Man shirt!

I made the shirt over the weekend - it did not take very long as most of the time we were out enjoying the sunshine. Except for the cuff instructions, that were slightly headache inducing, the pattern was easy to follow. Most important of all husband is happy with it!

Man shirt pattern 7045

Husband has decided its long past overdue his turn for a shirt so here is the fabric and pattern for my first attempt at a man shirt. The pattern is no 7045 and the fabric comes from  dittofabrics.co.uk . Ditto is a bit of a fave - lots of gorgeous fabrics and really helpful staff if you need advise.

Bow party bags

My 9 year old helped me with these party bags for her birthday party. They are made with a basic envelope shape, a popper to hold it closed and an essential bit of sparkle for the bow.

Plain stitch workroom

Spent a lovely day in Wendover visiting my friends new shop/ workroom. It is full of all things quilty and offers classes as well as having gorgeous fabrics to buy. Deb makes the most amazing inspiring quilts and I could not resist a bundle of bright pink fabrics for smallest daughter.You can see more about the workroom and the classes by following this link plainstitch.blogspot.com

Woodcut horse

Have been carving out a large woodcut, its rather more hard work than linocut but it prints with the grain subtly showing. My arms ache but there is a curly heap of kindling for the fire.

Shirt New Look Pattern 6010

I was given the Pride and Prejudice DVD for Christmas (the one with the wet shirt) and was inspired to make my own non wet shirt when I saw this fabric in John Lewis.  Jane and Elizabeth seem to waft about in long dresses in this spotty cotton, I am not quite up to that on the school run, so made this. The pattern was very easy to follow, pleats on front v satisfying to make and voluminous sleeves will do for romantic waftyness.

New Look Pattern 6010 and the finished shirt

Paper stencil printing

I have been printing with Year 4 at my daughters school, they had a fantastic time getting very messy with plasticine printing and next week we will be doing stencils. Therefore this morning I felt inspired to do my own stencils and rather enjoyed the effects. All you need is scissors, scalpel ( of course not for little ones) paper, an old lid or plate, poster or acrylic paint and a brush or sponge.

I drew this elephant and then carefully cut it out with scissors

Here it is printed, the bottom elephant is made using the stencil, the middle using the cut out elephant ( looks a bit like a cave painting) and the top two are the bits of stencils

Tried something a bit more complicated using a scalpel as scissors would be too cumbersome

Print using dabbing motions with a paintbrush or sponge. The best consistency for the paint is to have it a bit like greek yoghurt, mix it up on an lid or whatever is at hand

Final result...