Diary of a Chain Stitcher

I haven't got any finished objects to show for 2013 as yet, but lots of sewing progress has been happening behind the scenes! As always I've got a list as long as my arm of projects I want to get started on as soon as possible, I've even got fabric, patterns and even notions ready and waiting for some. It's hard to stop this list from growing and growing when I'm constantly so inspired reading all your blogs, you need to stop making fantastic versions of patterns I don't own yet people! I love dreaming up all these plans and hunting around for the right fabrics and trimmings but things tend to grind to a bit of a halt when it comes to actually getting started. I know exactly why this is; I find cutting a pattern SO boring and fiddly and am scared of making alterations to a pattern either to fit or to achieve my dreamed up version as I've never really done that before. Just the thought of all this fiddling is enough to completely zap my motivation. An...

I've been nominated for another blog award! It's so lovely that my 2013 hope of being more involved in the blogging community is off to a flying start! After last week's One Lovely Blog/Very Inspiring Blog Award, Sonja at Ginger Makes nominated me for the Premio Blog Award. Ginger Makes is one of my favourite blogs to read, Sonja's so entertaining and her makes are always stylish, colourful, wearable and unique. This award is all about people who take the time to comment on other people's blogs, so from my 'getting more involved' point of view it's really exciting that Sonja picked me as one of the new commenters on her blog. The fact that she's noticed new commenters and taken the time to check them out, along with the attention that she gives to the comments on her blog is so lovely and just one example of the general kindness and support that is to be found out there in sewing blog land! So the requirements of this nomination are that I...

The second handmade gift I gave at Christmas were these fold up shopper style bags for my mum. I used this tutorial from Sew4Home (which is a brilliant website containing a huge number of tutorials and templates for making all kinds of crafty projects perfect for gift giving). I got on ok with the tutorial but definitely found some of the instructions confusing and a bit of a strange way to go about things. The tutorial's aim was definitely to help you get all your raw edges enclosed and get everything as neat as possible but the way they got you to sew up the handles was really difficult to understand!  I do think some of the problems I had were partly my own doing as I kept second guessing where the tutorial was going and thinking that I knew a simpler way to achieve the same effect! I was also trying to adapt the tutorial slightly to suit the fabric quantities I had available. The tutorial calls for cutting two pieces from the template for the outside of each bag ...

I had a brilliant start to the New Year when I found out that the lovely Evie from Pendle Stitches had chosen me as one of her nominees for the One Lovely Blog/Very Inspiring Blogger Award! It's my very first nomination for a blog award so caused much excitement! UPDATE! I had this post all scheduled to be published when I discovered Sonja from Ginger Makes has also nominated me for this award! So exciting! I'd already chosen Sonja as one of my nominees and have decided to leave this as it is, mainly because it took me SOOO long to choose 10 in the first place! I'm also very excited about completing the tasks listed below linked to receiving said award! Thank you so much Evie for nominating me and making me feel even more welcomed into the wonderful blogging community than I already did. It's my aim to connect with more people through the blog and twitter e.t.c this year and already I am feeling so much more positive about it thanks to you! I'm so ...

Yes that's right, just in case the title didn't explain it clearly enough I've just booked a trip to New York! I'm going with my little sister during the school Easter holidays as she's a primary school teacher. We're staying in an apartment booked through airbnb after recommendations from a few people that this is a money friendly option and also a great way to experience the city. It's right bang in the middle of Manhattan a few blocks away from the Empire State Building. We're going for a week and I'm taking good shoes for walking, there's ALOT of shopping and exploring planned! My sister and I on our last trip to the Big Apple! We've both been before when we were younger but have had this trip in mind for years and YEARS as we wanted to go just the two of us when we can both finance the trip (and a fair bit of spending while we're there too - let's be honest!) ourselves and of course when we were both old enough to en...

I chose to make quite a few of my gifts this Christmas; well I made for anyone who I could think of a handmade gift for which they would really want or need. I like the idea of handmade gifts but I still want to give people something really suited to them and which they will find useful so for my brother, my dad and well pretty much all the males I gave to I decided to still buy gifts as I couldn't think of anything just right to make. Crafting gifts did make for a pretty stressful run up to the Christmas period and I'm not sure I enjoyed those couple of weeks beforehand as much as I usually do so I may try to reign myself in with the crafty gift ideas next year but we'll see how it goes! Perhaps hand made gifts are a better idea for birthdays, so spread throughout the year rather than trying to make a whole bunch at once! Anyway, my first handmade gift was this liberty print needle roll I made for my Nan. I am SO happy with the way it turned out and she seemed a...

Before Christmas Vicki Kate organised the Sew Very Merry Christmas Swap , Krafty Kat organised the Sewist's Secret Santa and I jumped at the chance to take part in both. I had a great time picking gifts for my two partners and now it's time for the big reveal of what I was lucky enough to pull out from underneath my tree! To sum it up before I get into detail I was hopping-round-the-room-delighted! First up is the lovely package I received from my Secret Santa. Let's start with the vintage pattern. I LOVE it! I'm a big fan of maxi dresses and skirts in the warmer months (and also the not so warm months with boots) but have never found a pattern I liked that wouldn't turn out as an unflattering tube. This, with a bit of flare and a fitted waist, is ideal so thank you so much to the mystery giver! I particularly like it in the floral print on the envelope, don't all of the colours in the illustration just scream seventies? Also in the package were some...