Category Archives: Indie Patterns
Stash busting failure :-(
Because I am having a problem with bottom halves I have bought itch to stitch sequoia cargo trousers and liana jeans, then of course I had to go to eBay and buy some cheap fabric to make them up in, I have also bought some beautiful purple jersey fabric for a love notions candence dress, I am starting to feel better, every night I think tomorrow, I’ll finish those two tops cut out on my table, I’ll take the photos of my sewing room – I’m planning to go to the knitting and stitching show this year the same as normal.
For some reason we thought, oh radiotherapy has finished we won’t have hospital appointments all week, wrong. Because the last week of radiotherapy/chemo my bone marrow stopped making Platelets (clotting) I have some beautiful purple bruises, this meant blood tests Monday /Thursday (check platelets) platelet transfusions Tuesday/Friday, finally my platelet count has started coming up, tomorrow’s blood test should confirm whether or not my marrow is now working, as long as the platelets come up from last week (no transfusion) hopefully the blood tests will no longer be needed.
I’m also having a MRI tomorrow, this is to confirm whether the left side weakness I am experiencing is being caused by swelling, which we are sure that is. The oncologist has upped my dexamethasone (steroid) for a week, left side weakness is resolving its self, we managed to take Charlie for a walk on the seafront today.
I wrote the first part of this post a week ago. My left side weakness is getting worse,the results of the mri is inconclusive, today is the first day in about 2 weeks that I’ve woken up with my brain thinking about working, the dexamethazone has been taken back down to 4 mg, my ankles and knees are swollen, still having regular blood tests no transfusions, this way we know if they are my platelets and not transfused platelets.
I have plans, next week Simon and I are going to blue water for shopping, gbk and Krispy cream donuts then the following week the knitting and stitching show at Olympia. I can’t wait.
Itch to stitch – Patternsy Printing
Just before Christmas I received an email from Kennis Wong about having the large-format PDFs printed by Patternsy, I thought I would try it out as I had been looking at printing. If Kennis wanted to do the research for me I thought I would give it a try.
It was quite straight forward, you login with a gmail account so that you can upload the patterns to google docs, then you fill out a form giving them your name, email address and address. Once you have done this Patternsy emailed me to ask what cup size I wanted printed as it will make the printing cheaper, once I answered this question, they came back with an invoice. Which I paid using Paypal, for the four patterns I decided to have printed which cost £21.74 in total, I had printed Bonn, Chai, Idyllwild and Mila.
After I paid it took only a couple of days for my printing to arrive, the paper is slightly heavier than tissue paper 24gsm better than normal printer paper.
For some reason I had expected it to come in a tube, but that could be because I expected it to be a heavier paper, they came in an A5 envelope, folded up like a purchased pattern. I will be quite happy to use this service again with other patterns.
cross stitch Christmas
I received a couple of cross stitch kits for Christmas and a cross stitch book, all Michael Powell.
I am coming along quite nicely with my existing cross stitch, the Scarlet Wizard is finally progressing, I have gridded most of the remaining fabric to make it easier to work out where to stitch.
The Secret Garden 1 has come along quite nicely. The bottom two inches are complete apart from the back stitching which will make the picture pop.
I also have a small picture that I spotted in The World of Cross Stitching started that I am stitching on a hoop, which means I can take it to the Hospital with me.
The colours aren’t as purple in real life as they are in in the magazine, which as you can see on the stitching are more of a pinky colour.
I’ve been listening to audio books while I’m stitching as at the moment I can either stitch or watch TV not both. While I was in hospital I started listening to the psi/changeling series written by Nalini Singh, performed by Angela Dawe, which are brilliant, I am now up to book 10, I have already read the books. I prefer Angela Dawe to Justine Eyre who narrates the Archangel series, I find her a bit harsh.
I recommend Audible especially if you buy kindle books, if you are smart you can get the most for your money. Also the audible app for the iPhone is great, it has a sleep function on it, so if you fall asleep while listening to know there is only a certain amount of time you need to go back.
Back in hospital more shopping will be done…
I have bought some patterns from deer and doe, I have had so much use out of the free Plantain pattern I recommend you rushing over and downloading it, to be honest I’m not too keen on the styling on the website too much eyeliner and silly poses but I have been eyeing up the azalea skirt
, bleuet dress 
and the givire dress 
ad I just realised I missed fumeterre skirt,
which I love, of course I can’t do this pose without falling over at the moment, i can dream 🙂
I have also been over to love notions for trendy tunic, 
candence top and dress 
and tidal dress and top.
I also suggest that Michael Powell, cross stitch copyright division get their arses over to Pinterest, up and down the garden path and a couple of others are available to down load which brings me to my other purchase, as you may have realised I have gone back to my other love, counted cross stitch and have picked, Michael Powell secret garden 1
to finish, I had it in the evenweave version purchased from the designer himself at a long ago knitting and stitching show, I picked this one of the many started as I thought it would be easy enough because of the fabric and blocks of colour but enough of a challenge because of the back stitching, so went over to amazon to buy the companion kit the secret garden 2
Rhapsody Blouse second attempt
Post from before the stroke.
I have my second attempt at the Rhapsody Blouse by Love Notions and I will say I like this one a lot better. I made it medium across the bust and shoulders and graded down to small for the waist and hips. The sleeve options I picked were ¾ length sleeves with a flare.
It is made from a peachy coloured crinkle cotton, I have just received some dress making supplies from relatives, this fabric was from Aunt number 1, it wasn’t really big enough for the options I wanted but I wasn’t going to let that stop me, all the main parts were in one piece it was just the flare on the sleeves that I had to piece together, that and the bias binding, I needed two meters and I don’t think that any bit was longer than 10 inches, also I had to cut the inside yoke piece out of a different fabric totally.
now it has been washed you can hardly see the joins. it went together just as easily as the first time
Love Notions – Rhapsody Blouse
I have had a couple of failures the last month or so, you will have seen the Lutterloh dress and this one which is the Rhapsody Blouse from LoveNotions, I had high hopes of this pattern, I have a similar top and I was hoping to reproduce it.
https://www.lovenotions.com/product/rhapsody-blouse-xs-xxxl, it has 8 sleeve types, I’m very impressed with the website, the pattern pages also have lots of pictures of how it looks made up, I am quite sure that my issue is more to do with fabric choices rather than a problem with the pattern.
I loved the look of the top right up until I attached the sleeves and then it was uck I don’t like you at all.
I am going to give it a good iron before making any decisions on it, I could just take the sleeves off and have it sleeveless or I could just replace them with the ‘cap’ sleeve as the arm hole is slightly bigger for the sleeved version than the no sleeved version.
It has French seams and gathers at the shoulder and a tuck at the back, last time I tried it on I realised that I probably should have made the larger size it doesn’t quite fit on the shoulders, but I am happy enough with the rest of it.
I will be making another attempt at this probably with softer fabric with more drape….
Cheyenne Tunic ….. Update
I’ve decided on the buttons, first of all I found some buttons in my stash, then I realised that they would be far too big and bulky for the sleeve tabs. So then I went to my trusty eBay and was looking at some of the wooden buttons, I couldn’t decide then I thought mother of pearl – or what ever the fake equivalent is these days.
They arrived just as I was about to start the Dress For Liz so I put off stitching them on, but they are on now – what do you think?
Birkin flares no. 3
Hi, I’m on my third pair of Birken Flares, I still love the pattern and they are so comfortable, the first pair I made from a cheap 10oz Denim from eBay this is quite a light weight but it holds it’s shape over multiple wears. I bought the black, it has faded to a charcoal grey but for the price, fantastic. The second pair is a heavier weight denim and better quality, I thought but after 2 wears max has to go back in the wash.
This pair (third) I went back to my trusty man on eBay and bought the dark blue denim he had advertised with the black. I bought 3 meters out of which I cut two pairs of jeans and my skirt blogged about here so far I have only had time to put one pair together, I was stitching them at the same time but with different coloured top stitching, once I started confusing my self I decided against it.
This pair has yellow top stitching and came together pretty quickly, I did have a problem with the fly top stitching and the crotch but otherwise it went together with no problems, I do have one confession to make though I still haven’t tried rivets yet, I’m quite happy banging in the one button and yanking the extra teeth off the zip, but to be honest the rivets scare my some what. Maybe next time.
Hey June – Cheyenne Tunic
Hi, I picked this pattern because of it’s similarity to a couple of Fatface Popovers I bought in the winter sale and also, while researching the Birkin flares I came across several really beautiful versions of the pattern.
I made the tunic with 3/4 sleeves, it went together quite easily and the instructions were very, very detailed, they hold your hand through the whole stitching experience.
you make the tab first
Then you make up the back, using what I assume is the Taco method for the yoke
there are a couple of nice details on it, the cuffs for instance are surprisingly easy to put together and look very professional,
the whole thing has french seams even the arm holes, the shirt is put together flat then the side seam and underarm seem is sewn last.
The one thing that I’m not sure I agree with is the hem is stitched separately on the back and front then the side seams are done
If I was to make it again there are a couple of things that I would change, the front tab reaches my belly button definitely not sure about that, also the the tab on my Fatface shirts are thinner which I think I prefer.
I’m not sure if the fabric I used is slightly too stiff though I thought it was a light weight Lawn. the back doesn’t seem to lay properly but I think I might wash the fabric again before looking into this issue.
The reason this is not finished is because I can’t decide on the buttons, any suggestions?
Second Davie Dress – The Return
Hi, I was so impressed with the fit of my first Davie Dress that I have made another one, this one is in a stretch fabric bought from eBay it is thickish, and will be great for our holiday. It does have quite a big pattern on it and I was torn between thinking it was too big for the small panels, or because it was so big it wouldn’t matter. It turns out I was right the pattern is so big that it is not noticable on the dress.
I have made it in the shorter size, a straight 2 but I have changed the neckline. The problem I have with the neckline is it is a bit high and with having to take off an extra 1/4 inch off the shoulders makes it even higher.
So what I did was I made up the dress with a slightly lower neckline, this was still not low enough, so I put the dress on my dress form then put a t-shirt with the neckline I was going for over the top of it, then I drew it on the dress.
After I cut off the excess I had then had to decide how to finish it off. Too be honest I didn’t look at the instructions on the pattern at this point, and I didn’t when I made the first one. The Craftsy class I took had you fold the neck strip in half, stitch it to the neck line and topstitch it in place, I didn’t like the mess it left inside so I decided to do it a different way.
I measured the new neckline and took an inch off it then added the seam allowance, made it into a loop, trimmed the seam allowance and pinned it to the neckline, right side of the neckband to the wrong side of the dress, stretching it out slightly, as I had done in the Craftsy class. Then I stitched the neck band to the dress, timmed off half the seam allowance and folded it over to the front of the dress, and then folded it under on its self so that the neck edge was encased in the neckband, I then topstitched this round, it gives it a nice neat edge and I am thinking of undoing the previous Davie dress and changing the neckline on that.
There might be another Davie Dress on the horizon but I haven’t decided yet, I’ve just found out about the Deer&Doe free t-shirt pattern that can be made into a dress or the Anna top with a gathered skirt, this Florida holiday will be the year of the T-shirt dress if I’m not careful.
Back soon
Musings of a Craft Enthusiast 