So I decided that I was going to make a sloper for a bodice. Patterns are so expensive in the UK and according to their sizing I am well into plus sizes which makes them hard to find. I cut a basic shape out of a sheet and had my boyfriend pin it in place so it fit me. In the end this involved 6 darts, 2 back, 2 waist and 2 bust. He used bulldog clips rather than pins which was ingenious!!! I sewed along all the darts and seems and then wriggled into it. Now it was a little bit tight as I hadn't included any zips or buttons but I could get it on and it was a perfect fit. I transferred the pattern to lining paper and then used that to cut out my pieces on the lovely red material (also an old sheet) that I wanted to make my top out of.
Disaster struck. After sewing I went to try it on and couldn't get it over my bust. The material I had used to make my pattern pieces out of was slightly stretchy. The cotton I was making the top out of wasn't! So I put a zip and 2 hooks in the side. It took my 3 attempts to get the zip in a place I was happy with it. This has lead to me no longer having any fear of zips hehehe. So now I could get it on. However my bust looked awful in it. So I redid the waist darts and one bust dart. However I still look awful in it! The reason for this is that because it doesn't stretch at all it is squishing my bust slightly at the top and it just looks hideous.
Back to the drawing board on this one methinks. So I heartily advocate using a similar material to the one you intend to use in the end to make any practice ones out of!!
Wednesday 24 June 2009
Friday 19 June 2009
And there was light and it was bad
Kermit is my idol. He is the king of all things green and our eco ways are always refered to as being Kermity. So here is something that upsets my inner Kermit. Lights. Specifically the leaving on of lights. At work my office is right next to the kitchen and toilets. The amount of times I walk past both and have to turn the lights off drives me nuts. Today I have turned them off 3 times already and I've only been here 2 hours!!! What bugs me most about it is that no one (I hope) would leave them on if it were their house. But it doesn't matter here as they aren't paying the bills. Grrr
Tuesday 16 June 2009
Worthwhile?
More and more I feel dissatisfied with how I spend my days. I have an office job, general admin/order placing. I spend most of my days speaking to people who run retirement homes or staff at bars (we work for some diverse clients hehehe). However I can't help feeling that there is nothing really worthwhile in my job. We supply things like posters and menus and letterheads. What is the purpose of these things? Now don't get me wrong, they all have their uses. But how meaningful are they really? In the grand scheme of things they don't really mean a lot. As I get older I would much rather be doing something that gives a bit back to the world.
With that in mind me and the bloke have a bit of a 10 year plan going on. We reckon that in that time, with a bit of careful but not too dire budgeting we can save up enough to have a rather stunning deposit on a house. This should allow us to buy our own home and hopefully reduce the money that is spent on rent/mortgage. Once that is done we will then hopefully have the space to grow more of our own food, produce our own energy, things like that. If we can do that then other expenses should be smaller which will in turn lead to us both being able to have the kind of jobs that we feel are worthwhile.
We started the budgeting this week by getting rid of our television. We never watch the darn thing, only guests and my stepdaughter do. So that is around £150 a year we've saved and hopefully a refund too! This also leave much more time in the evenings for us to do stuff as there is no choice now. Hopefully it will encourage Spadgercus (the stepdaughter) to be more productive/creative with her time, maybe read more or make stuff or write the funny little poems that she does sometimes. I think that access to songs on YouTube that have lyrics may put a dent in that vain hope though.
I don't want to have to wait til retirement age to be able to live a life that I deem to be ethically acceptable. So, bring on the budgeting!
With that in mind me and the bloke have a bit of a 10 year plan going on. We reckon that in that time, with a bit of careful but not too dire budgeting we can save up enough to have a rather stunning deposit on a house. This should allow us to buy our own home and hopefully reduce the money that is spent on rent/mortgage. Once that is done we will then hopefully have the space to grow more of our own food, produce our own energy, things like that. If we can do that then other expenses should be smaller which will in turn lead to us both being able to have the kind of jobs that we feel are worthwhile.
We started the budgeting this week by getting rid of our television. We never watch the darn thing, only guests and my stepdaughter do. So that is around £150 a year we've saved and hopefully a refund too! This also leave much more time in the evenings for us to do stuff as there is no choice now. Hopefully it will encourage Spadgercus (the stepdaughter) to be more productive/creative with her time, maybe read more or make stuff or write the funny little poems that she does sometimes. I think that access to songs on YouTube that have lyrics may put a dent in that vain hope though.
I don't want to have to wait til retirement age to be able to live a life that I deem to be ethically acceptable. So, bring on the budgeting!
Sunday 14 June 2009
Worldwide knit in public day
So yesterday was worldwide knit in public day. i wasn't able to go to the meet in Leeds Hyde park as I was going to Manchester to see Jeff Wayne's War of the World. (Oh my god how fab was that?!?!?!?) So I took my kitting with me.
Here is me in the train station.
On the platform. Got some very funny looks of people here.
On the train heading to Manchester.
In the arena during the interval!
Here is me in the train station.
On the platform. Got some very funny looks of people here.
On the train heading to Manchester.
In the arena during the interval!
Saturday 13 June 2009
Knit 5 purl five
A new knitting shop opened up the road from me a couple of weeks ago and they have a kit night on Thursdays. Basically you can go there and knit, get help, have a general gossip. I went last Thursday and it was fab!.
http://www.baaramewe.co.uk/baa_ram_ewe/home.html
Full of enthusiasm for my new remembered love of knitting I came home and started on a scarf for my step-daughter (going back to get more wool for it today) and I continued with the rectangles I have been knitting for an afgan for the last 4 years.
The major achievement being I finally mastered having knit and purl in the same row. I'm so happy!!!!
http://www.baaramewe.co.uk/baa_ram_ewe/home.html
Full of enthusiasm for my new remembered love of knitting I came home and started on a scarf for my step-daughter (going back to get more wool for it today) and I continued with the rectangles I have been knitting for an afgan for the last 4 years.
The major achievement being I finally mastered having knit and purl in the same row. I'm so happy!!!!
The Radishes are coming!
After discovering that you can eat radish leaves we decided that the are an incredibly waste-less food and we would grow some. You have no idea how fast the little blighters can grow!!! These were planted a couple of days ago.
This morning there are 11 shoots and one more poking through. Soon will come the radish revolution. Must find radish recipes!
This morning there are 11 shoots and one more poking through. Soon will come the radish revolution. Must find radish recipes!
Friday 12 June 2009
An introduction to the BlueFrog
Hello and welcome to my first post. I've had this blog for ages now and just haven't gotten around to using. Mostly because there are so many cool blogs out there I feel I will never live up to them! But today I decided what the hey, I'll just start rambling like I do in the real world and we'll see what happens.
So a quick intro to me. My name in this crazy cyber world is Affi'enia. It's from a series of books by Janny Wurts and means water dancer. What's that, what is my real name? Oh I don't think we need to go into that :o) I am in sunny (ahem) England and am a hippy at heart.
I think I'll mostly end up chatting about my crafty stuff. Recently I've taken up sewing on my 1901 Singer treadle machine. She's called George and I love her hehehe. I've also started embroidery, knitting, some kind of weaving and making jewelry. This is the other reason for the delay in starting to blog. No time to make it pretty with pictures!
So I shall endeavour to blog as often as I can. I shall try to make the time to actually post pics of what I am waffling about. Thanks to anyone who stops by, please say hello.
xXx
So a quick intro to me. My name in this crazy cyber world is Affi'enia. It's from a series of books by Janny Wurts and means water dancer. What's that, what is my real name? Oh I don't think we need to go into that :o) I am in sunny (ahem) England and am a hippy at heart.
I think I'll mostly end up chatting about my crafty stuff. Recently I've taken up sewing on my 1901 Singer treadle machine. She's called George and I love her hehehe. I've also started embroidery, knitting, some kind of weaving and making jewelry. This is the other reason for the delay in starting to blog. No time to make it pretty with pictures!
So I shall endeavour to blog as often as I can. I shall try to make the time to actually post pics of what I am waffling about. Thanks to anyone who stops by, please say hello.
xXx
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