My sister very kindly bought me a copy of Tilly Walnes love at first stitch book for my birthday. I have had a look at this book before and have been following Tilly since the very first sewing bee but haven't actually gotten round to getting a copy of the book yet so this was a brilliant present (I haven't put it down in the last week and made 3 fabric orders within 2 days of getting it!). The book starts off with the basics but does contain some lovely skirt and dress patterns which I like the look of and wouldn't mind trying and I'm actually quiet keen to try a blouse pattern seeing as I've never tried sewing tops before. What I actually really like about this book is the way the projects are laid out to gradually ease a new seamstress into home sewing. So each project gives you new tips and techniques to try. A good few of these I will have done before but I really like the idea of starting at the beginning of the book and working through the projects one by one to perfect my technique and hopefully pick up a few tricks and new skills along the way. It is also my intention to either try a new fabric type or alteration (or both) with each project (collars/plackets/piping etc) so I can hopefully expand my sewing repertoire.
The first pattern in the book is the Brigitte scarf which is a long thin head scarf tied in a knot/bow around your head. Not a complicated make in the slightest but as I said above I'm going to start at the beginning, follow the instructions from the beginning and concentrate on making it well and as instructed. I chose to use a skull print polycotton which I had in my stash for this scarf. The fabric was sadly not wide enough for the pattern piece so I cut two lengths of the fabric and sewed them together on the bias in the same way as you would if you were making bias binging and then cut to size.
The pattern was very easy as expected but I did pick up a little trick to pull out your corners with a pin from the outside, normally I would do this by shoving a knitting needle from the inside so hey, I did learn something new :). The nice thing about this project was it was super fast so I get to move onto the next one really quickly!
Now my chances of actually wearing this type of head scarf are slim to none, despite quiet liking the print. However the good thing about having to cut two lengths was I was left with a piece which is just long enough to fit round my tiny head so I made a wired headband following the same instructions but adding a piece of wire inside and tacking it in place. I'm not going to do a guide for this, the Internet is littered with them so if you want one just go do a quick search. I do much prefer this and might actually get a bit of wear out of this one in the summer months.
So what's next? I am going to cheat a little and not make the other scarf pattern in the book as I won't wear that either so next it's on to a pair of pj bottoms which is something I have never done before. I plan on using a cotton lawn as I have a lot of winter pjs already. This will be interesting as the last time I used a lawn it went horribly wrong and ended up in the bin! Here's hoping I can get a few more tips and make it go right this time.
I'm still a little anxious about starting to sew for myself again as I am still a lot bigger than I would like to be at this time post pregnancy. However I start back at work in a week or so, have no clothes that fit me and am really missing doing it, so what the heck. Whats the worst that can happen?
I'm still a little anxious about starting to sew for myself again as I am still a lot bigger than I would like to be at this time post pregnancy. However I start back at work in a week or so, have no clothes that fit me and am really missing doing it, so what the heck. Whats the worst that can happen?
