fair enough call, point taken!

I don't know why cooler weather makes me want to sew in shades of grey, but every year it does. In fact I seem to recall Carolyn calling me out on it last year, but once again this year I fell into the same old predictable pattern! I wasn't overly concerned because I don't wear a lot of black so I guess grey is my 'go to' neutral, but then I saw this line of clothes waiting to be ironed in my ironing room (also known as my guest room when we have guests and junk room at other times, I'm sure you all relate):

Yes that would be four grey dresses and two grey skirts worn in recent weeks waiting to be ironed and put away - I like to air my clothes in between wear, aka being too lazy to iron them straight away! Even I admit that this grey obsession is possibly a bit much and I should branch out.

So I thought about making a bright fuschia dress in some wool from the stash, but baby steps here! Hopefully you'll all be pleased to know my next project, a skirt suit for work, is made from a green woven wool, with flecks of gold and blue through it:

And in even more surprising developments I'm actually trying to do things properly for a change. I have bought a few sewing books over the years but haven't really used them, so I thought it was about time I cracked this one open and followed it's advice:

The Classic Guide to Sewing the Perfect Jacket is a really good book, all the photographs make it easy to understand and it goes through the techniques for full handstitching of the jacket and also the technique for using fusible interfacing which gives you the choice to pick how involved you want to get. Following the book, for my current jacket I've block interfaced all of the jacket pieces with lightweight interfacing (whisperweft I think it was called), and I've also made a back stay from some tightly woven but thin cotton, all to help stabilise the fabric because it's quite a loose weave:

Now to make the lining for the jacket, the most boring part. I did read a tip somewhere or other recommending that you make the lining first which means you get the worst part over and done with first and may make it less likely you'll end up with a UFO.

My business trip to one of our regional offices to deliver some training last week was a success. My job for the main part is writing policy, but I sometimes run training sessions for staff although I haven't done so since before I went on maternity leave well over a year ago now. Not only did all my knowledge of the legislation I was training the staff in come flooding back to me and the training session went really well, but I also managed to visit two op shops and score some bargains. First up a big bag of button covering kits in varying shapes and sizes:

Some knit fabrics to add to the stash until I get over my dislike of sewing with knits - a black heavy cotton like ponti de roma, and a thin polyester in a nice green brown pattern:

A 1939 McCalls sewing book, which is heavy on the handstitching techniques and interestingly refers to zippers as "slide fasteners".

And best of all was a stack of vintage golden books, with the funniest title ever:

I guess "goodbye tonsils" is the precursor to modern educational but entertaining books for children such as "why does daddy live in his own house now?" and "why do I have two mummies?" Aaaah, innocent times of eras gone by....

As for me, I'm off to insert an invisible slide fastener into a skirt. Happy sewing everyone.