Brighton Skirt

I have put the Royal Pavillion fabric from Ditto to good use, by making a tiered mini skirt. I saw the idea on Burda, but their skirt had two separate pieces, dividing the skirt into two parts. I went a little further, folding the skirt twice, making three sections.
I kept the piece of fabric complete instead of cutting out the individual tiers. My boyfriend helped, and I think he enjoyed himself working out the logistics of the folds of material. I ironed the folds to make them sharp, then sewed along these to keep them in place. I hid the stitches beneath the previous crease for neatness.

I sewed in a tube for an elasticated waist. I was always dubious about an elasticated waist. I don't own any garments with one so it didn't feel "proper". It still feels a bit odd, but it is a simple solution, so I might use it again.
Me in my skirt

Brighton Part Three: Bake 'n' Beebz

This weekend I stayed with my cousin Alice and of course we did some baking! We made some delicious blondies (see Alice's blog) which are like brownies but pale. The secret ingredient is... chickpeas! Delicious and nutritious, I kid you not. Alice did the math and with no butter and very little sweetner, they work out very healthy for you.


We went to Eastbourne and hit the charity shops, but we didn't buy much. The only things of note were some sewing-themed fabric and a london bus purse (I can't wait to upload all my photos!!). I got mugged by a seagull and Alice kicked it in revenge, then we wandered the pier and sat by the sea. A fairly eventful day.


I'm about ready to return to Sheffield now. I miss my boyfriend (and sewing) so it will be good to see him (sew) in a week's time. Just have a week in Sheffield before I'm away again to London. And there may be more London work on the horizon.... how exciting.

Brighton Part One: Crap From The Street

Greetings from Brighton. Work is going very well. The play, Keep Taking the Tablets, has been well received in previews, now to kill two weeks doing nothing while I wait for the next show!

I love being in Brighton. I've visited twice before, but in January both times so the weather this time is a massive improvement. I enjoy looking around the fascinating shops and sitting on the beach. The nightlife is pretty vibrant too and we've had a few nights out already.
One thing I've noticed about Brighton, is that it has an interesting "culture" (for want of a better word) where people leave their unwanted stuff on the roadside and others can pick it up and take it home. For instance, if you're cleaning out your bedroom and you no longer want those books, or clothes or furniture, you can just leave it outside your house. And someone, somewhere will find your junk a good home. I've never seen anything like it. The house of my friend Shaun (where I'm staying) is full of cute furniture, interesting vases and other knick knacks, all from the street. Its brilliant!

So when we were walking home at 2:30am the other morning we came by one such by-product of a clear out. Shaun, now a seasoned "recycler" began to look through the piles of stuff. We found:

a set of beside drawers
a candle stand (for the garden)
3 board games
a big rug
a small display cabinet (to hang on the wall)
a vase
some hatpins
one of those fancy jars with the metal handle and rubber seal
a pile of material, including a scarf
an ornate table filled with...bobbins!

AND

a Singer sewing machine


And the sewing machine works! It does something funky with the stitching on the underside of a piece of fabric, but it sews and the light works too. It was a pretty profitable raid. My cut includes some of the hatpins, the handbag (a brown mock-snake-skin affair) a couple of the bobbins (of course), the scarf and the fancy jar (I've always wanted one). Obviously I have to consider what can be brought home in my suitcase. But you can bet that once we get the sewing machine running I'll be knocking up a "street skirt" with the material, sewing machine and bobbins we found.


My cut of the loot :) a handbag, a scarf, a jar, some hatpins and some fabric

The Magenta Machine now has a Brighton counterpart - but I still love my pink pal, all alone in Sheffield. And I thought I'd have to give up sewing for the month I was down here!

Photoshoot.

My housemate Harriet is working on a mock up of a magazine for her journalism MA and her chosen subject is... customising clothes! So last weekend was spent taking lots of photos of my room and projects and ME! Mutually beneficial because she now has content for her project, and I have some new photos which have been taken by another person - no photos at arm's length.
So I found out all the things I have made/customised and we chose our favourites and got to work.



The outfits are very crazy, Hatty needed something that screamed "customised" and I would like to state that I wouldn't go out in these outfits as they are, I'm a bit more subtle!



A couple of these photos are of things I'd forgotten about, like my measuring tape rosette, so it was great to revisit these. The rosette was made by dividing a Christmas cracker tape measure into eight equal lengths, folding each in half and stitching through, with a bead on the top for decoration. I also found out a top with my name in cute print fabrics, which I made last year. Harriet liked this and used it in photos.


In my interview I said I loved bows and loved making them, so we rounded up all the home-made bows in my room:



Glorious.


The final shot is a little foreshadow of my next project.

Stay tuned.

Shopping

Morning, I'm on my break between evil 7am sandwich prep shift and 11am shift in the salad bar. I am currently hooked up to a hazelnut cappucino and toasted bagel to get me through. To kill an hour I thought I would share on recent shopping adventures.

Last week me and mum went to Mansfield for some much needed retail therapy (wherein I always buy too much and mum encourages it). First stop was Sally Twinkle, an Aladdin's cave of fabric and sequins. The shop's been going for donkey's years and both my mum and aunt used to frequent the place. I bought some hair slides (for my arsenal of bows), some initial patches (like the college jackets that are roaring back into fashion, must do something about that) and some delicious liquorice allsorts fabric.

Yesterday I also went to Castle Market in Sheffield. I swung by Grace's fabrics and bought a pretty orange and blue print cotton and a complimentary orange cotton to go with it. I chatted to Grace of Grace's Fabrics (not just a marketing gimmic) about jobs and she gave me words of encouragement to go with my purchases - nice lady. I'm hoping to make a skirt with the orange fabric, its my first attempt at a piece of clothing from scratch so I'm excited/nervous. I shall keep you updated.

When shopping on the high street I also keep an eye out for patterns and styles I like. Current funds (and perpetually wearing my work uniform) mean I have little reason to buy loads of stuff, but I do take photos of the things I like to keep the idea. I recently spotted a white vest with leather cut out detail in Primark which I liked. I didn't buy it because a) its Primark and I only buy really basic stuff and b) I could buy a Primark basic vest for cheaper and try out the idea for myself. With this in mind I also bought a scrap of faux leather from the lovely Grace.

Hopefully I shall be able to show you the fruits of my leather labour very soon.