Wendy's Week - Sniffles & Sewing

Hello, hello I hope you're having a wonderful week and looking forward to the weekend, I know I am! So here is what I got up to last week

~ Sniffles & Sewing ~

- 12th - 17th April -

Onions are sprouting // Beau  snoozing // A massive June Bug Cocktail //
Bonnie & Clyde // Sew Over It Anderson Blouse // A fridge magnet from Petra

- Got a touch of the sniffles. I ain't gonna lie I didn't get much done this week I caught a cold on Thursday and so most of my weekend was spent lounging on the sofa, taking cat naps and watching lots of TV, rather than catching up with all my projects, which was a little irritating as I have lots to do, but sometimes you just have to accept it's better to just relax. Beau kept me company by lying along the edge of the sofa under my feet so that I didn't get lonely, he is sweet like that!

- I went out for drinks on Friday. This may well have contributed to me feeling rotten all weekend, as I met up with my pal Phillip for drinks and dinner at the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford. As you will see from the above picture we had massive cocktails in the TGI Friday's bar, that one's called a June bug, I can't remember what was in it but it was very delicious and far too easy to drink so we may have had more than we should! Oops!

- Began the Sew Over It Anderson Blouse! After spending a few hours sticking all the pattern pieces together, I managed to fit all of the fabulous Anderson Blouse into the remaining fabric from my dressing gown. I have started sewing the bodice together but it's certainly not been easy, the best way I have found so far is to use a walking foot and have the machine on the slowest setting. I will be taking Cate's fabulous advice  on my last post and be basting my pieces together from now on as anything that will make it easier to stitch accurately is worth trying.  I have also been serging/overlocking the raw edges which has been difficult as the fabric tends to stretch and warp under the overlocker. I can live with the results on the blouse, but I am thinking of biting the bullet and doing French seams for the dressing gown, it will take longer but should give a better result!

- My brother sent me a gift! As much as his Wartime Farm Pullover travelling the world has become a tradition, so has him buying me a marvellous fridge magnet from the country he has visited, this trip was no exception and so I have my very own Petra fridge magnet and a Polaroid of him in his Pullover to add to my rapidly growing collection on the side of my fridge!

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I watched a lot of TV & did a bit of knitting- Feeling grotty gave me the perfect excuse to do a bit of knitting front of the telly, which means I managed to watch a fair few films, Small Soldiers (perfect family Sunday sofa viewing), Divergent, (despite being a fair bit like Hunger Games it was rather good, in a dystopian sci-fi kind of a way) and Django Unchained, (really good, very shocking, funny and had mostly warranted violence, which for a Tarantino film is unusual) also I finally got around to watching the History Channel's Bonnie and Clyde mini-series which I've had on DVD for ages, it was actually Cate's Vintage On The Web post which reminded me that I hadn't watched it yet, so it was time to remedy that!

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I did enjoy it, not as much as the late 60s version, but it was really good, it certainly takes a slightly different spin on the story with Bonnie being shown as more of the mastermind behind their crime spree, but it works. The clothes? Well, they were epic!! It is actually worth watching this show for the fashions alone as Bonnie's wardrobe is utterly fabulous. After watching the extras on the DVD, yes I am that kinda girl, I discovered an interview with the costume designer, who mentioned that she found a whole wealth of fabulous original 1930s woollen dresses which they used for all of Bonnie's wardrobe (apart from the iconic jumper in the top still, that was made by the costume department), she figured they would be perfect for Bonnie as the woollen fabric would not crease and so would always look good, as being a criminal on a crime spree there isn't much time for ironing!

Wendy x

Wendy's Week - Swing & Swatching

Hello, lovely people! I hope your week has been wonderful so far!

This is what I got up to last week...

~ Swing & Swatching ~

- 4th - 11th April -

My Hurricane is progressing // Watching Home Fires with Beau // Getting ready to go out in my new 70s dress
 // Swatching sweaters // Swing! // Fabric tester extraordinaire

- I cut out a new sewing project! When I bought the gorgeous Cloth Spot floral satin a few weeks back, I bought it to finally make a version of Butterick B5152, a luxurious 40s dressing gown, which I have been dreaming of for years! Well I finished cutting out the last pieces this week, the fabric is very lightweight and a bit fidgety so it was a little more time consuming to cut out than I had anticipated, so I have been taking my time to do it slowly and cut it as neatly as possible. Of course, Beau was there to help me, never let it be said that any fabric has entered our home that he hasn't given the furry butt of approval to!

I'll be honest am anxious about sewing this up as I haven't sewed with such delicate fabric before, I'm thinking I might try something a little smaller first and thanks to the thoughtful ladies at Cloth Spot I do have a few meters left over (they spotted a flaw in the fabric and gave me a few extra meters to help me work around it, what service!) so I'm hoping to squeeze in a Sew Over It Anderson Blouse which as it's loose fitting it will be a good place to practice my slippery fabric stitching skills! Oh and any advice will be heartily welcomed!

- I swung along to the Syd Lawrence Orchestra. On Friday it was finally time for me, Alan and some of his lovely friends to go to see the Syd Lawrence Orchestra. I'd been looking forward to this for weeks and it didn't disappoint! The band was marvellous and as it was such a small venue we had a wonderful view of the stage and the band. The music was fantastic, including lots of Glen Miller, Benny Goodman, and Count Basie. Their singer, Angie Mills was fabulous and she belted out amongst others two of my favourite 'shower singing' songs (sung badly by me mind you!) Love me or Leave Me and Secret Love both Doris Day classics. The band also did a rendition of Benny Goodman's arrangement of Sing, sing, sing, with the most outstanding drum solo I have ever heard!

All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend an evening and something which I would recommend, having never experienced a big band like this before as I am more used to seeing guitar bands in sweaty clubs this certainly seemed much more sophisticated! The only small negative for me was due to the event being in a theatre all the enthusiastic foot tapping from the audience was making the sprung floor bounce rather allot which did make me feel a little queasy, to begin with, eventually, I got used to it but early on it was touch and go!

- And I wore another (new) 70s, Maxi Dress! I blame writing about my last maxi dress, as when I went to get the eBay link I spotted this gold sparkly number being auctioned off with only a few minutes left, and seeing that it was in my size I thought I would give it a go and blow me down I won!! The dress in the listing (see it here) looks so different in reality and by that I mean it's so much nicer. I was actually surprised how lovely this dress is. It's also a lot larger than the listing suggested, so I have had to add a few stitches in the front wrap to stop my underwear constantly being flashed. I'd intended to wear my Sew For Victory 2.0 Dress to see the SLO as I wanted to finally give it a proper outing, but I fell in love with this dress so much that I decided to wear this instead, as, despite its intense nylon content, everything about it screams 1930s evening dress. Plus it being floor length, yes even on 5'10" lanky me, it meant that my poor bruised shins (combine a clumsy nature and a push bike and well, lets just say my legs are more blue than anything else currently) could be hidden a bit more stylishly than by wearing my thickest of thick black tights!

- On Sunday I caught up with Home Fires, which inspired some knitting. I'm so glad Home Fires is back! I really loved the first series, it is great to finally have a show that focuses on the women on the home front during the war, which obviously also means lots of fabulous forties fashions! The new series is no different and as I was trying to follow the plot the fab knitwear just kept popping up, one jumper in particular caught my eye and that was the gorgeous Fair Isle, sported by Frances Campbell the Drs Wife (see it better here). I was so smitten that I immediately grabbed some graph paper and my (overflowing) bag of odds and ends and spent the rest of the evening trying to chart out and swatch the pattern. I have made a few changes to my initial chart but I am so smitten that I have already cast on for the jumper, using as the base this free pattern by Subversive Femme, which I am hoping will work well, especially as it's in a larger size, fingers crossed!

Wendy x

Wendy's Week - Planting & Playing with Planes

Hello, I hope you are having a fantastic week!

Here is what I've been getting up to...

~ Planting & Playing with Planes ~

-29th March - 03rd April-

Planting my first seeds // Floral fabulousness // Keira, me and our paper plane //
 Garden tidying turban time // Airfix beginnings // Sewing in the spring sunshine

- Kiera came to play! As it's the school holidays, we have had a few visits from my friend and work colleague Christine's little girl Keira. I was prepared this time around and so we have spent our lunch breaks together playing with paper aeroplanes and running around in the spring sunshine kicking a football (it is a Disney princess ball) aren't we are such girlie girls!

- I finished my Sew Over it Vintage 50s Box Pleat Skirt At flipping last!! This as it has been the most frustrating sewing I have done in a while, nothing to do with the pattern mind you that's great, it is my own skills that have infuriated me,It started by me realising I had cut the skirt too long and went increasingly wrong from there as every attempt to rectify the hem went ever more skew-whiff! Anyway, it's all done now and I hope to get some snaps this weekend!



- Started on my Airfix Kit and it is really progressing! I choose the Hawker Hurricane as my first victim, mostly as it appeared to be the simplest of the bunch, I'm not actually sure about that anymore but it's certainly been fiddly enough to mean that I have spent a lot less time in front of the gogglebox (though I do love that show) which was the main aim and I've even found an unexpected use for some of my recently purchased sewing clips (see header photo) they are actually perfect for holding together small bits of plastic while the glue dries!

- Talking of Hurricanes we had some bonkers weather. Storm Katie hit the south over Easter I woke up on Monday the garden was a disaster, my little Lean-to greenhouse was at the other end of the garden and the shed that I am storing in panels for a friend had been tipped over and my pots and seed trays were strewn all over the garden. I there was a bright side, (though honestly, this wasn't that bad just irritating) as for once my procrastination in planting had meant that this year I didn't have to see all my little baby seedlings destroyed as they had been last year with a similar storm, which was great but it did also remind me that I ought to get cracking with planting something! So last Sunday I peddled down to my local garden centre and picked up some onion sets and some seed potatoes (discounted due to how late in the season I was buying them, result!), I have put the onions in seed trays (just to give them a head start) and have set the potatoes to chit, so as long as the weather is kind to me for the next few days I should have something to plant out very soon!

- Treated myself to a new 70s, maxi dress. I have been restraining myself when it comes to eBay lately, but as I recently sold a few things and had some lovely Paypal funds burning a hole in my pocket, it seemed the right time for another look! I bought this dress from Bird Girl Vintage who always has lots of pretty 70s pieces sadly most are in small sizes so when I saw this, it just had to be mine! I love maxi dresses, I was initially drawn to them for the fact they have a wonderful 1930s feel but I have since also fallen in love with their 70s mostly nylon brashness too! I have lots already lurking in my wardrobe which I hope will all get an airing this year (once it warms up). I wore this all day on Saturday and despite being in a centrally heated house, I still need a cardie too, come on warm weather I ready for you!

Have you been tempted to buy anything for warmer weather?

Wendy x

Wartime Farm Goes to...Petra

My little brother has once again been on his travels around the globe, this time, he has visited Jordan. As always he has been keeping me and my parents updated with photos of his trip - We have finally got them to use Whatsapp, this is a serious achievement for my folks who are both in their 70s and anti-technology, but now they both have smart phones they are getting braver at using them, incidentally we seem to have created two emoji loving monsters they use them for everything!

Photo Credit  JPTB

As usual, he looks to have been having a wonderful time, he's been trekking into the desert, ridden a camel, seen lots of Roman ruins and even camped out with the nomadic Bedouin.

Photo Credit  JPTB

But the bit that has made me really, really jealous is his trip to Petra and a visit to the beautiful treasury, it's been somewhere I've longed to visit ever since I watched Indian Jones as a kid! Only the penitent man shall pass, only the penitent man shall pass!!

Photo Credit  JPTB

He knew how jealous I was of this trip (because I kept on telling him) and so he was thoughtful enough to send me now what is becoming something of  a tradition, and I love him even more for it, a photo of his Wartime Farm Pullover in front of the Treasury building! 

Arghh, it's so cool!! I am currently working on conquering my fear of flying (well all my many phobias actually) so hopefully in the not too distant future I'll be able to make the trip myself, but seeing this makes up for the fact I'll have to wait a while longer!

Wendy x

Wendy's Week - Airfix & Allotmenteering

Hello! I hope you all had a fabulous Easter if you celebrate it or a lovely rest if you don't!

I have been having a few technical issues with my website lately, so this is a little late but after much faffing here is what I got up to last week!

~ Airfix & Allotmenteering ~

-21st - 27th March -

Daffodils // Grumpy looking extras // Sewing Clips // Beau watching the birdies // Hair Bow Tutorial // Digging

- Filmed a video tutorial. I mentioned in my last post that I was thinking about making more use of the film mode on my camera and so I had a go this weekend at a little tutorial on how to make a hair bow just like the one I am wearing in this post, it's very simple and once edited I'll hopefully be brave enough to post it here, so you can see and hear what I am really like! I did actually film a little video just after Christmas as bit of an introduction to my blog and me but so far I have been far too shy to post it or properly edit it as, well it's a bit cringey, you can really tell how very nervous I was filming it (I was honestly shaking, despite being completely on my own at the time) but I am working on my confidence little by little and so perhaps I will get over myself very soon and be brave enough to publish it...perhaps!

- Went out for Lunch On Good Friday, I went for a lovely pub lunch with my good friend Alan so that we could exchange Easter eggs, you're never too old for chocolate! We discussed our plans for our upcoming outing to see the Syd Lawrence Orchestra in a couple of weeks. Despite eating my body weight in Vegetable Linguini and Manchester Tart (I had no idea this was even a thing, it was mighty tasty though! It did make me giggle no end to have to ask for two Manchester Tarts at the bar, but then I'm a child!). I must confess to getting a little tipsy and so on returning home nodded off on the sofa and achieved nothing much else for the rest of the day, whoops!

- Bought some fabric clips. I saw these Plastic Clip Clamps a few weeks ago and thought they looked like something that might be useful to add to my sewing kit, to hold together fabrics that are too delicate to pin and for adding on bindings to edgings. I had previously looked at getting some Clover Wonder Clips which retail at about £18 for 50, but I was put off by the price and so when I saw that these were very cheap at £3.38 for 80 and had great reviews, I decided it was worth the risk and gave them a go. I did have to wait about a month for them to arrive, which meant I had totally forgotten about them when they did, but now they are here I can honestly say they are very well made and totally worth the price and long delivery time. I will be putting them to good use very soon!

- Spent Saturday on the Allotment. That photo doesn't look staged at all, ha ha! My camera was precariously positioned on the water tank to take this! Finally, this Saturday I dragged my lazy behind over to my much-neglected allotment to begin the digging and weeding. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as I'd been fearing, the soil is lovely and soft and so digs over really well, plus I've downloaded a new calorie tracker app on my phone, in an effort to loose some weight and have found that one hours heavy digging is supposed to burn about 700 calories, which is a huge amount, though I must confess I'm not sure my style of digging can be considered 'heavy', but even half those calories burnt is a good start and goes a long way to balancing out all the chocolate I consumed over the weekend!

- I Bought an Airfix Kit. Which made me feel a lot like a teenage boy, but you know what I don't care!  For years now I have fancied having a go an Airfix model but have resisted, I have bought kits for all the men in my life at some point, but to my knowledge not one of them has ever made them up and so they all sit waiting patiently in their boxes. So this weekend I used up some Amazon vouchers and took advantage of same day delivery (blows my mind) and bought myself a Battle of Britain kit! As well as being something I have wanted to have a go at for years, it will also hopefully help me to keep to my new resolution of watching less TV. I've realised that despite my best intentions I have become a bit of couch potato, which is really limiting how much I get done of an evening, so I have decided to restrict myself to an hour or so a day, which has so far been hard, very hard.  I can certainly knit and just about sew whilst watching TV, but having something that's a bit fiddly and needs utter concentration might actually help break me of the habit and hopefully, in the end, I'll have a little more to show for my time other than square eyes!

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- All that said I did make time for some TV. Mr. Holmes is currently streaming on Amazon prime (I promise I am not sponsored by Amazon, I just seem to use them a lot!) and so I decided to give it a watch as I utterly adore Sir Ian McKellan, I want him to be my grandad! Mr. Holmes is a completely different take on the Sherlockian story. Set in 1947 the 93year old Holmes has retired to the Sussex coast to live the simple life tending to his bees, with the help of his housekeeper Mrs. Munro and her young son Roger. It's becoming clear to Holmes that he is losing his memory and so in a last effort to correct some of the misconceptions created by Watson's stories he is attempting to rewrite his last case, the case that broke him if he can remember the facts that is. For me it's not the unfolding case that is the best part of the film, it is the growing relationship between Holmes and young Roger, it really is so touchingly sweet and shows that Holmes has a not just an analytical but also a caring side, it's all rather lovely!

Wendy x