And the award for the most ridiculous sleeves goes to…

McCalls 6164

…McCalls 6164!

I saw a couple of incarnations of McCalls 6164 over at Gigi Sews, and couldn’t believe that this pattern had passed me by. I’m a huge fan of 80s-style pouffy sleeves, so I couldn’t resist grabbing the pattern and sewing view D, which seems to have the most ridiculous sleeves of them all.

The fullness in the sleeve head is created with both pleats and gathers. There is an additional option to do something clever with organza that makes the shoulders defy gravity, but even I thought that was taking things a bit too far.

I made a size Medium, but gave myself a bit of additional room in the waist. All the seams are done on the overlocker, and the neckline and hem simply have the serged edge turned to the inside and topstitched. I might actually go back and make a deeper hem, because it seems to have a tendency to roll up. I also need to make the bottom of the sleeves a little bit narrower. They’re designed to be about six inches longer than your arms, so that they ruche at the bottom, but I’ve got quite little hands and they keep falling down.

It was a really easy top to make, and uses less than two metres of fabric despite the length of the sleeves. For a proper 1980s vibe, I think I’ll be making a crushed velvet one next.

Butterick 5260

Butterick 5260

This little dress is the first time in ages that I haven’t made a single alteration to the pattern as I was going along. I simply cut out the pattern, cut out the fabric, and sewed it all together according to the instructions. Very unlike me.

It’s Butterick 5260, view C.

The dress is much longer on me than the pattern illustration suggests. I’m about 5’5″, and it sits just above the knee. For some reason the sleeves have come out extremely long – they completely cover my hands. As it turns out I don’t mind that, but it was a bit of a surprise when I tried it on!

The fabric is a devoré (or burnout) velvet of unspecified fibre. I suspect polyester. It’s one-way stretch, and it was much easier to work with than I expected. There was the usual amount of fluff clogging up the sewing machine and the overlocker, but the pieces didn’t shift about too much while I was sewing.

I think a future project needs to be a range of slips in different colours, to wear underneath. Otherwise I’m not entirely sure how much wear I’m going to get out of a mostly-transparent dress!

Vogue 2787

Vogue 2787

Remember the dress I made for the Vintage Vogue competition?

The deadline was today, so yesterday after work Paul and I rushed out to take some pictures. This is the one that I sent off to accompany my entry.

Precious Metal Clay

Silver jewellery

These two little pendants are made from Precious Metal Clay. I’ve had the clay for almost a year, but was a bit afraid to make anything with it in case I ruined it. Janet (the silversmithing tutor) said that if I wanted to make something at home and bring it in, she’d show me how to fire it. I very gratefully took her up on the offer, and here are the results.

The pendants were made very simply by pushing a rubber stamp into the rolled-out clay. They’ve been through the barrel polisher, but I need to get into the indentations with a brash brush to bring up the shine. Another technique I’ve read about is to push polymer clay into the pendant, to add a bit of colour.

The silver blob is what happens when you melt silver clay completely to a liquid. I wanted to do that with the leftovers, so that I could see what the various stages of melting look like. Theoretically this should help me to avoid disaster in the future.

Silver jewellery

Sadly it didn’t help me to avoid this little disaster!

This is what happens when you’re firing your metal clay piece from the back (so you don’t squash the bail), but you let it get a little bit too hot. The honeycomb texture on this leaf is because I accidentally melted it ever so slightly into the firing block. Oops.

Unfortunately there’s not a great deal I can do about that, but I can at least clean it up with the brass brush and see how noticeable it is when the whole thing’s nice and shiny. Such a shame, because the delicate texture of the leaf was beautiful!

My next step is to book myself onto one of Janet’s Precious Metal Clay courses. I think I need a little bit more help…

Silver Jewellery

Silver jewellery

The final two days of my Art Week were spent at a silversmithing course. I’ve been meaning to get around to going on a silversmithing course for more than ten years, and now I’m really cross with myself that I didn’t do it sooner. Silversmithing is brilliant!

On the first day we made silver rings using different profiles of wire. On the second day we were given a quick demonstration of stone setting, so I set one of my rings with this lovely rose quartz. I’m absolutely thrilled to bits with this, and you can expect to see me wearing it pretty much all the time from now on.

Silver jewellery

My main project was this pendant. The leaf is silver sheet, textured with wire to make the veins, and then hammered gently over dome punches to give it a bit of shape. The acorn is made from copper and brass, and also gently domed. I’ve since brushed the brass part of the acorn, to give it a satin texture. I’m now pretty handy with a piercing saw and a needle file, although my hammering skills definitely have room for improvement!

Silver jewellery

I already have quite a few of the necessary tools for making jewellery, so I’m currently contemplating buying a few more. A bench clamp, a ring mandrel, a piercing saw and a few bits and pieces to allow me to do soldering… I can feel a few more pretty rings coming on!

There are quite a few silversmithing evening classes local to me, although apparently it’s quite a challenge to find one that actually has any available places. I’ll definitely be looking around to see whether I can squeeze myself onto a course. There’s so much to learn, and I can’t wait!

Create With Clay

Create With Clay

This week I’ve been at my local school, taking part in various art courses. The first one was “Create With Clay”, and above you can see the first thing that I’ve created in clay for approximately seventeen years. It’s a slightly wonky thumb or pinch pot, with coils added to the top.

Create With Clay

This is a slab of unfired terracotta, rolled out to a uniform thickness, and then curled into a pleasing shape.

I didn’t really enjoy the time I spent working with ceramics on my Art Foundation course. I hated getting my hands dirty, I didn’t like working in three dimensions, and I wasn’t really interested in waiting for weeks on end for the finished piece to come out of the kiln. Especially as it was quite likely that something in there would have exploded and ruined everybody else’s work. As a result I didn’t really pay much attention in ceramics classes, and so I made rubbish pieces which only confirmed that I didn’t like it.

Create With Clay

This one’s a “pod”. I made two pinch pots, stuck them together, and then made a hole – as per Kay’s instructions. The texture on the outside is done with the end of a pen and a dried up old paintbrush. The texture on the inside? That’s just my fingerprints.

I tried really hard not to mind about having dirty hands, although it turns out that I’m still pretty squeamish about the way that the clay draws all the moisture out of your skin. I also tried not to have a pre-conceived idea about what I wanted to achieve, and simply followed the instructions and enjoyed the process.

As it turned out, I actually did enjoy the process!

Create With Clay

On the second day we made a piece of our own devising. I enjoyed the simplicity of working with a slab of clay (particularly the fact that I didn’t have to stick my thumbs into it!), so I decided that an oak leaf would be my “inspiration from nature”.

I drew out the shape onto a pice of A4 paper, and used that as my template for the size of the terracotta slab. After some experimentation with mark-making (something else that I loathed in college) I decided to use embroidery thread to mark out the veins. The underside of the leaf was textured by rolling it out onto a sheet of newspaper that I’d scrumpled up and then flattened out again.

Create With Clay

Once that was all done I spent a long time smoothing down the edges of the piece, and coaxing it gently into a more interesting shape. After I’d carefully pulled out the embroidery thread, the top surface was very gently textured with a damp sponge.

All of the pieces will be fired during the summer holidays, so we have to wait until the end of September to get them back. I’m really excited to see how the leaf looks once it’s been fired and finished with a clear glaze.

I’m not entirely certain what I’m going to do with a 12″ long terracotta leaf once I get it back… but this course definitely helped me to get over my fear and loathing of working with ceramics. In fact, I wouldn’t mind signing up for a longer course so that I could play with colours and glazes. That seems like fun!

Traditional English Summer.

Victorians in the rain

Last weekend we paid a visit to Broadlands, where there was a multi-period historical re-enactment weekend going on. As you can see, the weather was absolutely ideal for a British summer’s day out.

As it turned out the Victorian Redcoats didn’t have to shelter for very long, but it was certainly very wet while it lasted!

Professor Leonidas C. Grymm and his Mermaid

This is Professor Leonidas C. Grymm, and his Mermaid. He represented part of Grymm Tooms Travelling Museum, which I very much enjoyed. The gentleman above represents a Victorian explorer and collector, and he told us about various famous collections and artifacts. His colleague, Doctor Lazarus Tooms, demonstrates a history of the advancements made in medicine, including surgery and anatomy.

I only took a few photos – partly because of the rain, and partly because I accidentally became increasingly laden with shopping as the afternoon wore on. I picked up two large felt hat blanks for steaming into shape (one black, one bright pink), and was very restrained at the fabric stall. I came away with just five metres of a lovely woven wool fabric in cream and brown, with a little blue spot running through the diamond pattern. That will be perfect for a pair of trousers and a jacket, and I rather wish I’d bought some more!

Giant Cheese Bread!

Giant Cheese Bread!

A few weeks ago we bought a cheap breadmaking machine.

It’s brilliant.

Chuck in a bunch of ingredients, press a couple of buttons, and you can wake up in the morning to a freshly baked loaf!

As with any new device, there has been a certain amount of trial and error. The first couple of loaves sank rather a lot at the top, so you can imagine my excitement when I opened the machine to discover this beauty! Not only had it risen right to the top of the pan, it had overflowed and stuck itself to the lid of the machine. Oops.

Still, it came away easily enough, and tasted pretty good as well. This is a white loaf made with added cheese. Unfortunately, what you can’t tell from this picture is that almost the top half of the loaf is completely hollow!

We’ve now taken to using the “sandwich” setting on the machine, which produces a lovely dense loaf with hardly any crust. This makes it nice and easy to slice, and makes a lovely neat square sandwich. Next time I might be a bit more adventurous and buy a bag of wholemeal flour. Apparently this necessitates pushing a different button on the machine, but I think I’ll probably manage.

Joolz’ velvet skirt

Joolz' velvet skirt

Despite my determination that I would no longer be sewing for anybody but myself, my friend Joolz managed to convince me that she really needed a new velvet skirt. It’s about three years since I last made one of these, and I didn’t really need very much convincing to make another.

These simple elasticated skirts go right back to where I started my first business. I made them in velvet, and in four layers of net. Until we started printing the Baby Horrors t-shirts (and Baby Cthulhu in particular), the skirts were the most popular items that I sold.

This one’s simply four tapering panels, elastic at the top, trimmed with lace at the hem. Inside the waistband is a tiny pocket for a hanky, which was a special request from Joolz.

Happy to oblige!

Paintball with a musket.

Replacing the flint

Last weekend we went to Reigate Fort with my sister and brother-in-law. We had a lovely walk through Gatton Park, and ate a picnic in the drizzle whilst watching a slightly disappointing historical re-enactment. I don’t think we could have had a more typically English summer day out if we’d tried!

(Well, we could have gone to the seaside and eaten sandwiches in the car whilst sheltering from the pouring rain, I suppose.)

There were three periods of military history being demonstrated – Napoleonic, Victorian and First World War. The slightly disappointing part of the demonstration was because the WW1 machine guns kept getting jammed and refusing to fire. There were lots of small boys who absolutely loved the Napoleonic cannons, which were much more reliable!

There was also a section (ostensibly for children) where you could have a go at firing a cannon, mortar or musket. The picture above shows a new flint being fitted to one of the muskets, which I took while Paul was in the queue, waiting for his turn.

Paul firing a musket

Here’s Paul, firing a bright orange paintball towards a small plywood Napoleonic soldier.

Paul firing a musket

He’d been told to aim just below the webbing – and his shot was right on target!

The sun came out as we were walking back through the park, so we were able to enjoy some fabulous views all the way across Surrey. We didn’t see any of the highland cattle that wander around Gatton Park (although there was plenty of evidence that they’d been there!), but we sat on a bench at the top of the hill and ate muffins in the sunshine.

Lovely.