Sewing: Purl Soho Patterns

Purl Soho has some fabulous free patterns, they are a go-to for modern, simple and classy patterns and they have impeccable fabric taste. This is my first Everyday Tote, there will be more...  It is a great size and I love all the seams enclosed in bias binding - so neat.  My bias was a garage sale find and quite stiff - I wished I had changed my needle as the stitching got pretty rough which shows on the chambray.  

We use the tote mostly for a library bag and my school pick up bag complete with snacks and plenty of room to fit book bags, notes and craft etc! The only criticism is the pocket is too high and probably not deep enough for my liking - it also flaps about. Next time I'll sew a pocket on the bottom half of the bag. While I love the bias inside, I'll probably just insert a lining next time for a quicker sew!  I also used a Noodlehead trick for the handles as I had no webbing on hand.  Instead of folding in half again as Anna would I added the bias for contrast and strength and I ran out of fabric and didn't want thin handles.

These are lovely mitered napkins which I made from hand printed Thea & Sami fabric I've had for ages... I wished I'd sewn them sooner, I love using them and sewing through my stash.

Sewing: World Book Day - How to Train Your Dragon

World Book Day was a Viking inspired affair... due to a friend having a Horrible History party a little while back and I knew our costumes were going to double up for WBD.  My favourite thing to sew was Josiah's tunic and Anya's shrug!  Josiah had a linen longer tunic to go under the pleather top pictured below, but his classroom is hot and it restricted his running around.

I made a tube for the bodice out of the pleather reversed, then cut rows of scallops and sewed them on for the 'skirt' and a small rectangle to go over the shoulders too.  Josiah's costume was inspired by the outfits on Horrible Histories classic, We Sell Any Monk!

My 'Astrid' is never short for a pose!   I followed this tutorial for her shrug, just free-styled the skirt out of Josiah's leftover fabric.  The sleeve's were also leftovers from Josiah's under tunic, as the first set were too tight for him but worked perfectly for her forearms.  We bought tiny skull buttons and faux suede cord from Amazon.

Anya also had a stone age dress up the following week!  Fabric is sourced from Simply Fabrics in Brixton, London - it is excellent for dress up fabric at great prices.  Anya's costume cost me six pound, we had everything else at home.  We cut the toes out of an old pair of hubby's socks and sewed the fur trim around the top, the leopard print covering the boot was badly hacked and sewn under the fur - I'd run out of steam by then! ha ha    Last year's Book Week Costumes.