Summer giveaway

It is nearly the summer holidays and I can't wait! I have decided to celebrate with a give away. Anybody who comments below what their favourite way is to spend a summers day,  between now and 8th July (when my son breaks up for the summer)  will be entered into a draw to win a FREE drawstring or tote bag.

 Better than that, I haven't made the bag yet, so the winner will be able to personalise it with a name or choose an appliqué image. 

I will draw the name of the winner on the evening of Monday 8th July, so check back here or on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/yellingpig that evening to see if you are the lucky person.  If all goes to plan the bag should be with the winner by the beginning of the following week.

 

Thanks for your support and good luck!

By the way; If you prefer you could send your email address to yellingpig1@gmail.com  with the subject heading 'bag giveaway'

Tote bag tutorial

Hi, I thought Id have a go at writing a tutorial. it is a pretty tricky thing to do well (unlike making this bag which is quite straightforward) so please let me know if you follow it. I'd welcome feedback and I'd really love to see your finished bag!

You will need;

• outer fabric (something fairly heavyweight, I used some curtain fabric that I got out of the remnants bin in John Lewis).
• inner fabric (a coordinating cotton).
• medium weight iron on interfacing (I really like 'iron on canvas' again from John Lewis).

From this you will need to cut;
1x 37x85 cm of all three fabrics for the main body of the bag.
2x 58x8cm of the outer fabric for the handles.
1x 18x16cm of the outer and the same of inner fabric for the inside pocket.

1. (A) Make the pocket right sides of fabric facing each other, sew 1cm from the edge all the way round, leaving the needle down to pivot on at the corners. 

          Leave a 4-5cm gap along the bottom edge for turning.

Turn right sides out

clip corners

 
           








Press pocket flat.

(B) Sew pocket to lining-
Find centre of pocket and centre of bag, line these up about 12cm below one short edge of the lining fabric, right side to right side of lining fabric.
Sew as close as possible to the edge down one side, across the bottom and up the other side, this will close the gap you left for turning.
I like to make a line of stitching about a third of the way along to create two internal pockets.
Sewing a small triangle at the top corner where you begin and end stitching helps to keep the corners strong.

The pocket is sewn to the lining fabric, note the triangles on the top corners

2. Iron interfacing to wrong side of outer fabric.

3. Turn outer fabric right sides together, sew sides with 1.5cm seam allowance.

4.Repeat (3.) for lining fabric, but leave 6-8cm gap in one side for turning.

5.On outer, then lining fabric, mark 4cm from bottom of bag. 

Fold corners into triangles and stitch across. This optional step creates a nice flat bottom to your bag.

6.Make handles; fold handle fabric longways, right sides together, sew down long side 1cm from edge. 

Use a 'pushy thing' (I safety pin the top corner to skewer and use that) to turn the handle through its length so it is right side out. 

Press.

My device for turning the handles.

Pulling the handles through to the right side

Pressing the handles with the seam to one side

 

7. Pin bag together; 

With lining and outer bag right sides facing each other, pin side seams at the top of the bag. 

Work around the top of the bag, pinning the lining to the outer. 

During this process feed the handles between the two fabric layers, taking care that they do not twist. 

Pin the ends of the handles level with the top of the bag.

 I fold the bag in half and then in half again to mark the quarter, this is where I position each handle.

This is the sandwich of lining, handle, outer fabric. Right sides are together

8. Sew bag together; Sew around the top of the bag, 1.5cm from the edge.

Stitch all of the way around the top.

9. Pull the bag the right way around through the opening in the lining.

 Close the hole in the lining by simply machining close to edge, as it is inside the bag it will not be seen.

Machine close to the edge to close the hole left for turning

10. Press the top of the bag to get the lining and the outer sitting flat, then top stitch to finish.

 I like to use one of my machines decorative stitches in a contrast thread but a plain straight stitch would finish the bag nicely and keep the handles secure.      

Press the top of the bag flat.

My 'topstitching' is a decorative herringbone.

YOU HAVE FINISHED YOUR BAG, WELL DONE!

Variations?

- you can alter the dimensions, this bag will work at all sorts of sizes and shapes.

- Try appliqué or embroidery as decoration on the bag.

- The pocket could go on the outside of the bag

- To close the bag you could add a tab and button, just include a tab like a short length of strap between the handles on one side. Add a button hole to this and a button on the opposite side once you have finished and your bag will fasten shut.

My finished bag. I added the machine appliqué before I made the bag.

Sewing for friends

One of my favourite things to do is sewing for friends.

When sewing a gift, the pressure is lifted somewhat. Usually it is something they are not expecting, so there is no nagging doubt 'is this what they had in mind?' or 'will they think it is worth the price' or 'is it good enough' which can come with commissions (although even with these I find the following usually applies)

The very best thing about it is spending the time thinking about that person. I find that I spend the hours it takes to plan and make something thinking very fondly of the friend, of their likes and interests, of times we have spent together, of their personality, sense of humor and so on. Although I usually regret that I do not get to see more of most of my friends, I find making something for them almost like spending time with them in a strange way. 

Often I will be making because I will be seeing them again soon, which is thrilling in itself. Sometimes I will be posting the gift, and everyone loves getting a surprise parcel through the letterbox. But always there is the sense of anticipation and the hope that they will be pleased with what I have made, with the time invested and thought process, hopefully it is something that captures their taste and that they will like it. At the very least I hope they will somehow sense the positive thoughts and memories that go into making each present special and unique, after all that someone is certainly someone quite special to me.

The end of the school holidays

Today marks the end of my son's four week Easter holiday and tomorrow is the last day before I go back to school too. It has worked out that I have had nearly four weeks off too because of the way my work dates have fallen. I think it is in some ways harder when it comes to an end after a longer period than a shorter one. I can't say I am ever delighted to loose the company of my lovely boy, or to go back to work myself but this holiday it seems particularly hard that it is coming to an end.

Despite loosing a week to the worst tonsillitis I have had in years, this holiday has been easy, companionable, exciting, relaxed and generally rather wonderful. The improvement in the weather has helped, the change in the clocks always seems to make things more relaxed, but most of all I think that the latest episode in my husband's smallholding enterprise has put a lovely glow on everything.

Let me start from the beginning, for the last ten years or so we have kept pigs for fattening and chickens for eggs. Last year my hubby bought some sheep. This spring, or more precisely, last week, they had lambs. I was bought up with goats and they had kids each year. I have always thought I would like my boy to have the wonderful experience of the birth of animals.

This experience has not been without some problems, the first triplets to be born died before we got to them, probably of cold. Therefore there was some anxiety about subsequent deliveries, a well founded anxiety because we had to assist with the next four births. The first ewe was not having proper contractions and had been in labour for several hours, she gave birth to two healthy (one huge!) lambs. The next had a lamb with the leg stuck back. We intervened earlier this time, having more confidence, and it is a good job we did, the presence of meconium in the amniotic fluid proves the lambs were becoming distressed. All turned out well again, and we had another pair of healthy female lambs. The last pair of lambs were born without intervention, but the second of the twins didn't seem to have an instinct to suckle so we ended up giving him some extra feeds to get him going. After 3 days of tube and bottle feeding he began to suckle for himself from his mother. Now we have 6 lambs and their mothers out in the field thriving, hooray!

Anyway, amidst all of this drama and excitement we have thrown plans and routines out of the window, worked together as a family and discovered new skills. I didn't know I would be able to pull a lamb from its mother and my husband has learned to milk a ewe and feed a lamb. Our son has been there through it all, gaining amazing experiences of birth and death and everything in between, including the boredom of waiting for hours for something to happen. He has witnessed his parents and Grandparents pulling together and helping out, using their various strengths and getting on with things that needed doing and has played his own essential part too.

Today marks an end to the freedom of going with the flow like that, and as we only have 3 ewes left to lamb things will naturally go back to the humdrum anyway. Of course I value school and the multitude of experiences he gains there, but it has been a quite a holiday!

Oh and I must add, he is just such great company even when we are just at home. He plays for hours with his Lego, I sew and we chat. Ahhhh, I cant wait for the summer, only 11 weeks to go...

Sewing for me

I'm sure people must wonder, if they give it any thought at all, why I sew for other people so often and not for myself. Unfortunately I have just had a stark reminder of why it is, having spent months planning and days making myself a new top.

You know how you go into a clothes shop and you think something is really gorgeous and would look so lovely on you, but you shouldn't really. And then you try it on just to see what it looks like,  knowing it is going to be gorgeous, but then it look hideous and not at all how you expected and just makes you look really short or extra wide or something. And you then breathe a sigh of relief because you couldn't afford it anyway, or you feel a bit disappointed because you were going to treat yourself today.

Well, you don't really have that option when you are making something for yourself. I have been planning a top for myself for at least 6 months. I have gathered the patterns, the fabrics, the notions and waited and waited for the time to make it. Over the last 4 days I have learned so much about working with different fabrics, about linings, about different sleeves and overall I am quite proud of what I have made. Ok so it is not perfect, but that is mostly on the inside so if only I wear it, only I will know about it. I kept trying it on as I went and it was coming together just the way I had hoped. As I sewed the side seams up I could really get an idea of how the finished thing would look, and it looked awful. I look so huge in it and there are fitting issues at the back that I am not sure I can, or want or fix! I haven't quite finished, Im not sure how the hem the delicate fabric, and I haven't got around to the buttonholes on the sleeves yet. And I'm not sure I will.

What should I do, when I have spent a lot of time and energy and a certain amount of money on something I can't wear? Aargh!

Birthday Weekend

This weekend it has been mine and my sons birthdays. It has been a busy time but great fun. Apart from present buying I started on Thursday making cakes. As I work at a school with a large staff I needed to take two cakes into the staff room with me on Thursday afternoon. I then needed cupcakes for my boy to take to school for his class on Friday as well as a cake to put candles on and share for his party on Saturday.

I am a great fan of the recipes in Nigella Lawson's books. I am not keen on watching her on TV, but her books are just great and her recipes always work out so well. On Thursday morning I decided to make a ginger and chocolate cake, red velvet cupcakes, a proper chocolate cake and what Nigella calls a 'birthday cake'. I really enjoyed my mornings baking. I am well aware that my cakes always look a bit 'rustic' but they seem to taste pretty good, thanks to Nigella and our wonderful eggs.

Friday was a day for manically cleaning the house. This is something I hate to do. Don't get me wrong, I do not live in a tip. But I think other people are naturally more critical of your home than you are, after all you live there and you love it.  I so want other people to see my home the way I do. For this reason I tend to be ultra critical and try to see my home through the eyes of others, therefore I notice all the shabby edges and the bits that need redecorating and despair of ever making the place nice. I need to accept I will never please everyone, maybe I will be wise enough by my next birthday?

 Since then we have been to the cinema with a dozen children and adults followed by sandwiches, sausages and cake back at home (the children were so good). Today was a frenzy of lego building, topped off with a very decadent and naughty Domino's pizza, a special request by my son. Now I feel I deserve a glass or two of the special wine I have been saving since Christmas and a relax.

It has all been manic and fun and I am really looking forward to getting back to some normality and, more importantly, some sewing tomorrow. Ahhhh!

Vintage patterns

I have been happily sewing away today at a girls that dress I have made about 20 times before. It isn't the easiest or quickest dress, but it isn't too complicated either. And each time I make it I am just delighted with the result. It is a McCalls pattern from the 1970s, bought from EBay on a whim about a year ago. It has set me off with a 'pattern habit'

I just love everything about them, I don't think I can even confess the truth about how many hours I have spent trawling through the internet looking to see what is about.

The illustrations on the covers are so much more romantic than the awkward photos you find on modern pattern envelopes, I find myself convinced that if I made up that dress I too would have legs twice as long as I am tall, or a waist so tiny. The children always look so beautifully turned out and angelic.

Inside the envelope you get a slightly (delightfully!) yellowed and sweetly fusty smelling instructions with annotations and sometimes extra pattern pieces with the name of a child that has probably long since grown up.

I can't pretend that I have made up every dress that I have the pattern for, but it is such a lovely resource and they are great things to own. As with modern patterns some make up better than others. There is only this one that I made that looked old fashioned,

 although I thought that was rather delightfully reminiscent of the type of dress my Mum made for me when I was small, and it looked really lovely on my friends little girl with white blond hair. Most of the dresses I make just look quirky and unique and rather wonderful, especially in the '30 style reproduction 'feedsack' prints that I so enjoy using.

And there is the knowledge that the dress that you are making up is one that is unlikely to be being made by anyone else, although I do occasionally spend an evening searching on Flickr in the hope that I will find someone else's interpretation of the same pattern.

I suppose in the grand scheme of things there are worse habits to have. When I look on Ebay I tend to overlook the patterns from commercial sellers that cost £4.99 + postage (too expensive) and I would never entertain the idea of buying a digital reproduction of an old pattern, that would not be the same at all! I have so far resisted the temptation to buy anything really old. There are precious looking patterns from the '20s and '30s out there, but I would never be able to bring myself to use them. I don't think I have ever paid more than £3 including postage for a pattern, and on average buy two or three a month, despite the time spent browsing.

I am now off to look through (and I am sorry, yes, smell) the unusually large bundle of 5 patterns that arrived in the post this morning. What a thrill!!!