Sewing as a creative outlet

 I feel like I have barely visited the studio in the past weeks - dropping in here and there; stopping by to collect things and drop other things off. So much time has been spent on other life matters.

One thing I have been doing quietly at home however is sewing.

You may recall my frustration at not being able to work out how to get a tidy finish to this wee grey linen drawstring bag.

I did more searching, watched videos, friends sent me links and still I couldn't quite sort it in my head how to have a French seam inside AND a tidy drawstring.  I was about to cut a trial bag out of calico when I sat down and looked hard at the one I had done thus far.

I thought to myself, what if I unpicked that bit and then hand sewed it back together neatly?

So there I was, saved by the hand stitching and the ability to make things work for me best when I do them by hand. My hands feel their way.

However, playing with fabric and needles and threads did have me back at the sewing machine trying to use up some of the lovely fabrics I have had stashed away since my sewing class came to an end three years ago.

First up I stitched one of my favourite sleeveless tops for summer. It was trickier than I anticipated (everything to do with sewing machines ends up trickier than I anticipate!) as the fabric had a lot of crinkles, creases and stretch in it. Some serious ironing sorted it in the end, and I enjoyed how it looked once complete.

I then moved on to another top for which I had a traced pattern, with no notches or markings on the pattern pieces, and some photocopied instructions that made me wonder if I missed a page somewhere? Hilarious.

Mostly done, just sorting out the facings

Checking where to iron the front cowl drape bit

Pinning then hand stitching the facings down.

Despite the lack of markings and vague instructions, we got there! 

There appears to be a serious circular theme at play - who knew?