Tidying up, bits and bobs, not really made anything...

My new Uni year will be kicking off soon and I have no where to study. So I want to tidy up in my sewing room so that I can have a little study shelf or something. I study Law part-time so I do generate a lot of paperwork and it will have to go somewhere. More generally, the sewing room could definitely use a sort out, then i'll have more room for new stuff! 

I have just sold a lot of larger pieces of quilting cotton that I would literally never use because I don't like them very much (inherited) that were taking up a ton of room. Luckily they were really good quality and have had no problem moving them along on eBay. Stash-wise I think that's all I'm prepared to get rid of at this time but I am left with the problem of how to fix whats left.

I could do with a trip to Ikea and buy them out of all the things like paper boxes and magazine files but it's no easy thing to take your young kids shopping at the moment, so that may be on hold. I can't bring myself to buy them on eBay, they are literally double the price(!) and I don't live too far from Ikea.

I did get rid of a lot of rubbish, and I'm not done yet. There's a box of needle felting supplies that I kind of want to chuck, I don't think it's good enough to sell but one of the children showed an interest for like 20 minutes one time so I feel guilty, ha!

Have also been messing around with the idea of switching my blog to a vlog. Purely because I can chat a little easier than I can type. But there are tech limitations around this it seems. I don't have a decent camera and I don't want to put my name to potato quality youtube! So not sure what will happen there right now. I have a project that I want to talk about there but not sure whether to just get on with said project, and write about or delay til I can show the internet properly.

I did take up the curtains that are in here so they no longer have to be stuffed behind the desk to open or close them but, I'm not sure I like it - they are quite voluminous now that they aren't being held back by anything and taking over the actual work area of the desk...

I replaced the very tired, gross looking ironing board cover with a DIY one, it looks way better now and was a lot easier to do that I had originally thought.

I find myself wondering if I could fit a cutting table in here somehow. It was always the plan to have something like that but I have been slowly taking up the floor space with other stuff and I'm not sure that one would fit in here anymore and I don't think I will be happy with something small... I would at least want to be able to cut a full length dress on it (luckily, I am short!). Hmmm, probably best off to continue to use the kitchen table lol.

Lastly, I had a burst of productivity on ye olde quilt, so named because it is the project that has lasted forever and ever. I have finished the 2nd side of scallops - so I'm officially halfway around that border now! 

Once this border is done, I only need to bind the quilt. I'm almost there! 

My new sewing box

Right before lockdown, I had visited a local antique/second hand shop and found a lovely little sewing box on legs. The inside had basically rotted but the shell was sound enough. I wanted something to store my hand sewing stuff in so I bought it. Then the inside was too awful to use right off the bat and I was completely overwhelmed with everything so it just sat under my desk and was used as a handy shelf for storing bits and bobs.

I decided this week to pull it out and have a proper look at sorting it out. I'm not in love with the finish on the wood to be honest but I don't really know where to start with fixing it and I can live with it. My priority at the minute is just to get it usable. The fabric in there looks like some sort of poly brocade, eighties maybe? I remember my Nan having something similar as a tablecloth at her house when I was a child. I removed everything, there were so. many. nails.

The sides and bottom fabric were just wrapped around pieces of cardboard so I plan to just do that as well. The padded pincushions attached to the lid had a little story. Once I pulled off the green floral fabric, there was this silky red satin-ish layer underneath. So I thought 'oh cool the original fabric is here' but when I took it off there was a whole other layer. The original layer is green silk or silk-ish that had been tufted and in each tuft is a tiny thread covered button. Really pretty.

Look at the colour difference between the front and the back! Unfortunately, replacing the coverings with silk is a bit beyond my means at the minute, even though it would look really cool. I am planning to use up some quilting cotton on it.

Specifically, this one. A lilac stripe (left over from my ongoing hand quilted quilt).

On one of the panels I have added an elasticated pocket for 'stuff'. You know what I'm talking about. I haven't met a sewing project yet that couldn't be improved with the addition of pockets.

I have attempted to lightly tuft the padded sections as a homage to what was there originally. I simply stacked 3 layers of quilt batting ontop of some cardboard. Used an awl to make holes and then threaded these tiny 3mm cream buttons into place (they were originally purchased for doll clothes).

A lot of hot glue later...

One sewing box with legs without any rust covered fabric! Yay! It is a bit rough around the edges, but I'm thinking that I can just glue some sort of trim on there if it starts to bother me. The padded sections on the lid fit perfectly into the cavity when it's closed.

I can fit all my hand sewing stuff in there (bar the actual quilt). The cross stitch pattern is (still) the one I bought last year from the cross stitch guild at the Festival of Quilts - back when going places to buy sewing stuff was a thing. /sigh

Well, my attempt is far from professional looking! However, when I next fancy a fabric change I know that the cardboard I used is just too thick. It led to some bunching up of the fabric in the cavity so I will need to find something else.

I really like it though, and frankly, anything was going to be better that what was there before! Plus, now I can use it, which I am thrilled about :)

Childs long sleeved t-shirt

Here it is! The final product. It honestly didn't take long to cut and construct. The applique of the logo did take most of a whole afternoon but I did it entirely by hand. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough jersey to avoid having to piece the back but it's not too annoying. The logo and the neckband were both salvaged from my sons favourite top that he had outgrown quite dramatically. Overall I think my attempt has worked really well, and he likes it! Bonus.

I have also converted two obliterated pairs of trousers into board shorts for my youngest by cutting them off at the knee and hemming them.

Making do and mending...

Otherwise known as, "My children are growing and a pandemic is keeping me from the usual shopping haunts so I have to somehow magic them new things out of old things!"

My 8 year old has suddenly shot up by about 4 inches and after a week or so of him appearing sporting short trousers and unintentional three-quarter sleeves we had a sort through his clothes. Basically all of his summer/autumn stuff is kaput. Usually, this would mean a trip to Asda/Primark/Matalan and stock up on basics but I have been having a think around the clothes industry and how much I want to support it.  

In my own wardrobe I have always tried to be as mindful about the contents of my wardrobe. I am not comfortable with the amount of environmental damage or exploitation involved in the fashion industry so I have always (where practical) tried to just not buy that sort of stuff. With all the slowing down of life stuff that has happened over the last few months I have had time to consider why I don't really apply that attitude to my children's clothes. 

The obvious answer is that kids grow. Like, all the time. Fabric is generally not cheap and though I like to make them bits to wear I have always stopped short of attempting *everything* because who wants to lovingly make something that will only be worn a few times before its too small?

However, I have recently been listening to some of the historical costumers on youtube speaking about how people approached clothing in the past and it's given me a lot of food for thought. Obviously, they didn't have the err... luxury(?) of fast fashion so couldn't just pop out and buy stuff for their kids. Cloth was really expensive so they used every bit of it that they could. Adult clothing was often converted for children, which was then often pieced together in odd ways because they had to use the cloth in the most efficient way. I admit I can be a bit wasteful of fabric. I don't keep scraps from projects and I don't lay my pattern particularly efficiently so end up with weird rectangles of fabric with a big sleeve-shaped hole in the the middle.

What really stuck with me though from listening to the historians was that clothes were expensive, and expensive for a reason. The cloth was expensive and then it took time to make a garment. Clothes are supposed to be expensive people! Not because they are 'designer', but because it was made properly. So even though fabric is still not cheap. it's not really wasteful to make a childs garment from it when it could be remade/reworked/mended to either fit a smaller child or improved to fit the growing child later on. Don't be concerned I have no intention of suddenly dressing my kids like street urchins but there has to be a way to make the constant cycle of clothes too small -> buy/make clothes a little easier to bear. I think the answers are in the way our ancestors coped with the same problem.

The other thing that stuck with me is that sewing in the past wasn't a 'hobby', the maintenance of clothes (darning, mending) was a practical, everyday life skill. Clothing was looked after because it had to last as long as possible, and then it was made up into something else!  Honestly, when you think about it, it's amazing that there is anything left over to display in today's museums. I need to mend more.

the pile of old things.

So, behold - the pile of things that no longer fit my 8 year old. Yes, the awesome minecraft trousers I made for him are there /cry

I have a tiny bit of jersey that I'm hoping to squeeze one long sleeved t-shirt out of and actually after a bit of a sort through the original pile. There were a few things that straight out fit my soon to be 4 year old. So they will be winging that way instead of to the cutting board. 

To save his very favourite top that I had to wrestle off his body I have cut out the slogan on the front, basted it down and started to blanket stitch it to a newly cut grey jersey front. The jersey in the back of the old top became the new neckband.

I hadn't planned to buy new fabric for his stuff but after pondering and taking on the points I was talking about above, I've decided that it's not necessarily a sunk cost as long as it begins a long life of use in whatever format. So.. I'm probably going to 'invest' in some new fabric for the kids stuff. I'll update when a few things are done.