Pattern Review contest plans

This year I'm determined I'm going to get back into garment sewing and have more of a balance of quilts and clothes. not least because I could really use some new clothes! One of my favourite summer skirts has shrunk and has some stains that won't come out so I think it's going to become part of my next quilt (the non-stained parts of course!).  My two favourite summer dresses are, respectively, 15 years old and vintage (c1980s), so I would really love a new summer dress for this year. I'm also short on t-shirts and a summer jacket.  I am trying really hard not to buy anything new, unless I know who made it and that they were paid and treated fairly for doing so. This means that, along with scouring the charity shops, I hope to make some new clothes for this summer.

When I saw the Mini-Wardrobe contest on Pattern Review I thought it was the perfect starting point!  We're off to Amsterdam for a 4 day break at the end of May so the timing of this contest is perfect - hopefully I can have a nice wee capsule wardrobe ready to take with me.

The contest runs from April 15 - May 15 and the rule is to make a mini-wardrobe that will coordinate and work together, It has to be 5 garments, 3 tops and 2 bottoms and all tops must be able to be worn with each bottom.

These are my plans, all with fabric I already own. From top to bottom these are:
1. Peach/coral fabric from a charity shop. I'm not really sure what it is, maybe viscose, rayon. It's nice and soft and drapes well. This is going to be a Jily top by Ready To Sew but this time without the tie as I already have a pink one with a tie.
2. Turquoise jersey (Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certified) from Ray Stitch.  I've just finished this up, it's the Crew neck tee from the Sew U Home Stretch book. I'll post a review soon.
3. Blue/pink striped cotton jersey from Saeeds in Walthamstow. This is also finished already, another Crew neck tee from the same book as above.
4. Rust coloured silk/linen blend from a market stall in Walthamstow. This is going to be the Freemantle trousers. The pattern is printed off and taped together and I hope to make a start on these this weekend.
5. Blue chambray cotton from the Village Haberdashery.  This is going to be another Megan Nielsen Brumby as I love this pattern. My purple version has shrunk and has stains (the skirt I mention at the beginning of this post) so I could do with another in rotation as I tend to wear my Brumby's most days in the summer!  However I am now wondering if I have enough of it to make this longer summer skirt, the Justine skirt from Ready to Sew

I have already sewn the two t-shirts and hopefully I can get started on the trousers this weekend. However we've had a fair bit of lovely weather recently which is throwing a bit of a spanner in the works as I'm so enjoying getting out in the garden and pottering around! This particular patch of wildflowers below is making me extremely happy!  The previous owners of our house really looked after the garden and it's lovely but it's all a bit neat and ordered for me so I'm hoping to make it a bit wilder with more colour and variety over the next few years!

patch of wildflowers in a garden

Monochrome quilt

Isn't it funny how sometimes the things that seem the simplest take the longest to actually do! This quilt was one such project.  I had it in my head that I wanted to make a black and white quilt for some friend's new baby boy.  I knew they would like a monochrome quilt and I knew the new baby's older brother loves pandas so that was my starting criteria.

When I saw this Sevenberry Panda & bear fabric from Sew Scrumptious I knew this was my starting point. I paired it with some circle time fabric from M is for Make.  I already had some of this but of course had to buy more to make this quilt! The black is a Moda cotton and I think the yellow is a Kona cotton, curry probably.  The backing, which I didn't get a photo of, is a lovely soft organic brushed cotton flannel from Ray Stitch.

I really enjoyed making my last half square triangle quilt so I decided to make another.  These are 9" half square triangles (for my previous quilt I used the tutorial from Suzy Quilts as a reminder on making HST). I did think this would be a relatively quick quilt to make but it just took me so long to work out the pattern placement.   Even then after I'd made all the half square triangles I laid it all out and decided there was too much black so had to unpick a few half square triangles and piece together some of the white circle time fabric in order to have enough.  In the end though I am really happy with how this turned out, I think the balance between the dark and light coloured fabrics works well and the yellow binding gives it a nice touch of colour - I don't think I could do a quilt completely in black and white!

The good thing about making smaller quilts is having a little helper to hold them while I take photos. He seems to quite enjoy it too!

I was quite conscious that for this quilt I bought a lot of new fabric, in fact since I started quilting I've bought a lot of new fabric.  I do try and use sheets or duvet covers from the charity shop for quilt backings whenever I can but I am now also going to try and stick to using the fabrics I have and only buying from charity shops for new fabric as much as possible. I've been tidying up my fabric and can't quite believe how much I have accumulated - both for quilting and garment sewing - so it's time to use what I have. 

Next up I have my Starry Skies quilt top basted, pinned and ready to quilt and I'm also hoping to get back to an improvised piecing quilt I've been working on for ages.  What projects have you been working on?

Baby doll quilt

Baby quilt on top of my baby's quilt!

It used to be when I wanted a quick fix project I would make a t-shirt or a jumper. However I'm so out of practice with garment sewing though that if I want a quick project at the moment I'm better with a quilt-based one. My son has just happened to mention he would like his dolls to have a quilt on their bed like the one I'd made for him. So that was enough for me, I knew what to make next!

Back in 2014 I made a pair of curtains for his nursery from some gorgeous elephant print organic cotton from M is for Make.  When we moved house last year they didn't fit in his room anymore so I wanted to do something else with the fabric, this was the perfect project.  Then I remembered that in 2016 I had used some remnants to make my first Sawtooth stars using the brilliant Suzy Quilts tutorial.  I put 4 sawtooth stars together and was going to make them into a big cushion but never got round to it.  These formed the basis of the quilt.  Then I unpicked the stitching in the curtains, something I'd long been putting off doing!  As well as backing the quilt with it, I used some of the curtain fabric to make a wee mattress and a pillow - I know, overkill a bit, but I was having so much fun! Also my son enjoyed helping to stuff the pillow with wadding.

I added a quick border to the sawtooth stars then basted it together.  This is the smallest quilt I've ever made and it was very nice to get the basting done so quickly, and the quilting!  I went with a grid pattern on the quilting. Afterwards I realised I could have made it even quicker if I'd just carried the quilting on right to the edges but I decided to stop at the border so I then had to tie in all the ends. I was going to link to the tutorial that taught me how to tie in ends but I can't remember what it was! I made some doublefold bias binding out of the green fabric - is it weird that I love making bias binding and attaching it?! - and used the Purl Soho tutorial I aways use for attaching it.  I put a wee label in the quilt too and it's already getting a lot of love. In fact today he had it down in the living room to sit on when he was watching TV after school.  So now I've finished two quilts for our own home - both for my son. I need to get on with basting and quilting the two large quilts I've made for the living room next!  I've still got lots of the elephant fabric left - they were long curtains - so I'm sure it'll make its way into another quilt before too long.

'helping' me take quilt photos