Christmas update and pics to come!

Christmas has been and the flat is now overrun with toys! I went to my parents on Christmas eve, had Christmas day just the three of us, then boxing day morning at my parents then afternoon at Marc's grans. We had Korean food for Christmas dinner as it's my fave. What I really fancied was Japanese sashimi but you need really fresh fish for that and there's not much chance of that round here despite living on the seafront! I've not had a proper Christmas dinner for years as we always do something a bit alternative. We had sort of a Christmas dinner on Boxing day at Marc's grans, but nice as though it was, it was without cranberry sauce and gravy so it doesn't really count! I did have some turkey and roastie leftovers though at mums so I haven't missed out too much!
Anyway, I have been busy with the old sewing (still using Mums machine...it's just soooo nice!!!). I have made my sofa covers which look quite jolly. I also made a red tartan dress for Christmas with this pattern. I wore it with a black polo neck and black boots. I was sewing very late at night on it. At 1 in the morning I was tying bits of fabric around my waist to make a sash (like on the picture of the designer dress in the last post) but I was so tired by then I had to stop. It looks just as nice without a belt though. Picture coming soon I promise!
I have just made two more nappies for James using a free pattern from Ottobre magazine website. One is made of hemp with a sewn in microfibre booster pad and a green microfleece inner. The other is made of green towelling with a removeable hemp and microfibre soaker pad and also a green microfleece inner. To those unfamiliar with nappy making, hemp and microfibre are fabrics with good absorbancy. Fleece or microfleece is used to line nappies to act as a stay dry barrier to wick moisture away from baby's bum. So there you go. I have photographed them before testing them on James. I wish I had photographed all the nappies I made for James before they got faded in the wash. When I was pregnant I made a load of nappies and I used to spend hours stacking and restacking them in the bathroom as they were so cute and soft. I wish I had photographed them before the inevitable wear and tear after he was born.
Anyway, photos to come... I promise!

An update...coat and sofa covers!

It's been a long time since I updated because the PC broke down so I have been using my old ibook running OS 9 which has problems letting me access some web pages fully for some reason (something to do with Javascript). OH is installing OS X on it today so hopefully that will sort that problem out.

Anyway, I am updating this from work, so no pics today I'm afraid. I've completed my coat and worn it a lot. I'm very pleased with it. It was well worth all the extra time spent on the little details such as the bound button holes. The collar looks a bit big, but the retro look is still in so that doesn't matter too much! I'm so pleased to be able to wear a coat that only cost £25 to make. Even the cheap coats in the shops at the moment start at about £50.

I wore my coat last weekend on my two trips to Manchester. On Saturday I went by myself on a Primark-Abakans run! I bought fabric for the sofa covers. I bought 26m of orange upholstery weight chenille for 75p a metre, and I was only charged for 22m! needless to say, I chose the fabric for the price not necessarily the colour!

I then had to carry all that fabric home on the train. Don't ask how I managed to walk with it from the shop to the station, it's a bit of a blur to be honest! Put it this way, it was bloomin heavy and damn awkward to carry. The poor lad in the shop had a job folding it then put it in the thinnest bag imaginable.

Anyway, I have started the sofa covers using my mums brother sewing machine which is a whizz compared to mine. Multiple layers of upholstery fabric not a problem fro this machine! They covers are not turning out as fitted as I expected them too but at least they're better than what I had on the sofas in the first place.

I also bought a couple of metres of red tartan dress weight wool as I want to make a dress similar to the one pictured above for Christmas!