Work In Progress

Work is in progress in our iMake studio. We are moving to a bigger studio and shop, hopefully over the next week. The little iMake studio has been a great little starter home for us, and although we love it, its time to move on to bigger and better things.
I thought I would share a few pictures of the old space before we take it all down and move to our new premises.

The new studio and shop will be at 81 Meadowside, Dundee, and will be 'Sew Over It' and 'iMake' combined.

Craft Bombed Canal

▲ Film It Friday ▲

HELLO !

And welcome to Film It Friday

Please join us here every Friday and link up with your own videos, we would LOVE 

to see them.

So here we go, this weeks movie

An InLinkz Link-up

▲ A WEE NOOK ▲

With Oscar back at nursery this week, the inevitable post Christmas sort out/spruce up has began. I have a pot of paint at the ready for the lounge (fireplace) wall, but with a migraine threatening (again) yesterday I decided to go for something a lot less strenuous.

I began a sewing project last week, which I will hopefully be able to show on the blog some time soon, but in the midst of the sewing I had to acknowledge to myself that my sewing stuff was in a real mess. Things were scattered around the house and the sewing kit box contained a giant ball of tangled threads with random sewing objects trapped in among it. It took me much longer than I had expected, an hour and a half, but I eventually sorted it all out and made myself a wee sewing nook at the desk in the dining room. Duncan uses the desk when he is working from home so the less desk space used the better, this is how it turned out.

I am fairly happy with it. My sewing is very much at the beginners stage so a whole sewing room (or even a whole desk), isn't warranted, but this will be just fine for an easy tidy up after 30 minutes of glaring at my wonky stitching ;-)

Valerie

xxx

▼

sheer nightie tutorial

2 meters of chiffon = 2m long 36 inches (90cm) wide.
2 meters of satin ribbon
1.5 meters of white elastic 3/4 inch wide
Matching thread

First I zig-zag stitched up both raw edge widths, to stop any fraying.

Next  I folded back a 1 inch hem on one of the lengths. I am not that great at sewing so I tacked mine first, then machined it.

Make sure your elastic will fit inside this channel. You may want to turn it back twice, if your fabric is very sheer and you don't want to see the elastic through it (I wasn't too bothered about it).

Next I sewed the two widths together, without sewing over the hem for the elastic (or the elastic cant go in).

I then cut the elastic to size by trying it around me going across my chest around my back, including  under both arms. It has to be tight enough to keep the negligee up but elastic going around your body and under your arms (in the position that the top of a boob tube would sit in), should never been too tight.
Once the elastic is inside, sew the elastic ends together, and stitch up the open end of the elastic hem.

Next I attached two lengths of ribbon for straps. I put the negligee on and pinned where I thought the straps should be. I then took it off and evened the pins up (equal distance from the center on the front and the back), and then pinned the ribbon in place  on the inside, to act as straps.

Sewing the straps on will stop the chiffon from sliding around the elastic (too much), so make sure the chiffon is evenly distributed around the elastic before sewing the straps on (machine stitched is probably best).

I had some spare ribbon to make a little decorative bow at the front, which I quickly hand stitched in place.

Because the selvedge was used at the top and the hem edges, there was no need to hem it. If you wanted a shorter nightgown it would be easy enough to hem (and make the off cut into a scarf tied around the head in a pussy bow of course).
So there it is, all done. By no means perfect, but extremely easy, and extremely cheap.
I get my fabric from HERE it may not be the prettiest website, but the prices speak for themselves.

2 meters x 36' chiffon - in Med Blue - £4.98
2 meters x 0.5' Satin Ribbon - in Navy £0.78
1.5 meter x 3/4' white elastic - sold in meters - £1.00

Total = £6.76
Postage for this weight was £1.35, and only took 2 days to Scotland, bringing the total to £8.11, still coming in at well under £10.

Shorties And Longies

When I was looking on Filth Wizardry for the robot craft, I saw THIS tutorial on how to make shorts out of tea-towels. I haven't done much sewing lately and so I decided these would be non-precious enough to break me out of my sewing slump.

And here they are

 

 

The tea-towels were 3 for £1 in the pound shop, and I went for colour rather than size, which was a bit of a mistake. They are a bit too small, but for the boy who would happily be naked all day, they were fine. I am now going to look for some larger terry toweling vintage tea-towels, because how cute will that be? (I remember having orange and yellow terry shorts in the 1970's myself).

Meanwhile, since the sewing machine was out, I made these.

 

 

 

I made them in the same way as I made the shorts (from Filth Wizardry link above), and I think they are so cute. Oscar said he would like them to be shorter. I have some cute mushroom fabric, so after a cup of tea and a square of chocolate I think I may oblige with a shorter pair.

 

 

If I thought I could make myself a dress out of it without looking like Baby-Jane, I probably would. lol. Sewing slump over.

Valerie
xxx

Spring Bonnet

Ok, so maybe not exactly a spring bonnet, but since we are having snow storms right now I decided to get a start on next winters projects (or last winters, never got around to projects).

I have had my eye on this style of vintage hat for a while and since I had a bundle of white faux fur, I decided to go on a Google search. About 5 minutes of searching turned up this very simple tutorial HERE. If you can master the very basics of sewing and you have some faux fur going spare I would really recommend having a go, because if I can manage it, anyone can ;)

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Goes well with the granny specs don't you think

Valerie

xxx

Mad Makes

Yesterday I made some cushion covers for the sofa cushions, which I have to say, I really like.

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They are made from remnants of vintage fabric which I picked up for a couple of pounds on Ebay. The backing is some very cheap lining satin, which I bought on line, with no purpose in mind (to check the quality really). My sewing is still seriously wonky, but I love the fabric so much I am managing to overlook the wonky-ness and just enjoy them.

In the evening we reclined out on our new cushion covers and watched the 2 hour special season opener of MAD MEN. We really love this show, and we were so excited to see it return after a 2 year break, we had a Mad Men themed evening.

For Duncan I bought 3 different drinks from The Authentic Cocktail Co, Bourbon and coke, Whiskey and ginger and Gordons Gin and tonic.(aprox £1 a tin)

For myself, it was bitter cranberry juice and lemonade, with a cocktail sick and cherries of course.

For snacks, we used the Mad Men Hors d' oeuvres suggestions

PIMIENTO CHEESE SPREAD ON RITZ CRACKERS
INGREDIENTS (makes 4 cups of spread)
1 (4 ounce) jar chopped pimiento peppers 1 large onion, grated
1 pound shredded Cheddar cheese 1 dash Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon mayonnaise 1 pinch garlic powder
ground black pepper to taste
DIRECTIONS
In a medium bowl, mash the pimientos using a fork. Mix in cheese, onion, Worcestershire sauce and mayonnaise. Season with garlic
powder and black pepper. Chill until ready to spread over Ritz crackers (or any crackers you like — Ritz crackers give the snack a real
vintage vibe, though) and serve on a festive platter.

DEVILED EGGS
INGREDIENTS (makes 16 portions)
8 eggs ¹⁄3 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 1 drop hot pepper sauce, or to taste
2 tablespoons creamy horseradish sauce salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes 1 teaspoon paprika
DIRECTIONS
Place the eggs into a saucepan in a single layer and fill with water to cover the eggs by an inch. Cover the saucepan and bring the water to
a boil; remove from the heat and let the eggs stand in the hot water for 15 minutes. Drain the hot water and cool the eggs under cold
running water in the sink; peel the cooled eggs.
Cut the chilled eggs in half lengthwise. Place the yolks into a mixing bowl and set the whites aside. Mash the yolks with a fork until smooth;
stir in the mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish sauce, hot sauce, salt and pepper. Spoon the yolk mixture into a heavy plastic
bag; snip a corner off the bag to create a ½-inch opening. Pipe the yolks into the egg white halves. Sprinkle with parsley and paprika to
garnish.

PIGS-IN-A-BLANKET
INGREDIENTS (makes 8 servings)
1 (10 ounce) can refrigerated crescent roll dough
4 slices American cheese
1 (16 ounce) package cocktail sausages
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375°. Lightly grease a large baking sheet. Separate crescent rolls. Flatten rolls and cut into triangles measuring 1½ inches
on each side. Cut each cheese slice in half. Wrap each sausage in a half cheese slice, then a triangle of dough. Place on prepared baking
sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, until golden. Serve warm, speared with toothpicks, on a decorative plate. Try putting out
some different mustards for dipping!

(we used vegi sausages)

There are more suggestions on the MM site for cocktails and MM inspired menu's.

I also wore this dress

Which again is winky wonky but I enjoyed sewing it and the fabric is vintage inspired, and I love it.

I will probably always call it my Mad Men dress now lol.

Did you see the show? They ran real 1960s ads in the breaks, totally amazing.

 

Have a lovely weekend.

Valerie

xxx