Knife and fork

So I got my fantastic new Bernina, and then took myself off to Wales for the weekend and ended up sewing the majority of this skirt on my mum’s trusty Janome, which is now, following the demise of our Canadian Singer from the 70s, our very oldest sewing machine, hailing from – shock horror – the late 90s.

The outer and lining are both self drafted so a bit (a lot!) of trial and error went into this skirt. The lining is A-line with darts front and back, and the outer skirt is straight with knife pleats (following this excellent tutorial, which, unexpectedly, calls for a fork). The fabric is rayon from Cotton + Steel’s second collaboration with Rifle Paper Co, Wonderland, purchased in the summer from The Village Haberdashery.

What can I say? I really like this skirt! I also figured out how to use my Bernina’s automatic buttonhole feature, so can now realistically think about making some proper, button-down blouses (at long last). Time to really make progress on my extensive Liberty tana lawn collection.

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A whole box of roses

Just before my birthday, Tiger was selling cheap balsa wood expanding craft boxes for £6. My mum took a hint, so it duly arrived on a tabletop in front of me on my birthday, and I spent the next several weeks spreading paper, glue and spray paint around the house.

Here’s the result of my first decoupage:

I used Rifle Paper Co wrapping paper which I bought at Selfridges. It took forever to cut out, and actually, I think cheap wrapping paper might work better with decoupage as this was a bit thick. But it is so pretty…

This little box now holds all my zippers, sewing machine feet, thimble and machine needles. Pretty and practical!