More slippers...

The monkey slippers are finished!

I added some felt soles, with a decorative blanket stitch to neatly finish off the edges. I hadn't worked blanket stitch for approximately 28 years, but it was lovely to have a look through my Great Aunt's sewing book from 1940, for a little refresher course. :)

I love these monkey slippers with a fiery passion, and I have managed to find a single fat quarter of the same fabric, but with the nuts/gourds in purple rather than brown. If I buy it, I can make one more pair of monkey slippers... or of course you can all have something different!

I've also finished my second pair of slippers - these are a slip-on mule style, made from skull and crossbones print fleece.



The uppers are made from two layers of fleece, with a layer of denim sandwiched in between for strength. The soles are made from a layer of fleece, then denim, then heavy buckram, and finally felt on the bottom. (This is what the soles look like.)

The monkey slippers have a layer of foam rubber in the sole, which makes them extremely squashy and comfortable to walk on. They feel a bit tight the first time you put them on, but after a couple of days the foam compacts down nicely. The mule slippers don't have any foam in the soles at all, which is something I want to change about them. I think it would be nice if they were a bit softer. I also need to make some changes to the felt soles, to make them a little safer. They're a bit slippery on laminate flooring - I've almost gone skating a couple of times!




If anybody would be interested in buying the skull slippers, they're a size 6/39, and can be yours for the bargain prototype price of a fiver!

I'm not taking formal customer orders for slippers yet, but if you'd like to help me by testing out a slightly experimental pair (possibly involving you drawing around your feet), please drop me a comment, and we can work something out. :)




And now, it's back to beating my head against the Zen Cart template setup. I'm supposed to be a professional web designer - I will not let this defeat me!

Not bad for a bad day...

Today was threatening to turn into a distinctly unproductive one. I've got a stinking cold (not quite man-flu, but close!), and whilst I'd spent the morning sewing well, I seemed to send the afternoon unpicking everything again. Not good.

So, I figured it would be a good idea to step away from the complicated princess-seamed bodice, and pick up something more simple.

I've been wanting to sew Butterick 4928 for ages, and as it's basically just four huge pieces sewn together into a coat-shape, I thought I might as well give it a go.

Here's the pattern picture:

It's a new pattern, reproduced from a Butterick 1952 original.

I, however, decided to make in in a skull-and-crossbones printed polyester fleece. Well, it recommends using fleece on the pattern envelope, and I had three metres of this just lying about, so why not?

Here's how it looks so far:



Once again, you can't really see what this coat looks like, or more importantly how it feels by looking at a picture on a mannequin. I'm sure lots of you are looking at it and thinking, "but it looks like a tent!" I can assure you that when you put it on, it feels like the most glamorous coat you have ever worn.

It makes you want to swirl around - this coat would be perfect for ice skating out of doors. Or maybe for standing on the balcony of a ski-lodge, in the dark, sipping champagne as the snow falls gently around you. Really, it's that kind of coat. Honest.


It's not finished yet - it needs facings and interfacing, and maybe one ginormous button. You can form a queue to fight me for it, when it's done. ;)

A-line skull skirt...

Please excuse my wonky mannequin in this picture. I don't know what's the matter with her, she looks drunk!

Anyway, this is a new skirt for Chloe.

It's made with Alexander Henry "Mini Calaveras" fabric, bought from Cia's Palette.

The skirt is an a-line style, knee-length, with a side zip. It's fully lined, and attached to the bottom of the lining is a little ruffle of net. Not so much as to make the skirt stick out in a comedy manner, but just enough to give it a little bit of stiffness and shape.

This one is on its way to a Christmas party, so I hope Chloe can come up with some better photographs than this one!

Fastest Skirts in the West!

So fast, in fact, that I made two!

The pink flame skirt is a commission from Pink Weasel, and the skull one is for me.

The pattern is a really simple a-line skirt. The waist is drafted slightly larger than the hip measurement (so you can get it on and off!), and then gathered in again by the wide elastic at the top. This gives a lovely full swingy skirt, without having acres of excess fabric all bunched up around the middle.

Both skirts are just waiting to be edged with black cotton broderie anglais lace. This should balance out the waistband at the top, and add that extra little bit of girliness!

Now to investigate how many colours I can get hold of in the bomber jacket elastic, and then I can make some more...