What to do with the skirt offcuts - oh no that dreaded C word

Yep - Christmas.  That's the one.

Not sure you are all thinking of Christmas yet but in our house it is banned from being mentioned before the first of November, but now of course it is time to start considering such important things like the decoration theme for the tree, which of our poultry is going to have the honour of gracing the table, and of course who I can cross off my homemade card list this year.

So to get me in the mood, we decided (Thea and I that is - Brendan has no choice in the matter), that the theme this year for the tree is au naturel, and for the table, red reindeers.

From the skirt that I butchered the other day to make a bag, I had some of the lovely material left over, really pretty beige brown floral and peacock design and so I set to making some birds for the tree.

This is a really simple stencil, cut out facing left and right on the pattern material and some plain backing material, then some wings also cut from the pattern material.

Pin the wing in place on the pattern side and then just running stitch in a bright contrasting colour cotton all the way around, adding a couple of bars to look like feathers.

 A quick cross for an eye and the bird decoration is done.

Pin the right side of the pattern material to the right side of the backing material and machine sew all the way around except for about an inch left open on the bottom.

Turn the birds the right way by stuffing them through the hole with your finger, and pull out to the hem all the way round to shape the tail, head and beak.

Then stuff the bird through the small hole you left open, once filled, just close the hole off with a few blanket stitches.  For that little bit extra I also added a couple of heads of dried lavender into the stuffing so that they will smell lovely on the tree too.  To keep them smelling fresh from now to December, just seal them once they are made into a ziploc bag or a sealed plastic container.




I then added a couple of chicken feathers, through the stitches on the wings to finish my Christmas decoration birdies off.  I am sure that the kittens are really going to appreciate the effort I put into these.

Tuesday - smocking / shirring tutorial - summer dress from a sarong.

Some time ago I bought a bargain piece of material on ebay.

Digression :- Got to love ebay and those buyers who don't try to rip you off for postage abroad. Just because I live in France I have not had all my brain cells removed and I KNOW one paperback book does not cost £15.00 to post!

Anyway back on track - this is the material.  It is hard to tell from the photo, but it is various shades of blue in a tie-dye style with sequin stars and dots.

It was a rectangular piece, 115 cm x 149 cm, in a nice light viscose but thick enough not to need lining for decency.

The first thing I did was hem all the edges to prevent fraying. Then I joined the 115cm sides to each other sewing about three quarters of the way down from the edge that will be at the bust line, leaving the last quarter open for a split on the legs.

Left with a tube, too big to wear as is even with a couple of shoulder straps, I decided to have a go at creating a smock (shirred) top to this dress.

I am sewing all of the smock section on my trusty sewing machine - the first time I have ever tried this.

Thread your machine as normal with a strong poly cotton thread, but not too thick.  Then take your bobbin and some thin elastic (I stole mine out of my jewelry making kit, it is normally used for beading bracelets).

Hand wind the elastic around the bobbin taking care not to pull and create any tension in the elastic.  I had to wind the bobbin about 4 times in total to finish the smocking, each bobbin did about 3 rows of stitching.

I opened  back the seam and used some pins to mark the spacing between each row of stitching.

To sew the smocking you will be sewing on the right side of the fabric, so that your thread shows and not the elastic.

Remember to reverse back over the start and end of each row in order to secure the elastic otherwise it will just pull straight out as soon as you tension it.

Then start sewing.  The first row is the easiest, as the material stays flat as your run around the full diameter of your 'tube'.

As you move down to the next row, you will need to pull the material out flat as you go around, don't let the material bunch up with the elastic.

 Sew several full rows around the top of the tube extending approximately 15 cms from the top hem line.  This creates a shorter smock effect top with an empire line dress falling below.  If you are graced with a more forgiving figure then you can continue smocking for another 15 cms to create a skirt that falls from the waist.

Now I think it is time to try it on, mix myself a cocktail and relax by the pool.

Take that Gok Wan!