Another direction? Time for a change ?

I have been wondering for a while that a change is required to update and refresh my blog.

I have seen some lovely blog designs out there, background, title designs etc.
I have asked my daughters to help me design and change mine, as any teenager does, they start get board then give up and walk away to do something much more intersting instead.

So I thought I would change slowly, while I figure out the tech stuff.

Firstly the name of my blog, (I know I have talked about this before, but it turns out I was not ready).
When I started blogging I was not ready to open myself up to the world, ok I know I do not have mega following like some, and I like that. but still I hid and since I won the blog award in which you give a little more of yourself to your readers I realise I am still hiding.

When I first started blogging it was under the psudo Sew Vala and the blog was titled 'make it sew... trial and tribulations of sewing'. This I chose as a trekker, trial and tribulations is a  DS9 episode and a pun on TNG make it so'. But graduly I thought this title made it sound as sewing was such hard work. Yes it is I am a slow learner, mainly because once I do something I like to repeat it over and over before I move on  (look at the amount of shirts and dresses I have made from the same pattern) perhaps I should move on more quickly, this way I would learn more to get out of my comfort zone. But sewing and making is also really enjoyable and what I live for. If I cannot create I get 'nouty', grumpy if you like.

So I changed the title to Vala Sews...  with the intention of adding a witty line but the witty line has never appeared, because I cannot think of one. Any way Vala was choosen from one of my favourite characters from SG1 another sci-fi show, My real name is Di. I am a very ltteral person, I once asked my friends to sum me up in one word, idiviualy, to see what they would say and they all said the same thing, unconventional. Which to be honest I was very pleased with, I thought and still think its cool.

I have a very small bussiness selling jewellery, lapquilts and handbags that I have made in the past at craft shows. But my goal is find a style and sell unqiue clothing, or made to order. I have had lots of inquries into the yellow hoodie and plan to make more in different designs of my own which is a start. I have discovered a great love of Japanese Gothic Lolita or Gosu Rori as it is known. It was my daughters who showed me these and have asked for me to make them these clothes as buying them from Japan can be very expensive. My eldest saved up and bought a fabulous outfit from Japan, when it arrived, she was rather taken aback. The outfit is lovely but made from such cheep material she was a little disappointed but loved the overall design, she payed almost £100 for this outfit. My skill will get there and when it does I will be able to create a similar outfit for less than half of that. For which I am sure she will be happy, and if this makes her happy I hope it will make other too.

So in the future there will be inspirational pictures and hopefully completed designs from Gosu Rori while I learn and then some of my own creations. I think my daughters may feel I myself am too old for the look but with some adapations I may 'get away with it' outfits. Along with the Steampunk I adore and of course many more loud shirtd for S.H. I am trying to get my son into them but with no success, jogging bottoms and hoodies for him, I am sad to say.

What does the future hold, well I hope a bright and new colourful blog, with a new name (please keep an eye out for the change and do not be surprised when it happens, wondering who is this.)

Wow what a long post with no pictures, therefore here are a few with visions of a bright new new future.

 

Until next time you lovely people Happy creating,

Di (Sew Vala). x

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