Blue Period Part Two: More adventures in dying...

Months and months ago, I bought a lovely lacy knit jumper from H&M, I wore it ALL the time, if I was having a stress about what to wear, I always reached for it. Then, one fateful night I wore it out to see a friend in a (spectacular) play and we had drinks afterwards, drinks plural, lots of drinks, I was on the red wine, well until the red wine was on me, all down the front of my favourite cream jumper. If I hadn't been having so much fun, I probably would have cried. The next day I tried a bunch of stain removal tricks and then I put it through the machine but there was still a trace of that naughty stain. Boohoo.

Not sure how visible the stain is here but trust me, it's yuck.

Now, before I ventured into sewing and crafts I would've mourned the loss of my top and/or just bought another one. Ok, so I did just buy another one (have I mentioned how much I love this top yet?) but I didn't have to say goodbye to the old one either. I figured if I dyed it a darker colour, the stain would be hidden and I'd have a whole new wardrobe option. Hurray. So what colour do you think I dyed it friends?.. Yep BLUE!

I used Dylon Navy Blue dye but because the compostion of the jumper is 50% wool and 50% polyester I knew it wouldn't come out navy, but that's fine. I really love the shade it turned out, it's a bit different and now I have more blue in my wardrobe. Woop!

Not a huge project but I love how it turned out so I thought I'd share...

Alice x

Blue Period Part One: Long overdue Pendrell Blouse.

It has become increasingly clear that I am obsessed with the colour blue. I own 9 blue dresses, 2 blue skirts and 2 pairs of blue shoes, I even have some blue undies, oh and a pair of navy blue trousers! See; obsessed. So I'm sure, now you know this, it will be no surprise to learn I have a number of blue projects to share with you, some finished, some still in the planning stage...

So, what's first? Did anyone guess what garment I shared a sneak peak of? Those of you who guessed it was a Pendrell Blouse from the ever brilliant Sewaholic, were right.

I bought this fabric AGES ago during a trip to Goldhawk Road (looking back over that post I realised this is the only fabric I've  used from that trip back in March, clearly I am a hoarder) and I finished this blouse a good few months ago, I just didn't get it together to take pictures, oops.

I did my first pattern alteration on this baby, nothing major, I just took the hips in a little as I'm not quite as pear shaped as the Sewaholic measurements.. All the same I was pretty terrified to cut bits off my (traced) pattern, I'm a wuss, I know. I'm really pleased with how the fit turned out, there's enough room in the hips for wearing trousers underneath but it doesn't flare out in a hip size increasing manner.

I chose to make view B which features double ruffles on the shoulders but I left off the inner ruffle that goes along the princess seams because when I made my muslin it just felt like too much was going on. I don't exactly have a small bosom so I have to be careful about adding too much to the shoulder/bust area. I think I made the right choice and the single ruffle sort of cap sleeves are super cute.

So what did I learn.....

Lessons learnt making the Pendrell Blouse.

How to adjust hip width: unsuprisingly I used a tutorial to do this, in fact I followed the entire sewalong, hurray for sewalongs.

Princess Seams: I had no idea what princess seams were before this blouse, I did find them a bit difficult, it was definitely a square peg, round hole moment for my brain, but I'm glad I persevered as they're super flattering.

Uuuuuummmm.....: I can't remember what else, it was so long ago now but I'm sure there's more...

I'm really proud of this blouse, it's the most worn of all my makes, it fits nicely into my everyday wardrobe and (when the weather warms up) I'll be wearing it lots more.

I am LOVING this pattern and I have a whole rainbow of them planned in my brain, but I think I will definitely be making one in a similar satiny cream fabric with the pleated drape sleeves featured in View C.

Hope you're all having a fabulous weekend.

Alice x

Sometimes I'm organised....but not often!

The lovely Rachel from Pointless Pretty Things, posted this great tutorial for a letter organiser and I soon as I saw it I knew I wanted one, and with all the engagement cards we've been receiving we need one as well!

I didn't have any pretty paper to hand so I made my own with some flower stamps and paint.

Hurray for pretty flowers.

Then I covered the cereal box cardboard in my new pretty paper and assembled my organiser. It didn't cost me a penny, I had all the supplies already and it makes our hallway look a little bit lovelier!

Thanks Rachel

P.S. I know that this project wasn't from my list of allowed projects but I have ZERO money so I can't buy some much needed supplies to finish them off...see, I am not an organised human! Hehe!

Alice x

Something pretty special happened...

his mum, my dad, me, him, my mum, his dad. 

On Sunday 21st October 2012, my incredible boyfriend proposed to me outside Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on the south bank of the River Thames. I don't think I actually said yes, I was too shocked, but had I been able to speak I would have done, it's all a bit of a blur really, a wonderfully happy blur.
The surprise didn't stop there though, with the promise of champagne my new fiancee led me to The Swan bar where we were greeted by a wall of cheers from all our family and friends who had been waiting with baited breath to celebrate our engagement with us. It was the most overwhelmingly special day. Chris is the best person I know and I can't wait to be married to him. And now, because I'm feeling super loved up and mushy, here are some more pictures of us...

Cheeky trip to Paris

The train gave us free ice lollies, it was awesome.

Dressed as cats for our friend Kat's birthday!

Thoughts on Inspiration and Productivity.

I am a planner and a list maker, the trouble is I'm not so good at ticking things off those lists. I find this problem is even worse when it comes to craft projects. I have endless lists of clothes I want to make and crafty things to make for our home, and I think part of the problem is the huge amounts of inspiration that is available out here on the internet, in blogland. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about all you wonderful, inspiring, creative lovelies, I think you're great, but the wealth of sewalongs and challenges and inspiring makes can be pretty overwhelming sometimes. I imagine for some, super organised people, this wealth of inspiration is an incredible thing, but I am not organised, I am a scatter brain and, sometimes, downright lazy!

So, what is the solution to my never ending lists and projects that never end? Firstly I'm going to have two lists, sounds crazy I know, how can more lists help? Well, one will be for all my ideas and will probably go on growing forever and ever. The other will be a few projects I must complete before I can start ANYTHING else, well anything crafty that is! This is my current 'shortlist':

1. Christmas quilts
2. A small art project to hang in our bedroom (I've already started this and will be posting about it soon)
3. A Christmas gift for my sister, which will probably be a quilt, I am really enjoying making my Mum's quilt at the moment.

Finally, just to prove I haven't been completely un-productive over the last few months, here's a sneak peak of something I made quite a while ago but STILL haven't managed to photograph properly!

Can you guess what it is?

How do you keep on top of all your projects and ideas?

Alice x

Quilts By Christmas.

Thanks to Elise for the great logo.

I'm joining another sewalong/sewing challenge. I found being part of Karen's Pyjama Party such a great motivator and I'm hoping Elise's Quilts By Christmas Challenge will do the same. Elise's Blog is choc full of inspiration, I constantly marvel at how productive she is and when I saw this beautiful quilt I knew I wanted to make one myself and when Elise posted a brilliant tutorial I knew that I could make one myself! I now have plans for two quilts; one for our bedroom and one for my Mum for Christmas. If I get those finished before December I will also make one for my sister but I don't want to bite off more than I can chew, I've never made a quilt before! I made digital plans for my quilts because I don't have the space to lay out the real pattern pieces and get a nice random pattern. These are my proposed quilts. 

This one is for our bedroom, the representations of the fabrics I'm using are pretty crude but this will be so helpful when I'm putting it all together.

This one is for my mum. I've got all the fabrics for this one chosen and I've started cutting the patterned fabrics (I'm waiting for the block colours to arrive in the post) and I'm really excited to start putting it all together. 

Have you started any crafts for Christmas yet?

Alice x

Hello. Do You Like My New Look?

Hi friends. It has been a long ol' time since I last posted round these parts. Let me start by saying a long overdue and a huge THANK YOU for all the lovely comments on my latest creation, each one meant so much to me and made me giggle with girlish glee. I am so pleased you liked it!

I've had something of a reshuffle over here. My old blog design was really thrown together just so I could get it out there so yesterday I spent pretty much all day some time designing a new blog banner (I used GIMP if you're interested). My chap very kindly drew me the logo (he's talented like that), because when we were thinking of blog names, I liked 'The Pin and Thimble' best because it sounded like a lovely old country pub, I love old country pubs. Hence the pub sign inspired logo. Apart from the banner, I decided to keep things simple and fresh and let the posts speak for themselves...hope you like it.

I'll be back soon to show you something I finished ages ago but haven't had time to photograph. For now here are just a few instagram snippets from my summer (you can follow me @alice_fearn)

1. An impromptu dinner date with my chap at one of our favourite restaurants.
2. Chap looking especially dashing...
3. I loved the clangers growing up so this book display made me super happy.
4. I'm not a sports fan but London was super cool during the Olympics.
5. Trying out the cupcakes at a new local place: Chocolate and Orange = YUM.
6. This is my cat Lily, she is old and she smells but I love her. Also she lives with my mum.
7. Summer skies are beautiful.
8. I lived in these shoes all summer.
9. Again, not a sports fan, but I couldn't miss seeing the Olympic Torch!

It's been a pretty great summer and I have more pics to share but I'll save them for another time. My best friend is moving in with me and Chap today so I'm off to help with the unpacking and then drink wine and eat pizza. Have a great weekend lovelies.

Alice x