Jo: Weeks 1-3

The challenge started 3 weeks ago now and inbetween a very busy life style of student nursing and shift work as a health care assistant I have revisted my past life as a fashion student, and what a joy its been.

Week One
Off fabric shopping in my home city of Birmingham feeling happy, warm and fuzzy inside when stepping foot inside my favourite fabric store for the fist time in 2 years. Barrys Fabric Superstore (http://www.barrysfabrics.co.uk) and it did not disappoint. I gathered some lovely summer fabrics for around £3.25 per metre. And got back home to hunt out my pattern master and my bible, otherwise called Metric Pattern Cutting Book.



For the first patterns I created, I went for very simple designs to get me started. And it was ready to cut out. This was always the scariest part at uni, if you cut it wrong you'll never make it right.

Cut out and sewn together and my first weeks 2 garments were complete in just a day.  A cute summer dress with lace trim with a draw string waist band (for my fat days!) and a comfy kimono style top. Also you will notice a lot of my clothing will have lower sloping backs as I can not stand my bum being on show, stomach yes bum no!

Week 2
I’m still on annual leave from my nursing degree so I’m very busy redecorating the flat I’m about to move into with the fiancé and working shifts as a care assistant in hospitals, so week 2 didn't involve much other then the bane of my life, changing the thread on my overlocker! Now if you haven't come across overlockers before they are fantastic they cut and sew at the same time and neatly finish off the edge of a fabric. Now we were all trained to sew on industrial sewing machines and overlockers that could probably kill you if they wanted, so domestic machines to us are like cuddly fluffy kittens that like to scratch every now and then.

Re-threading an overlocker is like single handedly winning The Crystal Maze without the encouragement of team mates telling you what to do. And it’s always more fun when you have lost the manual and haven't done it for 2 years.

This took me about an hour of starring at it before I finally remembered a little trick. I then ended up in the pub drinking wine! Ill sew next week, need a break after that!

Week 3
Back to sewing, getting more confident I’m going to tackle a proper summer dress with a zip and everything! Exciting stuff! So pattern created all cut out and ready to sew, I ended up with this beautiful floral dress. Which I’m very sad to say was far too big for me because I made the mistake of measuring myself whilst wearing a onesie. Silly silly Jo. But if fits my mother perfectky and even made a few pennies out of it.

I had about 1/2 a metre left from this fabric which was one of my favourite so snapped up a cheeky cropped t-shirt.

I was on a roll that day and couldn't be bothered with patterns and just wanted simple but effective tops so I made this very comfy kimono which I plan to make more of as it took me 10 minutes.

After that I then finally got round to hemming a top I made 2 years ago with a hand embroidered bug.