SEWING MACHINE MADNESS!!!

Morning everybody!!!

this week has been a bit mental,my kids have all been everywhere and no-where all at the same time!!!but thats for a different time and place..

This week beast has been on overdrive....I have found a technique i like doing and found a simple pattern that i can do without a pattern...its all in my head.......

I had another go at sewing machine smocking...and this time it was die straight and very fine to look at ...i have found that the closer the lines of elastic,the tighter and more shape and support the smocking provides.I had a forray into my local material shop in Diss,and asked vicky how to do this technique but she hadn't got a clue...its funny but i always thought that if you owned a material shop you should at least be able to give advice....but she does have a funny little stock of betty boop material,not my thing....but some of them i like.....her range is brilliant but its a start.

am going to see my sister this afternoon and might just have to stop in eye and have a look at their material shop,must tie a length of thread round my ankle as i might just get lost........

Now back to the matter at hand,this time i wasn't quite so nervous about smocking,i made a little girls dress and then decided to tackle one for grown ups....but i didn't want to make a dress,so i made a top out of a 1meter by 1meter sqaure of fabric,hemmed the top,did the elastic front and back,stitched them together down the sides and the folded out the side hems and locked them down to neaten the edges,,,,hemmed the bottom and made the straps,the straps are 1 meter in length and 2" wide sewn down one side and closed at one side,cut them in half and turned them the right side out,fixed them to the top and got the iron out ready to go......

pressed it very gentlyand tried it on...now,i am a size 16 in the uk and because i had doen it so finely it didn't fit me .....but my daughter was happy to try it on she's a size 14 and it fits her perfectly(mind you she's got boobs to die for!!),so i decided to put it on e-bay for sale and there it sits waiting for a new owner,i have had quite a few looks ,i would like to think that somebody would like this and would buy it...eventually i would like to turn it into a business.....but until i learn everything i shall just spend time on a few items at a time.........so here are the photo's of my latest projects finished......

SMOCKING...A STEP INTO THE UNKNOWN....

It all started a month ago................

I saw a magazine in my local newsagents...with a smocked top dress on the front page.But i hadn't got any money on me to buy it.so i went home and the following morning i went to the shop to get this tantalising magazine,and i was GUTTED!!! the magazine had gone.........

But i had pelnty to be getting on with,so i did what i wanted to do,and what i needed to do for the next month or so,I needed to know the in's and outs of my new sewing machine,make a couple of pairs of 3/4 length trousers for myslef and a couple of jumpers i had on order,but all the time i had this nagging in the back of my brain..i couldn't get this smocking thing out of my head..........

Last friday my sister called offering me three polyester sarongs that she bought ona holiday abroad,just three basic oblongs of silky material 3 meters long and 1 meter wide.It seemed such a shame to bin them,so she mailed them to me.

There was a green one,a red one and a burnt orange and chocolate one.The green one had little violet flowers on it and was quite cute to be honest,But i was a bit worried about upsetting my sister,but if they were going in the charity bin why not turn them into something i wanted to make and wear???

So last night i sat in front of my PC and asked jeeves about sewing machine techniques......Then a young male voice ipied up"myum,you want to try youtube"...and there it was al those techniques,all those titles to try.....i got 3,495 results on my request...but there after sorting the wheat from the chaff was a wonderful lady under the title of aurora's garden....she had two tutorials on machine smocking,her attention to detail was brilliant,exactly what i wanted and needed!!

What a revelation!!!I was raring to go,but i didn't think that my familly would appreciate my sewing machine screaming away at 10pm at night!!!

So this morning after everybody had gotten out of bed,and after countless loads of laundry and a huge lump of beef to be roasted...i bit the bullet and got out my sewing beast......have decided to call my sewing machine "beast" because i never know what its going to do next...sometimes i'm in tears of joy,and sometimes in tears of frustration,when i think the world hates me!!!!

I got the beast up and running and made the cutes little girls swing top/dress,it was all barbie pink and sequined,and i was so pleased how it came out....my DD wants one alot bigger so she can wear one!!!

and then it was time to bite the bullet....i peeled the potatoes,and the parsnips,did the peas,and thurned the beef over in the cooking juices,and made the batter for yorkshire puddings...leaving me with no more excuses...

I set the machine up,put shiring elastic onto the bobbin,set the stitch as big as i would dare go....and started the first row.......

I held my breath on the first two rows,and needed abreak,so with a coffee in hand i stopped got away from the beast,i was shaking from head to toe with excitement and fear all at the same time..then i went back and did a further 6 rows...it started to look like a real smocked garment..and then the elastic ran out from the bobbin half way through the row,I re-wound the bobbin,caught the half row,double stitched the connected row and off i went again,all the time the dinner was thrutching away in the oven smelling great as it cooked gently,i finished the front,and then went onto the back....it was a bit wonky,but it still looked great...i seamed the sides together,hemmed the bottom and made the straps.and then it was time to put the beast to bed so i could finish the dinner.

It has been a total revelation today..i don't know why but ever since i had my car accident at the age of 19,i have this thrist for knowledge that always needs to be topped up all the time..i know my spelling is terrible,but my brain always seems to be on the want.....so i do what i can.

And now i am thinking of making awhole load of these to dress myself in the way i want to look...i know autumn is coming,but at least i know i can do this now,the next thing i want to make myself is a coat,well maybe not a coat,a jacket would be perfect for the moment,have got a nice pea jacket pattern from burda sitting in my picnic basket.....

but today i have had a epithany and would hope it will turn into money for me at some point....i am just glad to have done something this weekend without the tears and anger.

AND YES!!!L DID TAKE SOME PICTURES!!!!

OMG!!!

Evening ladies and gents,boys and girls.....well this week has been a catalogue of disasters to be honest...my knitting machine fell on my foot this morning....my clamps had bent beyond repair...my middle son has been a bit silly this week too....but thats really another story to be told somewhere else....
Well this week has been a bit up and down and i have had my sewing machine out once this week.....My mother -in -law gave me a shed load of vintage sheets with some lovely patterns on them......i decided that i wanted to turn them into little girls sun dresses...and i duly had a play and made two of them......i made one with a shirt type top and one as a tie top...and i even had time to make my own bias binding...it was all going brilliantly...and i felt on top of the world!!!!
Then this week on thuresday my mother in law rang and asked me if i would mind making the girlies some dresses for their up and coming holiday.....i knew i had these two in stock so i asked her how old the girlies were,i was in luck!!!!one of them is 6 months old and the other is 3...i knew the dresses would fit beautifully.....i packed them up after pressing them,popped them into a bag...and away they went....it wasn't until i checked to day i realised that i hadn't taken a picture of my first dress i made with the vintage sheets.....gutted much!!!!!anyway i'm going to make some more today ready to sell....so i will be taking photo's....i managed to acess a very helpful lady on youtube called aurora's garden...she's been the most helpful person i've ever encountered...she's shown me how to smock with a sewing machine...brilliant!!!!!now the worlds my oyster and now i can get on and do the one thing i have always wanted to do and make myself a dress with spaghetti straps for wearing in the sun....I am well pleased,and can't wait to get going on this one....AND I WON'T FORGET TO TAKE FLIPPING PICTURES!!!!