Hallelujah!

Hello there
Boy am I relieved! I've just finished making my dressing gown and if only you could hear the sighs of relief. I set off on this project with the intention of making a large blanket type dressing gown, nice and long that I could snuggle up in on cold winter nights, such as tonight. Often the ones I see in the shop either aren't a material I like or the wrong colour or they're too short......

on a bit of an 'aside', I was at the Make and Do Studio's open evening on Thursday night and this elderly lady was talking about all these sewing machines she's got at home not being used and then had the audacity to say that she didn't use them as due to affluence, she didn't make things anymore?!!! That's not why 90% of people do craft; they do it because they love it; because they want something original or personalised or to exactly fit their personal requirements. I don't make things because I want cheaper than anywhere else; that's a hard thing to do now anyway, with places like large supermarkets selling things for such low prices. I was too shocked to reply instantly at the time but I'm so cross about it now- no idea what she was doing at the open night then if that's how she feels.

Ok, back on track and off my little soap box.

If you are considering sewing something with this fluffy fleecy material, do read the advice on the websites I included on a previous post as they are relevant, especially about getting large white headed pins. My pins have small round heads in various colours but they were quite difficult to find at times.

Makes me look like a real big Mamma :-)

Good aspects of sewing with fleece

You can't see the stitching, so you can be as untidy as you like.
You have a very soft, cuddly material for your project.

Down sides to sewing with fleece
Very light and fluffy which makes it quite difficult to sew with a machine.
Very stretchy, so again making sewing more difficult.
It drops fluff EVERYWHERE once you've cut it. (I'm going to wash it separately before I can wear it)

I highly doubt I'll be using this type of fleece again anytime soon but to look on the bright side, that's another tick for my 'Crafty Plan', so that's a good start to the weekend.

Take care out there

I HATE this fabric!!

Hello there

Grrrrr! I've only just started on the sewing of my dressing gown and my blood pressure is up to, well, whatever high is on the blood pressure scale! Thankfully I've never had much to do medically with high blood pressure, so I don't know the proper terms. It's some kind of fleecy material. I didn't like it when I was cutting it up into the pieces but now that I'm trying to sew it, I CANNOT STAND IT!

I've come to the laptop to try to regain composure and relax, breathe and possibly look for some words of wisdom on the subject of sewing with whatever it is. I got it as it's the same material as my daughter's gown, which is so cuddly and nice to touch.

Look at me!

Blinkin' bits of fluff are everywhere!

When I sew, the material stretches so much it's hard to keep in a straight line and it's so light that the seams you make are very difficult to keep in place.

It's at times like these I wish I had tonnes of followers who would be able to give me advice on how to treat this fabric; other than throw it out of the window of course. I'll have to suffice with a Google search instead.
Here's a wonky pocket to show you what I mean:

Right, I'm off to fight some more with this stuff - if you have any flashes of inspiration, please do share :-)

Take care out there