August Issue of Sewing World: on sale now.

For this month's issue of Sewing World magazine, 

you can find me on the back pages writing about Stash Clubs in my Final Thread column.  I have been given room for bigger pictures to make the layout a little easier on the eye!  Click on this images and they'll pop up larger.

There's a summer travel theme to this issue with a maxi dress pattern and a camper van notebook cover catching my eye.  A digital issue can be found here.  You can find more info at the Sewing World Facebook page and also on Twitter .

London Summer Season

I try and get to London two or three times a year.  I am lucky, my brother lives in zone two and is an accommodating host. He loves to visit the same sort of arty stuff as me so we catch up on any exhibitions that I've been keen to see.   He has a bright, airy flat which becomes more homely each time I visit- he's just got into balcony plants for the first time- the hipster succulents are thriving.

 This year I had my heart set on seeing Savage Beauty: The Alexander McQueen retrospective at the V&A.  It has been there most successful show ever and on the weekend that I had booked my travel  for, it sold out so we ended up having to buy membership- there is an option for a membership that allows one guest.  With a train strike as well it did add a little tension to proceedings but it all worked out fine.

We went on Friday evening which is an excellent time to visit the V&A generally.   There are less people around, space to eat and drink and it probably encouraged a little more dressing up in the Savage Beauty attendees- I saw some spectacular outfits.  No cameras allowed but my eyes thrilled at the spectacle.  The variety of galleries and theatrical presentation for McQueen's different themes and catwalk collections was perfection.  Excitement and drama in each room.  There was a quote about the importance of designing clothing from the side as well as the front and back; when looking at the tailoring, the side view and attention to detail on cuffs and collars was exquisite.  Hats, shoes, jewellery as well as the clothes and an extraordinary level of craftspersonship from collaborators- beading, crystals, feathers, film and video artists. Amazing.

Saturday morning was spent at Broadway Market walking to the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green.  Lunch was at the nearby Gallery Cafe which is a calm and relaxing space to eat vegetarian and vegan food.

The Museum of Childhood is a generously sized building with lots of open space for children and push chairs and a mezzanine exhibition area.  It is a place for nostalgia. 

 In the upper level was a 'Small Stories' Doll's House exhibition telling the stories behind a huge variety of dollhouses.  Twenty contemporary designers had each decorated a single room in the 'Dream House'.  This is Home is Where the Bear is by Helen McGinley a.k.a Mister Peebles.

This detailed little space is Library (a recent plan) by Emma Mawston for Liberty Art Fabric Interiors

On Sunday, I visited the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2015.  Every year, a judging panel sift through thousands of entries and pick and eclectic mixture.  Most of the work is for sale- the lowest price I saw was £150 for a tiny photo print- and the artists are a mix of established Royal Academicians and little-known, unknown or amateur artists.  It makes for a democratic atmosphere and a freedom that seeps into the viewing experience.  The first art work is the dynamic technicolour floor, 'Zobop' made with vinyl tape by Jim Lambie.  You can browse the whole exhibition online.

The greatest triumph of the exhibition is how well such a diverse collection of artworks are displayed.   The curation was excellent- thoughtful and kept your attention through the multitude of galleries.  The exhibitions has been up a while so the 'sold' red dots are in evidence and part of the journey involved me imagining how I'd spend my pennies and marvelling at how others had spent theirs.

Seeing so much art in the one place does make you evaluate what appeals to you and what doesn't.   There was a lot of whimsy and commercialism- images that I would have expected to see in a branch of Paperchase but maybe not a gallery?  There were artworks that challenged and interested me but I would never want to buy and then there were pretties that I couldn't explain but loved the colour, shape and pattern.  The magenta pink Gallery III was a glorious space with its ornate roof and light flooding in.  There was the ubiquitous gin bar in the centre with a lonely bartender- no one wanted gin at noon on a Sunday.

I loved the portrait on the left, 'Megan in a Spotted Silk Blouse' by Chantal Joffe RA.

Urban landscapes are another favourite for me.  This was a generously sized canvas, I liked the higgledy, piggledy look of the high-rise:  'Tower' by Alison Boult. 

My brother loves to take me on a little detour, always on foot and often involving a few extra miles of pavement  pounding.  Saville Row was a treasure.  The highest end gentlemen's outfitter shops on the ground floor and the tailoring guts underneath.

A great trip and inspiration resources are all topped up.

Little Joys Quilt Along Week Three: Wreath Block

Welcome to those of you following Fat Quarter Shop Little Joys quilt along.  The 'Wreath' or 'Welcome Home block' is the next set of three blocks out of the nine that make up this little quilt.  I added a pink wreath that will go in the centre of my quilt as well as the two green wreaths.  You can find the free pattern schedule and links to the kit here. 

It's a block constructed in diagonal rows which I will confess I did mess up at one point when I put the final white half square triangles on the darker colours of the block which put the whole block on point and I didn't realise until I trimmed it back!  I salvaged the untrimmed squares and there is ample fabric in the kit to cope with silly errors like this! 

The final block is a little larger than the 101/2 unfinished size that it can be squared off and trimmed to size.  When adding the white half square triangles to the correct corners, I made a centre fold crease on the triangle and the square it is being added to just to keep things easily aligned.

This little quilt is already two thirds done!  See you next Wednesday for the Present blocks!  If you are in the UK or Europe and are looking to buy the Penny Rose 'Little Joys' fabrics designed by Elea Lutz closer to home or want to avoid import charges, you can find them at Pretty Fabrics and Trims

July at Village Haberdashery

As usual there are many new arrivals to choose from for my July visit to Village Haberdashery, starting with the canvas fabrics from Anna Graham's debut fabric range for Cloud 9, Rain Walk.  Perfect for books, bags, cushions and purses especially if you have just bought her Handmade Style book.  They all work beautifully with solid Essex linen, yarn dyed linen or even denim.

These heavier weight denims are new in. Ghiadora,

Psycho which has a red reverse side,

and Ceasar.  All are 100% denim and the description makes me think of them as jeans denim and more for structured clothing and bags. 

The Moss Skirt by Grainline Studio would be a great pairing with this fabric, or even the Airelle. Bothe skirts are straighter and need a firm fabric to maintain their shape. 

 If you prefer fuller dress and skirt styles and lighter fabrics, this embroidered dobby white lawn is very summery and would gather beautifully, it is also a wider fabric so more for you money!  The Cosmo seersucker with red bowties has bags of charm!  Both are textured and you can see through them a little so for dresses you would usually line these.  But for shirts and blouses worn as an extra layer coverup to protect your skin and with little tops underneath, they would be perfect.

There is a cotton/silk blend white voile that would be the perfect lining fabric for both of these and would also be a wonderful against the skin!

I wouldn't usually look at neons but having seen Novita's gorgeous orange neon knit Hollyburn skirt this week, I can see how they can really work.   These are solid neon woven cottons from Riley Blake and you can find the Sewaholic Hollyburn pattern here.

If you are a rainbow fan, the new Mini Pearl Bracelets from Lizzie House is a great blender option.

They are zingy colours, I think my favourite is Meyer Lemon;  I am having a bit of a thing for yellow at the moment.  If you are a Lizzie House fan, you must have seen her Natural History collection.  It has proved very popular- the dinosaurs sold so fast!  It's the star prints that appeal to me- Twinkle Twinkle and Star Chart which has metallic too.  

Cotton + Steel's Spring 2015 collection is available on pre-order.  Annie is stocking prints from Honey Moon, Picnic and Paper Bandana with a few prints from other ranges too.  That's picnic you can see in the photo- hard to rest those apples!  Honey Moon has some wonderful simpler prints and some rayon too which is always beautiful for dressmaking if a little tricky to cut and sew.

That all looks very bright and summery!  Enjoy x

Vintage Pledge Two: Hit or Miss

This is my second finished make from my three makes vintage pattern pledge.  My first, a skirt from a Betsey Johnson design is here and these trousers are from the same pattern.  I made these a while ago but it took me a while to get them photographed and even longer to blog about.  They are a mixed success.

Forgive the rather anonymous poses,  these pictures were taken the weekend our cat Mindy died so my face was all red and puffy from crying.  Anyway, back to the trousers.  They were made from Alison Glass Handcrafted in Geese which is a monotone graphite white print.  The end result was a rather high contrast for trousers as you can see from the snap below so I dyed them with Dylon hand wash dye in navy.  I tend to keep away from the machine stuff have ruined a machine seal with it in the past.

Like the skirt, the pattern fits pretty well and I like a wide trouser but the fabric doesn't really have sufficient drape to carry off this shape and without heeled shoes on they do not really work.   They also don't have pockets and whilst this was OK with the skirt, trousers without pockets always seem a little pointless to me.  I feel self conscious wearing them and find it hard to match them with any tops in my wardrobe.  I don't wear much dark clothing as it tends to drain me of colour.  The top in these pics is from a Japanese pattern book,  'She Wears the Pants' and all details can be found here.

There is a very '90s feel to these, and I guess to many of the modern swathe of Batik prints that are coming through at the moment and I don't think it's really for me.  I really fell for this fabric when it came out but sometimes you need to look beyond that and ask yourself if it truly suits you and I think this one is definitely up for question.  

Ho hum.  Not sure what to do with these,  they haven't even had a wearing yet!  I will be moving on to the jacket part of this pattern next in mustard corduroy and I think that is distinctly safer territory!

Little Joys Quilt Along Week Two: Tree Block

 It may be summer but there is that end-of-term feeling in the air, life has gone a little crazy with trips, school stuff, birthdays and deadlines so it could almost be Christmas with never ending to-do lists!  Week one of Fat Quarter Shop's Little Joys quilt along and my three 'Trim the Tree' blocks are done.

I made three identical tree blocks with a little pink addition to the top of my trees.  The instructions are easy- just adding half square triangles with the background squares to the main fabric rectangles.  I chain pieced the blocks and they were quick to put together.

Each half square triangle leaves another mini pair of triangles behind so I thought I would be efficient and draw in an extra line to stitch, half an inch from the diagonal pencil line and so when you cut between the two stitching lines each there is a quarter inch seam on either side and no wastage.

Here's a diagram to explain.  The red is the original stitching line, the blue is the second stitching line.  

Not sure what I am going to do with them but there will be fabric left over from this kit so there's potential for a scrappy extra make at then end of this quick small quilt project.  The pattern is free and you can make it with your own Christmas prints or a kit with all the fabric needed is available here.  See you next Wednesday with my wreath blocks!

My Small World Quilt-Along: Part Three

How is everyone getting along with their My Small World quilt?  I see lots of progress on Instagram and a great tips and tricks for the various construction techniques involved in the blocks.   Megan of @lucyandnorman is hosting part three of the quilt-along.  She'll be posting on Instagram and I hope to share the pictures here for anyone not on IG in a summary post.  Here's my section all finished- it is a tricky thing to photograph especially on a dull day!

The buildings block at the base of this section took a while and some careful planning to work around two Y seams.  I have a tutorial here if you are new to these.

Otherwise, I work on finding interesting fabric and colour combinations and making sure each block is the correct size when finished- many need a tiny bit of trimming!  I bought a design wall which I've hung on hooks stuck on a picture rail and it helps give me a sense of pattern and perspective over the whole quilt as well as keeping everything in one place.  Remember to check the #mysmallworldqal and tag me so I can see your progress or leave a comment here with a link and I'll pop on to your blog and admire your handiwork!