Age Appropriate Sewing

So today is the 29th anniversary of me passing my driving test, I passed when I was 17, so you can do the maths.  So what should someone of my advancing years, sew and wear - answer, what ever the hell they want.

I do have a fondness for novelty prints and as I'm not much of a dress wearer, skirts it is.

I made this skirt at the end of 2015 (I may be a little behind on my blogging) to wear to a screening of Star Wars - The Force Awakens.

Here is a close up of the fabric.

I used the ever trusty New Look 6106.  I can now make this skirt out of only 1 metre (or in this case 1 yard) of fabric and add a bit of fullness to the front, just by setting the front as far away from the fold as the fabric will allow.  I need to do the waist and pocket facings in a co-ordinating fabric, but as they are not seen, I don't have a problem with that.

 Next up is a wonderful Foxy skirt.  I have a love of orange, so was very happy to find a fabric to make another skirt to go with this cardigan.  I made it again using New Look 6106.

And last but not least another Cycle skirt (and two lovely doggies - note to self I must find some lovely doggy fabric).

Here is a close up.

This time I used Megan Nielsen's Brumby Skirt, slightly modified to fit into 1.25 metres of 115cm wide fabric.  I had to reduce the width of the skirt slightly and make the pockets a tad less vast, but it's still swooshy enough.

All the skirts are suitable for dog walking (very important) and suitable for work (I maybe work in a more laid back office than most) and entirely age appropriate I feel. 

One Week One Pattern - A Summery Summary

In hindsight picking a skirt for my participation in "One Week On Pattern" in September in Britain, could have been a huge mistake.  But the weather was most definitely on my side last week.  I have ten (count them TEN) different versions of this skirt in my wardrobe - New Look 6106, but there are a couple that I very rarely wear, and I need to do something about that.

  

We had a fairly quiet day on Saturday, just puttering about and taking the dogs for a walk.  The best accessory with all my outfits is definitely my dogs and they often influence what I wear.

Outfit details

skirt - purple chambray NL6106

t-shirt - GAP

hoody - Next (men's small)

shoes - Converse All Stars

dog - Bonnie

Sunday was another quiet day, dog waking, eating Moussaka (made with quorn) and watching Stage 1 of the Tour of Britain

Outfit Details

skirt - Green Linen/Cotton NL6106 with appliqué circles

t-shirt - Boden Hampton Tee

shoes - Superga (from TK Maxx)

dog - Bonnie

Monday was a work day, but fortunately our office is fairly casual (I can wear jeans to work, but it somehow feels wrong).  This version of the skirt I made last year from a Boden Men's shirt and a linen pillowcase that I got at a local charity shop.  It is the only time I have made the skirt with the contrast border at the bottom.  I love this skirt, well it is green and linen, but I don't seem to have many things that go with it; I wasn't even really sure about this t-shirt, but as it is a marl green, I thought it would be alright.

Outfit Details

skirt - Boden Refashion NL6106

t-shirt - John Lewis

shoes - Cooler (from TK Maxx)

dog - Hagrid

Tuesday was another work day and Fluffrick took the dogs to the park, hence the garden shots.

Outfit Details

skirt - Purple Chambray NL6106

t-shirt - Charity Shop

cardigan - Charity Shop

shoes - Matalan (men's)

Wednesday was work again.  This is the most recent version of NL6106 I made (for the recent Grande Depart of the Tour de France), it's very hard to see but the fabric isn't spotty, it's covered in little bicycles in various colours.  This is definitely the most summery version I have of this pattern.

Outfit Details

skirt - Tour de France NL6106

t-shirt - Matalan

cardigan - Charity Shop

shoes - Cooler (from TK Maxx)

Thursday was another work day.  At work I also wore a cream and navy striped cardigan (from TK Maxx) as it can be a bit cool in the office.  I don't normally wear sleeveless tops as I think my upper arms are a bit flabby (no guns here), but it was just too warm in the evening to wear the cardigan.

Outfit Details

skirt - Tour de France NL6106

t-shirt - Cotton Traders

shoes - Cooler (from TK Maxx)

dog - Bonnie

Friday, another work day and again Fluffrick had taken the dogs out, so these photos are in the glamorous laundry drying area of our back garden.  I literally finished this blouse on Thursday night, it is the Mimi blouse from Love at First Stitch.  This is a (very) wearable muslin, from Laura Ashley fabric I have had in my stash for probably close to 20 years.  The pattern is a little busy, which is probably why it has waited so long for me to use it.  I traced the pattern out as a 6 at the bust, a 5 at the waist and a 4 at the hips and this worked fine, but next time I want to take the sleeve head up half an inch and add a little to the length, but there will definitely be a next time. 

The skirt is from a piece of blue/brown shot linen (not too creased considering I had worn it all morning at work), that I had left over from my Cappuccino dress (yet to be blogged about).  I could possibly have done with lining the skirt, I just need to make sure I don't stand with the light behind me.

Outfit Details

skirt - Cappuccino Froth NL6106

blouse - Subtle Mimi blouse

shoes - can't remember

dogs - Bonnie & Hagrid

I really enjoyed participating in OWOP (except for having my photo taken, needless to say), especially seeing that my Me Made Made this year went completely undocumented due to the camera taking a holiday down the back of the sofa.  I already wear a lot of my self made clothes on a regular basis, but I do need to look at the things that I have made but hardly (if ever) wear and rectify that.

OWOP

So I've signed up to participate in One Week One Pattern, hosted by Jane of Handmade Jane. The idea is that between the 6th and 12th of September you only wear garments made from just one pattern.  It can be any pattern of your choice and possibly not unsurprisingly I have gone for New Look 6106 - I think I am obsessed with this pattern, do I need help?

I'm not very good at participating, I asked to be part of The Monthly Stitch back in October, but I have yet to actually post anything. Part of that is because our digital camera went OWAL for about 5 months, it had decided to take a holiday down the back of the sofa and I also need to get my head around using Wordpress.  I'm sure Fluffrick will help me.

I also pledged in Me Made May again, I think this was my forth year.  And I did live up to my pledge of wearing me made outfits every day of May, there is just know documentary evidence to prove it (I'm blaming the missing camera again).

Will I be any better participating in this, than in anything previously, who can say, but I'm going to give it a go.

Tour de Yorkshire

So on a bright and sunny Sunday morning, Fluffrick and I set off to experience the largest annual sporting event, first hand. Surreal or what? Who would have thought that the "Tour de France" would have chosen to end a stage in this fair city of Sheffield - the Tour of Britain doesn't even come here.  We walked the dogs and left them in the safe care of their Gran, I packed a picnic (Orangina was a must), made sure we had sun tan lotion and an umbrella and headed out into the unknown. 

Spectator Hub at Don Valley Bowl

We arrived at the spectator hub about 10:45 am, the race hadn't even set off from York, so it was fairly quiet.  We were very please to find that deck chairs had been provided free of charge and plonked ourselves down to watch the coverage on the big screen.

There were a smattering of entertainers around the hub, some more French themed than others.  So we watched the race set off from York, head up the Cote de Blubberhouse (wonderful name) and make it's tortuous progression towards us. 

It was not intentional that there was a "Sky" advert on the big screen

Slowly but surely the spectator hub filled up, the street food stalls and beer tent were doing good business, I was aghast at the prices for merchandise, but they seemed to be doing a roaring trade.

I don't know why I have such a daft look on my face

Me in my Tour De Yorkshire outfit.  What does a sewer do to commemorate such an event, she sews a cycle skirt. I got the notion to make a skirt for the occasion on Friday morning and set out on a quest for bicycle related fabric and came home with this rather subtle print.

I made the skirt using the ubiquitous New Look 6106, I think this may now be the ninth time I have used this pattern,  I will do a blog post about all the different version eventually.  As it is quite a lightweight cotton, I decided to make it a little fuller, so added 16cm to the centre front and gathered in between the pockets,  I also lined the skirt using the remnants of a white sheet, to give the skirt a little extra body.  I love it, it's not too over the top that I can't wear it as an everyday skirt; but it will always remind me of the day I went to the "Tour".

Anyway back to the cycling.  We left the spectator hub just after 2 pm and headed down towards Brightside Lane, to see the race for real.  I'd wanted to see the promotional caravane, but I have to say I was quite underwhelmed with it, I wonder it they were saving their goodies for Jenkin Road?

So this is what we were waiting for and it was gone in a flash.  I think that blur in the white jersey is Peter Sagan, the blur in front of him might be Chris Froome, or it could be any of the other eight Sky riders.

Even the support vehicles went by in a blur,  There were an insane number of promotional, support, television and police vehicles.  I would say definitely more than one per rider.

The tail end of the peloton, going a little more sedately and slightly less blurry.

One of the IAM Cycling riders, we didn't know there had been a split in the peleton and that the yellow jersey group were about 15 minutes behind.

We then headed up towards the finish line, which we were not going to be able to get remotely close too, but we could hear the frenzy.  But we did get close to the riders, after the finish.

The IAM Cycling tour bus.  These guys after cycling 200 km, now have to warm down by peddling faster than most mere mortal could ever manage.  On the right is IAM Cycling's team leader Mathias Frank.

And Sky's Geiraint Thomas, for some reason being filmed next the Orica GreenEdge Bus, Chris Froome was probably being mobbed next to the Sky Bus.

And then we headed home to watch the end of the race on TV and found out who had won.  All in all it was a remarkable day and I think Yorkshire did the Tour proud, even if it didn't always show the most attractive side of Sheffield which really is a lovely city to live in.