in there, as well as extra sticks stuck in the ground to hang lanterns from. It was very cosy.
Here is a proper camping breakfast!
Nice views.
All Camping Things Come to An End
Promptly upon our return we all came down with a bug. I’m still feeling rubbish as I’ve been kept awake by pukey kids for two nights. Decent sleep hasn’t come to me yet. It’s such a shame because it put a downer on coming home. I think we caught the germs before we went camping and harboured them whilst we were away.
I might get back to some crochet today but I still don’t have much energy. I’ve been doing too much camping laundry instead. Boo.
I often share quite a few crafts I’ve made from other people’s patterns, but there hasn’t been much that has come directly from my own brain. Sooo, I am going to rectify that now and share a crochet pattern for little flowers that I’ve come up with myself.
It’s a pattern for some delicate little flowers. I’m sure there are lots of similar ones out there, but this one is nice because I created it for my friend’s daughter. She wanted some hair clips with crochet flowers, and this is what I came up with. There are two sizes because the first size I made was just a bit too big to stick on a hair clip. So, I downsized the flower motif. I don’t remember if I took photographs of the original flowers I made; this idea happened about two years ago!
Little Flower Crochet Pattern
Please excuse me if the pattern doesn’t work; I’ve never done this properly before. My notebook has words and pictures that I deciphered, translating that has been…interesting… Gosh, if that doesn’t fill you with confidence!
For both of these quick crochet patterns, I used a 3mm hook and Stylecraft Special DK. I’ve written the pattern in UK terms.
Small Crochet Flower Pattern
Chain (ch) 6 and join with a slip stitch (ss). Round 1: Ch3, 1tr into the ring (counts as 1 pair of spokes), (ch5, 2tr into ring) x5, ch5 and join with a ss to the top of the ch3 – [6 petals]. Fasten off (Fo).
Round 2: Join new colour with a ss between a pair of spokes (pictured above), 6dc in each 5ch sp (space), ss in between each pair of spokes, join with a ss to the first ss. Fo and sew in ends. (Round 2 is pictured, below).
Extra Small Flower Pattern.
Ch5 and join with a ss. Round 1: Ch2, 1htr into ring (counts as 1 pair of spokes), (ch3, 2htr) x4, ch3 and join with ss to the top of the ch2. – [5petals]. Fo.
Round 2: Join new colour with a ss in between a pair of spokes. 4dc in each 3ch sp, ss in between each pair of spokes. Join with a ss to the first stitch. Fo and sew in ends.
With the help of a glue gun, just wodge these on a hair clip. I can see lots of them together on a headband, too, or do whatever you like with them! I am pretty sure these little crochet flowers are very versatile!
My First Ever Written Crochet Pattern!
There, my first ever published crochet pattern. I do have more designs that I’m going to blog about, including one that I am completely in love with, which is very cute indeed. I want to see if I’ve got this one right before I get overexcited though. I’d love to hear what people think, but please don’t hate it!!
It was weeks ago that I cut out all the fabric pieces for this bag, and because I’d never used the pattern before, I had mild reluctance about starting. It always happens, and I know it’s down to the fact that, at some point, I’m going to have to concentrate. I am an easily distracted person. Finally, I managed to find some focus, and I am so pleased with the result!
Sewing a Handbag
I picked up the sewing project again a couple of weeks ago to make a start, but it was abruptly stopped by a toddler waking from his nap. That means no sewing allowed. I got as far as basting and stitching mitred corners. I was then disrupted by lost magnetic clasps. Should I even bother with them? Well, I’d bought them, and one day they’d turn up, so I really ought to give them a go. Two days ago, I found them, so sewing resumed.
Magnets on My Sewing!
Look! Look at the magnetic clasps! They are so snazzy. I actually put them in and it was so straightforward. I feel silly now. My one disappointment is that I placed them too low in the bag opening. They need to be a couple of centimetres higher so that they’re nearer the top. I will know for next time.
Neat & Tidy Sewing
I’ve impressed myself with the sewing on this bag, even if I haven’t impressed anyone else. There are straightlines for goodness sake. I never usually manage that sort of thing…. Straight lines!
There are some untidy areas, such as the attachment of the handles. By that point, I was sewing in the evening and getting distracted by the telly, so I had some unpicking to do. Strangely, I didn’t mind. However, I did mind a little bit when I got a random handle stuck to the handle I was working on. That was unnecessary unpicking. I got the fabric from Etsy.
Anyway, I have been randomly pushing it in people’s faces and parading around looking very pleased with myself, whilst I swing it on my shoulder!
A Quick Garden Tour
A quick tour of the garden in its current state. Here are some flowers I bought at Aldi (!). The salvia and the osteospermum are both Aldi bought.
A Proud Hosta
This is the best hosta I have, and I think that must be because it is in a pot. The other hosta plants are down the bottom of the garden, which, once weeded, I shall take a photo of.
I’m starting to wonder if most of this year’s annuals are actually bought from supermarkets because I think this lobelia came from Tesco! I’ve grown them from seed in the past, but I’ve had a very lazy year.
Views of the Garden
Yep, the snapdragons are from Aldi too. I’m beginning to feel embarrassed. Look, I’ve spotted rogue horseradish trying to invade again. The winter before last, I spent days digging the biggest hole ever, trying to get rid of the stubborn roots…. So, that worked :\
Pansies from um, Aldi. But that blue salvia isn’t, I grew that from seeds I collected. That is going to look amazing in a few weeks. They all will, I have five or six of them.
Self-seeded nasturtium. It used to be a deep red but is slowly turning to orange. Each year, the orange takes over a little bit more. I still like it.
I was surprised to spot the first sweet peas yesterday. These are one of my favourite flowers. They smell gorgeous, and I totally love them. I love you, sweet peas!
I made a new crochet shawl a couple of weeks ago. It uses a mohair mix yarn that was once a 90’s-made jumper. An old knitted sweater was unravelled by a 92 year old Nan, and remade as a shawl by me, for her daughter (my Mother-in-law!). The crochet pattern is the Elise shawl, which I found on Ravelry. It was such a nice and straightforward to make.
It needed blocking, which I did directly on the bedroom carpet. I don’t have any fancy blocking boards (if such things exist). I’m not sure this method is recommended, but it works for me. Anyway, the shawl turned out well, so that’s all that matters.
Sewing Projects
As an accompanying birthday gift to go with the crochet shawl, I made this reversible bag. The tutorialis clear and easy to follow. A few years ago, I sewed a knitting needle case for my Mother-in-law out of the same fabric, so I thought it would make a nice matchy-matchy present. If I remember correctly, the fabric was from Ikea. I probably bought it about four years ago. Hmm, I obviously didn’t press this bag very well.
More Crochet Projects
I also made up a very quick project from the crochet pattern book, Hook, Yarn and Crochet by Ros Badger. I bought a ball of King Cole Cottonsoft DK especially for this project. The cotton yarn is beautiful stuff to use. I’d love to make a baby blanket out of it, but I can’t justify the cost at the moment. If anyone I know begets a child, then I might consider spending the extra to buy some.
I Crocheted a Lamp Shade Cover!
It’s a lamp shade cover! I still haven’t sewn in the ends yet because as soon as I finished it, it was shoved straight onto the lamp. Maybe I’ll do that job today. It left the room a little bit darker, but I like it. With the yarn leftovers, I made four little crochet coasters, but I haven’t taken any pictures of those.
Time For Vegetables!
At the beginning of the week, I came up with an excuse that these new vegetables were ready to eat. In reality, they were super small and probably needed a weeny bit longer suckling from their roots.
Nevermind, we ate them anyway! I fried them in butter, garlic and lots of salt and pepper. Looking in the garden yesterday, everything has replenished, and there are definitely some spoils to be had. Properly grown this time, I reckon.
Good, now I feel as though I’m catching up with crafting projects. I have a few things half done and some things waiting to get started, but I’ve also ticked other things off the list, which makes me feel better.
At last, I have finished this green crochet blanket, and it turns out it’s not that big. I had thought it was going to be just a bit smaller than a single bed size, but it’s probably a third of that. I also thought I’d made somewhere over 100 circles, but when it came to getting them all together, there weren’t as many as I thought.
I think some circles went missing, or I completely miscounted. It is only 8×11 squares, which is rubbish. Seriously, I was expecting more. But there is that feeling of having completed a job that means when you are wrong, you really don’t want to keep on going. So I gave up on doing any more, and I’m glad I did because as I wrote in this post, I had do redo some anyway. In the end, it turned out I only had to make two extra circles as I forced the other ones to fit with some jiggery pokery (they were on the edge where it wouldn’t make such a difference). If you look closely, you can spot some really bad crochet.
I’ve taken a ridiculous amount of photographs of this crochet blanket, but none of them show the actual colours. I’m not sure how to rectify this, so I’ve given up chasing the perfect photo. The pictures I’ve taken on my phone do it more justice. I think I’ll put those on my Facebook page, which is over there on the right!
I was originally inspired the colours of Meg and Mog books. I’d been reading the books to my youngest [2], and I kept thinking that the colours would make a nice bright blanket. I remember drawing Meg and Mog pictures when I was at primary school.
I had a surplus of green yarn in my stash from some abandoned idea. That ended up being the main colour just because. I then got started, which was in April or thereabouts.
I didn’t really pay close attention when I was actually picking out the balls of wool so the end product doesn’t really look like it has anything to do with Meg or Mog.
It’s incredibly bright in real life. It’s all Stylecraft Special DK, as that is what they sell in the shop down the road. The pattern for the circles comes via Tiny Tin Bird. It is by Priscilla Hewit, and I printed out the PDF a couple of years ago with the intention of doing something blankety with it then. I didn’t get around to it until this year.
It’s the slowest crochet project I’ve worked on, probably ever. I think it’s due to not liking it very much! It’s the colours, not the pattern. I’m not sure. It’ll come camping with us in a couple of weeks, and I won’t mind if it gets scuffed up.
For the crochet edging, I gave up on finding something new and used one I have used quite a lot; Attic 24’s bobble shell edging, but with three slip stitches between each bobble to have a little gap between them.
In the meantime, I’ve got a couple of small things on the go and another blanket I want to make.
I’ve spent two days enjoying a proper sunny day in the garden! Although I’m prone to burning, the sun heals my rubbish skin, so I jumped outside to try and get mending. One of the things I like about crochet is that you can do it anywhere, so I took my granny square blanket with me.
It felt mightily hot (compared to what I’m used to), but it was lovely. I’m nearly finished with this crochet blanket now. These photos were taken on Thursday, and I was stitching together the last row of puff stitch circles. I’m now on the border.
Will I finish the granny square blanket this weekend? I dunno. It’s been a stop/starty crochet project that has been interrupted by many other projects, photos of which I will probably post next week.
I discovered that I had company whilst I was sat on the bench. Poor Emmet. He’s obviously been playing in the sand pit because he’s covered in the stuff.
When I’m not crocheting, I’m thinking about the garden.
The courgette plants seem to have doubled in size in the last few days. Looking forward to eating those. I also got around to putting out the lettuce, which the pigeons seem to be enjoying. There are a few of us who think about pigeon pie sometimes.
This is a nice looking corner of the garden. Hidden in there somewhere are some cute little geraniums. The peach rose was in a pot that sat in the dark behind a crumbling old shed when we moved into our house. When we sorted out the garden the following spring, I chucked it in the ground, and it is doing very well.
These little geraniums are very cute, but I’m not sure I’ve put them in the right place. They were too far back and getting swamped, so I dug them up and moved them forward. I’m still not sure they’re in the right place, and the trauma of moving them might have disrupted their growth. I need to think more about where to place things.
These Rozanne geraniums are crazy and have had no worries at all. This is their third year, and I should probably split this plant. I think I’m supposed to do that in the spring. Anyway, I should probably go and help a two year old make a Father’s Day card. We’ve been painting this morning and it’s only 7.40am. He thinks mornings are great.
I enjoy little sewing projects. Usually, they’re easy and don’t take that long to make up. Just before the weekend, I made two identical purses to give out as presents for two birthday girls.
I didn’t do so well with pressing, meaning I didn’t really do it. And I should have. They would have looked really tidy if I’d been more careful with the iron. I didn’t not get the iron out, but neither did I use it every time I needed to. Rush rush and being lazy. Also, with a good press, both bags would have opened without the lining repeatedly getting stuck in the zip. One did, one didn’t.
The tutorial is by Skip to My Lou, and it is really easy to follow. I think it looks a bit more special than a plain purse. The only problem was that the zips I had were too short, so I added a small strip of extra fabric to each end of the zips to make up the length. I got the idea from here at fishsticksdesigns.com, and I’m really pleased with the effect. Also, in that tutorial, the zip is top-stitched, which would help to stop the lining from getting stuck in the zip. And, don’t sew too close to the zip teeth, that helps.
The garden is in a lull. I think it is a common occurrence in June. All the spring flowers have gone or are looking sadly scruffy, but the true summer flowers are not yet at full gusto.
I’ve got straggly areas that I don’t know what to do with, and they could look much better with some planning. Next year I would like some sweet william and centaurea, please. The erysimum is a new addition, and I like it, hope it’s happy too.
The lupins are now tired; however, the bees think they’re awesome and have been buzzing around them constantly. I will take pictures of other plants from now on; these have had their moment.
It’s time to move on to the veg patch. Things are beginning to appear! I’m as excited as I can be about courgettes coming. I’ve also got flowers on the sugar snap peas and runner beans. I’ve had a couple of batches of spinach for dinner, too. It’s all a bit behind other years, I’m sure, but I’m starting to feel relief that production has begun.
And, I am so pleased about the apple tree. This is only the second time that fruit has decided to turn up to the party. I bet they get some hideous disease and wither from their branches.
I love my garden. I hate chunky, plastic garden toys. I do like these wooden blocks, though. There is an old baby walker they belong to. I’m not sure where it is at the moment, but the blocks have been sitting outside for a couple of weeks.
Anyway, this was a bit of a mish mash of garden pics that I’m not really happy with. I think it’s disappointment that the thrill of spring flowers has passed and I don’t know what is going to happen next…. Apart from some crochet, I know that that is going to happen next. I’m going to get a move on with turning some circles into a blanket.
