The Remains of 2014 – Rusty Kelly

Ok, here’s the first of my attempts to clear the backlog of blogging that built up towards the end of 2014. In no particular order. Certainly not chronological.

I don’t wear skirts all that often. They’re not hugely practical for my work, and the rest of the time I tend to just throw on a pair of jeans without really thinking about it. But I do like skirts, when I remember them, and when I found some corduroy in a gorgeous rusty / russety colour on the reduced stand of the fabric section in Karstadt, in that town-just-over-the-border-where-I-certainly-don’t-go-to-take-advantage-of-the-cheaper-prices, I sort of knew that a nice warm autumn/winter skirt was on the cards.

Two Airelles

You may remember that I was given a couple of Deer and Doe patterns for my birthday. And that I was psyching myself up to make a couple of Airelle blouses. One as a sort of wearable muslin on cheaper fabric, and the other on some lawn that I spent far too long deciding on. Internet shopping is terribly addictive, but also the bane of my life. Time just slips by.

My Saltspring Dress

When I decided to start sewing properly (ie from patterns) I did a lot of looking at Indie pattern sites and going through their patterns picking out and bookmarking patterns that I thought I would wear (very important!) and that fitted into the “beginner” category. Sewaholic has a number in this range, and I ordered one in PDF form to get on with, while I waited for the others that I ordered in printed form to arrive from Canada (I’m materialistic, me.) Saltspring was one of them (the other is the Alma blouse, which is intermediate level – I’m also ambitious and not a little impatient.)

Button-back Top

Remember this patterned fabric? It was on my list of things to do for the summer.

China-blue Top

So here are the long-promised pictures of that top I’ve been going on about.

It started life as a pillow-case in the sale in Coop, reduced down to a couple of francs, and I bought it purely for the fabric, as Swiss pillows are much larger than the ones we’re used to in the UK. (Actually, it turned out that this one was the right size for one of my English pillows, so I have less scrap fabric left over than I expected, but there was still enough for a top that I fit in.)

Starry starry night

This should have been a Christmas post, but you know how it is just before Christmas, particularly if you’re the sort of person that draws up a list of presents that you’re going to make, and then leaves it until the last moment to actually make them.
And anyway, I still have a few of the spares, and the ones that went wrong, and they do nicely as non-Christmas decoration for me: who said stars are only for Christmas?