Unfortunately I’m not, Fibromyalgia has flared up big time. I’m in a lot of pain, not sleeping and generally feeling really naff at the moment. I’ve been given new medication and a referral to pain management clinic. Fingers crossed I’ll be back to my normalish self soon.

After watching Tamlyn’s video about her sewing goals, last week. I thought that’s a really good idea to try and set myself no set specific garments like #makenine. I have kicked myself in the past for not getting them completed and this year will be different!

So here goes, my hopeful sewing plans for 2021.

Slow and Steady

As you know I do have chronic health conditions, I work part time and trying to home school the kids too at the moment is a challenge. In future sewing projects from now on, I’m taking a leaf out of Samantha’s book. I will break tasks down or set myself an amount of time to be sewing. Not to rush, enjoy the process, hoping I’d make less silly mistakes this way and save myself some energy.

Sew Practical Clothing

I don’t about you lot but I’m no way inclined to make pretty dresses at the moment as I can see this year being in the majority of lockdown. Yes I know, It isn’t the right way to look at it but why make something that you won’t get much wear out of. I am wanting to make myself more loungewear, for example jogging bottoms, comfy tops etc. I’m thinking of finally getting round to make the Stella joggers from Tilly and the Buttons Stretch book and making quite a few Billies’ too.

Use the Stash

Yeah… I have a stash and half! You know what it is like when there is a sale on and think I must have that fabric but never have a project in mind at the time. It needs to change and only buy fabric with a specific project in mind. I’ll be going through parts of my stash and plan some makes. I know of the top of my head that I have 2.5m Tilly and the Buttons hand print jersey and 2.5m lemon print jersey which are destined for the Juno Pjs. I just need to print out the pattern or trace it, which ever will be quickest way to get it together I think.

Sewing Community

On Instagram alone, there is a huge sewing community with plenty of challenges and swaps to take part in. I really want to take part more and get to know more like minded people in the world.

I’m taking part in Megs aka pigeonwishes Galentine’s Day party which is to make something in either pink or red. I also posted about making this back in November’s post, at least I’ll get there eventually!

After looking in my stash I’ve got the beautiful add it up in pink by Ruby Star Society which will be a tried and tested Stevie top by Tilly and the Buttons. Who doesn’t love a cute bow and an easy sew. Yas!

Finally, be kind to myself

I really need to be kinder to myself and practice self care more.

Pace myself, try not to do everything all at once.

Rest more!!!!

Eat better and drink more water.

Don’t beat myself up if I don’t get my sewing tasks complete, when it can wait for another day.

Does anyone else have any sewing goals for the year?

Happy Sewing

Sal xx

The post Sewing Goals for 2021 appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.

How you are all doing? Are you ready for 2021? It seems so strange that a year has passed already yet it has been a very peculiar one indeed!

The lovely Jayne aka Loopymabels_closet and Sarah aka Rosysewsmodernvintage  ran this sewing challenge last year and it was so popular that they decided to do it again this year! But what IS #swapsharesew I hear you cry? Well, in short it’s a swap challenge…you get partnered up with a fellow sewist and send each other a swap parcel which you then incorporate into a sewing project. Plus you get to get to know a liked minded sewist and become friends. Also up for grabs is some lovely prizes from @emporia_patterns @felicity.fabrics @patternunion @mavenpatterns

My partner was the lovely Lynne aka Chadders1965 who is a very busy lady with a heart of gold. I received this lovely package from her… the chocolate buttons was devoured by the kids but made use of the face mask and foot mask right away!

The little zippered pouch is perfect for keeping my little tools safe in one place while working on a project.

For our project, we decided to use the Tilly and The Buttons Indigo Pattern and we chose different fabrics but decided we would send each other the pockets of the fabrics we was making so we had snazzy pockets.

This beautiful Pink Dalmatian Print Viscose is from Sew Anonymous and was an absolute bargain at £5 per metre!! If you haven’t seen Aimee’s beautiful array of fabrics at great prices before, where have you been?! I really would recommend you give her online shop a visit.

The alterations that I made to mine, was the usual sleeve adjustment of shortening the length of the sleeve by 1.5″ and I made a straight size 6 in tunic length. I still draw lines on my fabric to make sure I get them straight when I sew!

To minimise the *Maternity* look of the indigo (*in my opinion it does have that feel to it) I put in some waist ties to bring it in at the waist a bit more which has done it a lot of favours. Otherwise, I’d look like a sack of spuds!! So I made the ties

I cut out two rectangles of fabric – 20″ length by 1.5″ wide. then sewed one end shut then continued along the length to make a tube. To turn these bad boys out so easily was the prym turning tools and made it a breeze!

When it comes to gathering I use dental floss as I try and use the normal method of gathering with 2 or 3 rows of stitching but always end up breaking the threads when pulling…Grrrr!!!

All I do is set my machine to a zig zag stitch and place a line of dental floss at the centre of where the stitch would be leaving an extra “tail” of floss at the beginning and end of the fabric.

Start the zigzag so that it stitches on either side of the floss, but doesn’t pierce it. Then pull the fabric along the floss to gather it. You can knot one end of the floss to keep the gathering tight if you prefer. Et Voila, easy gathers!!

Also you can not have a biccie or two when getting rid of the gather stitches once you’ve sewn it in place eh?

With making this I did retreat to my bedroom to sew in peace but being a mum you don’t get that luxury hahaha the kids followed me.

I was adamant to keep the pockets even though I’ve made the Tunic length, so all I did was shifted the pocket notch up by an inch so no sneaky show of the pocket plus it fits me better this way for my short arms!

Here is my Indigo with a little video, I’m trying to get technical hahaha!

Plus, no garment isn’t complete without a Kylie and the machine label, especially one of her new sweary sewist ones!

I really enjoyed this little swap as I got to make new sewing buddies and such a lovely touch to have swapped fabrics, with wearing my Indigo it will remind me of Lynne

Has anyone else been taking part with any of Instagram Sewing Community swaps/projects?

Happy Sewing, All the best for 2021!!

Sal

xx

The post SwapShareMeet 2020 appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.

When Jennifer put the call out for Testers for her new Cardi pattern, who wouldn’t say no?!

I’ve recently made the Bronte Top and it fit was really good and her instructions are pretty easy to follow so i thought i’d take myself out of my comfort zone and make my 1st ever Cardigan!

Thankfully i had won a £20 voucher from @cottonreelstudio, perfect timing! So i decided to go for the Navy and Black Ponte Roma for a bit of colour blocking and i wanted the cardi to have a bit of structure to it

There is 2 versions to this cardigan, if you wanted a vintage vibe there is a cropped version or longline length that i opted for.

The fab thing about Jennifer’s patterns is that she has set the pattern pieces really well to print so instead of wasting paper you only need to print the pages you need for whichever version you are sewing! Nothing worse than printing out a 50 odd page pattern and to only use 40 of them…. must be the ‘Yorkshire’ in me!

Oh look my Fondant fancies are making an appearance again! Hahahaha!

 Here’s a pic of the Neckband going in, it’s a lot easier than you think!

Now i won’t lie…. this pattern is for the absolute beginner! You will need to have some experience working with knits as it can be a tricky when you are inserting the saddle sleeves but it is a very interesting design feature!

Here’s my tester version all sewn up!

There is an option for buttons also but for my version i quite like my cardi’s open and tend not to fasten them so didn’t want to fath around for no reason!

So with skipping that step i managed to get this sewn up in a day from sticking the pages to sewing up the cardi so not bad going to say it’s my 1st cardi! Yay!

For my next version, I’m thinking for going for a bit lighter jersey as the Ponte is quite thick and doesn’t drape much because of it plus it’s coming to Spring/Summer which would be a fab cover up! Just need decide if i want to colour block or not….hmmmmm!

The Pattern is now officially realised over at Jennifer’s Shop so grab your copy now and get sewing up some yummy cardis’!

Sal

xx

The post Jennifer Lauren Handmade Juniper Cardigan appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.