My First Dip Into Quilting

As mentioned in my last post I received this book amongst my birthday presents.

I can honestly say that trying quilting has never crossed my mind, I know a couple of people who do it and enjoy it immensely but seriously how many quilts does one person need to own??

That said, this book has definitely captured my interest, mainly because I enjoy a good sewing challenge and I love making up patterns.

I thought I'd start off easy and try one of the basic quilting patterns, the 'Log Cabin'.

So far I've made 4 squares in total using my jubilee themed fat quarters, and to my untrained eye I think they look pretty good?

I'm not entirely sure if I'm actually going to turn it into a quilt, a cushion cover, or something else, but what I can say is that it was fun.

My Butterick dress is still coming along slowly, although I'm beginning to feel like my interest in it is waining slightly (dangerous territory).

Have any of you guys tried quilting before?



Finished Project: Butterick 9973

So a day later than normally scheduled, here's my finished plaid dress inspired by Peggy Olson.

I've been attempting to re-create this dress -

but I decided to leave the buttons out as they're just not worth it for this dress I think. However as you can see I did make the bow to hide my terribly matched plaid stripes!

The weather this week has been unseasonably warm, but as luck would have it when it came around to Saturday it had disappeared, typical! This did not deter me from having the photos taken in our lovely garden though.

The dress itself came out nicely although I had to cut roughly 2 or so inches from the hem as it came to my calves, although depicted as knee length on the cover?! This in turn made the kick pleat a lot shorter too, so that's something to remember for next time.

The neckline is also a little loose so I could probably do with shortening the bodice a little maybe?

I was also a little unsure of exactly when I would wear this, as it's not exactly a subtle print? But after looking over this pictures I think it would make a perfect work dress. I like it with my grey tights, and I have a green cardigan that would suit it too.

So that's it! Mad Men Challenge accepted and executed X2! I can't wait to see what everyone else has made. Thanks again Julia Bobbin for setting it up!

Mad Men Challenge: Midweek Update

So as revealed on Mondays post, I'm currently making this outfit featured in season 3.

It's going very well at the moment, but alas I have no photos to show you of it in progress as I keep forgetting to take photos!

The trickiest part so far has been the condition of the fabric. It's been tucked away in a loft for god knows how many years, and as such parts of the fabric are not in the best condition. I've had to re-cut the back centre 3 times so far as everytime I unfold it I keep finding holes!

Luckily I found a piece that was hole free, otherwise I would have run out of fabric!

So as I'm lacking in photos today, I thought I would share some other images of Peggy's outfits throughout the series that I'm particularly fond of...

All images sourced here