Going Wobbly - how I'm getting my head back together (and a new top)

It's been quite a week. I don't know about you but I thought I'd got settled into a new routine in lockdown and a new way of working. I spent mornings working, from early until anout 12.30-1pm. Then I'd have lunch; walk the dog; do a bit of housework/ garden stuff; do another hour or two working and finish by tea time. It was all working fine up until Monday.

I'd had a productive weekend. I painted on the bank holiday - out in the garden as it was so nice. - working on a big 120cm square canvas for my painting based on Newbiggin bay. Saturday I pulled out weeds and took it all to the tip, Sunday was church and a long walk with the dog and Boris' announcement!

I didn't sleep well and woke in a poor frame of mind for Monday. I worked - starting at 7.30am and I don't think I really rested from it until tea time. I didn't become a teacher to sit all day at a computer, and by the end of the day my back hurt and I was still left not really know what was going to happen with schools. Many questions and very few answers.

Tuesday was much the same. Worked to the point where my back hurt and the lack of sleep made me completely ineffective. Still no news on how schools would return. I decided that on wednesday I would work on exemplar material for my students and did a bit of painting and designing for some of my modules.

As the week has gone on, it's been harder to keep my chin up. I have felt demoralised by all the teacher bashing going off in the press; the arguments and lack of clear plan. It's become apparent that children and teachers are just subjects in the goverment's latest Covid19 experiment - guinea pigs if you will. I want to teach - I am a professional and do a good job. The children make me laugh, and I love seeing them grow as individuals. I want them to be safe and all our staff to be safe. I just don't think the plans in place are safe. I could feel a level of anxiety creeping in. I even had my work stress dream - you'll laugh at this one - I dream all the kids have left unwashed pallettes, paintbrushes etc in the classroom sink and I have to clean it up. It's stupid I know, but it's what I dream when I'm stressed about work.

I decided to stop reading, listening to or watching the news as it was seriously affecting my mental health and late in the week I started a couple of sewing projects to boost my mental health.

I had a piece of spotty viscose left over from my Solina dress. It was from Minerva. I decided to make my ever faithful top. I have made so many of these I have lost count - It's Burdastyle #116 07/2012.

I've made a few changes to the pattern over the years. I joined the shoulder pieces together to make one piece for each side. It's supposed to be a double layered top, instead I make this a single layer and bind the neck and armholes with bias binding.

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To make it super easy I lust leave long bias strip ties at the opening and tie in a bow.

I also made a button necklace. I had a supply of craft buttons in bright colours, so I strung them together interspersed with smaller buttons, the bright colours make me happy.

I've also started on a vintage pattern. It's a Brooke Shields jumpsuit pattern from 1984 - watch this space for more on that one.

Pussy Bow Saraste Shirt

Late last year, when I was thinking about my sewing plans for this year, one of the items I wanted to sew was a pussy-bow blouse. I had scored the Sew Over It Pussy Bow Blouse at a pattern swap and really did think that it would be the way to go. However, after making up a muslin, I didn't like the neck opening and the thickness of the bow. I wanted something more substantial, more wearable and versatile.

I had made the Saraste shirt dress from Breaking the Pattern by Named clothing last year and knew that the fit was pretty good. I decided to use this as my base pattern and set to tracing out the additional pieces in my size (3).  I made the basic shirt and then cut a long tie to make the bow. This slows me to wear it with or without the bow as the mood takes me and give a more versatile piece of clothing.

My hubby had bought me this beautiful bamboo silk from Raystitch for Christmas and I knew that this was the right fabric to use. I had originally seen this fabric when on a course in London near the Raystitch shop and I called in between my course finishing and my train home. This fabric has a beautiful hand, it's drapey but presses well. it doesn't really fray but creases a. lot. I used very lightweight interfacing for the collar, button stand and cuffs.

I followed the pattern instructions for the shirt and it came out really well. I did manage to stretch out the shoulders a little bit when sewing them, which is unfortunate, but I can live with it. (truth be told I can't be bothered to take it apart and redo it). The sleeve has quite an odd construction. Whereas a normal shirt has an underarm seam and then a sleeve placket cut into the sleeve; this design has the seam at the back of the sleeve and a vent is formed by turning under the open edges at the bottom of the sleeve before adding the cuffs. In my opinion, this is not the best way to construct a sleeve and if doing it again, I'd adapt the sleeve to be more like a normal shirt pattern.

I had made most of this shirt way before lockdown, but then it got busy at work and I didn't have time to complete it. I needed to buy matching buttons but the week before lockdown I was on a residential all weekend with children from my class so I didn't get the chance to buy any. However a few weeks ago I had bought some self-cover buttons for a wedding dress I'm making, but the fabric was just not behaving and I couldn't use them for the dress. The bamboo silk, however, was perfect for self-covered buttons and I spent an evening making them up. Then the project sat and waited for a few other things to be almost completed before I made the buttonholes. I usually use my Bernina for all my sewing, but my back up machine is a much newer Janome with a one-step buttonhole function. I spent the second Saturday of lockdown finishing off a few projects and doing a mammoth buttonhole making session. I'm always a bit nervous when making buttonholes as they are a nightmare to remove if they go wrong. Everything went well and all the buttonholes on the blouse turned out well - phew!

This blouse has been hung up waiting to be photographed for 3 weeks, I finally got around to doing it today. While I love, love, love the bright blue skies and sunshine we've been having. it does cast strong shadows on our back yard. So today's bright, but overcast weather was much better for taking photos. I dragged my hubby out to act as photographer - as usual, and here we go - blogged item of clothing!!!!

I doubt I'll be wearing this much in the next few weeks, it might get some wear if lockdown ends before the weather gets too warm, but I think once we get to the autumn, this combo of the pussy-bow blouse and my wool wide-legged trousers will get plenty of wear, especially at work. I'm glad I went with this combination as I have so many different ways to wear it.

Lockdown creativity

So this week I've only been at work one day and as it's the Easter holiday I've been spending some time being creative and making things and getting some fresh air on my daily exercise - luckily for my the view above is just a 5-minute walk from home. I've had a few things that just needed finishing off sewing wise.

I messed up a welt pocket and ended up having to re-cut pieces but the second attempt was much better. I had a lot of buttons and buttonholes that needed doing. I make buttonholes on my Janome, so I packed the Bernina away (put it on the floor for a bit) and set up the Janome for the one-step buttonhole function and got to work doing all the garments I needed to finish off. I only bodged one buttonhole, but it was on wool fabric and really did take some unpicking. Garments now need a final press and photographing - so expect to see them in the next few weeks up on the blog.

It was my daughter's 17th birthday and I channelled my inner Mary Berry and made her a gingerbread house "cake". I don't think I've ever made anything quite as well when it comes to decorating cakes.

I decided that I'd like to make some portraits and stretched some paper ready to get started. I sat outside in the sun, but it was a bit too bright to see my source images so I decamped inside. I used a very basic grid to get the scale right. I don't always do this, but it can be helpful to work out proportion.

I'm planning on doing a coloured pencil piece and a graphite pencil study. so fay I've sketched the structure in for both and blocked in the tone for the graphite study. Hopefully, I'll start to refine this piece this week.

I've also been helping my hubby with creating the online content for our Church Easter services - mostly keeping quiet, but also doing some reading and setting up some visuals. you can see our Good Friday Tenebrae reflection here.

I started an upcycling project. Our old coffee table had a really damaged top and needed an update. I've been planning to mosaic the top for a while and this week I finally got it gridded and started to stick down the tiles. Unfortunately, I ran out of tile adhesive and need to find some before I can complete this.

My other creative pursuits bring together my love of art and stitch and I've been tackling some hand-stitched art as part of Textile Artist's Community Stitch Challenge.
The first challenge was set by artist Sue Stone and began with experimenting with just one basic stitch.

The second was set by Cas Holmes and involved using applique and hand stitch to create a small piece. Follow on Instagram.

And this week I've been working on an eye study set by Emily Tull. Its an exercise in observation and Emily teaches how to create curved stitches and had us making a drawing using stitch. I used a yellow background for this one and started with the recommended black, white and grey machine thread (never used this for hand embroidery before), but then sent myself down a rabbit hole and started with colour!!!! You can follow Emily on Instagram.

This task struck a chord with me as I've set my students an eye-drawing task for after the holidays. I even attempted a video - Too much noise in my house meant that I used written instructions and music background.

I can't wait to see what next week's challenge is and I'll try to get the mosaic finished. My daughter also wants to do an art day, so it might be time to get out the mono-printing stuff this week too. What have you been doing to keep sane during these mad times?