70's style

I was born in 1969 so consequently spent my formative years in the 70's and I think that the colours of that time have seeped into my brain. I remember my parent's house where I grew up had a bright orange carpet and purple walls plus brown furniture. This seems to have made a lasting impact on my tastes as I was extremely excited by these fabrics (which I've started to make into yet another bag).



The blue is Carnaby Street by Robert Kaufman & the other is Poppy Dot Orange by Erin McMorris.

Of course other things in the 70's were lousy. I grew up in an industrial town in the North of England and it got pretty grim as the industries began to disappear and people began to lose their jobs. And in the 80's it got yet grimmer without even the benefit of funky fabrics.

On the knitting front, last week I blocked a Clapotis that I actually finished mid January. The Claoptis isn't the most interesting pattern to knit, but it's good for knitting groups and on the tube when you need something semi-mindless. I made it in Sea Silk & I'm very pleased with the drapyness and the weight of it.

Another Bag

I decided to have a go at making a bag without using a pattern, so here's what I came up with:

The front (with a pocket)


This is the back


There is also an inside zipped pocket in the lining.

I'm quite pleased with it. It's big enough to hold a book and a sock project plus my tube pass.

I used odds and ends of fabric left over from my Amy Butler bag because I was worried about ruining some of my other fabric. This means I've unintentionally ended up with a matching set:



I didn't put a closure on the top; I had bought a zip but I decided that it wasn't long enough and nearly added some press studs but decided against it. In the end I decided that the bag will hang just under my elbow and so I it ought to be OK without one & I can add one later if necessary.

Amy Butler Sophia Bag

I've finally finished my second Amy Butler bag: Sophia.



I like the shape of the bag with it's 50's feel. However I think that the handles should be longer and the center of the bag (where the zip is fitted) should be narrower so it's easier to carry.



The fabric is from the Joel Dewberry Ginseng collection.



The only modification I made was to omit the cording at the bottom. This was because various people on the sewing pattern review forum gave this advise to avoid having to sew through zillions of layers.

I'm going to use it to hold all of my sewing machine things that don't have a home.



Next time I'm going to design my own bag. I have quite a good idea of what I want and the Amy Butler patterns have given me a good introduction to bag making.


As I'm sure I've mentioned before I love sewing and I love my sewing machine. I especially love the little packets of sewing machine needles. I imagine the design of these needle cases must have been the same for decades.



I'm still figuring out the system of grading of sewing machine needles whereby the numbers are something like (90/14) or (100/16). I understand that the higher the first number the thicker the needle so 100 is good for denim and 70 is good for satin. I think the second number is just another way of expressing the first number. It gets more complicated because the number doesn't relate to the type of end that the needle has, so you could have a 100 ball point needle that wouldn't work on leather. I suppose you just have read what it says on the packet. 'UNIVERSAL' is pretty self-explanatory.

I also love the colours of the threads. When I bought my sewing machine I was lucky enough to get loads and loads of free threads which was almost as good as getting the sewing machine itself!



One more thing. Look at the weird vegetable I got in my vegetable box:


It's called scorzonera and apparently tastes like artichokes and asparagus. I can't wait to give it a try tonight.

Simple Sewing by Lotta Jansdotter

I bought my sewing machine early last year and found it rather intimidating. My only previous experience was when someone gave me a beautiful old singer machine when I was 21 and broke. I lived in a funny little ground floor flat in Glasgow which was so damp that slugs shared the flat leaving slimy trails allover the carpets and any clothes left on the floor. After a couple of months some local druggies broke in and stole just about everything in the flat including half full bottles of shampoo and of course my sewing machine. I had no insurance but also I didn't have many possessions so I wasn't too upset but my poor flatmate had his entire record collection stolen which he found devastating. Anyhow that brought my sewing to a immediate stop.

So fast forward to 2008 when my beautiful new Janome machine arrived. I'd completely forgotten about spool thread so I spent some time pouring over the manual before I could even thread it. I bought the machine with the idea of making adjustments to clothes and that kind of thing but once I started looking around on the internet and in bookshops I realised that I was more interested in the home decor side of sewing especially because you can get such gorgeous fabrics at the moment.

The first book I bought was Simple Sewing by Lotta Jansdotter. Some of the projects are VERY simple, for example one of the projects is for kitchen towels and I think that even I would never actually need instructions on how to hem a piece of fabric! Also there is a pattern for picnic placemats which are pretty much the same as the kitchen towel! I would classify those patterns as being suitable for brain dead zombies however the remainder of the patterns are more at a beginner standard. She uses absolutely wonderful fabrics and the photography is beautiful in a Scandinavian style. I made some oven gloves using a pattern from the book & Kaffe Fasset fabric.



The gloves are lined with fabric but as far as I could make out from the instructions all of the raw ends of the fabric were visible on the inside. When I made the second glove I didn't follow the instructions and hid the raw edges. I think as a beginner when you try a project you want to learn some finishing techniques so I was a bit disappointed with the instructions. Other than that the gloves are lovely and look very nice from the outside. When I used them for the first time I was nervous I would end up with 3rd degree burns but they do work.

I do like this book because it looks so good and is useful for finding inspiration. It has some other cool patterns such as a reversible apron and tote bags plus a cool hat with a quilted rim. You never know, I might even make some kitchen towels from it!