Projects in the Pipeline

So as I mentioned in my previous post I spent a glorious 3+ hours in the fabric shop on Saturday. Its actually the first time I've been in a 'proper' fabric shop since I got my sewing machine last October (shocking I know!!) so it was such an experience! Believe me, I have spent many hours of my youth being dragged around fabric shops getting more and more bored as my mum 'ooh'ed and 'ahh'ed at various bits of material so it was so funny to be back in one of those very same fabric shops finding myself doing the 'ooh'ing and 'ahh'ing!! I brought my mum along with me, one, for some good ol' mother-daughter quality time and, two, because I knew I would have a million and one questions about all the various fabrics and notions!!! And she certainly proved very useful. One of the best bits of advice she gave me was pointing out that if the fabric was folded over on the bolt (so double thickness/width) then one meter would be more than enough to get a straight skirt out of! Brilliant! So I nabbed a meter of two bargain linens that were reduced to £5/m!

Anyway, enough chatting, lets get a look at the goods shall we!

So this is one of the pieces of 1 meter linen that I nabbed to make a straight skirt out of. At the moment the pattern I'm leaning towards is one from the July Burda. Hopefully there's enough material for it!! I also bought a lovely bright pink bit of lining for it as well. I have yet to do a piece with lining so that's a new challenge for me.

This is the second piece of linen. I thought this would be a good pattern for work and would go with a lot of things I have in my wardrobe...although, i am constantly looking for a suitable pair of navy heels for work - why is there none out there that I like!!! Again, I've paired it with the Burda skirt...and again it's only one meter so not sure I have enough material. If not, I will just find another, simpler pattern to make.

This bit of fabric is actually from my mums stash. She produced a suitcase FULL of beautiful linen from the Moygashel Linen Factory (very famous Irish Linen factory) and proceeded to offer up an array of it to me! I was shocked as it usually is impossible for mum to part with any of her fabric stash (which I am starting to understand myself!!)! So anyway, this is a beautiful piece of navy blue linen and there is more than enough to make a pair of trousers from them. At the moment I am leaning towards this pair, again from the July Burda magazine. This pattern, however, is for 'Tall' ladies so I am a little concerned about this fit. I am 5'6'' so not quite in the 'tall' category - but sometimes I do have to buy 'long leg' trousers, so perhaps my legs are long for my height...if that makes sense!! I will do a musil first anyway so I'll know before I cut into this lovely fabric!

Another piece from my mums stash. This isn't linen, but is a lovely tweed of sorts. Not sure what kind exactly, but she informs me it will be washable as she avoids buying fabric that is 'dry clean only', so that's good! Again, I thought it would be perfect for work trousers.

And finally - I have saved the best for last...in my opinion anyway. I am SO excited about this project!!! One of the pieces of linen mum had stashed away was this GORGEOUS bright pink linen. The moment  saw it I KNEW I had to make a shift dress out of it. And then my mum noticed that the patterned linen I bought matched perfectly with it. So I have this Butterick pattern which I think would look so great with the pink as the main and then the pattern as the waist section. I am deliberating about making the neck patterned too...but I'm not sure the beige/tan in the background of the pattern fabric will suit my complexion the best right next to my face.

I'm also thinking about making a top out of the pink as it would go really well with a dress made from the patterned linen and also the navy blue check linen.

So I have LOTS of projects to keep me going for quite some time!!! And it will take me time as since I'm still very much a learner I'm not confident enough to make anything without doing a muslin first!

Oh....and here is a kinda crappy pic of the project I'm working on at the moment:

Unfortunately it (the photo) didn't turn out that well so you can't quite see the fabric. Its a very pale pink sheer fabric with a little spot on it. Actually - it started life out as a sample curtain! I bought it in a bargain bin for £1.50!!! When I started this i thought I would get it done in a night, I thought it would be easy to sew up....er - no!! But it's because of this fabric...you can't iron it down, it just springs back up at you! so All the hems and all the bias binding has turned into a bit of a pinning nightmare! I'm nearly there though...just the arm holes to bias bind and then a hem at the bottom. But I tell ya, hemming the frill - horrific!! I just hope it turns out nice enough to wear after all this work! I've tried it on a couple of times and I'm not totally convinced yet...the frill is maybe a bit TOO frilly....but maybe with a cardi it might work ok. I thought it would be good for a work top...we shall see!!! Wish me luck with the remaining bias binding...not looking forward to it...