Monthly Archives: April 2014

Butterick 6214

this is the second time i have written this post the first time i posted it, i received txt congratulating me on my post then it disappeared into the posting black hole.

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I was a bit concerned about the scalloped neckline as the pattern was a size too large, although i knew i could slash the pattern the scallops would be a challenge.

I decided to use my printer scanner, i worked out the ratio i needed to reduce it by, and hey presto.

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the only change i made between this top and the one the actual dress is that i lengthened it by 1/2 inch.

this dress looks beautiful but it is an impractical dress to wear as you will see in the last photo

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here are some detail shots

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and here is the shot you’ve been waiting for

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bound button holes and the border print dress

I’m quite pleased at how the button holes have turned out, especially as I left it practically to the last minute to go with them, note to self ‘don’t do that again’ it is awkward to do the stitching on the bottom button hole.

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I do have a confession to make the photo shows the back of the best button holes, two of the others didn’t quite line up properly, but they lined up enough so as not to impair the hole on the front.

I have also stitched some of the neck facing down

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All that needs doing now is the rest of the neck facing, waist binding and hemming, I also need to cut out and make the belt.

I also need to find out how to centre the photos when I import them in from Flickr.

purchases this week

I have bought some fabric this week, I had an email from Kaye’s Textiles this week saying that they had some new cotton fabric and it will be on sale for a week.

The fabric i bought in the end was not on sale and i had already see it but here it is

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i also have a few new patterns

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i’m not sure which one i’m going to make first but it will probably be the last one, Vogue 8781, as you can see I am on a bit of a Vogue kick at the moment but I am trying to cut down on my spending but it doesn’t appear to be happening.

I’m hoping this week to have my rose border print dress finished and the dress with the shoulder pleats so watch this space.

Russell Watson at the Cliffs Pavillion

We went to see Russell Watson, it wasn’t my idea, I though Simon and his Mum were going together and I was staying at home, no such luck.

Ok, I thought, he did the theme song to Enterprise he can’t be all that bad, it was, and worse.

Now I’m not very musically inclined so I can say if I thought it sounded good or not but I can’t say if it was musically good (Simon can, he said the first half wasn’t), the Freddie Mercury song Barcelona sound so much better when Freddie  did it, we then had another song this one from Les Miserables, then he disappeared for 10 minutes while we were treated to a Les Miserable medley, as far as I am concerned the only thing worse than a medley is a mash up or a 12 inch remix.

In between song we were treated to a load of drivel, mostly about his good friends Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil who have written him his very own song, in my opinion if this is the stuff they come up with now may be they should give up song writing, it sounded as if they had got hold of a rhyming dictionary and stuck to it like glue. nice, ice, rice splice ( I made the last one up 🙂 )

We had 5 songs in the first hour and about the same in the second hour, he did two songs then disappeared for 10 minutes again, this time we were subjected to an array of science fiction theme tunes, to get you thinking he might do Enterprise after all, he didn’t. He wittered on a bit more about his ‘good friends’ sung a song, Simon says was ripped off from Miss Siagon ( I wouldn’t know I haven’t seen it) nessum dorma, and some hymns, abide with me, Jerusalem which is my favourite, which was ruined by the woman behind me who insisted on singing along out of tune and slightly behind Russell.

All in all I think I would have been happier had it been more operatic songs and less Les Miserable and a lot, lot less of him actually talking.

One other thing he was pushing a charity song, it was a good charity for soldiers invalided out of the army with bits missing, the person who wrote would probably have benefited from  Russell’s ‘Good Friends’ as any one adding a line ‘London Bridge is falling down’ to their song needs to be taken outside and shot (that could be considered in bad taste because of the charity but to have managed to get so many clichés in one song was poor very poor)

Would I go and see him again, No, No, No

Flubble a memorial

if you are not a big cat fan it is probably best that you skip this post.

Poor Kitty, after staying in at the vets over night to build her up for the anaesthetic so they could check what was causing her breathing/eating problems the Vet discovered she had a large tumour blocking her throat, we had already decided that if the results were bad it would be kinder to let her slip away rather than putting her through the stress of bringing her round only to take her back to the Vets later in the week to have her put to sleep.

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only weeks old

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with her brothers under the sofa

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with mum Kushka and brothers

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help I’m a long way up

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relaxing on next doors shed with Mum

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don’t look at me the camera adds 10lbs

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the four musketeers Kushka, Flubble, Gismo and Ginge gone but not forgotten.

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bags, boxes I love them all

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mother and son time, we like to be not quite together

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Ginge looks huge in this photo I think he should go and find a bigger lap so I can have this one…

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who says I don’t spend any time with the man of the house?

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last photo

border print dress

I though you might like to see some photos of my border print dress, the pattern I’m using is the Vogue 9040 pattern, I have taken about half an inch from each side under the arm

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in this photo if you look carefully you can see all the markings used to make the photo above

if you think there are too many dots for the pin tucks, that’s because you put in the darts first then the pin tucks using half of the of the dart markings.

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here’s roughly what it will look like, I am going to use pink buttons and part of the border print for the belt

late post

Sorry this post is a little bit late, we have been dealing with a sick pussycat, she is a bit clingy when she is ill and hasn’t allowed us to do anything much, I am behind on my reading and on my sewing.

Flubble (fluffy bubble) has what looks like a head cold, i don’t know if cats get head colds but that is what it looks like. She is at the vets at the moment waiting to go under the anaesthetic tomorrow to discover what is bunging her up and preventing her from eating.

There is always dangers with a cat of this age (18ish) going under anaesthetic, but we have decided that it is worth the risk, just had the phone call from the vet to say that her kidneys are fine so now it is just a wait and see, hopefully we will be bringing her home in a couple of days

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