Finally some makes,

A day after the wedding myaself and S.H. both came down with a viral chest infection. Not nice.

After a few days rest the boardom was bugging me more than the illness so what to do.
A found a cardigan I had started was was at the point where it only needed sewing together and the colar knitting so I picked up the needles and carried on.

Here is the finished cardie

It is hanging weirdly on Betsy (the lady has become very static and clingy, any advice on how to sort this would be greatly appreachiated)But the cardie is level when I tried it on.

I used this pattern

Wendy 5316, with out the fake pockets and with buttons. The cardie looks just as good with a belt.

I have previously made this jacket in teal , but on this one I did large ribbing on the bottom instead of moss stitch, more of a mistake than intentional but I like it.

I hope none of you my friends get struck with this viral infection, until next time xx
Sew Vala. x

A wedding outfit post.

So as promised in an earlier post I said I would tell you more about the gorgeous shoes I bought in Carnby Street when myself and S.H went to visit Liberty's last month.

They are called Abigails Party and are from a lovely shop irregular choice who can also be found on the internet.

I wore them to my nieces wedding last week and despite the large heal (I have such small feet, which makes the heal seem larger) they were comfy all night long.

Here is a picture of some of my family with the lovely bride and groom

Thats me in the blue dress and S.H. was asked what he would be wearing, dare he wear one of the shirts I make, so out came the Batman shirt.
For a wedding you may ask, well why not. The day is all about the Bride and Groom, their love for each other and if we are chosen to share that day with them I am grateful and honoured.
So Congratulations to my lovely neice and her husband, may you have many happy years together ahead of you. 

And my nails

Well thats enough about me next post will be sewing Honestly.

Sew Vala. x 

Things you find at the bottom of the garden,

For the past few weeks we have had a visitor hanging around the ajourning gardens out the back.

He just appears in the evening, sets down to roost,

Wakes us in the morning, then disappears again

 We have asked around and no one knows of a missing cockerall.

Good night all. x

Exciting news

I would like to say a really big Thank You to Wendy over at the butterfly balcony for giving me this blog award. I am thrilled, on three counts.
1, people come over to visit my little blog,
2, people like what they see
3, and that I was thought of to pass this one to.

So the deal is seven little bits of infomation about yourself and then pass it on.

1, I adore loud shoes. I have lots. Amongst my favourites is a pair of bubblegum scented black shoes by Vivenne Westwood. I am currenly saving for a pair of Steampunk shoes or boots from goodgoth.com

2, I live 'in the sticks', many do not understand this phrase they think I just mean the countryside. Its a small village, we do not have streetlights (so at 5o'clock in the winter it is really dark), we do not have a shop or a pub. These are in the next village and we are not on a bus route. I live with my three kids and 6 pets, and we all love it.

3,  I have three tattoos and ten pearcings. For my daughters' 21st Birthday I paid for her first tattoo.

4, I used to play Sudo 3 in a Samba band. Until I had constant pain in my elbow, cortizone injections unfortunalty have left some muscle distrophy which means I can no longer play the drums. My daughter has discovered a local (well about ten miles away) Uklele Band, which sounds like great fun so we hope to pop along there soon.

5, I have dicovered I love Gosu Rori. Japanese Gothic Lolita clothing. Lots of frills, bows, and wild. I have purchased some Gosu Rori books and will be blogging about these shortly.

6, I do not listen to music as much as I used to, parhaps the noise of kids and pets is enough, LOL. But currently my favourites are
Steampunk Opera- Dolls of New Ablion

Steam powerd giraffe-Honeybee

Vocaloid-HatsuneMiku-World is mine

7, I have been studying for my degree for a while now. My next course is Myth in the Greek and Roman Worlds. I have two moduals left to do. Previously I have completed
An introduction into Art and Humanities,
Homer- Poetry and Society,
5Century Athens Democracy and State
History of Medicine 1500-1930

Well thats enought about me, I wish to pass this award onto some of my favourite bloggers.

Rosey at http://sewingadicta.blogspot.co.uk/   She makes the most fabulous cakes and embroidary is gorgeous.

Kimberly at smolderingwickdesigns.blogspot.co.uk  She has fantasic tutorials in sewing and receipes. Shw made her own wedding dress which is beautiful.

Ginny at http://buttons-and-bobbins.blogspot.co.uk who makes the most adorable dresses for little girl.

Ewa at http://sewewellyn.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/self-drafted-1930s-inspired-cotton-top.html who has make some fabulous self drafted clothes.
  
These Ladies inspire me no end when I get stuck. I hope you would like to check out their blogs also.

Another exciting happening for me this week was when I had two of my Loud Shirts published on Fancy Moon facebook page.

One again Wendy Thank you for thinking of me. Sew Vala

Oh and if anyone is intrested Paul Shapera over at http://steampunkopera.wordpress.com/  he writes the most amaizing blog not only about his opera but subjects include, theatre, art, all genres of music, architecture to name but a few.

Pikacho Hoodie part-3 . The End.

Hello everyone,

Yesterday I left you with the many drafts of ears. Today I will show you the finished article.

The hood is simply two sides attached down the middle top and back.

I simply made an identical cut on both hood pieces and sewed the ears in, (making sure they curved in opposite directions) before sewing the hood together and onto the body of the piece.

Here is a back view showing the curve of the ears.

And here is the front view, looks a tad boring at the mo, like any other yellow fleece.

My daughter drew her choice of face for Pikacho and today I hand sewed it onto the hood.

 And here it is. I am so glad to say she really likes it. She wanted it big, baggy and comfortable. Almost like a child in clothes too big. 

Happy Days everyone, Sew Vala. x

Pikacho Hoodie - part 2, ears how hard can they be?

Well I was certainly fooled into thinking 'yeah I can draft ears, no problem.'

It all started out so simply, ears drafted to the length my daughter wanted. adding seam allowances to width and length so the black tips were still in proportion.

And then it all went downhill.

Ok, so first I cut the black tip as a triangle and sewed it on. Do not know how this happened, it went terribly wonky. The ear does curve and so does the tip, but it is not supposed to curve that much.

 Unpick and start again. This time I sewed the yellow ear to a square in the hope of cutting out the tip shape after.

This was better but I had miscalculated the size of the square and the angle. So unpicked and tried again.

Yeah success with the first ear. And as I had already done it so many times I forgot the other side of the ear curves in the other direction. So yep, got the wrong angle again. Back to unpicking.

Finally, I had a set of ears. I did each pair separatly so I that I did not sew two front or backs together. I cut out the tip shape and trimmed the excess black fabric to create a neat seam. Kwik sew patterns have a 6mm seam allowance, tiny compared to the other pattern manufactures. But I found this ok, when I make my handbags some times there is only a 2mm seam allowance it can be any bigger otherwise the fabric will be too big to fit in the frame.

I digress, back to ears.

 I cut out the interfacing larger than I needed then I sewed around the edge. Again this is I trick I have learnt from bag making and it works very well.

A set of ears sewn together inside out the medium interfacing on both sides gives them a nice puffy look.

It took way longer than I expected, and many more mistakes than I would have liked (over and over).
But I got there in the end. A pair of Pikacho ears. Now wheres the beer.

Happy sewing Sew Vala. x

Pikacho Hoodie - part 1

Last year my eldest daughter asked for a Pikacho Hoodie. I went off and bought loads of yellow fleece fabric. And waited until I could find the right pattern to adapt. In the meantime I started collecting images and asked her to send me some as well.

This week I finally got around to starting, I choose this pattern as my basic draft.

Kwik Sew 3250.

This is the first time I had used a kwik sew pattern, and I must say I did like it.
I liked the fact it is paper, this worked great with the fleece. Another first for me, using fleece.

 The fabric all cut out and waiting.

Interfacing the front and back neck facings and the front pocket. Now I did not know weather to use the interfacing with the fleece as that pattern calls for the hoodie to made out of cotton, cotton/linen blends. In the end I decided to use a sew-in medium weight interfacing. And I am glad I did.

Next time I will share the drafting of the ears,

Thank you for viewing friends. Sew Vala. x