Hooray! I am finally posting a finished item for the Pattern Challenge! I have to admit, it wasn't one of my 'goals' that I set out at the beginning of this challenge....but hopefully I can still include it!

Anyway, if you have been following the blog a little (and if so - thanks!!!!), then you will know that I have been sewing (for what seems like an eternity) a simple skirt. I used McCalls 2220:

• The pattern was pretty much easy to follow. A few things I was not 100% sure of, but I would put that down to this being the first pattern I have ever followed so the terminology is new to me. Luckily I have a mum who is a seasoned pro at sewing and she explained a lot for me

• The hardest part for me was definitely the waist band (of course - the rest is just straight lines on the machine!) - there were a few strong words exchanged between me, the sewing machine and the fabric at times when trying to join everything together on a curve...fun times! I also somehow ended up with the front button section NOT overlapping (eh?! How did that happen??!!)...so I made a little loop out of the red material and use that as the button closure. Ironically, it actually makes a nice feature and adds a nice pop of colour!

• The pattern doesn't include a contrasting band at the hem, but I decided that (after I had cut it out - tut tut) that it was too short for my liking. So I found a little bit of lovely red cotton in my stash and added it myself. The funny thing is that I wasn't really feeling the love for this skirt the whole way through making it, think to myself "well, I probably won't wear this as it's a bit boring but I'm making it to learn how to sew" - and as soon as I added the red band I totally fell for it! Amazing how adding one small thing can change something completely!

• The main negative I have for the skirt is that the dark blue cotton attracts white fluff like bees to honey and it gets crushed the moment you put it on which is a big pain.

I loved the brooch which I had made for my friends birthday i knew I had to make one for myself. This time I used a heavy duty fabrc from Ikea, so its a lot more rigid. Its nice to try out the brooch with different fabrics and I do like it in the heavy stuff, but I think flimsier fabric suits it better. For this pic I've attached it to one of my hats, but I've been wearing it mostly on my clothes and I'm loving it...I think I will be making many more of these!!!

My friends birthday was coming up and I was trying to think of what to get her. She is quite a 'crafty' person herself and loves making her own cards in particular, so I thought she might appreciate a 'home-made' pressie!

So I set about making a tote bag (since this was my latest achievement - see previous post!). This time I decided to follow a tutorial and found a brilliant one on Skip To My Lou, which is actually reversible - bonus! Again I had to use what material I had to hand, this time it was very sturdy fabric from Ikea (white with black 'bunting').
I was a bit stumped as to what to make the lining with as nothing I had really went with the Ikea fabric. After a bit of searching around I found a flowery scarf which I had bought from Primark, but not yet used, and thought I might as well use that!!!


I was a bit nervous about making the straps, as it requires you to fold the fabric over 4 times, and I was worried my needle might break. So I adapted it slightly and only folded it three times. However, I think I should have stuck to the 4! Saying that, it worked out fine anyway. I really liked the method for finishing off the opening of the bag, and actually using this as the place to turn the bag the right way round. It ended up looking very professional (well...in my opinion anyway!).

As an added bonus I decided to make a pretty fabric flower brooch out of some of the remaining lining fabric. I found a very good tutorial for it at Wise Craft. The button is just one I had in the house. I recon the brooch turned out very well and I know my friend really loved it.


xxx


P.S. Since I used Skip to My Lou's tutorial, I thought it would only be appropriate to join in in her 'Made by You Mondays'! Click the link above to check out loads of other things people have been making! :)