Sharing the Liebster Love

So last week was crummy, I was grumpy there was no crafting of any kind going on and I had no idea when this horrible slump would end...

Then along came beautiful Yzo of Chez Roo to give me a liebster blog award and cheer me up! Thankyou Yzo you made the Sunday night blues disappear!


Now here is the skinny on the Liebster Blog Award -

This award is to show your love for your favourite small blogs, with less than 200 followers. The rules are as follows:

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog
2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you
3. Copy and paste the blog award on your blog
4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed (see below)
5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog


So here are my 5 Liebster winners in no particular order-

How Unseamly not only does Andi knit and sew amazing items, she does it all wearing the shiniest nail varnish in the whole gorram 'verse  

Beauty In The Lonely a blog I found through Ravelry and whose name makes me think of windswept moors and stormy seas. Catherine creates beautiful bridal accessories as well as kick ass corsets!

Laugh, But Not Loudly  Jill has just made an incredible reversible raincoat and the gal can really rock a Hat!

Moxie Tonic A blog I have followed for a while, a fellow lover of fluffy dogs and vintage fashion, and she always seems to go on the most fantastic looking holidays

Camelias & Crinolines Another blog I have been following for a while, Ms Crinoline has the most enviable fabric stash of gorgeous unusual prints, which she uses to create gorgeous unusual dresses.


So there we have it! my mojo is starting to return, so hopefully I will have some more finished items to show off later in the week!

Rachel-Lou

The 1994 Dress

So today I have pictures of last weeks finished project, I still have not been able to wear this dress 'for real' due to the craptastic weather, so these are self taken indoor shots (read that as rubbish! ohh and please ignore my none matching tights)

Anyway the pattern:

Now, I know you are probably looking at this and wondering just how drunk I was when I bought this, but honestly I saw potential, and potential there was after a couple of pattern adjustments...

It's a bit difficult to see in the photo because I drew on my adjustments in pencil but I added some length to the front, a waist dart, raised the armpit and added bust/armpit dart then I added a little bit more width to the shoulder seam.

anyway after all that faff the dress ended up looking like this -

So, as you can see it looks nothing like the pattern envelope. In addition to the bodice adjustments, I also added a double layer to the peter pan collar, omitted the sleeves and waist tie, changed the gathers to pleats and added a zipper in the side so I didn't need to make all those buttonholes.

Gratuitous close up of the buttons and adorable print (shh don't mention the chalk lines)

and the insides, all finished with the overlocker and bias tape. I made matching bias tape for the arm's as I didn't have enough of the white and I didn't want to use a different colour as i was worried it would show through.

Do you see that bit of selvedge on the right there which looks like an excessive amount of seam allowance, its not, its a facing for the lapped zipper I put in after the pull broke on the amazing perfectly matching METAL TOOTHED invisible zipper. The zipper that's in there now is less amazing, but it's functional.

In conclusion, I am more or less happy with this make, I'm not sure how flattering it is to me as its a bit loose around the waist, but then again that's what makes it comfortable. This dress has also sparked a longing for a vast array of metal invisible zippers and unfortunately I think these will probably be quite difficult to acquire.

Til next time internets!

Mrs Chandler's Featherweight

Well, I do have a new creation to share, however a devasting bout of 'Girl Flu' and the unpredictable British bank holiday weather mean I haven't had chance to wear it yet. So instead of seeing my beautiful yellow dress you can see the latest addition to my fleet of sewing machines.

Now unfortunately she didnt arrive with me in such a pristine state, this is the result of blood (well not really), sweat (cleaning sewing machines is suprisingly hard work) , and tears (there were nearly tears, mostly it was pouting lips, and extreme worry)


I bought Mrs Chandler from ebay, from a seller far far away (can you tell where this is going yet) I when she was delivered I felt sick with anticipation, my very own  adorable little featherweight, I opened up her case...

... and she was broken. I managed to contain myself and I didn't scream like a klingon in mourning, nor did I faint. I was very calm and went to ebay and purchased the replacement parts I needed (spool pin and bobbin winder) I then emailed the seller and asked for some money back.

I was lucky with my seller, we came to an agreement easily, this has however made me more cautious about buying machine's online now, and I dont know that I would purchase one if it wasnt in driving distance now.

One of the things I love most about this machineis that she came with a history, inside the case was the original reciept from 1958

as well as the reciepts from when the machine was serviced

What I don't like is the musty smell of the case (the white powder is bicarb, I've read on the internets that it's meant to help get rid of smells, I think the internets has lied to me)

So does any one have any tips on either de-stinkifying sewing machine cases?

Me Made May Sign Up

Hello Blogosphere,

As the lovely Zoe has announced that she will be organising another Me-Made-May I thought I would sign up. I have sort of played along before I started blogging, so I might as well have a proper go now

I, Rachel-Lou of Made With Whimsy, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '12. I endeavour to wear at least one me made item of clothing each day for the duration of May 2012

Suppose I should get sewing then...

The Re-made Scarf Skirt

Hello Blogoshere

Meet the Re-Made Scarf Skirk, the print and colour pallette remind me of Matryoshka dolls.

No modelled photo's of this FO, because I feel and look crappy today.

Here is the skirt from various angles being modelled on a coathanger on my bathroom door.

Basically this is an old scarf cut in half and gathered into a curved yoke, I did use a pattern, but you don't need one really. The yoke section and lining is made from a black cotton voile, when I had attached the skirt to the yoke, it just didnt look right - the print is so busy and the yoke was soooo boring. I decided to jazz it up with some fancy machine stitches and a lot of thread.

Here is an overexposed picture of the shameful zipper insertion, one day I will fix it... maybe