Pandemic birthday new start and a dress fail.

We are halfway into our 4 week lockdown here in New Zealand.  So far we have 1289 confirmed cases, and sadly 2 we have 2 deaths.  The number of confirmed cases are dropping, so hopefully we can eradicate it which is the aim of our government.

Easter Sunday is my birthday.  As it will be spent by myself, I decided to treat myself to another chart from Heaven and Earth designs.  My new start will be Cosmos:

This will be the largest chart I have ever done.  She is 550x825, or 453750 stitches.
I will be stitching her on 25ct easy count Lugana, 2 over 1 tent stitch.  The finished size will be 22 inches by 33 inches.
She will be  a companion piece for my Mystic stitch, Empress

Other cross stitch progress

Sans Souci

His Eye is on the Sparrow

Healing Rose

Naida

Before lockdown I had planned on making a new dress for my birthday.  Even though my birthday celebrations will not be happening for who knows how long, I went ahead and made the dress.

I really liked the contrast panels and the large front pockets on Colette Patterns Sonya dress:

I found some lovely antique pink linen in both plain and spotted in Spotlight.  The pattern comes with cuff sleeves, so I decided to do those.

However those pockets are so huge, right across my broadest area they make me look huge.  I thought of removing them, however the fit across the neck and shoulders is too wide and it is tight across the back, so not very comfortable.  So even if I removed the pockets I still probably wouldnt wear it.  I also had to lengthen it by 4 inches.   A huge disappointment.   I'm smiling in the photos but I'm not really happy!

The month from hell

 I haven't posted for a while.  It has been a very difficult month.  My mother passed away unexpectedly.  As well as dealing with the normal grief as executor I have been keeping very busy preparing her house for sale and organising paperwork.  Then on top of all that one of my closest friends had triple bypass surgery and another friends 96 year old mother has had a major stroke.  The next few days are critical for her.

This hasn't left any time for crafting.  The day before my mother passed I had finished my first Colette Moneta.  When I finished it I certainly didn't envisage I'd be wearing it to my Mums funeral.  These photos were taken before Mum died.

This was made from a knit fabric from Smart Dress fabrics.  I can see why this pattern is so popular.  It only took me 4 hours to complete and that included making the collar.  I lengthened both the bodice and the skirt, but don't think I needed to.  In fact next time I'll shorten the bodice back to the original length.  Also the back neckline is a bit low for my personal preference so next time I'll raise the back neckline.  Other than that I do love this pattern. Plus it has pockets.

A couple of friends came over to help with Mams house.  After we went for coffee then visited an antique store.  They had just got a delivery from an estate which included this sewing chest.  They hadn't yet cleaned it up so I got it cheap if I did it up myself.  Since these photos were taken, I've treated it for borer, polished the handles and varnished it. I'm not sure of the type of wood, I think it may be walnut.

It was filled with various odds and ends.

Embroidered Colette Sorbetto top and Kreative Kiwi machine embroidery

I bought a lovely machine embroidery pattern that is in 2 different colours. From looking at pinterest I knew I wanted a white top with black at the bottom of the top, a black centre band and neck and black edged piped sleeves.   But couldn't find a pattern that was colour blocked the way I wanted it.  Well Colette have re-released their freebie Sorbetto design, and the email saying this arrived just at the right time.  I knew I could adapt their pattern to suit what I wanted, after I'd made their previous version about 4 times last year.  The pattern already has a centre front pleat and the neckline is finished with bias binding.
Here is my finished top.

The top is cotton poplin from Spotlight.

To create the colour block I made the following changes.

• Made a separate pattern piece for the bottom 5 inches for the front and back pieces
• For the front, instead of cutting on the fold I cut 2 separate pieces, cutting before the pleat line but adding in the seam allowance
• Cut the pleat separately in the black fabric, adding seam allowances.
• Left the sleeve length as per the pattern, then made a new pattern piece to create 3" cuffs, 
• Made my own piping for the sleeves, and bias binding for the neckline

For the sewing I then:

• Sewed the bottom front and back fabric to the top front and back
• Did the embroidery
• Sewed the front pieces to the pleat
• Created cuffs by sewing piping to the outer edge and to where it joins the sleeve
• Then sewed as per the pattern, ensuring the neck binding was folded to the outside, not the inside.

I'm loving doing machine embroidery.   This weekend has been busy making items from Kreative Kiwi.

This is their swirly placemat, it is their large version for 8x10 hoops, creating a 15" placemat.

And I made these coasters, which are freebies on their site.  An Easter bunny and 2 kiwis with koru.

Culottes, 2 tops and Spirit of Winter is finished!!!

After 4 1/2 years of stitching, Spirit of Winter is finished.

Now she just needs to be framed.
The stats:  Started 1 September 2011.  Finished 9 February 2016.  1173 stitching hours, 152,600 stitches.  Stitched over one on 22ct Hardanger.

Next up is a Golden Kite design, Gossips by artist Daniel Ridgway Knight.  The chart is available in blended colours or solid colours.  I am doing the solid colours version.  This design is even bigger than Spirit, at 400x 502 stitches wide, that's 200,800 stitches and on 22ct Hardanger the finished size will be 18.2" x 22.8". It has 185 colours, that's a lot of thread.  Fortunately I have such a huge stash of thread I've only needed to buy a small quantity.  I am busy kitting this up now.








Daniel Ridgway Knight was an American artist (1839-1924) who lived in France from 1872.  His work focused mainly on the French peasants.  He had a rather idyllic view of them, painting leisurely scenes rather than the reality of the hard lives they faced.

My sewing over the last couple of weeks has been repeat sewing.  I made some more BurdaStyle culottes from 8/15 #131.

I stupidly made the invisible side zip far too long, its almost down to my knees instead of just past the bottom of the pocket. This creates a bit of bulk on the left side seam.  These are made of rayon from Spotlight $24.89 for 2mx148cm.

I made 2 more Colette Sorbetto top.  This one is made from leftover material, voile, rayon and gingham.  There wasn't enough material to do a front pleat, so I ignored the pleat part on the pattern and put fold of fabric on inner pleat line.  Cost $0

This one is made from poplin from Spotlight.  I had 2 metres of this and still have .9metres left over.  $10.12

New Sorbetto top and WIP's

I made a pair of trousers from some blue chambray using Simplicity 1699.  I don't have a photo of those yet, so will post separately when I get around to that.  I had enough fabric left over to make another Collette Sorbetto top.   I added red bias binding to the central pleat and around the neck to make it more interesting.   I toyed with the idea of using mismatched red buttons down the centre pleat, however I decided less is more, and just used one button at the top, again for a bit of added detail.   This time I lengthened both the top and the sleeves.

As always I have a few WIP's on the go.  This is from an adult colouring book, Enchanted Garden.  I haven't joined in the current craze for adult colouring, not really my thing.  However some of the designs would look really good done in embroidery.   I first made some copies of the page I wanted to embroider so I had copies I could colour in and one to trace the design onto fabric.  Once I was happy with the colour scheme I found threads from my stash that matched.  This is the embroidery progress so far on the owl I am doing.  Stitches used are detached chain, rope stitch, feather stitch, fly stitch, satin stitch, fishbone stitch, french knots and buttonhole stitch.

 I am also doing a Hardanger.  It is on a purple fabric with white thread.  In hindsight I wish I'd used a white fabric, but with so many hours invested already I don't want to stop and change now. This is using an old Burda pattern. I want this to go on top of a scotch dresser in my bedroom so needed to change it somewhat so the dimensions are the correct size for the dresser.

left-over makes

This week I've made 4 tops out of left over fabric.  It feels good to make something that essentially hasn't cost anything as it was just scraps.

The first make was a Kirsten Kimono Tshirt.  This is a free pattern offered by designer Maria Denmark.  The very first garment I sewed was a pink t shirt.  I had also done some leggings in an eggplant colour.  There wasn't enough of either to do a full t shirt so I combined both.  There also wasn't enough to cut on the fold, so hence the centre seam line.

The next was another Kirsten Kimono T made from left over fabric from that first pink tshirt and another pink fabric from a tunic.

The next two tops were made from a free pattern offered by Colette Patterns, the Sorbetto top.

The first was made from left over fabric from the purple polka dot dress.  I added sleeves from the pattern provided by The Seasoned Homemaker.  I love the centre pleat down the front of this top, it turns it from a plain top into something with a bit of style.

My mother had given me some old headsquares and silk scarves for using in my crazy quilting.  Among them was a huge square headscarf with a fringed border and around each edge a flower pattern and in the centre a paisley-esque design.  I thought it would be great if I could somehow turn it into a top and the Sorbetto pattern seemed ideal.  There wasn't enough to add sleeves, and again not enough to cut on the fold.  I managed to piece it together so that the pattern 'flowed' and I am pretty pleased with how this turned out.  The central pleat requires the bottom of the pleat to be stitched, but as I intended to use the fringe from the headscarf, rather than hemming, I though the pleat would look odd stitched at the bottom, so instead I inverted the pleat, stitching partway down and leaving the bottom free flowing which gives a bit of a swing to the top.

Front view:

Back view: