Donut Bites

This baking came out pretty well. Unlike the rest of the world, we haven’t done much lockdown baking. I’ve not really done much of anything, actually, except let the kids watch tons of YouTube. Unsupervised. The new fave channel of the Little Sis is Emma’s Goodies. We tried her 5 Ingredient Chocolate Cake, but I broke it on the way out of the tin, so it didn’t make the blog, but these Mini Donuts looked pretty good - and only TWO ingredients this time!

OK, so all the cooking oil, and the cooking oil smell, makes this a little more difficult than two ingredients would suggest, but they actually came out really well, and were pretty fun to make too.

Oh, and of course they were fun to eat...

Snakes!

Cathy makes snakes!

Uh oh, lockdown makes everyone a bit stir crazy, and I'm no exception.

This is actually a school assignment, and in the best school project tradition, most (all) of the work is done by the parents (mothers) for the children to pass off as their own. We know the teachers know this, but still they assign us this work.

This time, it is because it is possibly needed for the end of year play, which is supposed to be happening in July. I sincerely hope that they are able to go ahead with it, so I am supporting the art teacher as she assigns this to the kids for their remote school lessons, creating a multitude of jungle themed props.

Some of them are painted efforts, but since these snakes are made of fabric, that's where I come in.

I didn't take any in-progress photos, they are just scraps of fabric, different top and bottom and stuffed with toy stuffing. Finding the scraps, and piecing this one, took the most time. Actually, turning it right side out and stuffing it took longer, but unpicking the tongue and sewing it in the correct way out took no time at all.

The idea came from the art teacher, who found a Spanish blogger who created these. I can't read the the name of the blog so I'm not able to link it here, but I did copy the spiral pattern and created a cardboard template of my own. The seam allowances are just the spiral cut around, there are no spaces down the body.  My snake is a bit uneven. Maybe he swallowed a mouse.

The kids adore him, they have christened him Bondzi Simba Snooki and they fight over who gets to wear him around their neck, like a scarf.

The second snake, named Beyonce, was much quicker. I had just a scrap of this gorgeous blue/green jacquard so I cut a rectangle into a wiggly shape and cut the belly out of the school uniform fabric. I even clipped and notched the curves on this one. So fancy!

Round Pink Cushion

I know that two cushion cover posts, and nothing else, in the last year does not make for exciting blogging. It is not exciting sewing either. We moved house a year ago and even though I have a space that I could turn into a dedicated sewing space, I have hardly sewn at all. That is partly because I feel I can't really indulge my hobbies when there are other things I should be doing, and partly because the creative part of my mind is kept occupied with interiors where it used to be fed by sewing. Let me assure you that interiors is a way more expensive hobby than sewing, and the stakes feel waaay higher because you can't just turn your mistakes into something else or donate it if you don't like it.

One of my new favourite blogs is interiors blog, Mad About the House.  Recently, she posted about the "Wes Anderson effect", essentially, the next iteration of Art Deco which sees our interior styles moving into pastels and round shapes.

While this look isn't really my thing, I do think it is fun and pretty, and a throw cushion is a great way to give a nod to a trend, show peeps that I'm in da club, if you will!

So my shopping fingers hopped on to eBay and got half a meter of pale pink velvet and a cushion pad. I got an 18" pad, but I wish I'd got the 16". I cut an 18" circle and gave it a 1cm seam allowance, I could have used 1.5cm and made it puffier too. (It's not a great pad, a bit mishapen, but not the end of the world).

I had some self cover buttons, left over from one of my very first sewing projects. They are plastic rather than metal, so I'm a bit worried about them breaking under the strain of the button tufting, but I couldn't manage to pull it that tight anyway.

I used fishing line for the tufting, and an yarn darning needle. Then I sewed up the gap which I'd stuffed the pad into and done!

Costs:
  Fabric: eBay, £5.95
  Thread: stash, £0.00
  Cushion pad: eBay, £3.72
  Buttons: stash, £0.00
Total: £9.67

African Wax Cotton Tote Bag

This is Bag No 3.

I was given this lovely African Wax Cotton as a gift, and I had a chance to make something for her daughter from it. It is a panel print so it was tricky to get something that made sense and had a nice balance of patterns in it. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.

Dimensions are the same as the others: 88cm x 35cm with straps 7cm x 35cm.

Throw Cushion Covers

We are selling our flat and I needed some cushions for the sofa. This was the only feedback the estate agent gave: "It's too neutral, can you go to Habitat and buy some throw pillows?"

It turns out that throw pillows at Habitat are really expensive. And I didn't particularly like what they had at the time. But I had charity shops on my side, in the countryside they tend to stock throw cushions. I chose two based on their size and the colour of their zips. I should have been a bit more choosy about the cushion pad too, one of them is not great. I got two cushions for £3. (I got three more for £8, but I didn't upcycle them.)

Before

I knew I had some solid pink quilting cotton that I'd bought but never got around to using, and decided that this would match pink flowers, giving the room a bit of a lift. Being a plain, and a quilting cotton, I also knew that I would need to add piping to get it looking smart.

I used 4mm piping cord and 1 inch bias binding. I should have made 1.5 inch binding as this would have given me a bigger seam allowance. Some of the corners are not wash proof. I made the whole thing with my zip foot: measured existing cushion covers; unpicked zip; added binding to front, attached zip to front, attached zip to back, attached back to front. I didn't finish the seam allowances. If I wash them, I'll have to do this beforehand.

I know why I would never go on Sewing Bee, the first cushion took me about 3 hours. The second one was quicker, and I was truly grateful that I didn't have a third one in the pipeline.

But they look nice on the sofa, and I am sure they will be the difference between selling the flat or not! Afterwards, they are going to look very nice on the garden chairs.

Costs:
  Cushions: Charity shop furniture warehouse, £3
  Fabric: Knitting & Stitching Show 2015, £7.90
  Piping Cord: not sure
Total: £10.90 for two

Another Tote Bag

A quick post to share another tote bag that I put together as a welcome gift for my Mum. The previous London Bag has got great use and is now very shabby, so a replacement was in order.

I wanted to use this tan/brown twill from my stash. I had it earmarked for a skirt, but the colour is not good. I'm not really sure why I bought it actually, probably carried away by new making in 2013/14.

I really loved Erin's applique on her plain sweatshirt and I used that idea to jazz up Mum's bag. I almost bought the same pink blossom, but went for the gold in the end. It arrived fast from eBay and the quality was great: no dud stitches or mistakes in the design.

I cut out a rectangle for the bag, 88cm by 35cm. The overall dimensions are good, but I went too high with the applique and didn't leave quite enough space at the top for a good facing. 90cm would have been a better height. Straps are 7cm wide by 35cm long.

I sewed on the applique before I made up the bag. I used couching to attach the stems, then machine sewed the leaves on, then ironed it on, then went over the flowers by hand. It took many evenings, but I found it so relaxing! There is something so meditative about sitting and making hundreds of tiny stitches in a piece of cloth. I listened to podcasts and sewed away. I wasn't under huge time pressure, and the work feels productive too. You can see the work growing, but slowly.

I do worry about the durability of the applique on something as hard wearing as a bag. I didn't stitch the flowers on to the edges of the petals, these will probably curl with use, but hopefully won't look too awful. Machine sewing them down didn't really work, the threads got tangled and they didn't look nice. It will work well enough for the bag, it's pretty at the moment, and I can start thinking about the next one in two year's time!

Costs: 
  Fabric: twill cotton, eBay, £2.87
  Decoration: applique, eBay, £3.98 
  Thread: stash, £0.00
Total: £6.85

Victorian Corset

As I embark on a new sewing adventure, I have made a Victorian Corset to fit under a Victorian Bustle Dress. Yes, I have decided to create something completely frivolous that I may never wear out in public. But it is a lot of fun to plan. 

A proper Victorian outfit needs the proper foundations. It is probably a good thing that the most daunting garment needs to be tackled first, kind of like eating your vegetables. Such a challenging construction almost put me off the whole endeavour, but it has been far less challenging than I expected, and I am pretty pleased with myself for how well it turned out.

I bought Truly Victorian's TV110 Corset as an e-pattern and made the first toile from a cotton business shirt. I cut a size D with a B cup. I shortened the waist by an inch, at the waistline. I made this without bones and I laced the back with knitting yarn by punching holes in the back with a knitting needle - because I didn't even have an awl yet. I sewed the front shut - no busk. Based on this try on, I decided to size down the cup and size up the waist area. I was pleased enough with this to go ahead and order the proper supplies from Sew Curvy.

For the real version, I cut a size D and graded out at the waist to a size E. I did the cup size A. 

While I was putting it together, I lost my nerve and started reducing the size of the seam allowances. It was coming up so small! When I put the first three pieces together and held them up to myself, what was meant to be the side seam was about 1/8 of the way around my body. I kept going, deciding that it was better to finish it as a toile and decide what should be done differently afterwards. I was determined not to abandon it half way through. I didn't actually have a proper idea of what I should change anyway. 

So I sewed it up and closed off the back edges. Then I sewed the boning channels and inserted the bones. Sewing the boning channels was actually really fun. I decided to put them beside the seam where the seam allowance was not. The pattern calls for topstitching the seam allowance down and adding the boning channel beside that. My machine was struggling with four layers of coutil, so I didn't want to finish it off by making it sew through six layers. Putting the boning on the other side gives it less bulk and the seam allowances balance out the boning plus give a modicum of strength opposite each bone. 

Making a two layer corset seems like a bit of a faff at the time, but I can fully appreciate how much easier it is than adding boning channels. Especially if you have to make your channels out of self fabric. All I had to do was run a seam beside the existing one and push the bone in. So easy.

I decided to add the laces without grommets to check the fit first. I put one straight bone in the back, but didn't place it very well. I could see an issue with my sway back in the fit of the lacing over the back waist area. It was very puckered, even with the bone. I wasn't exactly sure how to fix a sway back in a corset, but it definitely needed less fabric in this area. I pinched out a wedge but then straightened up the back edges from top to bottom. It added quite a bit of fabric back into the waist circumference.

I was truly surprised, when I tried it on, at how well it fitted. I was delighted because where I thought I was going to have to re-make the entire thing, with new coutil and a shorter busk, I now only had to re-do the back piece and buy one pair of shorter spiral bones.

I had also realised that the bottom edge was too low, and would dig into the top of my legs when I sat down. This was pretty disappointing, since I had bought pre-cut bones, based on the measurements from my first toile.

But I ordered more supplies and put the too-long bones to good use. I re-positioned them on the centre line of the corset pieces. Each piece is boned twice, once at the side seam and once in the centre. There are also flat steel bones at either side of the busk and on both sides of the eyelets. 18 spiral steels, 6 flat steels, the busk and 12 eyelets. The whole thing is very heavy but I love the armoured plate effect that the three bones in the first panel give where they meet at the bottom.

The fit seems to be pretty good. I have a about 1 to 1.5 inches of lacing gap, but the back is even throughout the laces. The fit in the front of the bust seems pretty good. It is not particularly supportive, and there is not a proper amount of "spillage" at the top. Unfortunately, all the spillage is at the back, not the front. I think that is more a problem of my body than the fault of the corset. I am not sure what to do about the back fat spillage though. The tight areas have to press the flesh somewhere but this will show with a fitted bodice over the top. I'll probably have to make a corset cover but I think it might not be enough.  Not very pretty, but look at that that straight lacing gap!

The waist fits really well. I think I shortened it by the right amount and the fit is snug but not uncomfortable. There is no pressing on my hips, which is what my short waist usually leads to. I love how the corset makes me look the right shape and flattens my tummy! I got a 3 inch reduction. Now, how to wear this in real life...

The fit at the bottom of the hip is not quite as perfect but I am not going to fuss with it. I am so pleased with the overall general fit and it has come out a lot better than I expected, especially with my usual short waist issues.

I flossed the bottom of the bones before adding the edge tapes. These were done with linen thread because I had it with no real use for it and I really like the pale taupe colour against the white. All the stitches are different, I couldn't get it perfectly even. One of them is done backwards (as is one of the eyelets), but who's looking? The edges are trimmed with cotton twill fabric, also from the stash. I only broke one needle in the process of adding it - although there were some close calls. I didn't do a great job of matching the points at the bottom front. These parts of the tape were very thick and I was having an epic battle with my sewing machine just to get them folded under. They will be under the skirts and the whole thing will be under the dress, so it is only for Instagram that I even need to think about it.

I added the lace by hand at the end. Partly because it is very narrow and I would have struggled to catch it into the edges, but mostly because I forgot until I was halfway through. It is polyester, but I had plenty of it, harvested from the nightgown.

I'm actually pretty surprised that it has turned out as nice as it has. It's a lovely pattern to start with and it looks fab all made up. The coutil got a bit dirty in my iron, and with all the handling, but if you squint, you can pretend that it is due to age. As a very first corset, from an amateur maker, I'd say it's pretty amazing.

Now on to the petticoats!

Costs:
 Fabric: Sew Curvy; £10.50
 Pattern: Truly Victorian; £7.87
 Notions: busk, flat steels, spiral steels, eyelets, lacing cord, teflon tape, thread, shipping; £39.96
 Tools: eyelet setter, awl, machine needle; £3.24
Total: £61.57