2016 Sewing Budget: August, September & October!

With all the hecticness (hecticity?) of the past few months, I forgot about this monthly round up.

You'll be unsurprised to know that I haven't stuck to my own bargain, and some fabric has sneaked in. I could say that Instagram made me do it, but let's take some ownership here. :)

For a good few years now, I've had a particular version of the Archer shirt in my head. I doubt I thought it up myself, but I can't remember where I saw it. This heron print fabric isn't it, but it's as close as I suspect I will ever get, so when I saw it on the IndieSew IG feed, I treated myself. As a general rule, I don't buy anything online from the US. Postage and customs charges are prohibitive, but this time I went for it, and the custom's gods were smiling because no charges! It's pretty summery though so I'm not sure how soon I'll be sewing this up.

The pompom trim and thread was to finish off my pyjamas. Yes, I am that far behind!

The crepe was a bit of an impulse purchase. I had a 20% discount code from the Splendid Stitch that expired at the beginning of Sept, so I thought I'd better use it! My plans are for another pair of Emerson Pants. I'm not 100% it will work, but I've already cut them out so I am committed.

Finally, I have been lusting after the Hampshire trousers for a while, and have fabric earmarked in my stash, so I took advantage of an offer she had on. I have made a muslin of these already, but they are much looser and bigger than I anticipated, so they will need some work. I have parked them briefly to concentrate on something else, but I will go back to them. The pattern has a lot of promise and I desperately need some trousers for work.

Santander

I promise that I will post some sewing soon. Really I will, but in the meantime, I thought I'd share some photos of our recent holiday to Santander. If you follow me on Instagram you've probably seen most of these already, and this will be a pretty photo heavy post.

This was the first time we'd taken the boys abroad. The first time they'd been on a plane. So we thought we'd start fairly simple. My brother is actually getting married next year to his Turkish girlfriend, in Istanbul, so this was the test run so to speak. Closer to home, a much shorter flight, a language that I have at least a vague chance of being able to pronounce and relatively familiar currency.

We flew Ryanair from Edinburgh direct to Santander and stayed in our first Airbnb, which was lovely. I realise I haven't taken many photos of it, so the link is here.  It was really central, spacious and had a nice mix of period details and modernity.

Santander itself is a nice city. It's on the North coast of Spain in Cantabria, not far from St Sebastian and Bilbao. It's a financial rather than touristy city, but it's pretty nonetheless and the beaches are gorgeous. It also has amazing play parks.

The food was nice, but I don't feel that we probably had the best on offer. Trying to find places that catered for us all was tricky. I don't consider my kids to be overly fussy, but Baby Boy pretty much lived on bread, chorizo and ice cream for 4 days. The stuff I thought they would like - tortillas, croquettes, even the spanish ham and cheese - were pretty much rejected. They far preferred the cheap hamburguesas that our guidebook said to avoid.

Periodic Table Wall Hanging

In lieu of another sewn thing to show you, I thought I'd share this. I actually don't know what to call it. Picture? Print? Wall hanging? Artwork?



This is actually wrapping paper. I bought it from an independent homewares and gift shop in Edinburgh, called Homer. It cost me £2.50. Pretty expensive for wrapping paper, but I bought it with the idea to put it on the wall, as I loved the retro and nerdy look of the periodic table. It's actually been in the cupboard since about January, because I couldn't figure how out to display it. A frame was going to cost a fortune due to the size. I don't mind paying for a decent frame, but for a £2.50 piece of giftwrap?!



Finally the answer came when in Anthropologie one day. They had these display prints (below), which had a very similar feel to my periodic table. They weren't for sale, but the sales assistant let me take one down to have a look at how they were put together, and to take a couple of pictures.

If I were a proper blogger, I would have taken pictures as I went along, and written a proper tutorial, but I haven't. Instead I can give a very brief description of what I did, which is all you need really. It took me about 15 mins to put together.
What you need:
Your print/giftwrap/poster
Round dowelling - mine was about 6mm diameter. It cost a couple of quid from Homebase.
Small hacksaw, or something to cut the dowelling with.
Fine sandpaper
Pencil
All purpose glue
String

1. Measure the length of the top edge of the print. Decide how much of an overhang you want on either side - I did 3.5cm. Take the measurement of the edge of the print and add your 2 x your overhang measurement.
e.g. print = 70cm + (3.5cm x 2) = 77cm.
2. Using your hacksaw, cut 2 lengths of the dowelling to the above measurement. So, I cut 2 lengths, each 77cm. Gently smooth any rough edges with the sandpaper.
3. Measure in 3.5cm (or your own overhang measurement) from each end of each piece of dowelling and mark with a pencil. This is so that you can easily centre your print on the dowelling.
4. Take the all purpose glue and run a very thin line along the top edge of the print. I did it on the back of the print, but you could do it on the front if you wanted the wood to show.
5. Using your pencil marks as a guide, quickly stick the dowelling onto the glue line. Apply pressure to the dowelling along its length to ensure it's properly stuck all the way along.
6. Leave to dry for a couple of minutes, then repeat steps 4 and 5 for the bottom of the print.
7. Leave for about 10 mins to ensure it's properly dry, then attach string to the top for hanging.
8. Bang in a nail, hang your artwork and admire!!! :)