Getting ready for summer

 The slightest hint of sunshine in my part of the world is enough to encourage thoughts of summer, even although, as proved recently, the sunshine is only teasing as the rain and wind is not that far behind :) As I write this post it is lovely and sunny outside of my sewing room window but, as the passers-by are all wrapped up in warm, waterproof jackets I am guessing that summer has still not arrived!

Still the hint of sunshine is enough to kickstart my summer sewing for the gorgeous grandsons :) First up a Vikings and Dragons t-shirt for the elder grandson. Our hometown is the site of a battle that resulted in the ousting of the Vikings from mainland Scotland in 1263, so a Viking t-shirt is particularly appropriate for his next visit! 

Of course, we can't have one grandson with a Viking t-shirt and not the other so here is the t-shirt for the littler grandson.

Thoughts of dragons inevitably lead to knights so it was an easy leap to pick out this knights and dragons fabric for another t-shirt for my next make. The dragons were somewhat dismissed as "baby dragons" when he first saw them, but I think he liked it anyway!

The fabric for all of the above t-shirts was bought from a German online retailer who, sadly, post-Brexit no longer delivers to the UK, so I have to wait for trips to France or Ireland to order from them. 

This wonderful Highland Coosville fabric, however, was purchased from, Olumis Fabric , an online retailer in Scotland. It has been sitting in my stash for ages whilst I plucked up the courage to cut into it! I only had 0.5m so I knew that if I didn't cut into it soon it would be too short for a t-shirt so the time had come to get the scissors out :) The grandson will be hard to miss wearing this!

All of the t-shirts were made with Ellie & Mac Discoverer Tee pattern. I have made up several Ellie & Mac patterns for the boys now and I have found them all to have excellent instructions and very straightforward to sew up. 

Next up, a New to Me fabric and pattern! I was lucky enough recently to win a printed copy of the Waves and Wild Reef Beach Rashie and 1.5m  of swim fabric from Poppy Bear Fabrics. I have never sewn with swim fabric before and find it quite daunting, so if you have any tips you can pass on will be greatly appreciated :)

Keeping my fingers crossed that summer is not too far away 😎

Catching up

Well it has been a while since my last post that is for sure! Over and above all of the craziness that the world has gone through in the last 18 months, life at the home of Celtic Thistle has been more full on than most. 

Two of our sons, their partners and our two grandsons all ended up living with us over the summer as their house and country moves dragged out. With 4 of them working from home as well, not to mention an overlocker service that ended up taking 2 months instead of 2 weeks sewing was very much on the back burner :)

It wasn't a complete write off though, I managed to make these two half-zip hoodies for the boys before they arrived. First time sewing in an invisible zip! More practise is probably needed on that though :)

Before the overlocker disappeared into the black void that was a supposedly quick service (!) I whipped up a few pieces for the boys.

So we had Tractors

Pirates

Seagulls (very apt for their holiday by the sea!) and rainbow submarines

Surfboards and campervans, especially appropriate when you enjoy sitting in the drivers seat of your Uncle's blue campervan!

Rainbow animals,

 

blue crabs,

nosy Highland cows

and parachuting penguins!

Some pirate boardshorts, first time using boardshort fabric too - very slippery! 

Jellyfish leggings! These have even been worn to school on a "Pantosaurus" day, so I think he likes them :)

Naturally there were a couple of underpants and boxers run up to use up some of the scraps! 

By the time that my overlocker was finally returned my friend's daughter had had a baby boy, so these outfits were soon hot off the needles. I had forgotten how tiny clothes for new babies are :)

It was a busy summer and we were so greatful to be able to spend so much time with our family after spending such a long time apart :)