CJ Made 200th Post Giveaway!

Last week I realised that I had reached 200 blog posts on CJ Made!
Wow, 200 posts about sewing, art, craft and other adventures. To help me celebrate I have a collection of de-stashed fabric and crafty things to giveaway to my blog-reading friends.

To be in with a chance of winning the following goodies follow my blog and write a comment below about what you might make / do with the prize. Please include your e-mail address in the comments so I can contact you if you win. The competition is open world-wide.

Onto the spoils.....

Fabric:

• 1/4 metre of black and pink spotty viscose from Guthrie & Ghani
• 1/2 metre of Liberty Tana Lawn Plastic Fantastic
• 1 metre of 100% cotton Tea Time Large Floral The Henley Studio, Makower UK
• 1+ metre of 100% cotton in teal from Village Habderashery
• 2+ metres of 100% cotton baby blue polka dot from Cath Kidston
• Bag of assorted black and white printed small scraps of viscose, jersey, cotton & seersucker

 Ribbons & Beads:

• Assorted lengths of red, burgundy and raspberry pink ribbon
• 2 metres of black ribbon
• Approx 100 wooden beads in assorted colours

Patterns:

• Threadcount 5-in-1 Wardrobe Builder sizes 8-16 Intermediate pattern
• New Look K6302 sizes 8 - 20 Shift dress and jacket
• New Look K6230 sizes 8 -20 Raglan sleeve top, pencil skirt and midi skirt

Bag of black and white printed fabric perfect for scrappy quilting or craft projects

A lovely spotty viscose with a fantastic drape and lengths of ribbon

A pretty Navy floral called Tea Time Large Floral 

This Liberty print Plastic Fantastic is more lilac / purple coloured in real life

This teal coloured cotton is shot through with black to create a chambray effect

This baby blue cotton was purchased in a Cath Kidston sale a number of years ago

Here's what to do if want would like to win!

Follow my blog and comment below about what you would like to make with these fabrics / craft bits or patterns. Don't forget to include your e-mail address for contact details.

Deadline for commenting is Friday 16th June. I will randomly choose a winner on Saturday 17th June. Good Luck!

Check out lots of other cool crafty blogs at #handmademonday organised by Julia of Sum of their Stories.

Black & White BHL Flora Dress

I started the By Hand London Flora dress in April and have worked on it a few hours at a time finally finishing it yesterday. It is not a quick make. With this sort of dress you want to take your time and take care with it.

I have had the pattern in my stash for quite some time. The fabric has also been in my possession since a trip to Birmingham in 2014 to see my friend Hayley who happens to live in Moseley the home of the lovely haberdashery that is Guthrie and Ghani. I bought two metres of this beautiful viscose fabric for about £8 per metre.

The Flora pattern calls for over two metres of fabric so this is where the fun began. I had to put a centre front seam in the front of bodice version one because I couldn't fit it onto the fold. I also had to use the selvedge for the skirt centre back seam.

The fun of paper pattern tetris! 

I hadn't intended to make the dropped hem version of the dress and as you can also see I had to fold the pattern back to the next size down on the skirt length as I just didn't quite have enough fabric.

The instructions were very clear throughout but due to a few silly mistakes I had to unpick the bodice a few times. You sew. You unpick. You learn.

The centre front seam is barely noticeable due to the busy print

I didn't have a concealed zip in the stash so used this 14" black zip

The overall fit of the Flora dress is OK, the skirt is beautifully swingy but the bodice needs a little more taking out of the side seams and also at the back where I inserted the zip.

The bodice is fully lined with some white organic Bamboo from 'le stash' that I bought from MacCulloch and Wallis last summer. I cut out the lining for both the bodice and skirt but decided just to line the bodice as the Bamboo affected the drape of the viscose skirt.

The lined bodice with satin bias-binding on the waistband to stabilise and neaten the edge

What hand-stitching?

The lining is hand stitched at the waist and zip. I decided to use some black satin bias binding to finish the hem of the skirt and luckily had enough left to use around the waist of the bodice lining. This addition seemed to stabilise the lining fabric and also gave me a definite edge to sew with as the slippery bamboo was prone to fraying.

The faux flat-felled seams of sorts with the satin bias-bound hem

As I had decided to forgo the lined skirt I realised I needed to tidy up the seams on the inside of the skirt so created a faux flat-felled of sorts. I ironed the seam allowances open then tuned each side under and sewed them both down parallel to the central seam. It hard to explain but you will probably get the gist when you see the photos.

Overall I am pretty happy with this dress. The fabric makes a huge difference to the feel of the garment as it has a lovely weight, handle and drape. I am looking forward to wearing it somewhere nice as I realise this is the first 'party dress' I have sewn!

Enjoying the sunshine in Regent's Park

Luckily all the components of this dress were from my stash rather than purchased specifically for this project. Costings are as follows:

Pattern: By Hand London Flora = £9.00

Shell Fabric: Two metres of Guthrie and Ghani Black and White patterned Viscose = £16.00

Lining Fabric: One metre of MacCulloch and Wallis Bamboo lining = £6.00

Satin Bias Binding: Three metres from stash

Zip: 14" black from stash

Gutterman Thread: Black and white from stash

Total: £31.00

Sew Brum 2015

On the 31st October I took an early train to Birmingham to meet up with a lovely bunch of sewing ladies for the second Sew Brum organised by the awesome Charlotte at English Girl at Home.

I had also arranged to meet my good friend Hayley (also a sewing enthusiast) and we went for a lovely brunch at Yorks Bakery next to New Street station. We pottered around Birmingham including the very shiny new shopping centre and John Lewis store.

I skipped the allotted fabric shopping section of the Sew Brum gathering as I honestly do not need any more fabric until I sew some more things for myself (and others). I was happy to meet up at Guthrie and Ghani at 2pm where Lauren (owner of G&G and GBSB contestant) had put on a lovely spread of cakes and other goodies.

Here is an example of one of the lovely Liberty bags that had some little free things such as discount codes a few sweets and haberdashery items. Very thoughtful and fun!

Lots of sewing chatter and fabric fondling went on and it was great to meet new Instagram and blogger friends such as the lovely crew below:

Left to right: Craftysooze, Elle (Laura loves Pugs), Gabby (Gabby Young Official) and Buuny Pumpkin Boutique

So there was a teaching demonstration about pattern drafting that I missed because I was just chatting to loads of people. After that there was an awesome raffle - the proceeds of which went to Karen's Made-Up initiative from the blog Did You Make That?
I am not usually a raffle winner, but on this occasion I ended up with one of the top prizes of 10 metres of Girl Charlee UK knit fabric! Amazing. Here is a picture of the massive win:

As you can see, this win was huuuuge and considering I am a total novice with knit fabrics decided to share the love:

• Sarah C got the stripy pink, orange and grey knit who has since made it into a lovely top
• Deborah (of GBSB fame) got a black and white moustache print
• Gabby got a lovely floral / aztec knit and has already made a top for her sis with it!
• Rhiannon got the aqua and white aztec print
• Ben went for the plain aqua knit
• I don't recall who got the red patterned print (somebody nice!)

After the excitement of the raffle came the event lots of people had come prepared for - a massive pattern and fabric swap. I brought 15 un-used paper patterns to throw in the mix but others had brought loads of fabric, scrap-bags, vintage patterns and knit stuff for a swap-to-end-all-swaps! I kept to the sidelines as my intentions for the day was to return home with NO fabric but after winning all the Girl Charlee knit knew that if I even peaked too long at the FREE fabric or patterns I would see something I would like. I managed to get these shots of the carnage:

The calm before the storm. Raffle prize announcements!

Every sewer for herself!

Overall a lovely day was had by all. I got to meet a gaggle of sewing enthusiasts. Had a great catch-up with my friend Hayley and met some lovely new mates too.

A big shout out to Charlotte at English Girl at Home for the organisation of the event and Lauren for hosting at Guthrie and Ghani.
Roll on Sew Brum 2016!

Holiday fun in Brum

I took a couple of days out to spend some time with my friend Hayley who happens to live in Mosley, Birmingham which is only a stones throw from the cute little Haberdashery shop Guthrie and Ghani (set-up by Lauren from The Great British Sewing Bee fame).

It is a spacious shop full of lovely fabric, yarns and other sewing stuff. I purchased a few things including two new patterns and a small amount of fabric and bias binding for two new Colette Sorbetto incarnations.... now I just need to finish my red pencil skirt.... AND my cerise Ginger skirt first....

• Do you find it hard finishing a project?
• Do you get distracted by the lure of a new sewing pattern / fabric / new item before finishing other things?

Mmmmmm, lovely fabric.......

Guthrie and Ghani haberdashery in Mosley, Birmingham

Two new patterns for the next round of projects.

We visited Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery and got really spooked out by these rather scary life-size wooden sculptures that had real human teeth.... 

The strange thing about the wooden figures was as you walked around the room their eyes followed you. Very, very weird!!

• What do you think?

‘Man and his Sheep‘, Ana Maria Pacheco, 1943

On Tuesday we spent a leisurely afternoon at Sarehole Mill a short walk from Hayley's house. It has some gorgeous gardens and Mill pond to enjoy and we learned a decent sprinkling of local history and educational facts! 

Sarehole Mill