An easy project - phone cover

Just back from a lovely week in Northern Ireland!  Great weather and so lovely to see so many family and friends.  It always goes too quickly...!

Apologies for another phone cover so soon after the last one!  This is quite a different phone cover from the last one I made, as this is a sewn phone cover.  Handmade Jane had a lovely phone cover tutorial on her blog, and I fancied a go at something quick and easy after sewing so many clothing items recently.

I had some fat quarters sitting in my stash, some of which I bought in America, and this seemed like a great project to use some of them.  I used fabric from two fat quarters, plus some medium weight interfacing and velcro.  The only thing I needed to go out to buy for this was velco, and now I've got a little roll of it that will keep me going for a while.

This is a great little project for beginners - you only need to sew in a straight line - but also good as a little distraction if you fancy a little project to do in half an hour or so.

Crocheted phone sock

This is a cute little project which I did in the car on the way to see my in-laws at the weekend.  It's a really quick crochet project which I found on the 'All about Ami' blog.  As with most people, I always have my phone close to hand.  I did always intend to get a cover for my phone, but I never quite got round to it.  I've had this one for almost a year now and it's managed to accumulate it's fair share of bumps and bruises.  I've seen a gorgeous sewn phone cover, which I plan to have a go at soon, but in the meantime, I thought I would just do some quick crocheting on my trip north.  Here's the fruits of my labour...

You might recognise this wool - I also made my mug cosy from it.  I just love how bright and cheery it is!

I like my phone to be peeping out of the top of the sock - makes it easier to slide in and out - but obviously just a couple more rows would cover the phone completely! I'll probably do a final bit of prettying up this cover with a little button - as well as choosing a nice wool, you can do lots of customisation to make this little phone cover your own.

A pretty and easy way to keep your phone protected!

Kirsten Kimono Tee - sewing with knits

I was reading Lauren's blog on the Guthrie and Ghani site a few weeks ago, and came across her lovely make of the Kirsten Kimono Tee from www.mariadenmark.com. As it happens, I've had a lovely length of red knit fabric in my stash for a few months now. So I took the opportunity and downloaded the free pattern to make my first t-shirt. As there are no darts and you don't need to set in sleeves, this is a really quick and easy make.

Pattern pinned and ready to cut

I like my t-shirts to be quite fitted, and the fabric I was using was really stretchy. Once I had cut the fabric out, I realised that it would look huge on me if I only used the 1cm seam allowances that I had counted on using. In the end, my seam allowances were more like 1.5 inches, and that gave me the fit I was looking for. I did properly grade between pattern sizes for the first time, and it worked out really well - I need a larger size at the hips, and the grading that I did flowed perfectly to give me the right amount of room where needed.

The most difficult bit of this make was the neckline. Lauren's overlocked version looks lovely, but I tried to follow the instructions, got myself a bit lost...and it didn't turn out quite the way I wanted it. The ribbing is a little looser at the back and a little tighter at the front than it's meant to be, but as far as I can tell, it looks fine when I'm actually wearing it! It's something I'll definitely bear in mind though for next time.

Zigzag stitching at the sleeves

It's nice to have made a proper wardrobe staple - cake, not just icing! I'm sure I'll get plenty of wear from this. If you're thinking about taking on the challenge of knits, this free pattern is an ideal place to start.

New Look 6030 - pockets and handmade bias binding

Quite a few months ago I promised my sister I would make her a skirt.  She bought a pattern (New Look 6030), and some cord, and sent me off, armed with good intentions.  I made my own version first, and then got her fabric cut out and pinned together, ready for some sewing action...but my good intentions were somewhat distracted by the allure of all the other patterns and fabric, and I've left the skirt sitting for far too long.

At the weekend I finally got things moving again.  New Look 6030 is such a great pattern for a simple, day-to-day skirt - I love mine and I wear it all the time.  However, making it in stripes, I had abandoned the idea of pockets - it was going to be far too hard to get all the stripes to align.  Esther's version was my first attempt at pockets.

As it materialised, as well as learning to make pockets, one of the first things that the pockets needed was handmade bias binding for the edges of the pockets.

It really couldn't be simpler to make some handmade binding that perfectly matches your garment.

The first thing to do is cut out your pieces of fabric, on the bias - this means the grain line should be running perpendicular to the edges of the fabric, rather than parallel.  You can see it quite clearly on the cord, below:

As I was making double fold bias binding, I folded the strips of fabric in half, and pressed:

Then I folded each side in half as well, and pressed again:

It's as simple as that...two pieces of bias binding, ready to be sewn onto my pockets.  You can see how nicely it curves below:

I sewed the binding onto the pockets, and top stitched.  I've chosen a contrasting brown to add a bit of interest to what is a very plain fabric.

One of the main things about sewing with cord that I learnt when I made the first version of this skirt was that it's so important to make sure the nap is facing the correct way on each piece of the skirt,  I was feeling very pleased that I'd got it correct on all four pieces of the skirt, and I was determined that it would be correct on the pockets too.  Imagine my surprise when I pinned the pocket on to the skirt, took this photo and suddenly saw...

Yep - the nap was facing the wrong way!  The good news on this was that it was actually quite a basic mistake - I'd pinned the pocket to the bottom of the skirt, rather than the top - oops!  A quick reversal, and voila...

Those photos just show how important it is to get the nap right - as otherwise, not only the feel but also the look of the garment can be completely spoilt.

All that was left was to topstitch the pockets in place.

Not the prettiest picture (definitely some pressing required!) but the pockets are in place and ready to be filled with phones, change, keys...and even hands!  Now to get the rest of the panels and the waistband inserted and it'll be ready to wear.

A new book: The Complete Photo Guide to Clothing Construction

A bit of blog-browsing last week meant that I saw Christine Haynes' blog tour for her new book, The Complete Photo Guide to Clothing Construction. This book looked so useful (as well as being really beautifully photographed) that I just couldn't resist. At £11 (thank you Amazon!), I knew I would definitely get my money's worth.

One of the main challenges I have found when sewing is that often the written instructions aren't very clear. Sometimes I go to Google and find a helpful blog which has a photo tutorial - alternatively, sometimes I just have a bash, and get it completely wrong! This book seemed like the answer to all my problems - not only clear instructions about all the basics (and many of the not-so-basics) which are mentioned in patterns, but also photographs of every single step, which I find so useful.

I've already used it for help on inserting my invisible zipper properly, as well as referring to it for hints and tips on seam finishing. I predict this is going to be one of the most well used books in my little sewing library...!