After the vintage hexie quilt was sort-of squared up and bound I decided to quilt more simple wavy lines on the deer bargello quilt and give it to Nell’s Headmistress when she retires at the end of term. I love the simple texture of the soft waves - I have an Indian bedspread waiting to be quilted that might just get the same treatment.
It was an oddly expectant week. Freya was waiting for the “execution” of the her Higher Maths exam which most of the 17 year olds in Scotland subsequently complained was grim. She revised hard for that exam and also had a tutor in recent weeks so my fingers are crossed that she managed to perform well enough to pass. I am waiting for the Bernina Q24 longarm machine to be delivered at any time so I tidied up my workshop and tried not to start any major, messy projects.
I began a major reorganisation of my digital photos. I have no idea how many there are altogether but my Mac is storing 93GB worth of pictures! There were Yurt photos in dozens of different locations and also photos that had been transferred from my previous laptop. I still have a lot more sorting to do but hopefully it will be far easier to find them the next time I need to write an article or pattern.
I decided to have a crack at the waistcoat pattern that I bought from Cherrywood Fabrics in Paducah. I managed the patchwork aspect easily but as usual my “pattern dyslexia” challenged me. I almost wished that I had just quilted some fabric, then sewed it all together and finished it all off with a binding. The finished example at the show was stitched with a few simple, vertical lines but I don’t know whether they did that before or after assembly.
Obviously, I let myself get carried away and spent almost 2 days stitching and couching onto my patchwork fabric before even cutting out my pattern pieces. I enjoyed using my Indian wood blocks from Colouricious to print the plain grey lining fabric with red, grey and black paint.
After reading then ignoring some of the instructions I finally had the outside and inside pieces all joined together along curves with 5/8” seam allowances. To accommodate my bust, I made the XL size as per the instruction leaflet but after a quick try-on while it was just pinned together, I was concerned that it might too baggy. I am hopeful that it will all fit more neatly after it is finished, otherwise I may have to buy a big padded bra. Putting the waistcoat together looks a bit of a palaver as the lining has to be “posted” through the inside-out outer part in some mysterious way. I must remember to use a generous stitch length in case I need to take it all apart. Perhaps I can adjust the side seams? I was annoyed that my tailor’s dummy was too skinny even when fully expanded so I may have to look into getting a more curvaceous mannequin!
Freya, whose gold prom dress sits neatly on the skinny tailor’s dummy, strutted her stuff on the catwalk at the village hall, looking fabulous in a vintage mustard yellow jumpsuit with a fur coat at a Red Cross Shop charity fashion event. The second-hand outfits modelled were all pretty fantastic and the audience enjoyed the novelty of drinking cocktails from china teacups;)
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