I am so super excited to share my latest make with you! When I first saw the tester call for this one I was at the library browsing Facebook whilst my children were immersed in some books and deciding which they would like to check out for at home.  Perhaps not the best place to let out an audible gasp and "WOW" exclamation!! My joy was shared by many of the other seamstresses in the tester pool as several of us have been begging Kennis, the designer behind Itch to Stitch, to bring out a coat pattern for a couple of years now.  Although not a coat, The ENVIGADO is a fantastic outer layer which will be perfect for Spring, late Summer evenings and Autumnal walks on its own and as an extra layer under a coat for the colder climates in Winter.  

I'm really enjoying taking part in blog tours this year, they are pushing me to create and try sewing some things I probably wouldn't have thought about before.

​Today I'm excited to be included in the Lulu & Celeste, Sprouting JubeJube Productions Back to School Tour now I hear you saying, "but don't you home educate?!" and yes, yes I do but we still have several groups which take a break over the summer and restart in Autumn time along with the need to change wardrobes for the new seasons weather.

Here in the UK, the Autumnal weather is wind, intermittent and unpredictable rain and temperatures. We spend a LOT of time outdoors so waterproofs and layers feature heavily for us.

I'm super excited by this outfit, It's just perfect for going to his forest group, walking through the countryside or even just playing out in the garden and I can't hide it from you any longer so here it is!

Welcome to my stop on the Sew Long Summer Blogtour hosted by Melissa of mahlicadesigns, it couldn't have come at a better time for us here in the UK as we've definitely seen a change in the seasons in the past week or two! 

As we say SewLong to Summer, my thoughts are turned to Autumnal sews and keeping the cold, wind and rain at bay whilst being able to remove layers on those days where the weather can't make it's mind up!  (Yesterday we had everything from 23°C bright sunshine to 11°C with thunderstorms and gale force winds!) 

Whilst I've been keeping up to date sewing cardigans, sweaters and hoodies throughout the Summer, I now need to think about heavier, warmer and drier functionality garments so where better to start sewing for Autumn than a coat!? 

I'm loving being involved in blog tours at the moment, here is my stop on the first Sewing by Ti tour I've been involved in! I've followed Ti's blog and tours for quite a while now so it's a little nerve wracking to be involved myself this time! Ti's blogtours are all themed but what that means to us is up to our individual interpretation! This tour is themed "Dress up this Town" and my immediate thoughts on that were dresses for occasions, not just for Weddings, Christenings and evenings out but for the lunch dates with your girlfriends, for attending Church, for any occasion where you want something a little more than an everyday casual dress. What I came up with may not surprise those of you who know me and know what a HUGE fan of Itch to Stitch Designs I am, so here we have 3 dresses all from ITS all very suitable for occasion wear when sewn in the right fabrics whilst still working brilliantly as casual everyday dresses in others. PS. make it to the bottom for the great giveaways!

I've been lusting after this pattern for quite a while, putting it in and out of my cart on the New Horizons website but never truly looking at the details to see just how many options it included and never quite knowing what fabric it was asking to be made in {more on this in tomorrow's blogpost!}  So when the combination of fabric, timing and pattern options fell into place I just had to try it out!  If, like me, you have only been looking at the listing photo of the Telluride with the beautiful faux Henley scooped hood and not checked out all the other options, I urge you to go take a quick look, I bet you'll be as surprised as I was!

I settled on the Henley version with puff short sleeves and bottom hem with this beautiful organic 'Bling Bling' print cotton jersey from Jersey Jollies, it's a 95/5% cotton lycra mix and at 220gsm, just a little lighter than the custom jersey fabrics I've been sewing recently but equally as lovely to sew with.  I washed it at 40 degrees and even tumble dried it and it had so little shrinkage I was very surprised, just 2cm in width and 3cm in length! 

From the very first sketch I saw of this beautiful dress in the Love Notions* newsletter, I just knew I needed the pattern! It was my first testing experience with Love Notions* and I was very impressed at how thorough their testing process went. Tami was so determined to get the fit perfect we actually went through 9 versions before getting to the final pattern!  I was also super happy to be able to squeeze the bodice out of the last of the stunning Summer Garden print from Lulus Fabrics, the fabric and pattern just works so well together! 

Double brushed poly, or DBP, as it's often abbreviated to, is a relatively new fabric base available to the UK market, so when I was offered the chance to sew it up and review it I was very excited! I sewed up a sample from a lovely custom fabric company, Lulus Fabrics UK, and as usual, I like to test to the max! I washed it, tumble dried it, checked for colour running, fading and shrinkage and sewed it up into various different garments to test how it sews, stretches, wears and looks! Here are my projects, thoughts and findings....

Following on from the previous Fun Tee blog tour, I was very excited to hear there would be a Christmas Tour following very soon.  I LOVE Christmas, I always have, but I especially love giving and receiving handmade gifts, the time and effort which goes into making them for me is far more special to me than quickly picking something off a shelf to give to me. With that said, I already have several MeMade gifts planned for friends and family so took the opportunity to sew myself a couple of things for this tour, after all, I need to be properly attired for gift giving too! 

I absolutely adore this fabric, it is exactly the type of print I would be drawn to in any fabric shop so was super excited to be able to get my hands on the strike off from Second Star! Having underestimated how much fabric I needed for the pattern I had in mind, I changed my mind to raglans! I then couldn't decide whether to use the print as the front or sleeves.... so obviously I had to do both!  

Hi everyone, welcome to the first stop on the'Fun Tee' tester round up tour {& giveaway}! I have been secretly hoping that Lauren would release a ladies version of this tee since I saw her use the girls version in the Swhetty Betties Designer Pairs back in June. 

​{Apologies for photo quality, the weather has been cold and wet and after taking these photos I discovered the camera/lens needs to go in for repair :( } 

Despite almost being Winter here in the UK, it has always been the gathered short sleeve design I've been drawn to most in this pattern so I knew it needed to be that version I made.