Summer Skater Skirt

This skirt is a really simple way to start making your own patterns, as you don't need to worry about zips and it consists of just 2 pieces; 1 main panel and a waist band.

You Need: 1 metre of jersey fabric (I used a lightweight striped jersey, being ever the optimist that we might have a summer!?), measuring tape and pattern paper.

How To:

Drawing the main panel

Measure your waist and hips, take those measurements and add 4cm (for seam allowances) before dividing them by 4. Use these measurements to create you skater panel. To get the rough shape, I used one of my skater dresses to trace the basic shape onto the pattern paper before making my exact measurements fitted well.
The most important thing is that the bottom of the panel is substantially larger than the tops so that the skirt will fit you waist snugly and 'flit' out at the bottom!

Once you are happy with your paper panel, cut out four of them in your beautiful jersey.

Create the waistband using your waist measurement, this time add 2cm (for seam allowances). This will form the length of the waistband, draw this out as rectangle onto pattern paper with a width of 10cm.



Ooh matching nails!

Now over-locked the raw edges, I always find this bit slighty dull...I just want to start creating the skirt ASAP, but it is quite important for a smart finish!

Onto construction!

Cool chevron effect!

Join the four panels together using a stretch stitch on the machine, though a straight stitch will do if you dont have one! This is when you really start to see the skirts basic shape...oooh exciting!!
Fold the waist band in half, width ways, and sew the ends together to make a circle. Attach the waistband to the main skirt, right side together.

Finally hem.
I actually hemmed by hand this time because it can be hard to create a straight line when the jersey is fold over twice.

Perfect for a Sunday afternoon!

Burda Young 7051

My new favourite colour seems to be orange; I can't get enough of it and am wearing it pretty much every day! So when I was browsing the fabrics in John Lewis last week, this gorgeous orange, floral lawn (what a combination!!) just popped out at me. I wanted a quick and easy project to get stuck into, so turning it into a simple summer top seemed like a plan!

I have already had a go the making the burda young 7051- style C, but I wasn't completely happy with the shape on my figure so this time I adapted the pattern slightly by lowering the neckline, creating slightly narrower straps and a racer style back. I was a little nervous about hacking a pattern, as I tend to go for something, quickly ruin it and then regret attempting it...but as I get to understand the basic shapes I'm finding my accuracy is growing!

Having been sewing with my with my Granny recently, she drilled into me the importance of pressing. So set up, next to  my sewing machine was a towel on the table and my iron ready to go (don't say I'm not high tec!) so that I could press as I sewed.

Actually the pressing has made such as difference, the top looks so much better than the one I made previously, where I didn't press at all! I'm a pressing convert...pass me the iron!

I finished hemming my lovely top half an hour before work on Tuesday as I was so desperate to wear it (does anyone else get this excited!?). Here I am ready for work...

Ready for Work

Wild Garlic Tzatziki

Wild Garlic with bluebells

Wild garlic is a green and leafy plant with white flowers and a pungent garlic smell (you can definitely smell it before you can see it!). At the moment, there is a so much of it in the woods around me, so I was trying to think of new ways to use this lovely free ingredient!
With all this summery weather, I am making Tzatziki all the time as it's wonderful on grilled meat or just to dip crisps in when you have friends round. So I thought I'd try the slightly more subtle tasting wild garlic as a replacement for the raw, bulb garlic you usually put in.
Heres how I did it...
 

Ingredients:
A small handful of wild garlic leaves
A third of a cucumber
Four large table spoons of Greek yogurt
A squeeze of lemon.

Chopping!

• Finely chop your wild garlic.
• Cut your cucumber in half, lengthways and scoop out the seeds. I leave the skin on because I think it adds vibrancy. Then grate the cucumber into a sieve and squeeze out the excess water.

Mixing

• Pop the cucumber, wild garlic, Greek yogurt, squeeze your lemon and mix!
• Season with lots of salt and pepper.

Goes fantastically with grilled lamb and pita on the bbq (we just brought one and are using it at every opportunity!) and a simple Greek salad to make fab kebabs!

P.S. The garlic flowers look lovely scattered on salads.

Tutorial- Crystallising Flowers

Spring is one of my favorite times of the year because the woods, hedgrow and my garden are full beautiful and colourful flowers, many of which are edible! When chrystallised they make fantastic decorations for cakes or puddings and I am going to show you how to do this!

The Kit

Its rediculously simple and can be done in a relaxed half an hour.

 The Kit: Egg White, Caster Sugar and a Paintbush (the paintbrush is important as if the flower is just 'dunked' the egg can be to thick and wont look so pretty!)

1.  Start off by washing and drying your flowers, checking for no stray bugs!

 

 2.  Then get together a bowl of egg white, another of caster sugar and a plate to pop your finished creations on.

3.  With a paint brush, cover the flowers throroughly with the egg white.

4. Sprinkle with lightly with caster sugar before giving your flowers a gentle shake before leaving to dry for a few hours!

The finished flowers!!

 I made my sugared primroses to decorate a simple Victoria Sponge (Mary Berry of course!). Its looks spring like and natural- perfect for the bank holiday weekend!

 

Other Edible Flowers suitable for Crystallising: Lavender, Roses (whole or  just petals), Violets, Pansies, Cowslips, Mint and Sweet Geraniums.

If your struggling for time, you can buy them here http://eatmyflowers.co.uk/

Garlic and Sage Pork Fillet wrapped in Prosciutto

Yey- we've had sunshine today! It’s beautiful days like this that make me want to cook lovely summery food.

.....So let me tell you how I made my pork fillet and manchago salad!

      1. I picked a handful of sage from the garden (well next doors!) and chopped it finely with 4 small garlic cloves to make a paste. Added wholegrain mustard, salt and pepper and spread this over a plate.

2. I then heated a pan to sear the pork fillet (also called tenderloin) before transferring to the plate with the sage mix and rolled the fillet in the paste to coat evenly.

3. Wrapping the fillet with prosciutto was fun! I laid out a stretch of cling film, the length of the fillet, on the board and covered with a layer prosciutto. I then placed the fillet in the middle and rolled it up in the cling, so that every part of the pork was covered. I left it in the fridge for a while and came back for it later! I also wrapped some asparagus with some left over strips of prosciutto and saved them for later too.

4. I then chopped up some new potatoes, drizzled with a bit of olive oil and popped in the oven at 180 degrees for 10 minute before placing the fillet on top and cooking for a further 15 minutes. After that I added the prosciutto wrapped asparagus and baked for a further 5 minutes.

5. Whilst the pork was in the oven, I assembled my salad! I placed a handful of spinach, followed by a handful of rocket and chopped some yellow, orange and red tomatoes (the different colours look so pretty!) in half. I then shaved some manchago cheese  (a sheeps milk cheese from spain) on top- yum!

6. Finally I just made a classic vinaigrette by glugging some olive oil, white wine vinegar, a pinch of salt, sugar, grind of pepper and half a tea spoon of wholegrain mustard into a jam jar. Popped the lid on and shaked it aggressively before pouring over the salad and serveing with a lovely glass of chilled white wine.

I really hope you give it a go and let me know what you think!

Patchwork!

My Granny's Bernina Sewing
Machine, brought in 1971!

Although I think it is physically impossible to try out every single craft tecnique, at the moment I am really enjoying having a go! So last weekend I went to my Granny's house to attempt patchwork.



Grandmother's Garden

My Granny is literally a sewing legend and has been making her own clothes since the 1940's! She is a bit like me in the sense that she enjoys a bit of everything, though over the last 10 years, patchwork has been her thing. I have benefitted greatly from this and so far, have had a single quilt, a lap quilt for when I was ill and now she is making me a beautiful double quilt in a traditional grandmothers garden pattern (and she has been making these quilts for her other 6 grandchildren!! Amazing lady!).

We decided to start with a basic patchwork technique that would build up quickly, so that I could come away with something at the end of the day. Therefore the log cabin pattern seemed to fit the bill nicely!

Cutting: We started by cutting, using a rotary cutter and board, a perfect 4" square for the centre. We then cut, 2.5" wide strips to surround this square, increasing in length as the patchwork got larger, using different fabrics to create the 'patchwork effect'!

 Sewing: When all the strips of contrasting fabric had been cut perfectly straight (not in my nature- I'm usually quite 'relaxed') we pinned the strips, two at a time, to the centre square. sewing them together on a 1/4" seam and pressing inwards with a searing hot iron (again usually quite 'relaxed' at doing this too! Oops!) to keep the design flat. Then we just kept adding strips until we had built a square large enough to fit the front of our cushion.

Constructing Your Cushion: The cushion was 16" squared, so when the patchwork reached this size, we started to make the backing. We did this by constructing an envelope, placing a smaller rectangle over a larger one, hemming it and the sewing the patchwork square and the backing, right sides together, we turned the envelope the right way and... finito! A beautiful Patchwork cushion constructed in 3 hours! Fab!!

Im now going back next weekend to trying something a little more advanced...squares perhaps? I will let you know...

Sitting pride of place on my sofa!
 

 

Making a Goldwork Bumble Bee

Yesterday, I spent a day learning the intricate craft of Goldwork Embroidery!

Goldwork is a style of embroidery using metal threads to create opulent and rich designs and is often used for military uniforms and royal robes. In fact, for Queen Elizabeth's Coronation, a team for skilled embroiderers worked constantly on the robes, taking shifts and sleeping on bunk beds in the studio.

I, on the other hand, am used to sewing on a much larger scale and any embroidery I have attempted has been using bold colours with 'child-like' designs' so something this ornate was pretty alien to me!

We had a wonderful tutor, Kate Sinton, who started as an apprentice at the Royal School of Needlework and has helped to produce numerous garments for royalty, the military and the clergy. She brought a long a couple of examples and I was speechless!

We started off stuffing a felt body with wadding; making your sure bee had a well stuffed body meant that it would really pop out. We then used purl purl (a singular coil of metal beads) to outline the body before cutting up 'chips' and sewing them on the upper body- this was my favourite part as it was sooo glittery! After this we had to cut out the individual strands, in black and gold, to create the bee's stripy body. I think this (cut work) was the hardest part, as you had to cut every strand to the nearest millimetre, so that the delicate metal didn't bow or snap! ...definitely time for lunch at this point!

After lunch it was all much easier, simply backstitching with gold thread to form the legs and lower antenna and then just couching (securing a thick thread, in this case Japanese, by looping it with a thinner, 'secret' thread) the wings and plunging the ends into the calico. Finally I couched the top antenna with the purl purl and fastened the head (a black bead) and I was finished.


I am so proud of my bee- I have already framed him!
I’m not sure this is a method that I will be using regularly as it is really time consuming and I am not sure I have the patience but it was a brilliant experience and I came away from the day literally BUZZING!!

You can book yourself on a similar course at
http://www.royal-needlework.org.uk/shop/index/58
or my day was at http://www.clementinesshop.com/