You've got to pick a placket or two!

 Over the summer,as you know, I had great fun making clothes for the gorgeous grandsons. Once I had made them (more than) a few t-shirts I decided to branch out and have a go at polo shirts! 

My, by now, well-thumbed Ottobre magazine had a pattern for a polo shirt so nothing ventured, nothing gained. 

 

Well the nothing gained bit was right! I struggled with getting my head around the instructions for getting the placement of the cut for the placket so my first attempt was definitely a bit off centre! Fortunately, I had (just) enough fabric to cut out another front piece and have another go.

Very considered cutting later I had my very first placket and in the right place to boot!

Well, I couldn't make for one grandson and not the other so emboldened by my success I stitched up this one too.

I am not by any means a dressmaker so the finishing touches on some of the Ottobre patterns are often a surprise to me, like this bound neckline, but they are always worth the little bit of extra effort (and at times, some head-scratching!).

I am currently working up the courage to make a couple of showerproof jackets for the grandsons, fingers crossed they do not turn out to be a step too far :) If nothing else, it will keep me busy in this new lockdown! 

Cosy Clothes

 Although I have been neglecting this blog lately, my sewing machine has been whirring away.After the glut of t-shirts, shirts and shorts made for gorgeous grandsons in the summer a whole new world of autumn and winter makes beckoned!

First up this doggy sweatshirt for the littlest grandson. I have had the fabric for ages but for some reason had never got around to using it until now. The pattern was another from  Ottobre magazine and was very straightforward apart from those tiny cuffs! 

 

 

As you can see I managed to get the dogs on one of the cuffs upside down, fortunately I am sure that the recipient will not notice :)

Of course I can't make a top for one grandson without making one for his big brother too!

Dinosaurs in space fabric from Flamingo Fabrics It has a brushed backing so it is very cosy! Our grandson has asked me a couple of times why the dinosaurs are in space though?  I haven't been able to come up with a satisfactory answer for him yet :)

Making Waves

 It is reveal day for this quarter's Endeavourers Challenge, this time the theme for the Challenge was "The Sea".

 

I have called my piece "Making Waves", it is made with strips of upcycled denim for the waves with quilting cotton scraps for the island in the distance. 

 

 Over the years I have amassed a store of cast-off denim jeans that my sons either grew out of or decided were no longer their style, so I was delighted to have the perfect excuse to dig them out and start cutting into them. 

 

 This is the view from my sewing room window, so I didn't have to look very far for inspiration for this piece.I wanted to depict the sea on a windy, stormy day though, which is a fairer reflection of the usual conditions here on the West Coast of Scotland! 

This is the view today! 

I pinned the strips of denim and cotton to a cotton backing before stitching them down. 

Then placed the stitched piece on wadding and backing and machine quilted waves adding strips of lace and pieces of voile fabric between the strips of denim in places to represent the crest of the waves.

On the day that I started putting this piece together I noticed some movement out in the water, and when I went out to investigate I saw this little chap frolicking amidst the waves.

So, naturally I had to include him in my piece too!

I embroidered a stumpwork slip of a seal head, adding a bead for the eye and then attached the head to the denim background before stitching some beads for bubbles behind him. 

The hills on the island were defined with satin stitch and I added some French knots for sheep too.

Tucked away skimming the waves, almost out of sight, there is a windsurfer too, and can you believe that today, when even the ferry was not running, someone was daft/brave enough to be out windsurfing in that very spot! 

Of course, it wouldn't be right to make a seascape quilt without taking a photograph of it in front of that very seascape, so in between waves crashing over the seafront here is my brave assistant (OH) desperately holding on to my quilt! 

 

As ever with the Endeavourers Challenges the piece that I finally submit is very different to the piece that I originally envisaged making! I really enjoy these challenges even when, as with this one, I leave it all to the last minute :)

Find out my fellow Endeavourers projects for this quarter's challenge here.