Nautical Kim with a Twist

Posted by Clarinda Kaleidoscope in sewing and tagged with beach, BHL Kim, Elmer, Sewing, tie 25/04/2015

Hello all. hope you are having a FAB weekend!

I want to share my second Kim with you – these photos were taken at the beach last weekend which is probably why I am sat here now with a cold. It was such a gloriously sunny day albeit windy and I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to take photos of my nautical Kim in an appropriate setting.

We had so much fun taking the photos but I have to tell you – this dress did not make me smile the first time I put it on. I bought the fabric at Fabric Land in Worthing over the Easter holidays, originally for a Sureau but decided to go with a Kim because the fabric was so summery.

Although I had bought lining fabric I managed to eek the dress out of two metres. It did necessitate a lot of twiddling around and I had to cut right up to the selvedge which fortunately was patterned rather than being a white strip. Anyway, I thought I had marked each piece so that the selvedge pieces were on the inside of the bodice but I was sewing whilst watching, I think it was, Morse. There are so many adverts in these two hour programmes that in order to alleviate the guilt from lazing on the sofa – I hop up every time the ads are on and do a bit of sewing which proabably accounts for why this happened (and I did not notice until I tried the finished garment on)!

Normally I become despairing when things go wrong but this just made me laugh and laugh. I could not believe that I hadn’t noticed this: I will certainly be more attentive when I am lining in the same fabric in the future. I have not been put off though – I have already bought some Liberty with all of the Alice in Wonderland characters on and am going to make another one. You will see that I did correct it. I had to unpick the shoulder, twist the pieces round the right way and then I simply butt the two shoulder pieces together and handstitched with really tiny stitches. Obviously I can notice it but as my hair is shoulder length, I don’t think anyone else will – unless of course I meet you on a beach somewhere and you want a quick peek to see how neatly I did it!

Here are a couple more pics – just because it was such a lovely day.

In other sewing news I have finished the two ties I was sewing in the Liberty Lawn with daisies – I did the hand sewing on the train which seemed to intrigue people. I gave one to a friend last night at his leaving do and the other has been hidden away for Mr CK’s birthday next month. I really do enjoy making ties.

This weekend I am hoping to cut out my Gabriola (need to trace the pattern first) and I am currently making my tennis themed Sorbetto in preparation for the half term tennis camp.

Hope you have a lovely weekend and especially good luck to you if you are running a marathon!

Toodle pip,

Clarinda x

Me Made May Pledge 2015 (and a bit of chat)

Posted by Clarinda Kaleidoscope in sewing and tagged with A spool of blue thread, Anne Tyler, delphine, Liberty, libertytanalawn, MMM15, Sorbetto 21/04/2015

Good evening fellow sewistas

Thought I’d take the opportunity to write a little mid-week blogpost and make my pledge for Me Made May 2015. I find it astonishing that I am in a position to even contemplate such a challenge. It was a year ago this month I bought my sewing machine and I remember that when I first started looking at blogs people were posting about MMM and I had no idea what was going on! Yet now I’m up for it myself and really looking forward to participating. Look … I even had a little dummy run today.

Apart from my myriad of Sorbetto tops, most of my makes are quite patterned and not really sensible teacher fare. This is my strawberries and ants Delphine blogged about here. I think by wearing everything else in black I just about got away with it but May will need some careful thought. The trickiest bit will be that for the last week I am on a school trip: a tennis camp in Portugal. I will be in sports clothes pretty much all week but I have bought some fabric with racquets to make a ….. Sorbetto and, I’m really excited about this, I have managed to buy some wooden buttons in the shape of tennis balls!

So, here it is:

‘I, Clarinda of http://www.clarindakaleidoscope.com, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’15. I endeavour to wear one me made item (even if it’s only pants) each day for the duration of May 2015’

It looks as if I’m the 235th person to sign up – how great is that? Clearly we are all part of a vibrant, enthusiastic group and I am looking forward to seeing what other people have been making and finding some new blogs to follow.

I bought some gorgeous fabric at the weekend – three different Liberty Tana Lawns. I have already cut out the Daisies: two ties; one Belcarra (gift for my 2ic who is leaving at the end of this term); one Sorbetto. I was really pleased with how far I was able to make two metres go but it took me almost four hours because I kept re-jigging everything.

The ties are made all bar the hand sewing, which is my little treat tonight. If you follow this blog you might remember that I bought myself Anne Tyler’s A Spool of Blue Thread for my Easter reading – seduced 100%, not my the cover but by the title: I thought it would be something to do with sewing – doh! I had anticipated it would be about a quilt making community or something similar and would explore the secret lives of the members etc. Well, I finally finished it tonight. Having ploughed through it I had concluded that the blue thread was metaphorical and then, on page 350 out of 357, there it was, a spool of blue thread which appeared to symbolise forgiveness, or it might just have been …. a spool of blue thread!

Toodle pip,

Clarinda x

Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep

Posted by Clarinda Kaleidoscope in sewing and tagged with Birds, Colette patterns, Ditton fabrics, monthly stitch collective, Sorbetto 18/04/2015

Back in January I went shopping to Ditto Fabrics for the first time and bought four fabrics for my stash (who am I kidding – I didn’t really have a stash and I wanted one) which I write about here. About one of the fabrics I wrote “as for the bird fabric – who knows? It just looked so sweet I couldn’t resist it. Any suggestions for one metre?” Well, there were no suggestions at all until April’s challenge was announced for the Monthly Stitch Collective and I knew my inspiration had come to use my rather lovely watercolour garden birds.

As I only had one metre I went for my old faithful the Sorbetto but having had a look at some other Sorbettos on Pinterest I decided to follow others and do a variation. I am not sure I would go so far as to say I braved “a hack”; I merely inverted the pleat. Some stitchers had let the pleat flow directly from the neckline whereas others had sewn down a little way – I went for the second option.

It’s super sweet. It’s funny but I hadn’t really thought of the Sorbetto as being structured but it is rather stiff/formal when you compare it to the inverted pleat version which falls in a very feminine way. I really like it! Surely Collette’s Sorbetto must be the most frequently downloaded free pattern?

There’s not much more to report. I generally add three inches to the bottom of a Sorbetto but I didn’t have enough fabric available. I’ve now used up three of the four fabrics I bought on that shopping day. The one remaining is the doggie pattern. I had ear-marked that for a shirt but over Easter we had a little family sewing day and I “supervised” the cutting out of a cute summer dress – which was immediately abandoned as interest was lost (not by me!). So it’s good to see that the next challenge for the collective is some children’s sewing so I will resurrect it at some point during May – probably the half term week.

Hope you are all having a good weekend,

Toodle pip,

Clarinda x

A little displacement activity – man sewing

Posted by Clarinda Kaleidoscope in sewing and tagged with By Hand London Kim, clothkits, handmade tie, Mortmain dress, tiemaking 12/04/2015

Hi to all, hope you are having a FAB time enjoying the sunshine, especially if you are back to work tomorrow or saying goodbye to your littlies as they return to school. I have had a lovely break – really relaxing. I didn’t get quite as much sewing as I expected as I have been distracted by other activities and fussing over the family – which I love to do. I am currently supposed to be doing coursework marking which I should have done earlier in the holidays but I have hopped onto the laptap to write this blog post – naughty naughty.

Worn here with an un-ironed, non-matching shirt just because I was impatient to get a photo

Yesterday it was my niece’s wedding – she is the first of my thirteen nieces and nephews to get married and I had made a Flamingo Kim for the occasion. However, during the holidays when my sewing plans seemed to revolve endlessly around dresses I decided to do a little man sew as a displacement activity – I was inspired to do this by Lazy Daisy Jones who has pledged to do a man sew a month. With the wedding fast approaching, I decided to make a tie using the leftovers from my Mortmain. A tie does take a surprising amount of fabric. Mr CK kept looking at it doubtfully asking “exactly how big is it going to be”? I have made a tie once before, at a ClothKits workshop. I used the same pattern as I was pleased at how that one turned out. I used a little bit of lilac polka dot which I have got in my stash which I think is wanting to be made up into a Gabriola – which would certainly go well with my shoes. I have read a couple of blogs this week where people have been reviewing the goals they set themselves for 2015 – mine are not going terribly well. Making the Gabriola was one of my pledges so I think I should crack on with that now that the summer is on its way. However, I have just cut out another Mortmain and have bought the fabric to make my Davie – so much sewing and so little time. Anyway, there is not too much more to say about the tie. I enjoyed the construction and particularly like the hand sewing elements. It was a pleasant afternoon’s distraction from my selfish sewing. I was really pleased that Mr CK was quite happy to wear it to the wedding and told everyone that I had made it. So to close today, here are a few pics of the wedding to show you the Kim and tie actually in use for an “occasion” – a glorious London affair which saw us traipsing around on London Transport in all our finery. Toodle pip, Clarinda x

With my beautiful niece Sarah

With some of the family menfolk; Summer Rose pretending she is the bride.

There did seem to be a bit of a lemon theme going on (which I like) but the lilac looks nice too

Outside our local waiting for the bus to take us to Clapham Junction – classy!

PS – If you did scroll down this far … I’ve got another couple of weddings to go to this summer. What do you think about the idea of my Mortmain and the matching tie? Utterly dreadful or fun cheese?

Delphine avec des fraises et les fourmis

Posted by Clarinda Kaleidoscope in sewing and tagged with dephinne, fabric shopping, Love at First Stitch, Tilly and the Buttons 05/04/2015

Bonjour and Happy Easter!

I bought this fabric a year ago from Cloth Kits, Chichester when I did my first workshop (even before I had my own sewing machine). I immediately fell in love with the funky pattern – ants and strawberries together on a rather stiff cotton fabric. Having bought it I didn’t really know what to make with it. However, this week whilst I have been pottering around – both in general and on the sewing front – it suddenly came to me: a Delphine.

There’s not really too much to say about the skirt. The pattern is straightforward to sew; it comes from Love at First Stitch and I really appreciate the instructions, clear diagrams and Tilly’s pragmatic approach. Here is Tilly’s advice for Stitch in the Ditch which I did first time with this skirt: ” …don’t worry if it doesn’t turn out perfect and some stitches go off piste – for I do believe life’s too short to stress out over the little things.” A girl after my own heart but my ditchy stitching was OK.

I’m not sure really what to wear it with – I think maybe a plain black or red top but I haven’t got one so for the time being it’s dark green. By the way, in the background you can see Arundel Cathedral and just in the corner, the castle.

Well the first week of the holidays have gone and it’s been really relaxing but I am in full matriarch mode for the weekend. I made my first ever jam (jelly) – pink grapefruit and rosemary to go with the spring lamb. Just look at the lovely colour:

I also managed to fit in a bit of fabric shopping. There is a great shop in Worthing called … The Fabric Shop. The only trouble is, whenever there is a lot of choice I always feel overwhelmed. I bought two metres of this blue fabric which I think I am going to make another Kim with – although I did buy four buttons because I was also thinking about making a Sureau.