Tabatha’s April Challenge 2013 – Week Three

Hiya!  It’s been another week and I’ve done another fourteen hours of sewing.  I hope you’ve all had a good week…

Monday 15th April

It only took me half an hour to finish my Sew Serendipity Monique dress today.  You guys, I LOVE IT!

Sew Serendipity Monique Dress -Front View

The fabric was a present from Mr Tweedie, which makes it all the nicer, especially seeing as it was £13 per metre (eek!).  I can’t remember which of the online fabric shops we ordered it from now, there are so many, but I do remember that the fabric is designed by Josephine Kimberling.  I used 2.5m of the main fabric and 0.5m of contrast.

Sew Serendipity Monique dress – back view

This is my second version of this dress.  I really like the pattern, it is well written and easy to follow.  The only criticism I have is that the facings are very narrow, and so instead of understitching on both my versions, I topstitched instead, which obviously means that the stitching lines are visible on the outside of the dress (even more so on this version as I used white thread), but the advantage is that those facings will never pop out!

The neckline facing, and topstitching to keep it (and the armhole facings) in place.

The other thing about this dress is that it’s pretty short, but being 5’10” I often have to lengthen dresses to my taste.  With this dress, I added a 6″ contrast band to the bottom as a design feature but also to add a bit of extra length.

The contrast hem band from the inside, and overlocked raw edges.

Anyway, my remaining hour and a half today was spent cutting the calico for Julia’s toile of the Gertie Shirtwaist dress which I am making for her birthday.  Guess what fabric she has chosen?  Red gingham!  So we will be rocking co-ordinating gingham shirtwaist dresses at some point in the near future!

I also cut the calico for my new bodice block ready for my next pattern cutting class on Wednesday night.  Phew!  What a productive two hours!!!!

Tuesday 16th April

I got 45 minutes of sewing time in the morning, which was enough to transfer the markings to Julia’s shirtwaist toile and sew the bodice darts.  Later on whilst Baba Tweedie was napping and Little Tweedie was at nursery I got the rest of the toile sewn up and packaged ready to post to Julia, and that was my two hours done!

Julia’s toile. Obviously I omitted the collar, sleeves and facings as this is only to test fit and length.

In the evening I had a Grasshopper cocktail, mainly because it’s a pretty green colour and I thought it would make for a nice photograph:

Grasshopper

For 1 glass:

• 5 – 6 ice cubes
• 1/2 measure green crème de menthe
• 1/2 measure white crème de cacao
• 3/4 measure single cream

Place the ice and all the ingredients in the lower part of the shaker.  Fit the upper part of the shaker and shake vigorously for 8 – 10 seconds.  Strain into a martini glass using a cocktail strainer.

Wednesday 17th April

Time for my pattern cutting class again!  Conveniently it’s a two hour class, so that fills up my sewing quota nicely, although I do spend a large proportion of that time chatting to the other girls… but it still counts, right?  Tonight I sewed up my bodice block toile and my tutor told me what adjustments to make: a full bust adjustment and some extra room for my hips – all pretty predictable for a curvy lady, really.

When I got home, I had an Apple Martini:

Apple Martini

For 1 glass:

• 3/4 measure vodka
• 1/2 measure manzana verde liqueur
• 1/2 measure pure apple juice

Place the ice and all the ingredients in the lower part of the shaker.  Fit the upper part of the shaker and shake vigorously for 8 – 10 seconds.  Strain and serve immediately.

Thursday 18th April

In today’s two hours I traced the pattern for my next dress, the Sewaholic Cambie, and I prewashed my fabric, which is AWESOME!  I need to get some lining fabric before I can go ahead with this project though, so after I’d done that tracing, I altered my bodice block pattern in preparation for next week’s sewing class – so I did a full bust adjustment and widened the pattern at the hips, then cut the calico and transferred the markings ready to sew.

My cocktail tonight was a Treacle – which in my opinion is only drinkable if you add about three times as much apple juice as it says!

Treacle

For 1 glass:

• 2 – 3 drops Angostura bitters
• 1 lump sugar
• 3 – 4 ice cubes
• 1 1/4 measures dark Jamaican rum
• 1/2 measure pure apple juice
• 1 strip unwaxed lemon peel (zest)

Drop the Angostura bitters onto the sugar then place it in a rocks glass and crush it with a pestle.  Add the ice, rum and apple juice to the glass and stir with a mixing spoon for 10 seconds.  Cut the strip of lemon peel with a paring knife.  Over the glass, pinch it between the fingers to release the oils then drop into the cocktail and serve.

Friday 19th April

No sewing today: childcare duties took over and by the time they were in bed it was Friday night yo!  Friday nights are not for sewing.  But they are for cocktails!  I had a Killer Punch, because I liked the name:

Killer Punch

For 1 glass:

• 4 – 5 ice cubes
• 1 measure vodka
• 1 teaspoon green melon liqueur (I use Midori)
• 1 teaspoon amaretto
• 3 1/4 measures cranberry juice

Place the ice and all the ingredients in a highball glass.  Stir with a mixing spoon for 8 – 10 seconds, then serve.

Saturday 20th April

I did my sewing this morning whilst Mr Tweedie took both children to the park.  I cut out the main fabric for my Cambie and sewed the darts.  Inexplicably this took me two whole hours, although I did spend a good proportion of that two hours lamenting the fact that I wasn’t going to House of Pinheiro’s London meet-up to meet Sew Busy Lizzy and 45 other sewing people.  Living up in Hull and having just had a baby, it’s easy to just rule these things out automatically, but today I was genuinely gutted not to be there meeting everyone, so I decided I’ll definitely try to make it to both the Birmingham meet up in June and the London meet up in August.  I want to meet some of you guys!!!

My cocktail this evening was a Blue Bird – again, a choice dictated by the fact that it’s a pretty colour and would make a lovely photograph! 🙂

Blue Bird

For 1 glass:

• 5 – 6 ice cubes
• 1 measure gin
• 1/3 measure fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 measure curacao triple sec
• 1 teaspoon blue curacao

Place the ice, gin, lemon juice and both kinds of curacao in the lower part of the shaker.  Fit the upper part of the shaker and shake vigorously for 8 – 10 seconds.  Strain into a martini glass using a cocktail strainer and serve immediately.

Sunday 21st April

I did half an hour of sewing in the morning and then a further 3 1/2 hours in the evening when Mr Tweedie was out gallivanting, so I was able to get the majority of my Sewaholic Cambie sewn up, and I made up for Friday’s lack of sewing!  Woohoo!  In my next post I’ll be able to show you the finished garment – unless something goes horribly wrong…

I had a ‘Morning Glory Fizz’ today, and no, that’s not a euphemism!  I actually did have this cocktail before midday (just).  But you know, Sunday drinking rules are different.  Right?!

Morning Glory Fizz

For 1 glass:

• 1 egg white
• 5 – 6 ice cubes
• 1 measure Scotch whiskey
• 1/3 measure fresh lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons sugar cane syrup (Gomme)
• 2 1/2 measures soda water

Place the egg white in a bowl and whisk until frothy.  Place the ice, 1 tablespoon of beaten egg white and all other ingredients except the soda water in the lower part of the shaker.  Fit the upper part of the shaker and shake vigorously for 8 – 10 seconds.  Pour the contents of the shaker into a highball glass.  Add the soda water and serve.

See you next week, my lovelies! 🙂