Be Excellent To Each Other

The reconstituted stuff is, yeah.

Today I learned : power tools make hamsters.

I looked at that coat and thought it was a bit rough, then realised they were the inside-out photos of the lining.

Great work, Trooper!

It's a friend of mines birthday in a couple of weeks, so I made another of my world famous paper flower pictures for her!

New project! This material is a wool light blanket from Ikea
https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/products/tex ... -70374114/
£4!

Should make a nice waistcoat. The matching of the lines is a bit of a ba-llache, but seems to have worked out so far.

I’m catching myself up a bit. Firstly, I’ve been working on a few Sashiko pieces that I’m going to piece together to make a quilt. I hope to have it finished in time for when the baby is born (not a new baby, just the same old one that turns three in September. D’oh).

I started the first of these squares at the cottage one year, before I was pregnant. D’ohhhhh!

Also, I’ve ginally got a replacement drive band for my spinning wheel, so I’ve finished spinning this yarn which I think I’ll use as the weft yarn for some woven piece, maybe with a natural white warp.

It 630 yards of colours.

I love the colours in that yarn Mimi.

Chloe was crafting too this weekend, she made these three huge flowers after dying the petals herself.

How beautiful. What are they made of? I especially like the left-most flower, with those subtle little shifts in colour. She looks really chuffed with them, and rightly so. Also, how grown up now!

They are made of a sort of thick tissue paper with a non stick backing. She made the pink petals first, then the yellow, then combined half of the dye from each to make the orange (on the left). I like making things with her where we have to wait for things to dry to teach her patience. We do start other things while we wait though.

Grown up indeed, she will be 11 this year.

I bought these 2 ceramic coasters and this pair of earrings from a certain thing I popped into at the weekend. I think I could have spent ALL THE MONEY EVERY as there was so much nice stuff there but £50 was enough.

Finally finished it, took ages as I am extremely idle...

Next is a blue linen jacket!

Good work! You'll soon have a natty new summer wardrobe. Er, just in time for autumn.

It'll go nice with my winter jacket I finished just in time for summer

I made a couple of things recently, in between Lego-ing. One of my colleagues goes off on maternity leave in a couple of weeks so I made a blanket for the baby, and a dress for her 3yo daughter.

She won't say the sex of the baby, so I made it as neutral as possible and not very babyish because she's not really a babyish person. So hopefully she'll get use of out it for a while. And her daughter loves dinosaurs, but also dressing like a princess so I found an amazing fabric that I thought was just perfect. The buttons are from my existing collection, which worked out really well! And the dress, of course, has pockets.

Very nice work!

Flis they are both awesome!

I'm looking forward to some time to learn how to use my sewing machine properly when we've finished renovating. I might try a simple version of your blanket, it's lovely. Your friend is very lucky.

Thanks guys

I didn't touch mine for years while we were working on the house! Good luck getting it all finished, it's so worth it in the end, isn't it.

The most important thing with patchwork is probably the cutting. I slightly oversize the squares I use for the half square triangles so once they're sewn together I can recut them nice and square. It makes it much easier to put together and the corners line up much better too. And take the time to press every seam open! It all seems simple and maybe not that important when you're doing it, the cutting and pressing take longer than the actual sewing so it's very tempting to skip but dont!

My overlocker has arrived, but before I take it out the box I really need to finish the project I started last year, so I have been sewing a bit this weekend.

I enjoy putting the big pieces together, but now it is getting to the hand stitching phase, which is a ballache, plus I still need to do all the lining and attach the sleeves. This will take a while... probably another 20 hours work to go I think.

It looks untidy as it is linen, once finished and properly pressed it'll look sharper.

I think i'll modify the pattern after this one, as i'd have preferred a smaller lapel, and the jacket to be a bit longer in the body. Getting the sleeves attached will help with the proportions, but it will always have the 70's vibe to it!

Get on the Sewing Bee, Trooper! Though, you may have to work a tad faster!

Yeah, I can see how that would go.

Today's challenge is to turn this sheet of lycra into a dance costume for a cat. Hmmm... I know, i'll make a tailored cat jacket!
Kids clothes? Tailored jacket.
Sportswear? Tailored jacket.

You know how tge sakes of eggs skyrocket when Bake Off is on TV? I wonder what the Sewing Bee does for sakes of sewing machines, overlockers, etc?

@grim... If you have any dark yellow thread (or whatever matches your jeans thread), thread two strands through the needle, doubled over, knot through the back so you are sewing with four strands. Back stitch the belt loop. Should only take a few stitches. Use the previous thread holes if you can see them as the needle will pass easier. Otherwise you might need a needle pull for good purchase (a brown rubber band will do for such a small job).

It's linen jacket week on sewing bee, super exciting!

I love the sewing bee.... I was so happy to see the garment of the week go to the person who won it. (I'm avoiding spoilers)

It was well deserved.

I agree, easily the best garment of the week, very well made.

I'm relieved to see how badly they all did on the linen jacket, it gives me hope that I'm not an incompetent

Have got this lined up for tomorrow. Couldn’t watch it tonight as we have a poorly toddler. Any guesses for eventual winner? My money has been on Jen since episode 1 (pic below) but obviously I’ve not seen today’s episode so she may be out. I love Ricardo. Every now and then there’s a flash of something in his eyes that reminds me of Robin Williams.

Forgot the pic.

My money is on Juliette I think.

Juliette is my favourite but I think Jen will win.. I think.

As per always, I fell asleep somewhere in the third challenge.

Damn, that's some soothing TV!

I was watching Big Narstie on Bake Off. He was funny as fuck.

Just managed to watch Sewing Bee, and wow. Garment of the week was stunning. And it was lovely to see.

Before or after he turned into Sandi Toksvig?

Have you seen ‘Nailed It’ on Netflix?

It’s like Bake Off does Cake Wrecks.

I have indeed watched Nailed It.

At first the host lady annoyed me, but I soon grew to like her.

I hated her to start with, and the hate continued. I think I managed 2 episodes.

I’ve seen her in a couple of things since. One I’ve gorgotten, but the other was as the post room lady in The Good Place.

Trudy Judy in Brooklyn 99

Ah yes, that was it.

ZOMG Sewing Bee

I watched that last night!

I didn't really like it.

Get out! How could you not like it?

I've put a sleeve on!
I bloody hate easing.

Try doing it quantitively.

Right choice of winner on the sewing bee, the final dress was lovely.

I agree... I picked the winner from week one you know! Seriously well deserved and what a brilliant show!

I’m quite pleased with this. I started it a year ago but let it alone whilst I was doing other things, but completed it over two days this week. It’s my first weaving project. It’s about 2m by 50cm.

It’s not perfect: the edges are a little variable and the double floats in the weave I missed a couple of times so they are bingke floats, but o stall I am very happy with it and love the colours.

I made a rainbow.

Ready for the apocalypse, tweed style

My mouth is getting sweaty just looking at that.

It's most excellent though.