Wednesday 30 March 2016

Fifi Pyjamas

Hey everyone! How are you all? 

I'm doing pretty good, I'm at home for the Easter break and finally have a completed sewing project to show you! 


Truth be told, I finished this project in January, but I've been putting off blogging it. Ahh well, I've got round to it eventually! 

This is the Fifi Pyjama set from Tilly and the Buttons, and a classy lady she is. I don't think I've ever felt so posh wearing pyjamas! 


The light in these photos is dreadful, you'll have to excuse me - proper daylight in January was a little hard to come by! 

From start to finish, excluding cutting everything out, this project took me about five hours. I stayed up rather late to get it finished, but I am super happy with the end result! 

I made the Size 1, which is usual for me and didn't make any adjustments. It fits pretty nicely straight out of the packet, but I do think I'll go back at some point and shorten the straps a tad. 


All the seams are French, which I've never bothered with on a whole garment before. They look sooo neat, I am seriously tempted to use this style of seam more often - the extra effort is definitely worth it. 


You can get a bit of a better look at the fabric here, which is an absolutely droolworthy, soft and buttery Liberty Tana Lawn. Yes, my love of all things Liberty is showing no sign of stopping - I visited the store with my mum last weekend when we were in London and to my surprise, realised that I can now name a lot of the fabrics! Definitely becoming a bit of an obsession...but look how pretty! 





A few close ups. This was my first time making an elasticated waistband, which definitely wasn't as tricky as I'd been imagining. I also added a little blue bow to the top, which I think looks cute! I was also really pleased with myself for how neatly I managed to get the bias binding, as that's another technique I haven't really had much experience with. Overall, these pyjamas were a real learning curve for me, but I had so much fun! 

Well, that's about it from me on the pyjama front. This is definitely the project that I feel most luxurious in whilst wearing and I'm really proud of it as a sewing achievement. 

In other news...ooh, I did recently manage to turn some 40" waist jeans into a 28". I know, that should be more or less impossible, but long story short my boyfriend wanted some jeans in the sale from River Island, and the only size they had left was 40". I ended up taking 4" out of each side seam (which ate into the front pockets a little, but they're still usable), then 4" out of the back. I also took in the legs a little all over, to balance things out. To my surprise, they actually look ok! I got my mum to check, and she assures me they look like regular jeans (though she's astounded I managed to take out a whole 12"). So, there we go! It's been a post for attempting the sewing extraordinary, at least where I'm concerned. 

How are your sewing projects going? I'd love to hear! 

Thank you, as always, for reading, 

Beth x

Monday 21 March 2016

Nostalgia

Hey everyone! How are you all?

I've finally broken up for the Easter holidays, so I'm back at home missing my uni friends, but enjoying being able to see my family. I have a couple of essays to write whilst I'm here, but I also have a few nice plans to meet up with people which should be really fun.

In the absence of any completed sewing projects to show you (but I have brought my sewing machine home with me, I promise!), today I wanted to talk about the favourite things of my childhood. I recently found out about the website Invaluable, which has all kinds of auctions with nostalgic items. The site can help people reconnect with items they may have loved as children but have forgotten about as they've grown up. As an online auction site, Invaluable also has a lot of collectibles which means it's a good resource for hunting down old books, coins and memorabilia. Mostly though, I just thought writing about nostalgia would be a great way to try and remember the things that were so important to me as a child!

I'm pretty sure that most of you, like me, all loved Lego. I have so much of it stashed away - a police station, pirate ship, castle and even Harry Potter's Hogwarts, as well as a huge box just filled with random colour pieces. To be honest, I still enjoy playing with Lego; one of my mum's friends has a little girl who we get Lego out for her to play with when she comes to visit, and I'm sure me and my dad have more fun playing with the Lego than she does!

I was also a huge fan of My Little Pony, spending hours brushing and braiding their hair. As far as I'm concerned, they've absolutely ruined them, they're just not as good as they used to be. I had a collection of about twenty ponies, all with their own brushes, as well as a couple of videos and a computer game (which I would spend absolutely hours playing).

Here's my absolute favourite from when I was little... I'm fairly sure she was called Strawberry. I used to know the names of all of them, but alas, that information has been nudged out by other things:



And here's what they look like now...














*sigh...they are just not the same.

My last favourite would probably have to go to Sylvanian Families. Please all tell me you know what they are! I think I had little frogs and dalmations. One Christmas, I remember being brought an absolutely enormous house for them to all live in, and for my next birthday, a canal boat. One of my friends Eleanor, who absolutely adored them, was once bought a Sylvanian wedding set which I remember playing with and thinking was beautiful!


 

The canal boat was always secretly my favourite, mostly because I've always wanted to live on one, and it came with loads of cool little accessories I could get the frogs to play with, like a mop and a life ring.

So, there we have it, the favourite toys of my childhood! Also worthy of note would have to be Barbie...yes, I know, but I'm not going to deny I've always had a very girly streak, and probably Baby Annabelle as well, my toy baby. She was very cute and I had a pram for her and everything. My mum used to take me to Toys R Us to buy her clothes (when she wasn't dressed in my own baby clothes, including my christening outfit! What a well dressed doll she was.)

Ooh, I also loved Felicity Wishes!



I had books, toys, pencil cases, advent calendars at Christmas...all adorned with the beautiful Felicity Wishes the fairy and her friends. Gosh, there's so many favourites now I've got onto the topic! Of course, toys aren't the only aspect of my childhood I remember and think of slightly wistfully...

Jelly tots were completely delicious, particularly the bottom of the pack where you could lick your finger and dip it in all the sugar. Magic Stars, they were good too...I would never eat them without first seeing what facial expression was on each star. I do still occasionally eat both jelly tots and Magic Stars; both give me a sense of nostalgia, but I don't look at all the faces on the Magic Stars before I eat them anymore. Times change I suppose!

TV was also a good one for me, I remember the first time we got a digital box, coming home from school and being able to watch a channel totally dedicated to children's shows! I was always a CBBC child, CITV had too many adverts! Arthur, The Wild Thornberries, The Rugrats and Tracy Beaker are my top picks, but there were a lot of other good shows too. I'll be here all day if I list them all!

Finally, books. I've always been a huge reader, with people like Jacqueline Wilson, J. K. Rowling and Lemony Snicket shaping my childhood. Whilst I'm here, my thanks go out to those wonderful authors (and my father), who all helped inspire my love of words. I'm forever grateful.

Well, that's probably enough from me. Now, over to you! Tell me, what is your favourite memory of childhood - a toy, a game, a food they just don't make the same anymore? The choice is yours! I can't wait to hear all your answers.

Have a brilliant week everyone, and thank you for reading,

Beth x

Disclaimer: I was approached by Invaluable to write a blog post about the nostalgic items of my childhood as part of their community blogging project. I received no payment and agreed to write the post because I genuinely thought it would be nice to help my readers to remember and reconnect with the items they loved as children. All opinions stated here are my own.