Sewchet

Sewing, crochet, crafts, accessories, baking, tutorials,


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Sunday Sevens #120

Time for another Sunday Sevens – a weekly blog series showing your week in photos. Linking up with Nat at Threads & Bobbins.


We had my four children, two step-daughters, all of their partners, and our gorgeous granddaughter to stay at the weekend, and took the obligatory annual photo as proof!

1. While most went to watch The Boys play football, I took two of them and The Baby to Sherborne for the morning – here they are outside The Abbey.


2. Of course, we had a coffee-and-cake stop in a café. Do you think she’s enjoying her first taste of a jam tart?


3. No.1 Son bought these chocolates for me. I don’t like anything sweet as a rule, but these were amazing!


4. As many of you already know, I share a birthday with my daughter. We spent the day together at our favourite place, Summer Lodge.


5. A full body and head massage was the BEST way to while away an hour and a half, followed by leisurely morning using the spa facilities.


6. Hubby also treated us to the most incredible three-course lunch. Smoked duck breast with various different forms of apple, all steeped in alcohol anyone?


7. Mr H-L and I also managed to sneak a little lunch out on our own later in the week.


8. But……most of the week was dedicated to building work and, at last – decorating. The Koi Carp wallpaper went up in the downstairs loo!


9. I also finished gilding the mirror that will add the perfect touch of bling to the already-quite-bling wallpaper.


10. Did I mention that we are having our en suite done at the same time? Oh, the dust…….


11. It’s also well under way.


12. Do you remember that I mentioned I was searching for some mirrors, specifically the frameless type from the Forties? Well, this is what I had in mind – a wall of mirrors above the sink unit. Although the en suite isn’t quite finished, I was desperate for hubby to put the mirrors up and he kindly obliged. It was no mean feat, taking over two hours to get just right, but I already love the overall effect. En suites are modern by the very concept, and the old mirrors tone the modern-ness down a bit, especially as most of them are chipped or rusty in part.


13. I’ve still managed to squeeze in a bit of sewing which is a miracle. It’s actually for a Minerva blog post and is overdue, so I must try to finish it today.


14. I’ve completed the ribbing on the socks, too, but still need to sit down and google “see-through wellies”!!


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Sunday Sevens #119

1. Progress in the downstairs loo is rapid and, in an effort to get the loo fitted in time for the weekend, we had to lay and varnish a wooden floor overnight so the plumber could get on with it the following morning. I did all the sawing to length and Mr. H-L did the actual laying of the floor.


2. Oh, and fit and paint the panelling, which meant getting up at 6am to put a second coat on before they returned at 8.30am.

It wasn’t decorated, but we did have a functional loo in time for the weekend when we had a houseful of guests.


3. Having been forewarned by the electric company that there would be a temporary disruption to services, it was an excuse to go out so I popped to Wells one morning. I often have lunch in The City Arms, an historic old former jail dating from the 1500s but, as it was only 9.30am, I went elsewhere for breakfast.


4. Un-dyed smoked haddock with poached eggs in André’s Café – delicious!


5. When in Wells I make a beeline for Sew Vintage in the Craft Quarter. It’s in a lovely old building – can you see the hand-cranked sewing machine on the wall?


6. It’s stuffed full of quirky décor and haberdashery items and I spend ages just browsing.


7. They sell mainly Tilda-type fabrics for crafts rather than for dressmaking, and yarn.


8. I came away with some lovely Regia sock yarn and a pattern for knee high socks – the first of my handmade presents for next Christmas!


9. I also made a stop at Wells Trading Post on the hunt for vintage 1940’s frameless mirrors and managed to find two that were just the job for my vision.


10. Back home, the electricity was off until about 7pm but that didn’t stop The Boys from playing by candlelight.


11. Cake fail – I made a fabulous carrot cake…..then dropped it on the coffee table. 

It might look awful, but it tasted amazing and didn’t put my lot off and they made short work of it!


12. Cheeky relaxing lunch out with the Mister at The Sparkford Inn before a busy-but-wonderful weekend entertaining family.


Linking up with Natalie at Threads & Bobbins, Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog post showing bits of your life outside the blog.


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Portable Doll’s House

When Issue 62 of Mollie Makes dropped through the letterbox, it was a good one. See the text on the front saying “Kid’s Doll House”? 

Easily missed, I know, but when I opened it onto the relevant page I did a little virtual skip – this would be the perfect present for a little three year old girl in the family.

A fold-out doll’s house, ideal for taking out and about to keep any little girl entertained (and better than handing over your smart phone, any day).

The details were a joy to put together and customise with whatever scraps of fabric I had to hand.

See, I told you that bag full of two-inch scraps would come in handy one day. I can’t throw any fabric out, no matter how minuscule the leftovers.

The teeny tiny tea set could have Velcro on the back for an older child, to make it removeable. As this was for a toddler, I sewed them to the table permanently.

Some of the bits were embroidered by hand….

….and others were stitched on by machine.

Dolly herself also has a dress and some hair bows, but those will have to follow in the post as I didn’t have time to make them before we visited.

Here’s the bed which is open for the doll to get in. She even has a little removeable pillow.

Of course, she needs a bedside rug to step out onto.

A bedside table has open-topped drawers to store those hair bows, and a little lamp.

I added a last minute dog in its basket, for added fun. Kids love things that ‘do’ something, don’t they?

The bathroom had some lovely details, like the bubbles and towel rail. I embroidered the tap using metallic gold thread to make it more realistic.

Once everything had been sewn on, it was just a case of attaching the front to the back and then turning it right side out.

Roof on, handles added.


Isn’t that just the cutest front door?

So, the house opens up and lays flat for play, like this: –

To close it, you simply fold the side in…..

….fold the bottom up to meet the top and then fasten the popper.

It transforms quickly and easily into a ‘bag’ with carry handles – simple enough for any toddler to use without help.

The iron test is, of course, if the girl in question actually likes it.

What do you think?!


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Sunday Sevens #118

1. The wallpaper for the downstairs loo arrived and is even better than it looked online. Can’t wait for it to be finished!


2. The obligatory pancakes were served up to the family on Shrove Tuesday. 


3. This half-finished lampshade has been picked up and is well on the way to being completed at last – only a year after I first started it and it’s been sat on top of the piano ever since, reminding me!


4. Hubby took me out for lunch after the disappointment of having to watch him eat last week when I was recovering from a bug.


5. We also managed to pop out for breakfast one morning in between some marathon sewing sessions.


6. If you follow me on Instagram, you will have seen lots of posts recording my progress on our fancy dress outfits last week. My sister had a Glastonbury festival themed 50th birthday party, and I made all of our costumes.

The Boys were Shirley Bassey and Freddie Mercury.


7. We went as Dolly Parton and Tom Jones.


8. I tried to recreate Shirley’s and Dolly’s outfits as closely as possible to the ones that they wore when performing at Glastonbury. It was also 80’s fancy dress, so I decided to make Freddie’s most iconic look. Mr H-L grew his goatee like Tom’s and we even sprayed his hair to make it more evenly grey.


9. My dear sister snapped this pic of me the morning after, looking the worse for wear after a BRILLIANT night.


10. Cooked breakfast, roast dinner AND a Chinese takeaway in the evening was what it took to make me feel better!!


Linking up with Natalie at Threads & Bobbins, Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series showing what your life is like outside the blog.


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Dog Coat Fail….

Remember the doggy bandana I knitted for Miekie (seen here modelled by Tess) as part of last year’s Stitching Santa?

It was from the book Woolly Woofers by Debbie Bliss.


I bought it as much for the quirky illustrations as for the actual content – just look at this backdrop for the so-called Teacup Yorkie!


Well, our other Yorkie, Fifi, has been to the Vet’s a lot recently as she’s an old dog that needs a bit more regular attention. She is much happier wearing a dog coat than those awful cones, but she doesn’t really have enough. I thought this little coat would be a quick and simple knit to go with the fleecy coat I made the other week.


Most of the coats in the book are in there sizes; small,medium and large, but this particular design was specifically for Toy breeds and only available as ‘one size fits all’.

I should have been wary at that statement as both Tess and Fifi are a Toy Yorkshire Terrier, yet Tess is literally twice the size of Fifi.

Undeterred, I cast on using a super chunky yarn in two colours which were dictated by the two half-balls of Lion Brand that had been languishing at the bottom of my ‘leftovers’ bin for months now. There should just about be enough to make a tiny coat.


The gauge was only slightly bigger than the tension gauge suggested in the pattern so I carried on to the end, playing yarn chicken (again!) and winning with just 6″ to spare.

I tried the finished coat on Fifi and….

…..it was HUGE!


It could probably have gone around her twice and the end flopped well past her tail. She even looked the other way in an effort to communicate her humiliation.


So I tried it on Tess…..and it fit perfectly.


It looks just like it does in the book – nice and snug around the chest and not too long in the body.


She was even happy to pose for the camera.


There’s only one tiny issue, and that’s the fact that she has thick hair (and lots of it) and never really gets cold enough to warrant wearing a coat, so if anyone has a little dog that would wear it, let me know and I’ll send it to you.


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Sunday Sevens #117

1. Found another little pub we hadn’t tried before – The Ship Inn at West Stour. I was still recovering after a day or so of sickness so Mr H-L had to eat on his own. The fish pie comes highly recommended, according to him.


2. I stuck to just a pot of Earl Grey. A cute little churn of milk was served, even though I drink it black. A nice touch though.


3. Mr H-L’s third pair of shoes arrived in the post. To say he’s pleased would be an understatement.


4. I finished the portable doll’s house just in time to take it with us when we visited a cousin in Windsor for the weekend.


5. We spent a wet and blustery day in Windsor. The Queen must have been in residence as the appropriate flag was flying.


6. On our return, I met my mother and sister at The Mendip Inn, a pub halfway between us, and bought lunch as a thank you for looking after The Dogs for the weekend.


7. I had some scraps of leftover chunky yarn which I thought would be ideal to make a coat for Fifi.


8. This is the inspiration for our downstairs cloakroom – the gold Koi Carp wallpaper is from Osborne & Little and has already been ordered, as has the panelling. Well, I did say I wanted something a bit different, didn’t I? 


9. A step too far, maybe??!!


Linking up with Nat at Threads & Bobbins – follow the link to find out more about Sunday Sevens and how YOU can join the party!


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Sunday Sevens #116

1. My Eyelet shawl is progressing nicely, although it never feels like it’s going to be big enough when you’re knitting it – blocking makes a world of difference and it magically doubles in size! 


2. Valentine’s night was celebrated before the actual day as we couldn’t get a babysitter for the 14th, understandably. Mr H-L took me to our favourite hotel for a seven course meal which was amazing, as usual. I decided not to interrupt the evening by taking photos, but sneaked this one while he was in the loo.


3. On Valentine’s Day itself, we thought it would be nice to take The Boys to a ‘posh’ hotel and give them a chance to use their table manners which have been drummed into them since they were old enough to hold a fork. We went back to our favourite place for the second time that week – and they loved it.

We started with champagne cocktails in the drawing room….


6……followed by the most incredible three course lunch in the restaurant. No, the whisky wasn’t the third course!


7. Coffee and petit fours by the fire back in the hall.


8. The Boys were fascinated by the pile of Visitor’s Books and wanted to go back to the first entry which was in 1969. They added their signatures to the latest book.


9. Fifi is back to her usual self after a nasty infection which we thought might finish her off! She keeps scaring the life out of us, but bounced back yet again this time.


10. Most of half term was spent up in Nottingham, staying with a cousin and her family. There is an extensive underground cave network which numbers over 600, most of which have been built on. This particular cave used to be used by Tanners and must have absolutely stank!


11. Broadmarsh Shopping Centre has been built over a lot of the caves and even the remains of old buildings. You can see clearly the fireplace with its original range still in situ, and what you can see above is the pipework underneath the base of the shopping centre!


12. Here again, the brick foundations of the shopping centre above are clearly visible on the right, as is more pipework and the floor of the building overhead. The ruins of a house stand as a record of how life in the city used to be. It was an utterly brilliant tour and fascinating to see what was under the city.


13. We happened upon a Loake shop (handmade shoes) whilst in the city centre, and Mr H-L, who already owns a pair of Loakes, was like a pig in s**t trying on all the shoes.


14. He came away with this tan pair, inset with Harris tweed.


15. He also bought this red pair for which we had to go and buy a matching tie (much to the assistant’s amusement in the tie shop!) and a THIRD pair which are still being made. They cost a bloomin’ fortune!!


16. Shoe shopping makes you hungry, apparently, so lunch was at Yo Sushi. A new experience for me, as it’s a looooong drive to a town/city that has anything like this. LOVED it.


17. While we went charity shop browsing the next day, The Boys had fun in one of those pottery cafés that you see occasionally.


18. Had this been working, I would now be the proud owner of an ancient Frister Rossmann sewing machine. It was quite expensive, so I resisted the temptation.


Linking up with Natalie at Threads & Bobbins, Sunday Sevens is where you show seven (or 18!) photos of what you’ve been up to outside the blog in the previous week.

How was your week?


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Thread Theory Comox Trunks (Boxer Shorts)

One of my most successful makes to date – boxer shorts for the Mister! Click on the link to read all about them in my Minerva Crafts Blog Post.


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Sunday Sevens #115

Linking up with Nat from Threads & Bobbins for this week’s Sunday Sevens – sevenish photos of your week showing what your life looks like outside of the blog.

1. The Mollie Makes Comic Relief magazine arrived in the post earlier in the week. I plan on hosting another fundraising ‘Crafternoon’ again this year, as the last one was a huge success (and great fun). Everyone is welcome – it will be 11-3pm on Friday 24th March at my home in North Cheriton, Somerset.


2. One of my students forgot to buy fabric for her next project so I had to improvise with some felt scraps I had to hand. She made this cute little flower brooch in her hour long class.


3. Mr H-L and I went out for lunch to The Grosvenor Arms hotel in Shaftesbury, because sometimes a pub lunch just doesn’t cut it.


4. I just love this little shaker-style egg collecting basket that No.2 Daughter gave to Mr H-L for Christmas. Far too aesthetically pleasing to be hidden away in a cupboard, it sits proudly on display on the dresser.


5. A corner of our house that has never been shown on the blog as yet, for obvious reasons – a neglected shell of a cupboard which is soon to be transformed into a downstairs cloakroom. The builders plan to start in a couple of weeks and hopefully it won’t take too long. I know it’s just a loo, but I want to give it a distinctive look. I just haven’t decided what, yet.


6. The ‘Yoga Jumper’ has been completely finished, ends woven in and everything. It is currently being reshaped .whilst damp. How exactly DO you block a hood, anyway?


7. No.3 Son picked up his abandoned knitting and enthusiastically worked on a few rows before noticing he’d gone wrong. I frogged it back to the mistake and then he lost interest again. I don’t mind – it’s all about encouraging them when they’re in the mood, isn’t it?


8. A gift for a little girl in the family in the making. It’s going to be a fold up, portable doll’s house – a ‘travel doll’s house’, if you like.

That’s it for this week folks!


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DIY Alternative To The “Cone of Shame”!

Back last Summer, Fifi had some mammary tumours removed and had to wear the Cone Of Shame for ten days. She hated it for the first few days, then gradually adapted to moving and sleeping with an unwieldy plastic funnel clipped to her neck.


This week, another trip to the Vet meant either another plastic cone, bandaging or some other method to prevent her from literally licking her wounds.

I found some leftover fleecy fabric from a nightshirt that No.3 Son made, and decided to make her a comfy coat instead. Whilst she already has several coats, none of them were long enough underbelly to cover the affected area.

So, for those of you who would rather not put your own dog through the trauma of The Cone, here’s a quick way to make a lick-prevention jacket.

 Measure your dog around the widest part of her ribs, just behind the front legs, then add an inch for seam allowances.

Measure from the back of her neck towards the tail, at a point just in front of the back legs (so he/she can still wee easily!).

Cut a rectangle of fabric to these measurements.


With right sides facing, sew the short ends together with a half inch seam.


I pressed open the seam and top stitched it flat so there would be no irritation next to the skin.


Measure the distance between the front legs and cut two leg holes on the underside. The distance from the neck to the legs will determine how far back these openings are placed.


Done.

How long did that take? Five minutes at the most, but your dog will thank you for your efforts, trust me!




See? She can’t get to her wound because the coat is completely covering it.


She soon gave up trying and settled down happily. 


And we’re happy because: –

a) she won’t keep us awake with her licky sounds all night long – you’d be surprised how loud (and annoying) licking can be in the middle of the night.

b) no oozing on the (very white) duvet cover. Yes, she sleeps on our bed. She’s 14, what the hell.

c) she can actually get comfortable and sleep, which is virtually impossible when wearing a plastic cone to bed.

Failing the ability to actually sew a seam, just grab one of hubby’s old long sleeve T-shirts, cut it to the right length and make two leg holes in the appropriate place. No sewing needed:)