Favourite Sewing Tools - Thread Snips

 

 First things first, I should announce the winner of my little giveaway as my lovely friend Stevie as she was the only one who actually commented you silly people :). Well done Stevie, now I really do need an excuse to see you. 

I don't have a major amount of stuff to wow you with today, so whilst I am working on my woolen shorts I thought I would share one of my favourite sewing tools with you. These little beauties you can see above you are called thread snips. I honestly had no idea they were even a thing until I got given this little pear a number of years ago by a friend and they really have been wonderful. They are very simply just for cutting off all your loose threads, not complicated, not difficult to use, just a little bit of simple engineering. They are also incredible cheap. They are really handy to just have by your machine as you are sewing along with a project so you can get rid of all the threads quickly and easily. They are also really good at getting rid of those pesky ones which end up on the right side of your sewing!

 

 

Shorts update: As you can see from the picture above I am getting on really well with the shorts. The pattern is so easy to sew up, and here was I thinking a pair of shorts would be quiet complicated! I am now just at the stage of doing all the hand finishing off. I can't say I am a huge fan of this bit, anyone who knows me knows I hate hand sewing with a passion, but its nice to have a bit which can be done in front of the tele! I should definitely have these ready to show off to you all on Friday... watch this space.

 

And finally, as you will remember me saying we went to see some of the Worlds Strongest Men on Saturday lift some really heavy shit!  It was a really good day out and we both had sore throats by the end of the day from all the yelling and participation we did! 

I hope you had a lovely weekend. Let me know what you have been up to, have you made anything yourself this weekend? I would love to hear about it.

Roasting chestnuts and other things

  

Happy Friday.... whats this you say.... did you buy a new table cover for your desk? Why yes I did! I purchased a metre of this lovely polka oilcloth to cover my craft table as I am fed up of the cats walking on the white cloth one and covering it in mud! Pesky little monkeys (it doesn't stop me loving them for their cuteness). Now I have a pretty backdrop for some piccies that I can also wipe clean of all the mess! Mr Fox did tell me it made the room look like a toddlers tea party but hey, that's a cool look right? 

I haven't been able to get on with much craft this week... doing overtime at work and trying to prep for the kitchen being ripped out it taking up my time a bit. How do we accumulate so much stuff? I swear we have 5 incomplete Denby crockery sets in the backs of our cupboards, its no wonder I don't have any space in my kitchen. All of these were gifted to us so I don't have the heart to throw them out. Despite all that though I have managed to get around to tracing and cutting out the pattern pieces for the Chataigne shorts by Deer and Doe which have been on my to do list for a while.

I knew when I bought this pattern that I wanted to make it up in a pure wool, but I also know how expensive pure wool can be. I had resided myself to a cotton drill type fabric until a I found this. A while ago, whilst I was charity shop hopping, I came across a below the knee, pleated, pink, pure wool skirt in quiet a large size. Looking at it I could tell there was A LOT of fabric in there, it just needed unpicking and washing to get all the pleat creases out. As soon as I saw it I knew it was perfect for this project. Luckily there was just enough in there to get all the pattern pieces out. The colour is perfect for me (its hard to take a good likeness as the weather was bad but its a sort of dusky pink) and it will look gorgeous with a pair of black tights and boots. I like to think that I am bringing new life into something that once belonged to someone's grandma so I just hope my sewing can do it justice and it actually fits!

I also wanted to show you my new AWESOME light pull! Please forgive the knackered paint work though caused by the old dull light pull though, I need to re-paint this to do the fox a bit more justice. Isn't it great though, using the bathroom now gives me an extra little bit of joy, and I don't mind it so much in the middle of the night anymore. A love a little bit of whimsy to brighten up my day. Its made from ceramic and was made by the very talented Little Birdy and purchased from their Folksy shop. You should definitely go take a look for yourself. I really like the badgers and the circus bears but lets face it, it had to be a fox didn't it.

And that's it from me, life it mostly work and tidying up at the moment, not very glamorous. I hope you are finding more fun things to do than I am. We are off to watch some strongmen lift some heavy things tomorrow so that should be an interesting day out. Mr Fox is a fan of the strongman sport so I hope he really enjoys it.

I hope you have a lovely weekend, and don't forget there is still time to comment on my Ice Cream Brooch post to be in with a chance to win one! Go now! Do it...