Red Leaves Dress

I'm so ridiculously happy with the way this dress turned out, I actually danced round my room in it once I finished it.

It was a lot easier to make than I was expecting, I totally thought I'd have to spend time unpicking at least part of it but it worked first time.

The thing I've learnt to do with Burda patterns is keep the paper pieces with the fabric so you can see rather than guess which seams go together. I sewed the Bella waistband back to front the first time.

The fabric was an Ikea offcut bargain and as I was cutting it out I was worried the red leaves pattern was too big and was going to end up looking a mess but it worked out pretty well.

I skipped the button holes, the straps are sewn to the dress because I hate doing buttonholes.

New iPod Nano Covers

I finally got around to beginning to make covers for the newer iPod Nanos, which is something I've failed to do for ages.

So I've been drafting patterns.

And sewing things together. I've started with a autumn theme to all the fabrics I'm using. I'm planning on being a bit more organised in the future and trying to make and upload items that are similar in theme rather than just fairly randomly.

Unfortunately I've hit a bit of a hitch, as I have no buttons to finish off the iPod cover so they'll have to wait a little while and a shopping trip till I can get them all photographed and uploaded.

Internet issues

Why do internet issues seem to take forever to sort.

My internet connection was down the last couple of nights so I spent several hours last night switching things on and off, unplugging cables and calling Virgin to try and solve the problem.

Managed to get the modem working but was stuck balanced on a sofa arm in the corner of the living room (I have a very short power cable) unable to get the router to work.

Then my housemate came home and discovered the router wasn't working because the settings had been changed.

All seems sorted now, fingers crossed.

Back from holiday and ready to go

I am just back from holiday (more about that later) and have resolved to sort out my etsy shop ahead of the holiday season.

So I've started to repost things to my seriously lacking shop and I'm working on new items and designs to fill it up with great new things.

Chicken Chasseur

In continuing the trying to get out of a menu rut, I've been trying to make Chicken Chasseur without the packet mix.

Ingredients
Onion, chopped
Clove of garlic, crushed
250g chicken, cubed
Two carrots, sliced
3 tomatoes, skinned and diced
1 tsp tomato puree
125ml White wine
1 tsp dried tarragon
Handful chopped parsley
1/2 pint chicken stock
1 tsp cornflower
Serves 2

• I totally recommend doing this in a casserole dish you can use on the hob and in the oven (I love mine from Ikea), it saves time and washing up, otherwise fry everything in a frying pan then put it in the casserole dish.
• Pre-heat oven to 160C/Gas Mark 4
• Fry the onion and the garlic for a couple of minutes, add chicken and fry till brown
• Add tomatoes, tomato puree, carrots, white wine, tarragon, parsley and stock and mix.
• Place in oven and cook for 1hr. About halfway through mix in cornflour mixed with water to thicken the sauce.

It was pretty good, with the tarragon, which gives it a slightly liquorice flavour, a little goes a long way.

The sauce was a little watery but nice with the rice. All in all I'd make it again so it makes my rota of meals which get made over and over till I get bored of them.

Blue and Yellow Flowers Blouse

I've been looking for a tie-neck blouse for ages, and for this fabric which I fell in love with in a fabric shop, so I pounced on this pattern in the May edition of Burda Style magazine.

I put it together in a weekend, which seems to be a reasonable length of time for a sewing project.

It was a little bit fiddly, it has a very narrow band round the middle and narrow bands on the sleeves and pleats at the front and back and it was a bit of a job to get it all together with the thin slightly slippy material.

Thankfully it has poppers instead of buttons as thin georgette and the buttonhole setting of my sewing machine is probably not a good combination.

I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out. It's a bit big, I wouldn't wear it not tucked in but it looks fairly good with the high-waisted pencil skirt.

Website

I'm currently updating my website. It's taking longer than I was expected.

I'm slowly adding a paypal cart to it so people can pay for items through the website. It's slowly driving me insane.

It is starting to look a lot tidier all ready but I still have pages and pages of iPod Covers and Notebooks to get through.

Working on it

I quite like bank holiday weeks, despite the massively busy Tuesday as it means I now only have two days left until the weekend.

Meanwhile, I'm trying to sort my very abandoned shop out as all the things in I last listed three months ago are busy expiring.

I'm up to sorted stock and I'm working on a much improved website.

I really got out of the habit of doing etsy/craft stuff everyday, I'm not sure where I lost it but I really feel I get far less accomplished in my free time than I used to - mainly just a lot of pointless web surfing. This must stop!



Hopefully.

Shoes meet skirt

I like when sale purchases turn out to actually go with what you thought they would.

I made this skirt a while back out of a very small part of an enormous piece of coral-coloured cherry blossom print material. It's just a very simple a-line skirt pattern I drafted, with a waistband, side zip and lining.

Anyway, went shopping on Saturday and found £7 shoes in Marks and Spencer which have exactly the same shade of coral as swirl/inset pieces on them. So I spent today wearing my perfectly matched outfit.

PS: Must actually clean mirror, kind of embarrassingly dusty for taking bad pictures with.