Suede love and saying hi

It's been a while!  I've been sticking my head in the books and also stitching away for a fabulous wedding.  Here are the 3 bridesmaids in the dresses I made.


It was really a most beautiful day and the bride looked stunning.

So now I have submitted a few assignments I have returned to the sewing machine for a days chilled out sewing.

Recently I got given some suede scraps to use - for me scraps are teeny tiny bits of fabric that it is hard to decide what to make with.  I guess when you start doing upholstery scraps take on a different meaning because at the end of the suede session I have 3 cushion covers and a new skirt!

It was a totally new experience for me sewing with suede - something I have never tried but I really enjoyed it.  Yes it is not very forgiving - sew in the wrong place and the fabric lives to tell the tale but if you take it slow and steady it is fabulous!

I decided to make a wrap skirt done up with a button - when using a new fabric I thought I wouldn't try to tackle the zip!  I didn't have a pattern so just free-handed some shapes and lay them together until I was happy.

If you want to give suede a try I would suggest getting leather needles as using them made a huge difference to the sewing experience.  Other than it is much the same as usual just take it slow and steady!

So here it is ;

It is just an all round fun skirt - good to dress up and good to dress down.

I made the top too but more on that on another post!

Hope you're all having fun sewing

 :) 

Tablecloth skirt

I bought this table cloth from a charity shop a week or so ago for £3.50.  More than perhaps I would like to spend on a tablecloth 2nd hand but I couldn't leave it behind!  I love those yellow flowers too much!  I knew immediately what I would be doing with it so as soon as I had a spare evening I got going!

 To start I folded the circular cloth into half and repeated until it was folded in 8ths.  I measured how long I would like the skirt to be and then cut the point off so the cloth equaled to this length allowing 1.5cm seam allowance.  This cloth was already edged at what will become the bottom of the skirt so no extra seam allowance needed here!

Now I have a large circular piece with a whole in the middle.  I cut where I wanted the back seam to be and then measured the length of the fabric.  It was 80cm and I needed to half it.

I set about pinning my gathers.  I used 8cm per gather and folded it so that the 8cm became 4cm therefore by the time I had finished my skirt is half the length of when I started.  I used the same gathering as I did here so click on the link to get the full tutorial.  Once you have pinned your pleats run a line of straight stitching to hold them in place and press firmly.

 I then overlocked the raw edges which can be done with a zig zag stitch if you don't have an overlocker and ran a straight stitch down the back seam to join the skirt.  Laying the zip onto the seam I stitched that in and then opened the seam with an unpicker where the zip will do up.
 Now I added a bias binding waist band.  This can be made as thick or thin as you like - I really liked the little band on this skirt so I went for it.

 And here you have it the finished skirt.

 And the skirt on me . . .

 And with a little shake of the hips you see the full swing-y-ness of this skirt and the reason why I was so happy to find such a lovely circular fabric.  This is a skirt to go dancing in!  Today it shall simply accompany me to a lunch date with a friend but one day I shall take it for a proper spin!

I'm pretty happy with the result - 1.5hours work(if you can call it that as for me sewing is an absolute pleasure) and £3.50 later I have a fab new skirt - plus I can say - Yes I did make that :)

Have a great weekend!

x