Simplicity 8212 Leggings Practice Run

So I've been wanting to make a pair of leggings for a while, but I didn't want to get really nice Lycra and then bugger it up so I had a wee practice run! I used Simplicity 8212 which gives a choice between full length and calf length, panels or no panels and mid rise or high rise waistband. I decided to do the full length, no panels and high rise waistband, because I'm one of those people that wears their tights up to their tits 😂

I needed some fabric for my practice run so my lovely friend Nora took me to the Fancy Silk Store in Birmingham (which is amazing btw, you should all go) and I found a nice sort of snakey/scaley print black lycra that would do just nicely!

Ooohh shiny!

The pattern called for 1.6m to make the full length with mid rise waistband pair in the largest size so I decided to get 1.8m just to be double safety sure with the higher waistband, which was POINTLESS. I only ended up using, 1.3m and that was with the higher waistband. Maybe if I had to pattern match I would have used the 1.6m but now I have half a metre of lycra sitting unused, so if anyone has any ideas of what to do with it, hit me up!

The leggings themselves were easy enough to make, although I had to use a zigzag stitch on my regular machine since my overlocker was acting the goat. The waistband was a bit on the fiddly side to put on, but overall not too bad! Here is a very unclear picture of the finished product, I don't have a full length mirror so I had to prop my phone on my chair and put the timer on haha!

Now, these are not the type of thing I would normally wear out of the house, so I'm keeping them as 'hoose clothes' just now, but let me tell you this, they are SO FREAKIN' COMFY! I literally want a pair in every print! Buuuuut, since I'm not a billionaire I will be sticking to gradually building up my collection of them. The fabric that I really wanted from Funki Fabrics was a beautiful galaxy print one, but I can't find it now! So my next two choices were The Scream and colourful balls things.

 Are they not amazing?! But, while I was browsing the site, I found the perfect fabric for visiting home...

 FREEDOM!!!

SCOTLAND!!!! YASSSSS!!! *ahem* Anyway... overall this was a good wee project, even though I lost the battle with my overlocker. I will definitely be making more pairs of these and if anyone ever wants to buy my love, I take Funki Fabrics vouchers 😉😉

Cost

• Pattern - £4.50 (I bought it half price, of course!)
• Fabric - 1.6m at £11.99 = £19.18
• Elastic and thread - stash

Total cost - £23.68 

 Difficulty Rating

2/5 because the waistband is a bit fiddly

 

McCalls 6659 Robe

I got the pattern for this lovely robe recently, I think it was the last time McCall's was on sale because I hate paying full price for a pattern haha! It looked relatively easy so I thought I'd make one for my Mum for Christmas. I managed to find this lovely Liberty print on eBay for £11/m and I needed 3.5m so it was a bit on the pricey side for a robe, but you get what you pay for!

The pattern was nice and simple to piece together, it's literally just a back, two fronts, two sleeves and a tie. I did french seams because I'm usually a really lazy sewer, but I wanted this to be really well made and last a long time.

Once the front pieces were attached to the back, I moved on to the sleeves. Now I will confess something here, when it comes to inserting sleeves, I lose any sort of brainpower. No matter how many times I've inserted sleeves in the past, I can never remember which way round the pieces should be 😂😂 So this time, when I figured it out, I wrote it down in my sewing project notebook with a really crude etching of what to do, but at least now I finally have it figured out. In case anyone has a sleeve blind spot, you turn your body piece (inside out) and insert the sleeve (right side out) so that the two right sides are together. It's so simple, I know!

After the sleeve fiasco, it was just a case of sewing the tie, making a couple of wee belt loops and hemming it! So here is the finished article:

My Mum is only 5'3" so this should reach about mid calf on her. I hope she likes it, and if not then I'll have it because I love it! 😂

Cost:

Pattern - £4.30
Fabric - £38.50

Difficulty Rating:

2/5 - but only because I have a brain fart with sleeves, other than that it was super easy.

Throw Cushion Tutorial

So today I will be showing you lovely people how to create simple zip close cushions for your living room/bedroom/bathroom (hey, I don't know what you do in there!)

I decided to make myself some nice new cushions earlier this year since my old ones were a bit on the scruffy side. I treated myself to some lovely red and grey Moon wool, a plain red polyester for the back and some grey velvet (which was cheap in the sale, yaaaasss!!) for the secondary cushions.
 
So what you need to do is decide on the size of cushion you want (for me it was 16" square cushions) and add 1/2"on each side for your seams (17" square).

You will need:

• Enough fabric to make the amount of cushions you want e.g for either a 16" or 18" cushion, 50cm will give you either 3 fronts or 1.5 full cushions (presuming that your fabric is 54" wide) and remember to account for patterns such as checks if you want them all to match!
• Enough zips either regular closed end or invisible, remember to get zips that are a couple of inches shorter than the finished size of your cushion, e.g I used 14" zips.
• Nice sharp scissors
• Pins
• Matching thread
• Cushion pads that are a couple of inches larger than your finished cover size so that your cushions are nice and full.

If you don't have a sewing machine you can absolutely still make these, but you will need a lot more patience that I ever have 😂

Step 1

Cut out your squares, this can either be done with a square template or a ruler works just as well. Also if you're not a lazy git like me, you could even give your fabric a press first 😂

Step 2

Sew one side of the zip onto the right side of your fabric at the bottom and then do the same for the other side. This can get a bit fiddly, so take your time.

 

Step 3

Once your zip is attached to both the front and back of your cushion, with right sides facing sew around your cushion with a 1/2" seam allowance. Snip off the corners so that they are pointy when you turn them out.

Step 4

Turn your cushion the right way out, stuff your cushion pad inside and zip up!

Step 5

Chuck them on your couch and marvel at your beautiful handiwork! 😄😄

Total cost

• Fabric - around £48
• Zips - around £9
• Thread - stash
• Cushion pads - reused the ones from the old cushions

So total cost of around £57 for 4 wool cushions and 4 velvet cushions, not to bad at all!

Hello! Bonjour! Hola! Hallo!

My name is Róisín and welcome to my blog! I'll mostly be posting about sewing, crochet and cross stitch projects that I have on the go with possibly a wee bit of baking/cooking thrown in for good measure. You can find me on Instagram as well and Twitter (although not as much as I really should be!) Feel free to comment and leave constructive feedback, I do love a good chat :)
I will try my very best to update this as much as possible, although no promises as I tend not to even know what day it is half the time :)