Whew, and it actually still is Friday when I’m posting this, just about!

So this last week I’ve been busy getting ready to go on my holidays, sewing up a storm and driving the flatmate nuts with the sewing machine until all hours ;o) 

The shirred dress had to be abandoned in the end, at least for the holiday.  My machine won’t do tight enough tension to actually get it to shir as it sews, and when I tried the hand gather method I discovered a few places the top thread had gone through the elastic and it snapped.  It can be rescued, just not in time!

I finished the second skirt, using 2 different colours of Riley Blake Lovebirds – it’s probably more something you’d expect to find on a small child, but I don’t care ;o)  You’ll notice this time I skipped the pleats and went for a ruffle on the bottom teir, much quicker!  In total, including cutting time, and overlocking, this skirt takes about 2 hours to make, fab :o)

I got my teardrop bag done for the Amy Butler sew-along.  I tried the smaller one, and as Bree had said on My Crafty Crap, it was rather a b*gger to get the ‘hips’ on – probably not an issue on the big one, but a very tight squeeze on the small one trying to keep the other material out of the way as you turn it.  I want to try the larger one next, but it’ll have to wait till I’m back from my holiday!  I’m sorry, as it’s late and I had to pack this to take it with me, I haven’t done multiple views and the inside, you’ll just have to imagine it lol.  The lining is the same blue material as the band/strp though, and though it isn’t very clear, it has lots of wee squiggles all over it – it’s some material that was made for the V&A museum according to the selvedge, though quite what Victoria or Albert would have thought of it I don’t know!

I gave my mum the pleated clutch from last month’s Amy Butler pattern (I only got the book this month!).  I did quite a bit of tweaking on it – firstly I left a 2″ wide strip in the middle and pleated away from it, rather than pleating all in one direction, then I added a ribbon flower with a covered button centre – I had originally had plans for a whole other flower type, but the small fabric shop near my office where I got the Amy Butler fabric didn’t have anything suitable, and I didn’t have time to hike up to Mandors on the off-chance that they did (sorry mum!).  For the back outside bit, I forewent the pleats altogether, and fussy cut the flower to the middle.  It was quite bulky at the seams, so in future I think I’ll trim the interfacing back to the seam allowance (I saw that on someone’s blog recently, but I’m darned if I can remember whose, sorry!), if probably wasn’t helped by the face that I also accidentally interfaced the lining too, was a bit too clever for my own good when cutting out and interfacing!  My dad was a much better product photographer here:

I’m now off on holiday for 2 weeks (should anyone wish to drop by and steal the flatmate and/or donate to the fabric stash) and taking panda makings with me, so hopefully I’ll have a wee one to bring back :o)