A work in progress!

Hello, hello!

It has been another busy week here!

At least the weather has cooled down and it’s easier to move around.

I picked up an extra day at Leon’s this week to help cover staff on holiday making it 3 days total. Then I had 2 days of sewing lessons, 1 day of sewing up a sample dress and altering my friend's sequin dress and lastly, today, we had a picnic with our friends.

For my friend’s sequin dress, she wanted me to add side slits on both sides to the main fabric and the lining, cut off the train and reduce the overall length by 2 fingers.

The train is made up with godets and the fabric is a stretch sequin so there is a lot that can go wrong. 😅

I decided to machine baste the hem first to give me a chance to see if it was straight.

And I’m glad I did this because it was all over the place!

I don’t have a mannequin, never mind one with her proportions, so I had to have my friend come over and put on the dress to make sure that I would get the hem level.

I was on the floor for about 40 minutes hand-basting the hem and it looks much better.

I still have to press the hem, stitch it, reduce the front panel by 2 fingers and create the side slits in the lining. In other words, I’ve just created the side slits on the main fabric.

As usual, in Bianca style, It’s all last minute now. I’m working Monday and Tuesday at Leon’s and this dress needs to be on a flight on Wednesday. 😶🌫️

I’m going to have to make it work out, and soon!

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In this week’s sewing lessons, I’ve been helping people start a quilt, start a corduroy pillowcase, shorten a shop bought dress, insert a zip, set up a coverstitch machine and practise some stitching, sew a scrappy hoodie and continue work on a cosplay outfit.

Such a wide variety of projects going on and it’s amazing to see everyone chip away at new skills.

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In retreat news, the planning is coming along nicely and it shouldn't be much longer before we launch the tickets.

One of the things that I’m stuck on is how to advertise one of the accommodation options.

There are 10 pods and then a cottage.

The cottage has 2 bedrooms, one is a double and the other is a twin. 

I am unsure if I should put it up as accommodation for 3 friends, or should I separate the rooms and list them as a single occupancy double room and then a shared bedroom with twin beds.

If you’re interested in coming and have a couple of friends coming with you, please let me know if having the cottage as a whole would be better or if you would like your individual pods.

Join the waitlist here!

 

Stitches of the Week

 

Tilly and the Buttons - Leah

Another make is happening! I feel like it’s Christmas. 😂

This is one of Tilly’s latest patterns and there are so many variations, there is something in there for everyone.

I wanted to use some left over linen mix I used for a Peppermint Pocket Skirt a few years ago. The amount I had left is what helped me decide which version of the pattern to make.

I had quite a bit left so making just a top would be a waste of fabric. I chose to cut out the shift dress version to use as much of the fabric as possible.

It’s coming together easily but I do have to say that the button loop on the back and binding have been quite fiddly.

With it being cut on the bias and pressed into binding, it turns out quite narrow and a bit hard to press without burning my fingers.

It’s also a lot to cut small strips, sew them together and press, so I may consider getting a ready-made binding for my next version.

Before cutting my fabric, I held the front pattern piece to my body to confirm the location of my apex. It looked good so I went ahead and cut it out.

When I finished sewing the darts, they weren’t pointing in the right direction and they were quite a bit away.

This time I held the fabric piece up to my body, marked my apex and redrew the dart legs. 

The shift dress as a whole gave me apron vibes the first time I tried it on and I’m not sure I can get it out of my head now. It may have been because I had a long sleeve top on and trousers so it looked like I threw an apron on to protect my clothing.

I have since tried it on without a long sleeve top and it feels less like an apron that way but let’s see when it’s completely done and styled.

All that needs doing now is binding the armholes and doing the hem.

Materials: Red linen mix.

Size: My measurements put me in a size 2, but I went off the finished measurements and chose to make a size 1 for less ease.

The Drama: Do you see the apron vibes too?

The Win: A summer dress in progress that I can take on holiday, even if it does look like an apron. 😂

Summer Lee - Trompe Le Monde from The Sock Project book

As life stands, my daughter’s weekly karate lesson is where I get most of my knitting done. I’m there for one hour so I use 30 minutes to start writing my newsletter and the other 30 to knit.

I have continued with the grey/brown for the foot and I am enjoying the mindless knitting, row after row, without having to think about changing colours.

I mentioned last week that my stitch count was wrong because I got distracted and decreased more stitches than what I needed to.

But instead of going back, I decreased to 60 stitches on both socks and I’m going with that. 😂

From 64 to 60 stitches, I don’t think my foot will notice it that much.

Other than this deviation, everything else has been smooth sailing, so I just need to knit the length of my foot. This may take me a little while to get done still.

Yarn: Drops Fabel in pink, cream and brown yarn from Portugal.

Size: Started with an L for the legs, decreasing to somewhere in the middle of M and S. 😂

Needle Size: Cast on with 2.5mm and transferred to 2.25mm for the rest.

The Win: I fixed the stitch count, or should I say, I adapted it to my circumstances. 😂

Skill Builder of the Week

 

Triple Straight Stitch

I found myself mentioning this stitch a few times this week.

People have been asking what stitch can be used to sew stretchy fabric and because I don’t really like the look of a zigzag stitch, I have been suggesting a triple straight stitch.

Most, if not all, domestic machines come with this stitch. The picture you will see is a straight stitch, but 3 of them together(stitch number 04 on my machine - pictured).

The machine needle goes back and forth to create this stitch and it looks like a thick straight stitch.

Always test this on a crap piece of fabric though to check stretch and to see if you like what it looks like.

I do need to point out that if you make a mistake and want to redo it, unpicking this is a pain.

I’m speaking from experience here. 😂

 

Maker Spotlight

This week’s spotlight goes to @acraftycarrot! 😍

This is such a fun make!

Charlotte had a fancy dress night planned for a friend’s hen weekend and the theme had to start with the letter ‘T’.

Toucan was the first thing that came to Charlotte's mind and she made it happen!

The toucan mask was self drafted, the yellow top is the Sewing Machina Eckhart and the toucan wings is an adapted version of the Luisa Patterns Tie Top.

It looks fantastic, especially the mask!

Want to be featured in my newsletter? Just reply with a pic of your make and a little about it, I’d love to see what you’ve made!😍

 

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Lisbon Organiser
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Thanks for reading and happy sewing!
Bye for now, B! xx