The Mission Maxi

I am not actually as sun burnt as I look

I’m going to a big work party soon to celebrate a special occasion and the dress code is ‘dressed to impress’, now if I worked for a bank or a law firm or something like that, I’d take ‘dressed to impress’ as formal cocktail gear but I work in social media, so I don’t think dressed to impress is quite that formal and possibly / probably is a bit more trendy. Either way though, I don’t do cocktail gear and I don’t do going out clothes beyond going to the pub, so I was a bit ummmmm. I did go out and look for something and ended up buying a top – short sleeve jumper combo from Fat Face which I now consequently don’t like that much (darn you impulse / desperation shopping) but at the same time I bought some black jersey because I was remembering a certain pattern I’d had in my collection for quite some time, the Mission Maxi by Jamie Christina. I had plenty of time to sew but of course half term holiday got in the way, so by the time I even remotely had time to cut out the fabric, the party was mere days away. In the meantime I had been letting my subconscious mentally rummage through my wardrobe and had come up with a top and skirt combo I could wear that I’ve had for a while (darn you desperation shopping again, I really didn’t need to have bought that Fat Face jumper) if I ran out of time to make the dress or the dress was a disaster.

Well yesterday I traced out the pattern and cut out the fabric ON THE PATIO (it was literally the only place I had space to do it) and today I made a start on the dress …. and finished it a few hours later. I was literally gobsmacked, I really thought it would take longer and I would run out of time and I’d be wearing the top and skirt combo I had got out of my wardrobe. I had initially (before half term) planned to do a sort of muslin by making the tank top version of the pattern, just to check it fitted ok as I was unsure which size to go for (and to practice with the binding) but due to lack of time I had to go straight for the black jersey. Luckily the size I went for was ok, although it is a little loose on the shoulders and armholes, I think because upper body wise, excluding my boobs, I’m probably a size lower than I cut but as I had to allow for the aforementioned boobs I had to go more generous. Good thing I’d gone for the lower of the two sizes I’d been pondering between, the next size up and it’d have been slipping off!

Most of the dress went together easily, although I had problems with the binding (on the neck and arm holes), I am to be honest not that good at binding but inaccuracies with cutting due to having to do it on the bloody patio did not help.

Overall I quite like the dress, this is now my third black jersey maxi dress in my collection, the other two are shop bought. I have a 3/4 sleeve plain black maxi dress, which the kids call my choir / funeral dress, which I wear honestly to more things than just choir concerts and funerals (I actually think of it as my parent consultation dress) and a short sleeved, more gathered black maxi dress, which when I had to take it off one morning this week because Girl Lacer had spotted a stain on the back, Boy Lacer protested “but awww you look pretty!”, awwwww. The kids quite like me in black dresses I think. But whoever said black was slimming, they lie.

So I will wear this dress to the party, probably with a scarf to try and hide some of the evidence of my recent misadventures in the sun, I have a grey with white dots scarf that I think would go quite well. And I’ll wear my black buckled DMs with the extra thick soles as well I think, as they’re some of my favourite shoes. But overall I still wish in a way that I was going to wear something different, I don’t know what though and I think really that feeling is more the mismatch of temporarily having to shed my mummy layers and actually go out with adults, wow!

And long term, as long as that binding holds up, I can see me wearing the dress quite a bit, it’s a bit more casual than the choir / funeral / parent consultation dress and less countrified that my gathered black maxi dress and I can see it going quite well with the cardigans (I am such a mummy) I live in. And I definitely think I’ll be making the pattern again, it has a nice godet variation and I could also see myself adapting the pattern to make a number of just above the knee dresses, I could live in those all summer (including another black one). But due to the space problems with cutting the fabric, if I plan to make this again, I really need to find somewhere where I can go and cut the fabric on a big table, it would make all the difference to the finished dress.

Another new skirt

The sewing is going at full steam (it is soooo nice to have a big table to work on, not for much longer though *sob* – no not really, well not the sob part anyway, ok this flat may have a nice big table and plenty of floor space but the light quality here is appalling, I do much more crafting here and I’ll start doing serious damage to my eye sight, who on earth invented uplighters? Why?), so here’s another new skirt, the majority of it cut out last week (does anyone else find that they can’t cut then sew on the same day? I just can’t, I have to have at least a day between cutting and sewing, I think because one of the things I really love about sewing is how I can take a pile of many bits of fabric and join them together to make one thing, I love that process and I guess that process isn’t so noticeable if it’s on the same day you’ve gone and cut the originally one piece of fabric into the many bits in the first place. I’m about to start venturing seriously into the realm of pattern drafting soon and I suspect that’ll be another process that needs at least a day in between, one day drafting, one day cutting, one day sewing*). Anyway this latest skirt uses Clothkits fabric but is not a Clothkits kit (although you can get this pattern as a kit). I cut the fabric so that it was a similar shape to the People Will Always Need Plates Clothkits skirt (before I realised that the skirt wasn’t that flattering, there’s a disadvantage to cutting more than one thing at once sometimes) however the design on this fabric is a lot lot more forgiving to bulges (although maybe not the top I’m wearing today and the tights I’m wearing today aren’t that much cop either, honestly if I’m going to keep making these very patterned skirts I’m going to have to invest in some more plain tops and plain tights). So I quite like this skirt, it is lined but it’s more of a summer skirt really, I can see me wearing this a lot (cue me buying a lot of plain, brightly coloured tank tops this summer).

One final note, apart from a Clothkits thing for Girl Lacer (which will get sewn soon), I’m now finally out of Clothkits stuff, so I move onto slightly more adventurous pastures, however I need to plan my route carefully, as I mentioned in my last post, I do have a lot of fabric where I know pretty much precisely what I want to do with it, however some of those skirts are a lot more ‘technical’ than the skirts I’ve been making recently, particularly as I’ll need to draft some of them, so as much as I have this lovely fabric waiting to be cut into, I need to find some of my not so favourite fabric first to make something a little more simpler (but at the same time more complex than these skirts) to work my way up.

*I have been however cutting more than one thing at once recently, hence why it looks like I have been a skirt making factory this week, the foundation of all this sewing was done last week.

The last of the trio

I wrote recently about having bought three Clothkits skirts ages ago and how long it’s taken me to get round to sewing them. Well this is the last one and eek, it is so not that flattering! The design is by People Will Always Need Plates which I love, but on my body? Not so love. It’s entirely down to me or should I say my chocolate chomping, coke guzzling, carb loving self as I have never seen a skirt more unflattering to my tummy than this one. You can’t see it in the photo (because trust me I would not put that on the web) but if I were to be wearing a shorter top you’d see that the sky above the houses is green and that the sky starts just at the point where my tummy is, so a great big patch of green fabric, right on my tummy, on a skirt that’s predominately white, not a good look. And the skirt is not too good on my ample hips either, now normally skirts are perfect for hiding hip based imperfections, not this one, as the white houses go up the side on both hips and you can see every ‘curve’. And the skirt is just a little too short, although I quite like my legs, sometimes things are still too short. Basically the skirt sits way too high (about my belly button), if it sat more on my hips (like the majority of my clothing), it’d be a more acceptable length and there’d be more of a ‘swing’ to the skirt , hiding any curvage issues. I doubt I’m going to wear this skirt often, which is crying shame for any item of clothes I’ve spent good money on, even worse for something I’ve gone and made to. It’s just about ok if I stick to wearing a plain bright coloured long length top, as in the photo, so it will got worn, just not often. Now if I manage to loose some weight (which I do want to do, I’m just struggling with), the waistband would fall closer to my hips and then maybe . . .

What is really really annoying though is that when I saw the skirt uncut I thought the skirt would be a different shape, as I have to admit I do have two other clothkits skirts that rarely got worn as they’re too short* (plus the short Rob Ryan one – the first link in this paragraph – the black and white design doesn’t look as ‘crisp’ anymore due to too much washing) but I do have another clothkits skirt which I wear relatively frequently but that one I cut too big and I keep meaning to take it in. I don’t know if the too big clothkits skirt is more wearable as it’s bigger and therefore sits on my hips. (I also have another Clothkits skirt which I completely butchered and I need to fix the zip).

Girl Lacer asked me today did I like making skirts? Not so much right now. What I do like making is curtains (other than the hem, which needs doing when we move back home, I’ve managed to make a pair of curtains for the kids’ bedroom, I would have made some for the rest of the flat but readymade turned out cheaper) but back to the skirts ….. I have too much fabric, there I said it and a large proportion of the fabric was bought with the aim of making skirts (I also have some meterage earmarked for a couple of tops and one piece of fabric earmarked for a dress, I have quite a few large pieces of fabric which I can’t remember why I bought at all and I’m currently questioning my sanity for why I bought them^). And part of the ‘new streamlined me’ is to reduce my fabric collection so that all my large pieces will fit a large floor standing bag that will fit under my desk (scraps will be stored elsewhere). Currently I have the large bag, which I bought with me, filled with fabrics I thought I might use this month (and so far I’ve done not too bad on that, two skirts and a pair of curtains) but I also have two large boxes of fabric in storage, those have to get used or go. So my plan is, when we move back I’ll have to find somewhere to put my excess fabric but I have to use it, I have to have a work in progress on the go at all times, no more months between pieces and in six months time if I haven’t managed to get my large pieces of fabric down to that one (large) bag? I’ll have to find some way to give the excess away (I’ll probably donate it to the school). So, I’m going to be making a lot of skirts, I know I don’t have to make the thing I originally intended the fabric for but the pieces which I can still remember why I bought the fabric, the skirt (or whatever) I envisioned is still strong in my mind and I couldn’t not use it for that, even if I’m beginning to yearn to make some trousers. And besides, most of the fabric I have would make some pretty ugly trousers.

* I swear the models Clothkits use must be tiny, as the skirts always look longer on them and I’m not that tall!

^ I may make some patchwork duvet covers with this fabric, I’ve been thinking about that for sometime, duvet covers (or at least pretty ones) are very expensive, so to make my own would mean a lot of my excess fabric would be used up and it would go into something nice but practical. As you can see in the photo above (and may have noticed in many other photos on this blog) I currently have two very boring plain navy blue duvet covers (from Zara Home, the home of cheap plain duvet covers, shame the price difference between their plain covers and their patterned covers is so high) and a red checked duvet cover (which I do love, from the second home of cheap duvet covers, Ikea).

Long Clothkits Rob Ryan skirt

I don’t want to tell you how long I’ve had this skirt uncut in my collection, I’m not sure myself actually, but what I do know is that I bought three skirts in a Clothkits sale after one Christmas, I sewed the first skirt back in 2011, just before my job interview for my current job and even then the skirts had been in my collection for quite some time. Here’s hoping skirt number 3 gets sewn up a darn sight quicker. Who knows it may even be whilst I’m still in my temporary flat, as the crafting space here is fantastic but I really should get round to sewing some curtains first.

3 tattooed ladies, 2 swim bags and 1 cool pair of tights

My apologies for my absence; the hours on my main part time job vary from month to month and currently I’m working the equivalent of 4 working days a week (although it’s spread out over 7 days) and will be doing so until the end of September, but most of those hours are for a really cool project that I will literally be able to tell my grandchildren about, so work is busy but all good.

However I may be busy but that hasn’t stopped me embroidering, in fact it’s encouraged more embroidering because in my much needed breaks, my idea of the perfect relaxation is a spot of embroidery with a good audiobook, so I’ve been embroidering but I haven’t had much chance to get to the sewing machine to finish things off but I managed to today, so first up *drum roll*, three ladies who’ve kept me very amused in quiet moments over the last month or two.

The patterns are by Sew Lovely, from a lovely big detailed pattern set and they were a pleasure to stitch, so much so that I don’t even mind that they *whisper* don’t even go with my sofa (eek) but I’d always planned these for the bedroom. Really I need a guest bedroom, these would make fantastic guest bedroom cushions because as lovely as these are going to look in my bedroom, my bedroom is very much a working room and I can imagine I will probably be spending most of the time fishing these cushions off the floor (nothing new there). But none of that matters because these were such fun to stitch, I couldn’t resist!

Next up something of a slightly more practical nature; Boy Lacer starts swimming lessons at school this week, which is an extremely big deal, as he’s very nervous of water (going as far as not even liking rain, although he is getting better). I am confident though that he is in the best possible hands, his swimming lessons have been discussed at a number of meetings and I know he’ll have 1 to 1 support from the class’s extremely talented TA. He’s already had several preparatory visits to the pool and although he admits he’s nervous, he is not currently as freaked out as he could be (right now he’s more concerned that I’m going to forget the letter I need to write requesting that he wears swimming goggles).

Anyway, so, just as I made a swimming bag for Girl Lacer when she started school swimming lessons, I wanted to make one for Boy Lacer, I made a start on it over the school holidays but as I, on instructions from the school, was not meant to be telling Boy Lacer that he had swimming lessons the next term (so as not to freak him out over the holidays), I couldn’t ask him what design he’d like. I fell in love with this design from Urban Threads

but I was concerned that considering he’s so scared of water (although like I say, getting better), it might freak him out a bit but on the other hand, it’s such a fun, adventurous design, it might make swimming just that little bit more fun and exciting, specially as I paired it with some cool pirate fabric on the back. But just in case he didn’t like it, I knew I had to make an alternative as well. Now I’m not going completely mad, as although I don’t swim much, I could do with a swim bag as well, as Girl Lacer’s swim bag has worked so well over the last two years (she still uses it) and the shower curtain lining has worked to make it really waterproof and that has been useful. So I made a second, safer design, knowing that whichever one he didn’t want, I’d have.

This one is a September House design from the first issue of the &Stitches magazine (which I’d highly recommend by the way).

And which one did his choose?

……. the Urban Threads one. Quite relieved actually, as much as I think the Urban Threads design is cool, September House’s fish are far more me. But either way, both patterns were again a pleasure to stitch, I loved using just one colour for the Urban Threads design (a very dark brown to give it an old sepia look), just as much as I loved the genuine excuse to use some variegated thread on the water in the September House design and I always love doing a spot of chain stitch.

And finally, just because I couldn’t have a blog post title with the numbers 3 and 2 in, without a number 1, these are the tights I’m wearing today.

I think they’re really cool (and they’re from M&S).

Update 25.4.12 - school rang, Boy Lacer had his first swimming lesson today and guess what . . . he loved it!

A good week

I write this with almost an intrepidation, as when I sat down to write this earlier this afternoon my laptop went into major melt down, claiming all of a sudden that hard drive, what hard drive? But there are advantages to being married to a (and I’m going to use the polite term for nerd) geek (sorry you know I’m teasing husband) and he fixed it for me, whilst giving me a telling off for not backing up properly. It is working now but he was giving dire pronouncements about the internals of my laptop, so I’m not particularly trusting that it’s going to continue to work (and guess what, I’ve backed up).

Anyway, I have had a good week, three lots of parties over two nights, the first two (which were on the same night) being parent-teacher class parties at luckily two relatively close local pubs. I had helped organise the first party (for the mums from Boy Lacer’s class) but had to / wanted to dash off to at least show my face at the party for Girl Lacer’s class.

The next night I had my work party, Girl Lacer goes “What, a teaching party?” thinking of the remaining student I still tutor (ooh that would have been a fun party, just me), no, it was for my main part time job and it was near their offices in Central London. I turned up expecting it to be just a table booked in a pub, nope, it was in a pub but the whole pub was booked out for the party, free bar to, which was a little embarrassing when I tried to pay for my beer. I should point out (and this is something I’ve only really sort of realised this week) that all my previous adult jobs have been in the public sector and you’ll be pleased to know Christmas parties in at least the bits of the public sector I used to work in, were nowhere near that generous. Mr. Lacer reminded me that even in the private sector Christmas parties aren’t always that generous either. So I had a lovely three course meal and I finally got to meet so many of the people I work with, as the problem with working from home is that although I ‘speak’ to my colleagues all the time through e-mail, msn, Skype, I often don’t know what they look like and as a lot of the company I work for also work from home, the whole party was full of “Hi! Who are you?”‘s.

The next day was Boy Lacer’s and Girl Lacer’s Christmas concerts, the first concerts in the new school hall. Boy Lacer was in the KS1 concert and Girl Lacer in the KS2 concert. For Boy Lacer it was the first time he had been placed somewhere on a stage that was not within easy grabbing distance by a member of staff, so it was lovely to see that they thought they could trust him more and he did behave beautifully, singing with real gusto. For Girl Lacer it was our first experience of a KS2 concert and it was so much more grown up and although I think I will remember the songs they sing in KS1 each Christmas as well as both my kids will as they grow up, it was also nice to hear some more traditional Christmas carols (see, there’s a traditionalist in me buried somewhere).

Also on that day (and luckily between the two concerts, so I didn’t miss the delivery man), I got an absolutely lovely parcel from Nicole (we’ve been swapping books), she gave me Arlington Park and Kraken (can’t wait to read both) and she gave me an absolutely lovely drawstring bag, filled with chocolate and sewing goodies (including a needle book, which I so needed, as poor Mr. Lacer would attest to – ouch). The drawstring bag has proved particularly useful and Nicole must have read my mind because I had been thinking of making something very similar, as I often take my embroidery out and about with me but have been using plastic carrier bags or too big for the purpose eco shoppers, so to have the bag, which isn’t plastic nor the wrong size has been fantastic. In fact since receiving it I’ve been permanently keeping my work-in-progress in it.

Work in progress – solar system set by Wild Olive

Floss organisation – chaotic

On Friday (after hearing the day before that the shoes I’d ordered from Amazon were actually out of stock), I decided to try a real life shoe shop instead. I was after, specifically, some more DMs and ended up having a lovely chat with a grey haired shop assistant in one of my local department stores about how wonderful DMs are. There was so much chose to choose from (I’m so glad that DMs are back in fashion) and I could have easily bought more than one pair but in the end (upon the suggestion of the shop assistant, as they weren’t out on display), I bought these beauties.

When I’m not wearing a skirt or leggings (in which case I wear these - still going strong and still getting compliments after a year) I had been wearing my trusty blue converses which had been wearing thin and my feet were quite frankly getting freezing. Mr. Lacer suggested “some of those furry boot things”, “what?” I go “you mean Uggs? No way, everyone wears those round here,” yes sorry Ugg wearers, I was being pretentious. But as what is beginning to become the way, when Mr. Lacer ends up making a rare wardrobe suggestion, I actually end up following it, despite my initial disagreement, but my feet felt so warm and comfortable as soon as I slipped my feet into those completely lined shoes, I couldn’t say no.

Also on Friday I got another lovely surprise in the post or should I say couriered to me again (two surprises through my door in a week? never). I opened the box completely confused and what was inside but a lovely box of extremely posh chocolate, from work (as in main part time job, not tutoring part time job), it was such a lovely and unexpected (and delicious) surprise. I think the whole company must have been working in a high cocoa content glow that day (and I discovered I really like salted caramels).

On Saturday we went to Ikea, now me and Mr. Lacer do have a bit of a shared marital passion for furniture, which is unfortunate then considering we live in a tiny flat and need no more furniture. However the sofa we bought when we moved into the first flat we actually owned, 12 years ago, had got so bad recently that when you sat on it you could feel the springs, so we thought it was about time we got a new one. So me and Mr. Lacer were as giddy as a couple of school kids and we’ve also been hatching plans for getting rid of some toy storage and buying a sideboard and ooh some more shelves to.

Anyway, I won’t post a picture of the old sofa, it’s been soon on this blog often enough or at least bits of it because it’s next to the natural day light lamp, so it has the only (reasonably) decent light in the flat. But here’s the new one, which arrived today (we have to always get sofas from Ikea because I absolutely could not handle ordering a sofa and then waiting six weeks, ugh).

As you can see, it’s messy already, actually I wanted to take an in use shot, me and Girl Lacer had been making a Christmas present for her teacher and Boy Lacer had been making elaborate patterns with blocks (under the felt). The new sofa is quite a bit larger than our old one and not needing to pad it with extra cushions to make it remotely comfortable, it’s been lovely to have the whole family spread out. The toy storage you see on the left will be moved and the table currently in front of it, put in it’s place, the smaller table in front of the sofa goes with the slightly larger table, as a pair of nesting tables (bought last summer (I think) from John Lewis, a brilliant investment buy, that have been so useful). So we still have some organisation to do (and the perfect sideboard to find, although we’re pretty loyal in our furniture shopping (and on a budget), it’ll be from Ikea). but really pleased with the new sofa, may that last us 12 years to

PS Note the considerably less cushions on the sofa in the photo, I’ve had a major cull (although the kids are refusing to let go of the two grotty floor cushions that used to live on our old sofa). I’ve sadly retired a lot of my embroidered cushions because they now look just too grey (despite washing) and/or bobbly (a lesson there in colour and material choice in the future I think, no more white aida and no more cheap white fabric to embroider on). And although the sofa does need less cushions, it does need more than what it’s currently got, ooh fun, finally an excuse to make more cushions!

The Wedding

Sorry for the blogging absence, first our fridge freezer broke down at the beginning of this week (less than 24 hours after it had been stocked up with a week’s worth of shopping) but we have nice new fridge freezer now which is slightly bigger than our old one and has a water dispenser and is frost free (maybe now no more arguments about putting the shopping away in the freezer). Then I got a bad cold.

Anyway we went to my cousin’s wedding yesterday, it was in Hampshire, in an old tithe barn, which was a lovely choice for a civil ceremony as the barn had the feel and age of an old church but was a lot more flexible in that the wedding area could be changed into the reception area once the guests had been ushered out into the cold to drink hot chocolate and champagne. The bride and groom were lucky with bright sunshine yesterday but ooh the bride must have been cold during the lengthy photo session outside.

I know I had promised a photo of what I was wearing yesterday but I wasn’t feeling at my most photogenic yesterday, so I’ll just describe it, I ended up wearing the turquoise long satin skirt I found, with a black cross over vest top from Banana Republic and a simple black cardigan from M&S and I had my hair up in a high ponytail.

I had planned on making a dress for Girl Lacer, had even got as far as washing the fabric for it (a fairly sophisticated navy blue with white pin dots) but then the fridge freezer and my cold got in the way, I will still make the dress but for the wedding I went out and brought this dress, also from M&S. It’s not the most attractive picture on the link to the M&S site (why is it that so many models on the M&S site, even the child ones, look sulky?) but it’s a beautiful dress and suits Girl Lacer down to a T. Quite 50ish in styling, the print on the dress is of two girls in flared skirts walking poodles. Girl Lacer wore it with her hair also up in a ponytail, tied back with a black ribbon (a multi tasking black ribbon at that, it was the tie on her Egyptian costume last week).

I had worried a little about us wearing so much black (or in Girl Lacer’s case grey and black) to a wedding, but when we arrived it looked like we were spot on, with lots of people wearing black and Girl Lacer was even more spot on because not only were lots of people wearing black, but so many people were rocking the 50s chick look, it looked great. Even the mother of the groom (my aunt), looked fantastic in a handmade 50′s style satin turquoise, full skirted dress, with a little black cardigan and a black netted hat (see black at winter weddings, obviously cool). Even Boy Lacer noticed me and his glamorous great aunt were wearing quite similar (in colour and material at least) outfits.

Despite not being able to make Girl Lacer a dress, I did have a little chance to do a little more crafting for it, after making my peacock clutch the other day I needed to make a purse small enough to go in it.

It’s just big enough for a bank card and some coins. Girl Lacer was particularly taken with it, so that got added to the list of possible birthday present ideas in the future. The embroidery on it is from Made in France, which is still one of my most favourite embroidery books.

I also made this

Which is the corsage from The Liberty Book of Home Sewing and although it doesn’t look that bad in the photo (taken on a pile of Mr. Lacer’s clothes not because he was the intended recipient of the corsage, nah that was never going to happen but because he’d dumped his clothes on the only spot in the flat that has good light at the moment) but the corsage is way too big and therefore way too heavy and floppy. When on it looks more like a blue and white spotted cabbage has attached itself to my chest. It was fiddly to make (it involved curling petals with an iron and a metal knitting needle and then shoving sewing needles through multiple layers of tough, bondawebbed fabric) and took ages, so it was a bit of a disappointment that it didn’t work, specially as the very centre of the corsage (which I put together first) did look like it was going to be good. But I’m sure there are probably easier / better / more wearable corsage patterns out there.

But back to the wedding, it was a lovely day, very posh (so as the first wedding Girl Lacer can remember I hope it hasn’t raised her expectations too high lol), everyone (including the kids, which can be a struggle at times) had a great time and the bride and groom looked so happy. Seems just like yesterday the groom was my tiny Superman obsessed cousin.