What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

Last summer dress? I don't know really but I cut this dress late August while it was pouring down with rain, not very promising weather for a summer dress. 

Sometimes projects, particularly dressmaking ones, are done quickly, sometimes they take me ages, and for no real reasons... This last one definitely falls in the latter category. I made my first Sirroco by Deer and Doe Pattern in June last year and it was assembled from start to finish in about 3 hours. Happy with the pattern and enthused by the arrival of beautiful new Italian matte lycra at Fabworks online, I duly ordered some aubergine fabric and cut a new one last September (yes I know, that was a year ago). I am tall so learning from my first ...

Monday is the big day here, and it will be odd. I know they are all feeling the stress and in some ways I think we are too.It will be nearly 6 months since they were last at school and although we have tried to keep up with school work during the home schooling time, it will be a very different setting that what they are used to. In order to be ready and not add extra stress, I have been asking them for a little while now if they had everything they need... and on Friday, my teenage ...

I was going down a rabbit hole on a Facebook group for bag makers last week and found lots of new-to-me designers, lovely bags and accessories. If you've read my adventures for a while, you might remember that I have bought a massively huge stash of faux vinyl that I should really be using more. Anyway, I came across this clever and very functional handy bag pattern by Christine of Bags of Bags of Style. 

School starts back next week for all 3, not sure what to expect really after so long off! The girl's school has informed parents that there will be no school dinners so the kids have to bring their own lunch. I hate making packed lunches and the idea of doing it 5 days a week and still have variety is not necessarily appealing, but we have to adapt to the new reality. I decided to make some lunch bags for the girls to carry their lunch to school in style. They were happy to pick their fabric in my ...

Vintage Kitchen has been quilted for a few months now and was only waiting for the binding.

There wasn't such a massive length to sew but for some reason, I have only picked it up this weekend to finish it up.

I also embroidered on the pots and finished this afternoon, just in time for August One monthly goal!

Now it is all finished I don't have space to hang it. I will have to rethink some deco to make room for it.

Quilt stats:

Size: 39.5' x40.5'
Fabric from my stash (top and backing)
Quilted ...

On the calendar it's still summer, through the window it looks like winter. It's the late summer Bank Holiday this Monday in the UK and it certainly doesn't feel like late summer, rather middle of autumn. Today was wet, grey and cold too, so what a better time to finish my next heatwave dress really?

Another request I had from my family was to make a bag to take their Bo to karate class. Bo are really long pieces of wood they occasionally use in their practice. And we have 3 of them at the moment, probably a 4th soon so it felt like a good idea to have them in a bag for transport. 

They're longer than the karateka so I needed a massively long piece of faux leather for it. 

Hubby requested a handle to carry the bag

as well as a strap

Of course, I met both requests! 

Bag finished and ...

Continuing on the "back to school" theme, next in the list was a pencil roll for my youngest. She picked the fabric and used the one I made for her sister a few years back as a model. 

This one will hold 12 pencils

I had a ribbon in my stash that works and that I know she'll like so that was perfect. 

Ready for her next piece of artwork

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added by Celine 3 years, 8 months ago. under opam , sewing

Geometry tools from Espritpatch

For once it's not the lack of time but rather the lack of energy. After our very short hop to France, we are now in force self isolation to comply with the rules. And since we're on holidays, there's plenty of free time. With the craziness of the last few months, I seriously lack energy and quite often motivation too but slowly I've been trying to make things again. 

I started with a little pouch for my daughter to store her geometry tools when she returns to school next month. 

I used some faux leather and ...

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added by Celine 3 years, 8 months ago. under bag , opam , sewing

Mass production - face masks from Espritpatch

After the trials on the face masks patterns, I moved to mass production. After all, I think masks are here to stay so we do need a stash for all the family. I had made a few for the kids to go on holidays with.

This weekend I made another batch of 19

10 adult size and 9 kids size. 

I modeled one recently and I find they are good with glasses, they don't steam too much. 

Another OPAM for August and this one was on my Q3 FAL list. 

Celine

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added by Celine 3 years, 8 months ago. under fal , opam , sewing

Bread bag from Espritpatch

With lockdown, I have discovered sourdough. I have made bread for years before but always with yeast. At the beginning of lockdown, I couldn't find yeast easily so I tried a starter sourdough following all the tips on The Perfect Loaf website. And i haven't looked back from my first loaf.

We've kept the bread in a tea towel to keep it fresh. My husband kept saying that it would be nice to have a bread bag. So finally, this weekend, I made one. I used a tea towel, cut the hems to avoid too much bulk ...

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added by Celine 3 years, 8 months ago. under baking , fal , opam , sewing

Face masks trials from Espritpatch

There are so many masks patterns and tutorials available online that it is hard to know which one to use. I made a few masks at the beginning of the lockdown with Bijou Lovely's pattern. 

I then tried to make some shaped face covering with the pattern on the Big Community Sew website. I tried adults and kids size for these ones.

My next try was the 3D masks using this youtube tutorial by Bilikis Signatures.

And while I was watching this tutorial, I found another one by Add Crafts which is shaped on the nose and more comfortable ...

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added by Celine 3 years, 8 months ago. under fal , opam , recycling , sewing

A finish! from Espritpatch

I still find it very difficult to find some sewing time. Either I am spending my evenings looking for a job or, when I am not, I find myself lacking motivation, energy, brain space to do anything at all. I am lucky that I have had interviews and am progressing with a few companies for now until I get finally an offer that works for me and for all but it is rather a draining process. Anyway, over a few sessions, I have finally managed to sew the binding down on this long-time UFO. 

The string blocks came from a ...

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added by Celine 3 years, 9 months ago. under fal , opam , quilt , swap , ufo

Free range slack from Espritpatch

The Free Range Slack pattern was released last year by Sew House 7 and of course I bought it then! But I also even made it at that time! It was one of the 2 patterns for June for SewMyStyle so I thought it would be good to make another pair.

I found this linen mix in my stash that I bought from Les Coupons Saint Pierre a while ago which I thought would be perfect for it so I cut it out about 2 weeks ago. 

I wanted to use the lovely selvage of the fabric somehow, so I ...

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added by Celine 3 years, 10 months ago. under dressmaking , opam

Rainbow quilt from Espritpatch

During my quilting marathon last month, I quilted this "lockdown rainbow" quilt made up from a stash of blocks that had resurfaced after over 10 or 15 years at the bottom of a draw...

I quilted clouds on the blue squares and various rainbows or other designs on the coloured squares.

For the binding, I used left over strips that I found in my scrap baskets.Finally this month I finished sewing the binding by hand at the back. 

All that was left to do, was my least favorite job, to bury the thread ends. But I am happy that ...

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added by Celine 3 years, 10 months ago. under fal , opam , quilting , ufo

Calvin dress from Espritpatch

When Kelly from True Bias released the Calvin Dress pattern at the end of the summer last year, I bought it straight away. It looked like the perfect sundress I was missing in my wardrobe. The sew-along started even before we were home from our holidays but I joined in as soon as we got back. I had this lovely lightweight floral fabric in my stash that was great for a summer dress.

I managed to cut the dress, to make the miles of binding (!) and to get started on the dress. And then, summer went away and I moved ...

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added by Celine 3 years, 10 months ago. under dressmaking , fal , opam

May Round-Up from Thread Head

I am glad that I signed up for challenges at the beginning of the year - they are really motivating me.

For the May One Monthly Goal I wanted to finish two mini quilts, and I just got the second one finished today!

This is what I made with the Stay at Home Sampler blocks from the Temecula Quilt Company on Instagram. The quilt is 20"x30".

The other is this Thimble Quilt I talked about last time (14"x25").

Since we are still staying home because of COVID 19 I am choosing to do things that I really enjoy, so ...

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added by Joanne 3 years, 10 months ago. under knitting socks , omg 2020 , opam , woofa challenge