Dream T&tB duo come to life!

Hi guys!

As always, long time no see. I’ve finally started getting my sewing bug back and it’s a gooooooood feeling!

I made myself a new Bronte top but fancied trying something else. I was annoyed that when I’d last made the Agnes top it hadn’t worked out, as Tilly’s patterns are usually rather good to me. I had also been plotting a certain pair for a while. An Agnes/Arielle pairing with my dream Arielle skirt, which I actually bought the fabric for about 9 months ago!

I’m getting more and more into planning (both crafting and life!) and I’m really enjoying planning my me-mades. I’ve changed systems now but this is an old sketch I did for this outfit I had in my mind.

I couldn’t remember how I shortened the Arielle last time i made it so I  measured my pattern pieces against my completed Arielle and winged it!
Doing this I somehow cocked up the lining and it ended up a bit too long but it doesn’t show when I’m wearing it (just!) so I don’t mind. I definitely rushed the end of this skirt because I was desperate to wear it for a visit to Brighton! I put the buttons on by machine for the first time ever and omg that saved me about a bajillion hours of my life!!! It doesn’t look as nice as it would if they were handsewn but that 100% doesn’t bother me!

This outfit makes me ridiculously happy and has really reminded me of just how magical sewing is. I think it’s amazing that I just put an idea down on paper and now I’m wearing it.

Loving my new glasses by the way! Aren’t they cute? Cath Kidston paired up with Specsavers!

Finally here’s some shots from my garden, this was our first Spring here and it’s a joy to see all the different flowers popping up!

Me Made May 2017!

Hey guys!

To begin, my pledge;

 ‘I, Susie of @craftysooze, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’17. I endeavour to spend at least 10 minutes sewing each day for the duration of May 2017′

Fuck 2016

Hey dudes!

This post is gonna be kind of long and kind of personal, just a heads up y’all!

This is a little cross stitch I made using Subversive Stitches perfect pattern.

So obviously 2016 hasn’t been especially good for any kind of human rights, unless you’re a rich white male asshole, so if you are, whoop whoop to you!

It’s also been a hard year for me personally, my mental health really took a tumble, especially after my dog suddenly and unexpectedly passed away in June. It got so bad that I just stopped sewing a few months ago. A while after we moved to Salisbury I finally went to the drs and asked for help, I’m now a few weeks into a long course of anti-depressants and they’re starting to make a difference which is great.

I managed to work on smaller projects with crochet and cross stitch which really helped as well.

So anyhoo!

I finished 2015 with a plan of 9 patterns I wanted to make in 2016, I will be honest guys, I made 3 of them. However one of the ones I didn’t make has crept into next year’s list 😉

The ones I made are the Sewaholic Cambie (3 times, with 2 others cut out!), the Jennifer Lauren Vintage Bronte (3 times with 1 cut out) and the Paprika Patterns Jade skirt, which sadly didn’t work out (due to incorrect fabric choice I think!).

The patterns I have chosen for next year are a bit more practical and functional and I think, more my style. The more I sew, the more I find what suits me and what style patterns I keep returning to. With that in mind, two patterns I’ve actually already made are in my list, the Bettine and the Agnes. My 3 Bettines are in heavy rotation and I love having a dress I can jut throw on that can take me from night to day! With the Agnes, my previous attempts didn’t work out very well so I’m hoping to master this basic but classic knit top this year.

JLV Ivy Pinnafore – Christine Hayes Emery – T&TB Rosa
Blueprints for Sewing Saltbox Top – T&TB Agnes – JLV Gable top
T&TB Bettine – Colette Wren – Grainline Moss

Whilst thinking about these patterns and my future plans I have also planned what fabrics to use and have chosen fabrics mostly from my stash, something I need to work through this year! I’ve made a visual reminder for myself of these as well, feel free to feast your eyes!

Finally for my 2017 plans, I have really caught the cross stitch bug the last month or so, so I’ve made myself a visual plan of the cross stitch I plan to make next year also!

All the above patterns are from Etsy or Subversive Cross Stitch, and then the hornbill is made using PC Stitch, and it’ll be a gift for my friend who looks after her ^_^

The following collages don’t need much to be said! There’s some of my sewing, then some of my other crafting and finally finishing with some of the lovely times I’ve had with my beautiful sewing friends this year. I’m so happy I found the sewing community and that I’ve had all the wonderful experiences that I’ve had!

Sewaholic Cambie – T&TB Bettine – T&TB Lilou
Seamwork Adelaide – SOI Tulip Skirt – T&TB Miette
SOI Tulip Skirt – T&TB Bettine/T&TB Lilou – Colette Moneta

Blueprints for Sewing Saltbox Top – Patternweights – Seamwork Astoria
SoZo Anya Bag – Seamwork Astoria Hack – Heatpacks
JLV Bronte Top – Victory Patterns Ham & Sausage – JLV Bronte Top

Felted Button Falling Leaves – Granny Shawl – Cardigan
Haak maar Raak! Blanket – Julie Jackson Fuck 2016 – Sarah London Wooleater
Julie Jackson Beware of Dog – Terribly Simple Shawl – Plastic Little Covers Girls Just

Gabby’s wedding with Elle – Sewing Weekender with Abi – Post fabric shopping
Heavy metal shaving in Warsaw with Jenny – Cambridge Sewcialists – My cousins wedding
Visiting Backstitch with Elle – Gabby’s wedding – Sewing Weekender with Elle

Well done for making it through that rather long shit storm! 

Wishing everyone a wonderful 2017 ❤

Falling Leaves Afghan

Hey gang!

I’ve been crocheting now for over 4 years, I learned because I liked amigurumi and because I was doing an unpaid internship so needed some cheap thrills! Over the years there’s been many projects I started and then didn’t finish, I think about 80% went in the bin when we moved last month, just because I knew if I hadn’t finished them by now then I never would.

But I believed I’d finish this one!

Then I got REALLY strict with myself and decided that in fact, I could only start my next blanket, if I finished this one.

I started this blanket, in April 2013 and finished it October 2016!!

Early 2013 the creator of this pattern, the wonderful Susan Carson (Of Felted Button) asked for testers and I applied. I was unemployed and needed something positive to fill the void, and it did! …don’t panic guys the tester was 4 squares not this whole blanket haha!

I call it the Falling Leaves blanket because that was the original pattern name but it is now called the Flying Colors blanket.

I used the following 6 yarns for the project, all are Sirdar Hayfield Bonus DK;

793 Clover
760 Orchid Pink
840 Purple
957 Primrose
819 Bright Lemon
978 Sunflower

The colours I chose weren’t the best however I still really like the way the blanket came out, but after all these years I had a bit of a love/hate thing going on with it and I wanted it to go to a new home. Luckily my oldest friend was coming to visit that weekend and as I owed her a new house gift (from months ago, I’m such an asshole!) I decided to see if she wanted the blanket, and she did!

I’m so glad my blanket has found a loving home!!

Seamwork Adelaide

Hey guys, just a little update from me in the land of no internet!

I recently prepared 4 different PDF patterns I’d been planning to try out for a while; Seamwork Adelaide, Christine Haynes Emery Dress, T&TB Francoise and T&TB Coco.

I realised pretty quickly that the knit fabrics I have won’t really work for the Coco so I’ve had to put that pattern on the backburner for now. I’m hoping to crack on with the Emery soon, but for now here’s my Adelaide!

For this pattern I used some polycotton I picked up at the Sewing Weekener, there was 1.5m of it and I used it all up. At first I was making this and the Francoise at the same time but I decided to focus on the Adelaide because I had something to wear it to on Friday.

So obviously because I set myself a deadline, I started rushing and I added pockets to the pattern. These things combined aren’t ideal as I just placed the front pattern piece on myself then used my finger to hold where the pocket should go whilst I carried the fabric around, and only then actually marked it.

So I’ve made a dress with pockets that are suitable for people with great ape arms. Sadly my arms are average length so these pockets are not suitable for casual hand support, sad times.

The fit is slightly off on my chest and around my shoulders, I seem to get this fairly often and I’m not sure how to go about fixing it, suggestions welcome!

This was the first time I’d used bias binding on necklines and arm holes so it went about 85% well haha, I’m taking that! Especially as this was just a toille.

The fit overall on the dress is really loose, which is how it is supposed to be but I’m just not used to such a loose fit, so I don’t know how often I will wear this. Obviously the fit would be better if I had made the belt, but I couldn’t make it in time and I need to buy a loop turner it turns out!!

 

I am gonna give the dress a few more wears, layered up I might not find it so loose, and we’re starting to get into layers weather anyway!

If you’re thinking of making an Adelaide know this, when you sit down in it, the bottom poppers like to come undone haha!

I am gonna give the dress a few more wears, layered up I might not find it so loose, and we’re starting to get into layers weather anyway!

If you’re thinking of making an Adelaide know this, when you sit down in it, the bottom poppers like to come undone haha!

 

My final say on this dress (with the above in mind), is that its so super fun to take it off at the end of the day!

Hostess with the most-ess!

Hey gang!

Just a quick update, if y’all follow me on bloglovin then things should be pretty much the same but I’ve changed host sites and moved from Blogger to WordPress, it hurt my little Google-lovin’ heart but I was struggling with the interface and the fact I found it quite inaccessible. So excuse me whilst I make lots of horrific mistakes on WordPress, yay!

Obviously I decided the best time to do this would be whilst we’re moving 150 miles fairly abruptly, because I’m just not quite busy enough!!

I’m hoping to put up a post about last weekend soon, which was of course the Sewing Weekender!!

Thanks for your patience guys, and just cuz I love you all so much, here’s one of my favourite humans and one of my favourite quotes ever, just in case you’ve never heard it, enjoy!

“Why do people say ‘grow some balls’? Balls are weak and sensitive!
If you really wanna get tough, grow a vagina! Those things can take a pounding!”

Betty White

Cambridge Sewcialists April Meet up!

Hey guys!

Apologies for the delay, I had planned to publish this last Saturday evening or Sunday at the latest but I’ve been ill and it’s been hard to get anything done!

Saturday morning we had a lovely meet up in central Cambridge. We met at the Waterstones cafe and sat and chatted for a couple of hours, we had a pretty successful fabric and pattern swap there too!

We talked a lot about what people wanted out of our little group, and I’m hoping to put our plans into action asap! 

The fabrics I brought with me were taken and some of the patterns too! I got a lovely knit fabric which I might test the myrtle with and I got lots of new patterns!

After meeting we decided to visit all three of central Cambridge’s fabric shops.

We started at Sew Creative who sell sewing machines, yarn and quilting cotton. Sadly nothing caught our eyes so we went onto the next shop, Cally Co who sell a mix of fabrics with around half their range being household fabrics and half being suitable for dressmaking.

This time around we picked up a few fabrics and then headed off to John Lewis where we may have bought even more fabric…

After all of that we needed a stiff drink and some good eatin’, after trying a few places (and seeing a beagle sitting at a table, awesome) we settled at Vodka Revs which has a surprisingly nice spread!

I can’t wait to organise the next meet-up, and I hope everyone who came had as good a time as I did!!

As promised, here’s everyone who came and where you can find them online, say hello to them all because they are all very lovely!!

Clicking on their names will take you to their blogs and their IG names are links too 🙂

Andrea     @andreas_sewingdiary

Clare        @sutters

Jess         @sew_susie

Louise      @multi_threaded

Sarah       @sarahlporter

Sue          @sosew_sue

Sue Y       @susanyoungsewing

Tamsin     @tamsinwp_pmc

Cambridge Sewcialists April Meet-up Plan

Hey Gang!

I just wanted to put a little scheduley type thing up for the meet on Saturday in case people are wanting to drop in only for certain points!

Please do let me know by email if you are wanting to come along, so I can then email you my mobile number. My email is; craftysooze@gmail.com

✂️ Itinerary ✂️ 

11am – 1pm
Waterstone’s Cafe
Meeting here as it’s one of the roomier cafes in Cambridge and also easy to find! 
We’ll have plenty of time for chatting and also a pattern & fabric swap! 

1pm – 2pm
Sew Creative
We’ll pop into Cambridges oldest craft shop, they do a large variety of yarn and quilting cottons.

2pm-3pm
Callyco
A quick trip into this fabric shop to see what they have on offer. I haven’t been in since they had a refurbishment, but they usually have a range of household fabrics, dressmaking fabrics and a haberdashery.

3pm – 4pm
John Lewis
Not an independent but they have some nice fabrics and a decent haberdashery.

4pm onwards
Pub? If anyone fancies it for a drink, a snack and even more chat!

Obviously this itinerary is just a loose guide, but I wanted everyone to know what was potentially in-store!

Cambridge Sewcialists and MMM16

Hey guys!

So as I mentioned before, I have something a bit exciting to share with you all, and that is a beautiful logo my friend Estelle made for the meet up I’m organising (hopefully the first of many!)

She also made a coloured version so I have a choice (she knows me so well!!)

You can find Estelles website here, I’m hoping to squeeze in a little post about how wonderful she is soon but definitely check out her website for now!!

So for yonks I’ve wanted to organise a meet up, this in fact goes back to before I really started sewing even. When I was unemployed and living back home in Brighton, I managed to find a nice stitch n bitch group and I was delighted to finally meet people who crafted. Once I moved away to Cambridgeshire I was keen to keep that going, there are stitch and Burch group’s in Cambridge but I live about half a hour away by bus so it wasn’t ideal. Eventually I decided I just had to make a local group, so I put an advert in the village paper and people started getting in touch. We started to meet but we were plagued with issues. In short, there is nowhere in the village that is well lit with seating that you can go to in the evenings. Eventually I gave up because I couldn’t find a good place and I started working more and more hours too. Since then we’ve attempted a revival using someone’s home but that hasn’t had a chance to get off the ground quite yet.

So now I know about this wonderful community and I’ve been to Sewbrum, I really wanted to try to get something going in Cambridge. I put the idea out there on The Fold Line but then just sat on it. Luckily Jen organised a meet up at backstitch which looked lovely and it gave me the kick up the bum I’d been needing!

So I’ve organised a more social meet up in central Cambridge for the 23rd of April. I’m so excited, I can’t wait to meet more sewing ladies!

I’m going to be putting up another post with all the details after this 😊

I also wanted to put my MMM16 pledge on here, this will be my first time and I’m super excited! I remember seeing MMM in 2014 and having it really fuel my desire to crack this sewing thing, then in 2015 thinking I’m not quite at that stage yet because I’d run out of things to wear 3 days in haha! Now I might just make it but even if I don’t I’m also really doing it to find out more about my me-made wardrobe.

‘I, Susie, of Craftysooze, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’16. I endeavour to wear at last one handmade item of clothing each day for the duration of May 2016’


Super excited to see everyone else’s MMM posts and photos!

Long time no blog

Hey gang!
It’s in fact exactly 2 months today since my last blog post although I imagine I’ll be posting this in a couple of days.
I’ve been doing a lot of sewing but I haven’t been writing about it in fact I still have some pieces from 2015 to blog about, a large issue for me has been getting decent photos!!

I went a bit mad recently and decided the best way to really crack on with sewing is to cut out millions of  patterns at once and have them all piled up and then just smash my way through them.

I managed to convince my other half let me have the sewing machine downstairs but eventually ended up having most of the craft room downstairs, then once I was done with something (which wasn’t very often) I would take it and just dump it in the craft room.

This meant that the craft room got destroyed quite quickly and is now a complete state! 

it also meant that I had a big pile of sewing staring at me every night and I felt guilty if I wasn’t sewing, now that I’ve made it pretty much through my pile I’ve put a stop to that and will be cleaning up the craft room and making it a little bit more of an end zone again full stop

I even didn’t finish some projects, I didn’t finish my Lilou toille because I ran out of time before I wanted to have my final version and I also didn’t finish a Bettine because I needed to crack on with my Lilou! My Cambie toille is half done because again I ran out of time and had to crack on with the final version!

So my current plan is to not start anything new until all my half finished projects are done because I actually have a project from last year that I started and didn’t finish and I have a couple of previous projects that need fixing in some way and all of these UFOs are making me sad (and feel like a very naughty sewer)!

The Cambie I was making was for the most wonderful event I attended the previous weekend, I went to the wedding of Gabby Young and Steven Ellis in Preston, Kent. Rhiannon, Elle and I all made Cambies which was so fun. It really highlighted how unique every garment is as all 3 of ours were very different!

(Photo inspired by Elle!)

We had a lovely time at the wedding and Gabbys dress was seriously beautiful! She’d made all of her bridesmaids dresses and they were lovely, in fact the first thing we did when we got there was ooooo at a bridesmaid haha!

Gabby has only just returned from her honeymoon but I know she will be writing at length about her crafty wedding on her blog which you can find here, Living on a Shoestring.

I did also manage to squeeze in a quick visit to a zoo, turns out there’s a nice little zoo just outside Canterbury called Wingham Wildlife Park, which had a few nice birds and quite a few big cats amongst others! Here’s a few of my favourite snaps 🙂

Sorry for such a wordy post gang! I’ll be back with some exciting news next then hopefully crafty makes after!

Hoping spring has infected you all with happy crafty dreams!