July 1st goodies, or How to spend your tax refund

July first! For most of us that means tax returns (boring) but for the lucky ones that also means tax refunds (hooray!) 

Allow me to make some suggestions from my favourite Etsy sellers on how to throwaway invest your refund into some lovely vintage pieces!

Laurids Lonborg Coasters, Gold Bow Brooch, Floral Biscuit tin, Purple open toe heels

The Dark End of the Street

So how was your weekend lovelies? 

I had one of those 1 step forwards 2 steps back type weekends. 

The sleeves on the Pattie suit are still not right, so I thought adding in the shoulder pads and sleeve heads would help pick up some of the drooping but if anything it only perpetuated the 80s jacket look 

Looks ok...

The inside before the lining.
Not sure why I picked black pads

Liebster Award - Oh my!

I've been very lucky recently to receive 3 Liebster awards!! Whoo hoo! 

Yes I know this is one of those things that go round and round the web to no end, but hey its nice to be considered!

Liebster is a German word that means dearest, and this award is given to up and coming bloggers with less than 200 followers who you think deserves more recognition!

Pattie Suit issues (and music!)

So after all of that fun making jammies and jumping on the bed, I'm now feeling worse for wear. The gloomy wet weather has finally taken its toll and handed me a cold. On top of that my Pattie suit is not going as well as I'd like. (see the original post here)

Considering I normally make dresses and easily whip them up in 2 or 3 sessions, making something with more of a challenge sometimes leaves you feeling a bit silly and hopeless.

All that supposed expertise flies out the window

Does this happen to you sometimes? Doing something harder than normal which leaves you feeling like a dunce?

Pyjama Party Sew Along!

Time to show off my Jim jams for Did you make that’s Pyjama party!

No not that Jim Jam

These Jim Jams!

 How close is my head to the roof?

Tutorial: Setting in sleeves

So as per Fabees request, I have prepared a post on setting in sleeves!

There are two typical sets of sleeves that you will see on most garments.

A set sleeve and a puffed or gathered sleeve. There are other kinds but we will leave them for now.

While both were fashionable in the 60s the one we are going to focus on today is the clean tailored finish of a set in sleeve.

When you look at a sleeve pattern and try to piece it together, you will notice that there is always excess fabric. This is great for puffy sleeves, but for set sleeves we need to use a technique called easing.

Ease (as a verb) means to move or shift with great care. And so this is the principle of set in sleeves. Going slowly, taking you time and being careful will result in a well sewn shoulder seam.

With practice you may get quicker but for now be careful and take your time.

Giveaway Winner!

Okay so I'm a bit later than 7pm - what with real life happening an all (aka work) 

There was 4 entries into this wee little contest - The odds have never been better! 

So a big congratulations to Fabee CrazeeGirl! 

Surprise!

Fabee CrazeeGirl mentioned that she wanted to learn more about setting in sleeves properly, so I will be prepping up a little report/tutorial on that soon! 

Fabee CrazeeGirl please email me and let me know your postage details! 

Thank you also to the other entrants - Midnight and Dawn who wanted to learn more about interfacing, and Melanie who wanted to learn about sewing shirts, trouser fly's and fitting! 

Wow such great topics! I will take all your suggestions on board and try to come up with some tutorials for each of these. 

And a special mention to Lucy in the Sky who mentioned that she would like to learn the piano (again) as she was once quite apt, but without practice has forgotten some of the notes! So sad! 
Don't worry Lucy I'm sure you'll pick it up again one day!

Thank you ladies for participating in this giveaway - hopefully l'll have something  more substantial to give away in the future! 

Thanks again! 

Cat xo