Monthly Archives: February 2014
Night out at the Cliffs Pavillion
Wednesday evening we went out for a change, we being me and Simon, went to the Cliffs Pavillion to see Brian May and Kerry Ellis.
It was a two hour set Simon was very happy as it has been a long held ambition of his to see Brian May play live.
Some songs were better than others as you usually get with a gig like this, mainly the original stuff was a bit off but the covers were good. We had some Beatles, an Everly brothers song and of course a couple of Queen songs.
They obviously care about animals and the environment, however if the set is only two hours long people don’t want a quarter of that taken up with the Badger Cull and Lion Killing, don’t get me wrong I care about Lions as much as the next person, Badgers I can take or leave, but in a gig that short pick one or the other not both, and stick it in the middle not slap you about the face with it straight off.
It was slow to start off, I’m not musically inclined so if you were expecting a list of songs you are going to be disappointed. After the first 20-30 mins it picked up and became an enjoyable evening.
I know I keep harping on about how short it was but I don’t think it need a costume change in the middle, unless of course they both had surprisingly small bladders, the poor pianist didn’t get to leave, in fact after Kerry’s costume change I think they did about two songs and the encore.
I know the picture is bad, the main problem was the big yellow screen it put the camera off.
Book challenge February
Here is an update as to how I’m doing in my book challenge.
From my challenge I have read:-
Georgette Heyer – Faro’s Daughter
Steve Berry – The Templar Legacy
Melissa Nathan – The Nanny
Elizabeth Peters – The Ape That Guards the Balance
I still have
Lindsey Davis – Time Depart
Robert Jordan – The Great Hunt
The Lindsey Davis will be finished I’m not so sure about the Robert Jordan
Walkaway dress
The walkaway dress is finished as far as I am going with it, I know I need to take about half and inch out of the bodice.
The first pictures were taken before I took the half inch out of the bodice.
The next show that maybe the dress wasn’t made for twirling
You can also see that my dress is having some interfacing problems, the only parts on the pattern that are interfaced was the neckline, looking at my prototype I also need to interface the front where the buttonholes go.
The only thing different on the second pictures is that I have taken half an inch out of the bodice, this should stop the wrinkling accords the back and help the front piece stay in place.
For strictly come dancing fans I like call this one my paso pose.
Obviously the bottom button is now in the wrong place but once that is is moved the top of the dress should lay flatter.
walkaway dress butterick 6472
I’m in love, I have it half finished and it is still beautiful.
the pattern I bought was a size smaller than I usually buy, I decided not to try and make it any bigger. A lot of the posts on walk away dresses say that they come up big across the bust and I usually have to take dresses in at the waist and because of the style I thought it probably wouldn’t matter about the hips.
This is the front view with everything pinned in place.
front view without the back.
back view not pinned in place, unfortunately I forgot to take photos of the back while it was all pinned up.
back view of just the front piece, I didn’t realise that it would be held in place just by a strip of elastic and a couple of hooks and eyes.
The fabric is an old sheet picked up from the Sue Ryder Charity shop, I was just going to stick to blouses and such like from it, I thought it would be good for my test run.
At this time I definitely want to make more of these but we will see how I feel after it is finish and I’ve worn it outside, of course I might have to wait for summer first.
Vintage Patterns
Even though I have tried very hard not to buy any more vintage patterns this weekend I have failed miserably I have bought 6, 3 from ebay and 3 from etsy I am going to have to stay off both of these websites the rest of the month.
From ebay I have Butterick 6472, 2535 and 5376
From etsy I have Butterick 5636, 8039 and 8096
I’ve come to the conclusion I really like Butterick patterns.
I’m really excited about the Walkaway dress 6472, I like the idea of a walkaway dress, I wasn’t all that keen on the pattern reissue especially as there have been a lot of comments on how hard it is to fit but I also wasn’t sure about the neckline and all that binding. Out of the pictures I prefer the Saturday Morning dress have a look at Gertie’s blog post on it I have a lot more luck with the original vintage patterns on fitting than I do with the modern reissue patterns. So watch this space.
New York 1478 part 4
Ok, I’ve ironed the dress I’ve put in the interfacing (probably should have done that before I put it in the dress, but I just wasn’t sure about it, the interfacing I have is very stiff until washed and I didn’t know if it was going to make it worse.
I’m glad to report back that the iron and interfacing gave the dress a much needed structure.
I decided to take the photos with my ‘good’ camera to see if it makes any difference
I’m not sure that the camera makes a difference, but I’m going to get a cheap tripod to play about with it.
Here are some closeup shots of some of the details
The pockets, Simon doesn’t like the pockets he thinks it makes the dress look frumpy, not sure that I get that vibe.
I noticed in the first photo the neckline was off a bit so I’ve straightened it up.
You should be able to see that I have pinned the back, I need to take some fabric out of the side seams.
I still need to make the cuffs and decide on some buttons but it might get warn after all.
STYLE 3193
Don’t worry I will get back to the dress over the weekend, suffice to say I ironed it and it looks a lot better.
Not sure if this is a late 60s early 70s pattern, never having made Trousers before it came as a surprise that they are so easy to put together, obviously fitting them could be another matter.
Ignore the spots, I try to. the fabric is Cotton and I bought it as seconds, not realising that the spot was quite so big, and the reason the fabric is seconds is that half of the spots aren’t printed correctly. but I though it ideal for my first attempt, I have some nice corduroy for the real trousers.
At the moment the Trousers are very comfortable but not very elegant.
They seem to fit round my bum alright but are too big at the top of my leg, I received a ‘Perfect Fit in pictures’ book for Christmas looks like I’m going to get some use out of it.
I think I’m going to have to talk to my photographer about the angle he is taking the pictures from, the first picture looks like I have incredibly wide hips and very small feet
New York 1478 part 3
Have you ever loved a pattern, loved the feel/look of the fabric then once they are together you hate them? that is this dress.
It might just be that the fabric is giving me a lot of problems and that once it is finished it will look lovely.
The bound button holes didn’t come out as good as they have done on other fabric
They aren’t as clean cut as the others that I have done and won’t lie flat I put two rows of stitching round them to help with the fraying problem I’m assuming that that didn’t help.
I have now got the whole dress together and the facing has been stitched on, the pockets look uneven but I have measured them and they are the same distance from the shoulder so apparently it is an optical illusion.
I’m hoping that after a good press and all the finishing touches have been put on it will look good and i’ll be able to wear it.
New York Gold 444
Wearing this to work for the first time one thing that immediately strikes me it that it needs more buttons, preferable smaller than the ones I have on it. Although the bodice stays together nicely below the belt seems to be having a problem sitting nicely.
One thing I do have to remember next time I make this dress is that I needed to take two inches out of the waist, I know it isn’t totally fitted but by the time I had put the belt on it I had lots of nasty gathers and it didn’t lay right.
The pintucked bodice was easier than I thought to do, there is a handy marker on my sewing foot at 1/8 inch which is the size of the pintuck, I will be the first to admit that they aren’t as equal as they could be, but they were good enough.
I ironed them in first which then becomes a decision on whether to put the markings on the front or the back of the fabric (I have just come to the realisation that I should have used tailors tacks doh!)
The skirt is slightly shorter than I thought it would be, but still a nice length, I might try making it in a drapier fabric instead of the cotton.
I had another ‘Doh’ after looking down the dress while wearing it, that I didn’t realise while ironing it or looking at it on my dummy the pintucks aren’t as uneven as I thought they were, they are in three sets of two.
2014 Book Challenge
I love books I love buying them and I love reading them and I especially like looking at them in shops new / second hand I don’t care, I used to like looking at them in the Library, but I don’t like the new library so I don’t go there anymore.
Since I went digital I don’t have to worry about shelf space, which in a way is a bonus in others not so much. I still hang around book shops mainly to get ideas and LOOK at the books. I still have shelves of books at home to LOOK at but I have to have a spread sheet to keep up with what I have bought. And scrolling through the book covers in Calibre isn’t quite the same as looking at them on the shelf.
Of course the other bonus is that my husband doesn’t know how much I spend on books (don’t get me wrong it’s my money and he doesn’t care what I spend it on, but if I already have X amount of books to read how can I justify buying even more books that I can’t even pick up and look at)
I’ve looked at my spread sheet and set myself a goal this year.
I want to read all the books I have left over from 2007, 2008 and 2009 which is 32 books there are another 16 books I have to read in conjunction with the 32 books, for example I have 2 Lindsey Davis books bought in 2009 but I also have 6 other Lindsey Davis books that come before the 2 bought in 2009 so I have to read them first. I like to read my series in order just in case there are any spoilers in the later books (I’m looking at you Elly Griffiths).
42 books will be easy for me to read in a year but I had already decided to also read one Robert Jordan (I read the first 4-5 Wheel of Time books when they first came out but got fed up waiting for the next one to come out) a month and one Georgette Heyer because I have 26 of those that I haven’t read in ebook form.
So far this year I have read from my challenge
Eye of the world – Robert Jordan
Arabella – Georgette Heyer
Seeing a large Cat – Elizabeth Peters 2009
The Ape that guards the balance – Elizabeth Peters 2009
Posiedens Gold – Lindsey Davis
The Last Act in Palmyra – Lindsey Davis
The Nanny – Melissa Nathan 2008
Beyond Heaving Bosoms: a smart Bitches guide to romance Novels – 2009
All the book covers will be in my Pintrest account.
Musings of a Craft Enthusiast 