Espritpatch

When Sew House 7 released the Free Slacks pants pattern ,  I fell in love and bought it straight away (like most of Sew House 7 patterns actually!) And I also bought some lovely linen/rayon fabric called Arabian Adventure Sandstone from Fabworks Mill Shop . The fabric is beautiful and has a lovely feel to it but it is so slippery! I choose to make the wide legs version of the pants. Construction is easy enough since the pants have an elasticated waistband There are 2 slant pockets at the front and 2 optional patch pockets at the back. I will need to embrace the creases because of the nature of the fabric I've used, but that's ok.  I really felt my wardrobe was missing some relaxed beige trousers and these ones are perfect fit those not so sunny/ warm days that we do get often here! This was my last OPAM for July and one of my Q3 FAL list .  Celine

Sewing time this month will be extremely limited and time at the machine even more. So for once I have considerably trimmed my list.... Quilting: 1. Black and White quilt - only the binding to finish now....  - this will be my   One monthly goal   for July 2.  Dear Jane -   So many blocks to catch up now.... Row C, D and E for which I am behind and Row F for this month Dressmaking 1.  Fiore skirt -  black 2. Sirroco Jumpsuit 3. Summer dress - boardwalk Accessories 1. Carrier Conquest Handbag  2.  Laptop sleeve - I have taken it apart.... now to remake it.... This is a very tiny list by my standard, let's see if that helps me focus.... Celine

July started off very busy but after I made all the teachers presents, I seem to have stalled a little. To be fair I have been travelling too which doesn't allow for much sewing. A busy and productive month overall with quite a few items made out of my immense new stash of faux leather.... and just on the dot, I finished my free slacks pants that I have not yet blogged about! Linking to   July Furtle . Celine

Do you buy pdf patterns that you print at home? Most of the time, when given the choice between paper or pdf, I pick the pdf one, and I love it when you can print only the size you need because it is layered, so much easier to cut out. But then of course comes the problem of storing the pattern (and the instructions if you print those too...) That's where the Pattern  Storage Envelopes are brilliant. I received a pack of 5 from Creative Industry UK to review and I am converted! So far I had been storing my patterns + instructions in A5 envelopes, which works about fine if there aren't that many pieces and the instructions are not too long. It becomes trickier when the volume gets bigger as you can see below. To help with keeping the volume smaller, I usually trace my pattern on tracing paper rather than keeping the print outs. The pattern envelopes comes with predefined boxes at the front for the name, artwork and any notes you might want to record. I had printed my ...

With all the faux leather I had bought, my first idea and plan was to make a laptop sleeve for my work computer. And it actually was the last project I finished before I went on my business trip. I wanted to make it in the light green fabric but the piece was not quite wide enough so I decided to add a strip in the middle. Assembling the piece was easy enough but of course in the inside the seams allowance were visible so I thought it would be better to line it, which I did with fabric from my stash. I wasn't sure how to finish it, also considering that the seam allowances can't really be pressed. In the end I had to top stitch on the outside of the flap to make it stay in shape and it ended up being a little wider that I needed, so I am not entirely convinced.  Maybe I should have cut off or rounded the corners of the flap too. Although I have used it on a business trip already I am not sure if I will keep it as it is or if I might modify it.... For now, it is...

While I was playing with my faux leather stash, it was a perfect opportunity to make more of these cute little card wallets from Sara's tutorial .  I thought it would be more fun to mix and match the fabric for the inside but of course, that meant that I had to change my thread colours sooo many times. And here we are 2 little gifts for my friends that I will see very soon! 2 more OPAMs and 2 off my Q3 FAL list . Linking to  Monday Making ,  Monday Design Wall Celine 

So I was really organised this year and made a start on the school presents a few weeks back, sew quite a lot through last week-end and the beginning of the week. But of course, on Wednesday my youngest decided that it would be really nice to make something for the lady in the office who is so nice and helpful (I agree!) and who she will not see much of in the future. So another pencil case was needed. I picked a patterned purple fabric and set out to cut and sew it straight away. 2 rectangles approximately 9'x5.5' with a 3/4' square cut off at the bottom to make it a little boxy. I added a 1' square on each end of the zip as well.  And another one of these cute pencil case at the ready. And this is the point where I thought I had finished ALL the presents for this year.... But of course on Thursday night, my middle daughter decided that it would nice to give a little something to her teaching assistant too.... A sunglasses pouch it had to be at that late st...