Tight Lipped Tuesday #20

After the success of ‘the Constellation shirt’ you knew it wouldn’t be long before I got another one on the cutting table didn’t you.

Having discovered the last Liberty fabric design was actually called ‘Kevin’ and not ‘Constellation’, I was relieved to find that this one, which has long been lurking in my stash,  is called ‘Pepper’ – aah, that’s better.

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Les Boîtes à Chapeau (for a change)

It’s the hat box quilt of course but it sounds so lovely in French and makes a change in my list of blog post titles.

So, it’s done!  Kate and I have been furiously fairly calmly making  hat boxes over the past year or so from a book we both happened to have – ‘Passionate Patchwork’ by Kaffe Fassett.  Kate is making a full size quilt while I decided to make a wall hanging – which is why I’ve finished first.  Well, that and she is hand quilting and I took the easy way out and used a machine.  I have lots of Liberty of London fabric and decided this would be a good way to showcase some of them.

‘Perfection is the enemy of progress’ I’ve heard it said and that is certainly the case as far as this project went because, had I decided to go back and fix some of the mistakes I spotted after the event, I would still be putting it together now and getting fed up with it.    Instead of that, it is assembled, hung up and, apart from one thing which will bug me forever because I thought about it beforehand and then forgot to do it, I’m quite pleased with it.  So, you can zoom in on it if you are the Quilt Police and have fun finding all the faults but I know they are there and I can live with them.

I wasn’t sure how to hang it – I’ve got no other wall hangings in the house – but knew I didn’t want any hanging mechanism to show.  I searched around a bit and found a tutorial based on the method used by a Museum of Quilts in the United States to hang the quilts they have on display – you can find the method here.

So now I’ve shown you the big picture, here are some of the quilt in action.

 

 

 

Astonishingly – you know what men are often like about such things – Mr. Tialys is quite approving of this and has even asked if perhaps we could have something in a discreet corner of the lounge (I did note the word ‘discreet’ by the way).

Now to go and put the books, tissues, glasses, alarm clocks, hand cream and all the other usual paraphernalia back on those bedside cabinets.  Get me and my staged photos  (otherwise known as ‘tidying up’).  I’ll be applying filters, drawing faces in my cappuccino froth and using my Instagram account next!!

 

 

 

 

 

Touching Swiftly on a Hatbox

In keeping with my pledge to add to my Liberty Hatbox wall hanging project at the end of each month I’m afraid I have failed miserably as I still  can’t decide on the final block.

 So, I made another one.

I won’t bore you rigid with the choices I face again but I’m still not sure and now I think I’ve made it worse by having three to choose from instead of two.  Kate, on the other hand, is making great progress and has started hand quilting (yes hand quilting) her full size quilt and putting me to shame.  See and admire here.

So that’s the hatbox pledge dealt with which would make for a very short post indeed .

Your hopes, however,  are dashed!

Did I mention Liberty of London fabric?  I think I told you they had a sale and I think I told you I indulged.  I’m not sure I realised there were actual skyscrapers on this fabric when I ordered it but, now I know, I like it even more.   The simple shell top on this New Look pattern that had come free with a magazine seemed just the thing….

and so it was.

I’ve decided I have a back problem in that nearly everything I make gapes a little at the back of the neck.  I think I have narrow shoulders in comparison to my bust so, next time, I’m going to cut a wedge out of the centre top of the back bodice and see if that fixes it – a tip I found on By Hand, London.  Unless anybody has any better ideas.

Also, I bought this astrology themed tana lawn in the Liberty sale to make a shirt for Mr. Tialys who had a hand in choosing the fabric.

I’ve never made a man’s shirt before but thought it was time I gave it a go as my wardrobe is full, one daughter makes her own clothes, the other doesn’t much care about clothes so that leaves the husband (or the pets and don’t think I might not go there!).

I chose the Negroni by Colette as it’s a nice, casual style but with some interesting features, it has good reviews and there is a very detailed sew along (from about six years ago!) on the Male Pattern Boldness blog so what could go wrong?  Actually, so far, very little.  I’m working on a muslin using fabric that was more expensive than the tana lawn due to the fact that there was 60% off in the Liberty sale but I  always hope my muslins (when I actually bother to make one) will be wearable otherwise I get upset if all the work comes to nought – apart from ensuring you’re making the right size of course which is the main purpose of them after all.

Anyway – how’s this for a flat felled seam?

An inside view of course – the fabric is dark on the outside and I certainly wasn’t confident enough to use contrasting thread so you wouldn’t be able to make it out.  This is the first time I’ve tackled a real flat felled seam, although I did mock ones on Tilly and the Buttons’ Rosa dress,  and I’m pleased with the way this one turned out.  I say ‘this one’ because the other one didn’t turn out quite as neat but I’m not going to show you that now am I?

Did somebody mention a sale by the way?

Fifty six 50g balls of cotton double knitting yarn in all the shades in the range and no,  I don’t know what I’m going to do with them, thank you for asking.

Mr. Tialys is still creating awesome leather things in his ‘spare’ time which is strange because I didn’t think he had any of that or that’s what he tells me if I ask him to do anything in the house or garden 😉

This is a laptop bag he designed himself and is in the kind of leather that already looks as if it’s been ‘lived in’ which is the kind I like.

I decided to have a clear out in the cupboard in the conservatory and threw some stuff in a box ready to go to the charity shop.

I know I sometimes get fed up with having so many animals but I haven’t quite resorted to this yet.

What is it with cats and cardboard boxes anyway?

 

 

Between Socks

I have more time now of an evening since the powers that be in telly land decided to move their satellites a little further away so that we can’t get terrestrial U.K. T.V.  here in my bit of France  unless we do techy things with laptops, VPNs and HDMI cables or replace our modest satellite dishes with humungous ones which we aren’t allowed to put on the roof and must install in the garden, having first applied for planning permission.   Yeah, right!   I know I could watch French T.V. but, when I get that desperate, I’ll probably be watching in a home somewhere being looked after by kindly nurses with no access to the remote control.

Anyway, I have paused between socks to finish my mustard coloured, Miette cardi that I started when Mum was here at Christmas.

I like the way mustard goes with navy – I’m not sure what other colours it goes with though.

A fun knit though maybe not quite as easy as some other, cleverer, knitters would have you believe  –  or so my Mum maintains as her effort lies abandoned in her knitting bag.

I got the mannequin to model the one with the buttons closed as her chest is more manageable than mine.  The cropped style, in my opinion, adds many inches and, unless you desire this effect, best wear it open as I plan to do.  However, the style was designed to wear with a sort of fifties style, waisted cotton dress and, should I ever feel frisky enough to put one of those on, I will do up those buttons and see what happens.

Should you be interested (or you can’t get the telly either) you can see my project notes on my Ravelry page here.

I am finding my new exposed stone wall very useful both for posing in front of and for taking product photos for my Etsy shops.  It was perhaps a little drastic to destroy half a room and employ a builder for 3 weeks but I think it was worth it.

I have started another knitting project so a new pair of socks will have to wait but, as a new addict, I have to tell you that I have invested in two balls of proper sock yarn and a little pouch full of different sized circular needle tips along with different sized cables from HiyaHiya (love that brand name) as I have started and will continue using the Magic Loop method and will not be tempted by DPNs.

Talking of the telly – I did manage to get The Great British Sewing Bee last night (after juggling with cables, etc.) and I was pleased to see they don’t seem to have changed the format too much as it is a welcome relief from other ‘reality’ shows with people being foul to each other and the endless, artificial ‘suspense’  for the announcement of the person going home each week.   It is genteel, kind, calm and informative – like the G.B. Bake Off – and, if I got a bit of a smug feeling when I knew how to make a handmade button loop and some of the contestants didn’t, well I didn’t gloat as it’s not that kind of a programme.

However……..

…….just saying

Lampshade Project

When my parents were here at Christmas, you may remember that I had to go foraging in brocantes and depot ventes (or junk shops) even more than usual, to see if I could find some clocks that needed fixing in order to keep my dad amused during his visit.  Anyway, on one of those foraging trips I got distracted by a standard lamp – as you do -which I thought might go well in my lounge.

I was very pleased with it when I got it home and it was all in full working order but, although the fabric on the lampshade was very pretty, I felt it looked a bit ‘bedroomy’ for a lounge so decided to change it.  I had just bought a  book called ‘Liberty Book of Home Sewing’ which features their fabrics and some projects to make with them – Liberty Porn, as I call it.  As luck would have it, one of the projects is for recovering a lampshade.   Much as I love their florals, I wanted something a bit different and it had to have red in it as my lounge has a bit of a red theme going on so I found some vintage Liberty fabric online which seemed just right.   The project is a bit scary as it involves tearing – yes, tearing! – the fabric into strips from selvedge to selvedge and I found that a bit nerve wracking but I had faith and it worked fine.

So now I have a cool standard lamp with a Liberty vintage design shade and a feeling of unbearable smugness and all for around 40 euros.

If At First You Don’t Succeed……..

After my first attempt,  which didn’t turn out exactly right, I am determined not to let these purse thingies beat me.  However, I have decided not to squander my supplies of Liberty and linen fabric with quite such gay abandon and am plundering my scrap basket until I am completely confident.  (I say ‘basket’ , it is actually a huge old hospital wicker hamper full to the brim!) 

So this is my second attempt (well second attempt that was vaguely successful I mean – we won’t count those that have come in between)

What I have found, in the numerous tutorials I’ve looked at, both free and purchased, is that nobody tells you that when you have finished making the fabric part of the purse it doesn’t look as if it is going to fit in the frame.  However, when you actually start sewing it in – as it is the ‘sew-in’ frames I am using – it does.  Well, usually.  Just thought I’d mention this as I trashed a couple of my attempts just because they looked too big to fit the frame.

I was in a bit of a quandary with the colour of thread to use for the stitching on of the frame as the inside lining is red and, on reflection, red thread might have been better but, at the time, that was the least of my worries.  Iwanted to get at least one purse right before I go to my little sewing group as I have bought them each a little frame of their own and I need to be able to show them what to do with it.  And before you think what an incredibly generous and altruistic person I am – there are only 3 of us in the group so I didn’t have to splash out too much cash and tea and a huge, home-made cake is always provided so I like to make a contribution every now and again without inflicting my unreliable baking skills on them.

Maybe after one more ‘scrap basket’ attempt, I’ll be ready to get out the big guns again.