Hello, my name is Anna and I'm an addict... (aka Craftaholics Anonymous)

Well, I will blog about last weekends thing later (there are still some pictures to be taken), but yesterday I actually went to a craft fair in Birmingham. This was a bit of a surprise event for me, as I actually didn't know about it before Sheila from the B&B told that she's going. So, I tagged along...

It was held by ICHF Events
@NEC Birmingham and with the same ticket you could enter all three parts:
1) Fashion, Embroidery, and Stitch
2) Sewing for Pleasure
3) Hobbycrafts

I had looked at the website before and the main things for me to see where a workshop by Bernina (Bernina in Finnish) & Madeira. There were actually three options for me, but I got my first choice, the stitch covered mini notebook, which was perfect timing-wise. The main idea was to try free motion embroidering with a machine, so that's why I had some choice. That started only at 11:45, so I had time to go an listen to Stuart Hillard's 10:30 talk on wardrobe customization, which was the other main event for me.

While I was waiting for the talk, I looked around a bit and just next to the talk podium, they had The Giant textile books. So, amazing! See the pictures below for two of the books and visit their website to see more pictures and past exhibitions.

So, then it was time for Stuart's talk. If you've never heard of him, shame on you. Well, not really, but he was a contestant in the first series of The Great British Sewing Bee. He gave really good tips on what you can do with just few simple things. I'm a lot better at doing something from scratch than customizing, so I was excited about this and he didn't let me down. And I even got a picture with him! And just look at his pants, I love the color!

Stuart demonstrating what you can do
with a t-shirt and a tie

Me and Stuart. I have the worst posture ever in
this one and it makes me look kind of fat...
well, at least Stuart looks good :)

I had a bit of time before my machine embroidery workshop, so again, I was just looking around. And I saw this guy making all kinds of cords with an interesting method. And of course I decided I need to learn it and I got the kit. There was a beginner's kit, but the one I got included the beginner's kit + more advanced stuff. I think I'll be ok with it :) The method is called lucet and you can find more about it at Ziggy's website.

So, then finally it was time for the workshop. It was taught by Pauline Verrinder from FibreFusion. And in one hour, she managed to help us learn free machine embroidery (no embroidery machine needed!) and we made a small note book as well. First it was a bit of practicing, I tried to do a flower (that looks better than I would've expected for my first try and then I tried writing my name, which was a less successful attempt. But I think my final product looks pretty good. You can see here the actual notebook (the cover keeps opening, so I needed to weigh it down with my camera case) and a zoom in to one (the better one) of the flowers.

After this workshop and lunch I went to see if I could get to an appliqué workshop in Sizzix stand. It was a workshop without reservations and the next one was starting in half an hour, so I decided to sit down and wait. I actually got very tempted to buy the cutting machine they advertised (which I guess was the point of it all), but I think with the amount of quilting and appliqué I'm doing at the moment, I can be without one... The workshop was held by Angela Southey, who also writes on the Sizzix blog. I got so much out of it and I think my needle case turned out ok (and I didn't have one!)

I also met a really cool person who I shared the machines and iron with. Jenny has her own company and she buys bags which she then embellishes and sells further. Take a look at her work on her website.

Needle case with a butterfly appliqué

After all of these workshops it was 14:30 already. But this was kind of perfect. The place didn't have a lot of places to sit down, so people started to get tired around this point. I had sit most of the time until then, so I was totally ok for walking. So I missed the worst rush. I had managed to buy a few things in between the workshops, but now I started to have a hard time controlling my shopping impulses. I think I used more money than I had planned, but everything I got was useful (well, I really shouldn't get more fabric...) and things I haven't really seen in Paris. Or I'm sure some of the stuff you can get there, but I would have to go look for it.

So, at this point my shopping included, in addition to the lucet stuff: a meter of tweed remnant (£5) and some general stuff for sewing like glue pens, rotary blade sharpener, some cable needles for knitting, and a scissors case. I still needed an embroidery hoop for machine embroidery, which wasn't too hard to find.

Linton tweed: 100 cm x 140 cm / £5

I also saw some good deals on patterns, but luckily most of the ones I was interested in didn't have my size anymore, so I ended up getting only two. The underwear one is mostly for the corset as I think I can make a petticoat without an actual pattern. And I was very happy to find one of the retro patterns I've been drooling on in sale.

I also found some plain red cotton fabric, which is perfect for my vintage dress, that I'm still planning on to do. I have some linen in the same color, but I've been a bit worried that it might be a tad thick with the polyester.

And then I saw this really cute tractor fabric at Doughty's and I really need to sew a shirt for my nephew. He just loves tractors: my mom got him a t-shirt with a tractor on it for Christmas and he only took it off when my sister told him that if he doesn't give it to her to wash now, he won't have it for the whole next week... So, just to have a dressier shirt, right? And when I was in line to buy that I saw the girls in front of me getting the cool camera fabric below and I just had to be a copycat and get some. The color isn't really my color, but at least there are some yellow cameras... And maybe I can combine it with something... :)









After I got some food, I had a bit more energy left and I saw the cutest cat fabric ever! It was in thre Little Laura's Haberdashery and they had the same one in white as well and while I was pondering out loud to the lady next to me that I would get it as a contrast, she pointed out to me that there was actually even a better contrast fabric on the shelf. The black one with paw prints on it. How perfect is that. I'm thinking of Alma & Chardon (with a contrast edge), or maybe something like Ava or Macaron...

And then something draw me back to the tweed and Linton. Maybe the fact that I got into my head an idea of a tweed jacket and my 1 m piece wasn't big enough for that (for the 1 m piece I'm actually planning Thurlow). So, I went back and looked at the 2 m pieces that were meant for jackets. And I saw it right away. It was actually one of the most expensive ones at £60. I really loved it, though, and while I was wondering if I should get it the lady asks me if I'm a student. I said I was, although an astrophysics student, and she told me that the student price was £45. She kind of sounded like I should've actually been a dressmaker student or something, but I guess she felt sorry for me: I'm sure she saw how much I liked it... And the best thing: this was actually a fabric ordered by Chanel, but when the fabric is older than 3 years they can start selling it as a fabric as well. So, I need to make a Chanel jacket, right? And what is a better pattern than V8804? So, I think I need to go pattern shopping...

Vogue 8804

Bit of a break...

So, I had quite a hectic period in my life, so no sewing or blog updating. I was in a conference, where I had a poster, I had to find an apartment, travel back to Finland (for a friend's wedding + work) and then I had to move. So, that pretty much ate up my October. First week of November I still had apartment stuff to deal with and then last week I had my well deserved holiday in Qatar, visiting my cousin who lives there.

Qatar was amazing, and the fabric prices! I could've bought so much... But, during my move I realized how big my stash really is, so I was very strict with myself and only bought 2 meters of this silk (~20 €, can you believe it?). This kind of silk costs like 30 €/m in France...

And then my cousin also showed this crafts store to me, and well, I spent a few euros there as well...

But, I think I was controlling my impulse to buy very well :)

It's back to sewing for me, I have so many plans, but I decided to stay out of sew-alongs and stuff as keep it stress-free. Well sort of, there are a few things I'd love to see finished...

Fabric for Fashion - The Swatch Book

So, since I haven't been sewing, really, but apartment hunting and guarantor hunting and stressing about it in general, I thought I'd tell you about a book related to sewing I got myself lately. I'm really trying to cut down on actual physical books that I have, and this is not exactly the smallest, but this is something you can't get for kindle.

I've been wanting to get this book, since I first read about it in Tilly's blog (you can also find more pictures there, I'm lazy...). Now I decided I needed to get it. I'm having trouble of understanding all the different fabrics, especially in English (and in French!). And when you're ordering online, you don't really have a chance to feel how the fabric is. And it's not exactly something I'm great in Finnish either. So, I thought this book was just what I needed. And it's amazing! It doesn't go in very deep on the fabrics, just gives you the main idea of what and how the fabrics are made, but it provides swatches!

So, they introduce the main fabric types and the swatches are not dyed, so they're mainly white/grey so that you won't be distracted of the color of the fabric. This really gave me some understanding of the different common fabric types around. And leaves out a lot of guesswork. Also, the book is about 70 pages, so it's not a huge read. The book is more introductory, but I think a huge book with a lot of information wouldn't work with swatches. It already is quite thick and the nature of the information is such that I need to go back to this book over and over again before I've actually learned to recognize the fabrics without the book. But I can recommend this to anyone with the same problem: it really makes a difference to feel the fabrics.

Sneak Peak: The Cape

Well, I'm trying to find the time to do this. I think this weekend... I have the pattern, I have the fabric, and I have the notions. I'm still making the Milano Cape by Papercut Patterns.

Two weeks ago I did some shopping: Besides the cape fabric, I also got the fabric for the waistband of my circle skirt that should be coming up soon (#sewingdares: circle skirt for dancing) as well as something that would look good as Alma (another #sewingdare: sew a Sewaholic pattern). And finally I got my order from Tissus.net, which means I have elastic for my bombshell swimsuit. That has been long coming, I'll try to make it for the Thread & Needles August vintage challenge (theme: the beach). Some amazing inspiration from other bloggers: View A, the one I'm doing as well: Anna of paunnet, Lauren of Lladybird,  Tasia of Sewaholic, Leila of Three Dresses Project, Katie of Kadiddlehopper, Ginger* of Gingermakes (*not her real name), and Dixie of Dixie DIY, View B/C: Cynthia of Dapperduds (I'm really loving this bikini version), Novita of Verypurpleperson, and Anna of paunnet.

So, hopefully bunch of sewing coming up. The next thing is the cape, though. I saw some amazing wool, but that was 32 €/m, and the pattern requires 3.6m, so I thought: no. But, I found something else on sale. This is still lovely, a bit scratchier than the expensive fabric, but not too bad and this will be for winter so I won't be wearing it on bare skin.

Fabric for the cape + the notions

Don't you think it's lovely? The read is more dark red in real life, it looks a bit orange-y here. I took 4m, so hopefully I can match the stripes, but if I can't, I can't. I will try, though. I don't know if I got enough fabric for matching, as it's a bit new thing for me. But I really love the buttons. I went to a notions shop and just asked what I needed and I showed the fabric and the lady found these. When I first saw them, I didn't think much of them, but when she put them on the fabric, they were awesome.

So, I traced and cut the pattern on yesterday, and I was actually planning to cut the fabric as well. But it was kind of late when I got the pattern done, and I was a bit worried about matching, so I want to do that with a fresh brain... So, I will be cutting today :) I'm also a bit worried about the welt pockets, but you live and learn, right? At any rate, you live.

I did find few tutorials, that I think will be helpful (the written instructions with drawn pictures probably would've worked, but seeing someone do it, helps:



Lladybird's tutorial on welt pockets

I decided to make the pockets from a contrast fabric. Well, I had two that matched the color of my buttons. The problem was: other one is a knit and the other one is cotton, but sort of heavy kind, the kind you would use on furniture or bags or such. After consulting the sewcialists, mainly Angela, I decided to use the cotton. Mainly I think it's nice that outerwear has durable pockets and the heaviness is close to the wool I'm using for the cape. I guess the knit would've worked too. Well, we'll see how well it works.

If you haven't signed up yet for the pattern/book giveaway, do so now!

We'll always have Paris

I was in Paris for a week for an interview and was able to take some days just for fun. So, of course I went fabric shopping... The fabric area is close to the Sacre Coeur and there are few big stores, but there are bunch of little stores that sell 'coupons', which are 3m pieces of fabric. You can get these very cheaply, but most what I was looking at were 20 - 25 €, so mostly on the higher priced side (I have an expensive taste, I know...). But I did make couple of finds that I actually bought.

The yellow fabric was surprisingly only 1,5 m and consequently 5 €, so I just had to take it, since yellow is pretty much my favorite color. Then I looked and looked and didn't see anything for awhile. Or did see, but they were too expensive to buy without having a plan what to make of them. But then,  at the last store I went to, I saw this perfect fabric, that was so 1940s. The first one I saw was with blue flowers and I was contemplating on it, but then I saw this one with red flowers and I was sold. This is what I think when I think about the 40s. So, this will become a swing dress. Hopefully very soon.

Sew Colette: The Book

I ordered the Sew Colette book, since I really liked all the clothes and that I can make them and learn different techniques. This seems like a perfect sewing book. My inspiration for buying the book came from the recent sew along. If you click the link, you can see lovely versions of the different garments in the book made by the participants of the sew along. I think the best thing about this book is that I like all the clothes and I will learn so much if I manage to sew all of them. The book is nicely organized, so that you first get the relevan theory and how-to instructions and then you have a project in which you can use and practice the introduced techniques. Since in sewing (and all other crafts as well) you only learn by doing, I think this is a great idea for a sewing book.

The garments to be made are:

Meringue Skirt

Pastille Dress

Truffle Dress

Licorice Dress

Taffy Blouse

I have been buying fabric and I have fabric ready now for all of the 5 garments, or have ordered it anyway. This is the first time I've ordered fabric online, so I hope they are what I think. Then again, I'm not that particular about the exact color, so as long as it looks good, it's enough. I also have the notions ready. I bought the lining fabrics from QuickFabrics.co.uk, and they had a great service: when you buy fabric, you can check a box and they will add a matching thread to your order. I think this is awesome and should be offered everywhere. And if you think you don't need it, you can just leave the box unchecked.

Here you can see the fabrics I have bought for these garments:

Fabrics for Meringue, Pastille, and Licorice

Fabric for Truffle

Fabric for Taffy

The blue fabric is for Meringue, the pink for Pastille, and the green for Licorice. The two others have been ordered from the internet, but since I only did it yesterday, I don't have them yet. As I said, I'm a bit nervous what they are for real. I can't wait to get to sewing all these. I will start with the Meringue skirt tomorrow.

I also bought some extra fabric from Eurokangas while I was wondering what to use for these garments. They have these boxes that have remnant pieces of the fabrics and you can buy them by the weight and they're priced like 25 €/kg. So these two fabrics I bought from that. Originally I thought I would use the orange see through for the Taffy Blouse, but since I found the embroidered one, I just couldn't not buy it. But maybe if it looks good, I'll make another one from this fabric. I originally thought the green one for Meringue, but it might be to thick for the scallops. But I think I could make another version without the scalloped hem from this. Looking forward to sewing something from these as well!