Easter Weekend, new doors and brown top M5977

A couple of weeks ago I got some plasterers around to give me a quote to plaster my whole house so I can get rid of the very old artex on the ceiling and some very fake beams.  Having considered the quotation, I accepted and they gave me a start date of Thursday last week.  Now you would think this is quite a simple task, however it didn’t really end there.

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooo Friday morning (Good Friday), I woke up and said to my D Mike, wouldn't it be nice to put double doors out into the garden in the place of the window in the lounge, and ideally it would be great if we could do it before the plasterers come in on Thursday ..............it was just an idea you understand!  So I called my son to see how he was getting on in the flat that he was working on and told him my idea ---- he did the usual builder thing ha ha very funny and we finished our call.  10 minutes later he called me back and said that as it was a bank holiday the neighbours were not too happy about them being there so told me to go to the builders merchant (which was open) and buy the doors and they would come and install them that same day and by Friday early evening we had doors going out into the garden - they are great. 

My D Mike and I have both been off work on vacation and we have more or less spent the whole time burning rubbish moving furniture from one room to the next, but I did send him off sailing 4 times because this was my bright idea not his and I felt guilty that I was hijacking his holiday and he works so hard he needed a rest too .

So as you can imagine, once you start doing things it sort of snowballs - I decided with my new doors and walls that I didn't like the old fashioned fire in the fireplace - so I had the gas cut off and the old fire removed and I have bought a more contemporary glass-fronted fire --- oh yes there is more ......... I didn't like my light fittings so bought two new lights (both items found on ebay at great prices).  I am going to recycle my curtains and convert them into Roman Blinds.  I purchased a pair of long black curtains in a fake shot silk, so the blinds will be creamy gold in the middle and have a black edge to them.   I have never made Roman blinds before but found a great u tube video so will give it a go.

Not much of a holiday but a real opportunity to have a massive spring clean - we have a skip outside full up with rubbish.  I bagged up 6 bags of clothes that I have not worn for years, or don’t fit me and given to charity.  I am still trying to make all my clothes so I thought this was a good opportunity to have a good clear out - quite cathartic actually.

My builders came at 7:30am again today – and my D Mike went home last night to see his son and sail again today, so decided to finish my sewing today before I have to start thinking about painting these walls.

My first job was to finish my jacket that I had started and need to tweak a few items that were not sitting right and here is the end result.

I am trying out several things - one to make a cohesive wardrobe of clothes - each matching the last item and experimenting with new techniques so on this one I added some home-made piping.  The brown silky fabric was some left over from V1 of the dress I made for my son's wedding so thought I would use it to pipe between the lining and the jacket facing, and then added it around the whole jacket.

I used some old cord from the Venetian blinds I removed from one of my windows.

Here you can see the piping on the inside and outer edge of the jacket.

I also used the same fabric to make a very narrow loop to hand the jacket on a hook if I need to.

I confess that I had problems with the hem at the front of the jacket - I am not sure if the piping was pulling the hem up but I unpicked it and pressed it several times.

I ended today by using the remainder of the silky fabric to make another top to go with the trousers and jacket - having made the frilly leopard print blouse (see earlier post) I wanted to make something different and my choice was assisted by the fact that I didn't have too much of the fabric left to cut out a complete vest top using the M5977.

In order to make sure
the top look more "designer" than "not enough fabric"
I made a 1" wide trim and hand pinned, then tacked it
in place before machine stitching through the centre as shown in the photo.

I did a FBA and lined it using the method shown on
the Finishing Touches video.

I now have 4 pieces for my collection and I am now thinking that I could make a skirt in brown crepe fabric that will match the top above.