Today I'm participating in My Creative Space.  Which feels a bit fraudulent because I haven't done anything creative since Sunday.  Until today that is. Today I took my camera into my workroom and took a photo of the only orderly thing in there.  My button box.

My friend Erin emailled me a few months ago - she said she'd like to learn to sew and did I think she'd be able to do it?  Uh YES! and I'd happily show her how any time, any place. 

Well let me tell you, Erin has put me to shame!  She now whips up cute little outfits for her baby at an astonishing rate and you should see the big monster softie she made - FANTABULOUS!!!  Erin isn't afraid to tackle things... drafting up outfits, sewing on elastic, applique - you name it, she'll try it.  I'm so inspired! 

And she's set for buttons for life... She 'accidentally' bought another 2000 buttons on ebay last week LOL

So I'm now scouting around for a portable project to take with me on the road.  I'm thinking crochet, paper piecing or an embroidery project.  But I want it to be something a bit different, a bit exciting.... Any suggestions?

And now the sewing nest has been put away and the house has returned to some resemblance of neatness.  What did I make?  Well:

Charcoal linen blend pants I mentioned in my previous post.   The pattern is Vogue 2532 with the waist adjusted to fit my bod.

Then I made these skirts:

1) Eyelet overload and 2) Shack Curtains.  The shack skirt turned out ok I think, and it's not scratchy against the skin because I lined it with a soft cotton voile which peeks out at the bottom :-)

I  need to get (make?) some lovely tops to go with these skirts as stretchy, clingy, black knit t-shirts don't really cut it. 

Pattern details for the skirts are in my last post.

And finally:

Blue linen(esque)* pants.  Same Vogue pattern as before.  This pattern includes things like pockets and cuffs, but that's the sort of thing I might think about doing on maybe my 5th sewing of the pattern. 

There was just enough fiddly elements here to keep me interested.  I'm now fairly comfy with the fly zip installation and I also lowered the waist and drafted a contoured waistband - a real achievement.

I've come across a tutorial for narrowing the legs of wide leg pants - and I'm going to try this out before I sew these pants again.  These really are WIDE.

So there you have it.  My week of sewing.

*You know how much I love linen :-) But there seem to be two types sold as 'linen'.  One is crisp and smooth and generally yummolishous the other is rough, scratchy and horrid as it has all the bad elements of linen (wrinkle prone and shifty), but it doesn't have the lucious hand of the good stuff.  I'm wondering if the bad stuff actually IS linen or if it's some other fibre pretending to be linen (hemp? rammie?jute?).  This is a bit of trap if you buy online because you can't tell what you will get until it turns up.  Anyone know what the story is?