Matilda

Hello! Hello! 👋

Hope you have been keeping well!

World Book Day just crept up on me this year!

Well, I knew it was coming, I just got lost in the dates.

I realised Sunday evening that it was 4 days away, but in reality I only had 3 days to get two outfits done for my girls. 😂

Thankfully my eldest wanted nothing over the top and my youngest followed suit. 

My eldest said she is too old to be dressing up as Elsa(when she dressed up for her birthday as Elsa just a few weeks ago😂) so she wanted to go as Matilda.

Of course, my youngest liked the sound of that and wanted to twin with big sister.

This made my life a little easier, because all I needed to make was a simple blue dress and a red bow.

I knew exactly which pattern I wanted to make!

The Piper from Violette Field Thread fit the brief.

They didn’t want shoulder ruffles, sleeves or a back bow, just a sleeveless dress with a collar.

I measured both my girls to choose the most correct size and my youngest measured larger than my eldest in most places, with one being 2 inches larger than my eldest! 

Now I didn’t want to waste time tracing all these different sizes, one because I didn’t have much time and two, I was feeling lazy.

A few months back you may remember I made the Piper in a pink cotton poplin with unicorns all over for my daughter’s friend.

I made a larger size, a size 7 at the time for the child to be able to wear it just that little bit longer.

As you can see by the picture, it didn’t seem like it was THAT big on my eldest daughter so I decided to make the same size this time round for both my girls.

So I made both dresses with a light blue chambray fabric in a size 7 and they were swimming in it! 😣

I think because the pink unicorn print was so busy, it disguised how much larger it actually was. The blue was just a plain light colour and you could see straight away it was too big.

All I could do then, without dismantling the whole dress, was to just take it in at the sides.

I removed an extra ½ inch seam allowance on each side and it fit them both much better!

I then self-drafted the red bows because I felt it would be quicker to do that than search for a pattern. 😅

I did think of just making the bows and glueing them to a headband, but I didn’t have 2 of the same colour red which could have caused issues. If you know, you know. 😂

So I made an elastic headband first and hand sewed the bows to them, all in the same red polycotton fabric.

They looked so cute together in their matching outfits!🥰

Since I spent most of the week on these last minute outfits and filming some YouTube content, I didn’t get to spend much time on my Lyra dress.

I unpicked a little bit of the seam attaching the skirt to the bodice to insert my waist ties. It’s not the best fix, but everything else was overlocked already.

I also attached the button stand and half of the collar is now on, so slowly we are getting there.

This fabric has continued to be a pain to work with though!

I took days cutting out all the pattern pieces, even interfacing the parts that needed interfacing before cutting out the pattern piece and still there has been some shifting.

The button stand shifted somewhat, I managed to fix it so it looks good on the outside, but the inside is not as straight as I would have liked it to look.

Also the inner collar stand, which is the one without interfacing, has stretched so much that I am having to press it in place, just enough to cover the stitches, by taking different seam allowances throughout! 😂

I will probably stitch this part in place this evening and will have a little bit more of it done to show you on my YouTube video on Tuesday.

I still haven’t made a decision on buttons or sleeve length, but I will deal with that when I get to it, hopefully this week.

 

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My socks are basically finished (I just have to graft the toe area closed)! 🥳

I am going to go on about this again, but I am never knitting one sock at a time ever again!

It has been great seeing both being worked up together, I did not get bored once, unlike the first pair I knit a while back.

Was it the colour of the yarn this time, or the exciting challenge of knitting two in the round… I don’t know, but I definitely want to keep on including sock projects in my knitting plans!

I used two skeins of the Drops Fabel Sunset, one for each sock and for the Drops Fabel Cornflower I used just one. I was taking a strand from the middle of the Cornflower for one sock and a strand from the outside for the other.

I still have to weigh them, but I have quite a bit of yarn leftover from all three skeins to make another pair of socks.

Plus I have some more sock yarn in my stash that I can pair them with, but I won’t start another pair for a little while now.

As for the sweater, it has been coming together very slowly. 

I have just knit a few more rows on the bodice and I am about 2 cm away from starting to shape the neckline.

Knitting this sweater, like with my socks, has been a dream!

The new needles have made all the difference with the yarn, it just glides off so smoothly. 😀

The combination of the Yarnsmiths Merino and Kid Mohair Silk has just been a delight to work with too!

Have you used any yarn from the Yarnsmiths range? Which did you try and what have you made with it?

Since I found Wool Warehouse, probably a year or two ago, I keep on returning to them for all things knitting.

And I haven’t just got from their own brand, but other brands too.

They have  such a wide range of yarns, fabrics, and tools to choose from which is why I think I keep on being attracted to their website.

Anyway, I don’t have more of my sweater knit up, because not only did I have to make two Matilda dresses, work a little on my socks, film 3 Youtube videos which includes a tutorial for the Roma Necessaire (EXCITING!), write this newsletter and carry on with general life, but I also bought some more storage for my sewing room! 😂

Probably like most of you, I have a lot of stuff in my room and it just seems to get fuller and fuller out of nowhere! 😣😂

I was even running out of floor space!

So enough was enough, I needed some extra furniture to help keep things tidied away.

I got an Ikea Kallax with 4 cubes to place on top of my already existing 8 cube Kallax. 

It fits in really nicely and looks a bit like some stairs with the other pieces of furniture next to it.

I was able to rearrange my books, some yarn I still had in a bag and I managed to take some fabric off the floor.

On the other side of the room, I removed the chest of drawers because it felt too ‘in my way’ and it took up a lot of floor space.

I replaced it with an Ikea Billy Bookcase which has opened up the space a lot and has given me a lot of space to pack the rest of the things on the floor.

I still don’t have all the things off the floor, but I just need to organise my shelves a bit better next week and I will finally have my floor back.

There are a few bits and pieces that I have realised I will probably never get around to using so I will be taking these along to my next sewing social on the 22nd March to see if anyone would like to give them a new home.

If you would like to join us, please respond to this email and I can send you all the details. 😀

To finish my week off, I got a stomach bug!

I started feeling a bit off Friday night and it was so bad on Saturday that I spent most of the day in bed.

I was unable to eat anything the whole day apart from 2 bananas. 😣

Come Sunday, it was as if nothing had happened! I felt so much better, but I still had a sensitive stomach.

But this is another reason why my sweater is not further along, I just didn’t have the energy to do much.

Hopefully in another day or so, I will be back to feeling 100% again. 💪

 

🎥Last Week's Video:

 

😎Confidence Corner:

No one can figure out your worth but you. - Pearl Bailey

 

It’s very easy to look around us and allow others to define our value, be it through their opinions or expectations.

But your worth isn’t something that can be measured by anyone else.

It’s not based on what you achieve, how much you do for others or if you fit into a certain mold.

Your worth is something you decide. It’s about knowing you are enough just as you are.

When you acknowledge your own value, you stop looking for validation in the wrong places. You set boundaries, choose what aligns with you and walk away from what doesn’t.

Take a moment every now and then to remind yourself that you are worthy, not because of what you do, but simply because you exist!

📰News Feed:

 

Sew Long Plastic!

"Enter Projeto Vai e Volta, a community-driven initiative tackling plastic waste by offering a stylish, sustainable alternative. Using recycled fabrics – from old veils and lightweight clothing to discarded sheets – volunteers craft vibrant, reusable bags, which are then handed out for free at Loulé’s Saturday morning market, as well as other markets in the Loulé area."

Read more: https://www.theportugalnews.com/news/2025-03-02/sew-long-plastic/95886

🧵This Week's Tip:

Sewing Tools

This week I put a new video on YouTube speaking about my top 6 sewing tools that make my sewing easier and more enjoyable. They are tools I use in every single project!

 

For anyone who is new to sewing, I would recommend these items because, apart from a sewing machine, they are really all you need to create your masterpieces.

So these are the tools I am constantly using:

1. Rotary Cutter - This is my favourite way of cutting out projects, and I feel it’s the easiest too! I just lay the fabric down, no need to put multiple pins through a paper template and fabric, and then lift the fabric slightly to get some scissors under.

*You do need to use a cutting mat when using a rotary cutter so you don’t damage your surface or have the blade slip and cause injuries.

2. Pattern Weights - Continuing on from the rotary cutter, using some weight to hold the paper templates on the fabric is a must. I used to use anything I had to hand such as shoes, books and tinned food, but because of the dimensions of these objects, they often got in the way of me cutting. One day while roaming a market in Portugal, I saw some beautiful tiles and decided I was going to use them as weights. These are square tiles, but I have since got some more in different shapes(rectangles) to allow me to place them on narrower areas to cut like sleeves.
   
3. Fabric Clips - They are super easy to use and are large in comparison to pins. I love using clips because I can use them on thin or thick layers of fabric, I can see them when I am sewing so I won’t accidentally let it slip under my presser foot/needle and if they fall on the floor, I can easily see them and pick them up.
   
4. Ruler - I use a ruler to find the straight grain on fabric so that I cut my pattern pieces out as accurately as I can. I sometimes also use it as a guide to cut straight lines from pattern pieces.
   
5. Seam Ripper - I hear of so many people who are scared or wanting to avoid using these, but they are often needed in our projects. Mistakes happen all the time, no matter how experienced you are as a sewist. Just unpick the area where the ‘oopsie’ happened and keep on going. I find it therapeutic…sometimes. 😂
   
6. Iron - Every project needs a hot iron! It helps set the stitches and gives your overall project a much more professional finish when you press seams and other areas that need good pressing like pockets, collars or hems.

There are hundreds of sewing tools out there to choose from, but you only really need these for easy sewing.

⭐My Favourite Things This Week:

🗓️Upcoming Plans

🎉Upcoming Events

Thank you so much for reading it! And if you enjoyed it, please tell a friend about it to allow me to reach more people. 🥰

Bye for now,
B! xx