wordless Wednesday

If you don’t care for lizardy creatures, please do not read further.

You have be[en] advised!

🐝  🐝  GBSB on tonight  🐝  🐝

 

Sunday Sevens 2020 #3

Courtesy of BBC One. Please click to go to web site.

(aka, Great British Sewing Bee Season 6)

Frequently referred to simply as GBSB, most every sewer across the pond (and a few of us over here and elsewhere) have been waiting with bated breath for this year’s season to arrive. Next Wednesday, 22 April, it will.

I’m pleased to know one of this year’s participants, Ali, over at Thimberlina.  (She’s front row, second from left, sporting her usual big smile.) We’ve been sewing buddies for a few years and I’m sooo delighted for her.

Now, a question for anyone who might know the answer: How can I (in the U.S.) watch GBSB??? Puh-leeeese, I hope there’s some way.

Anybody wanna hold their phone up to their telly for an hour with  me on t’other end watching?!  (If Ali isn’t working she’ll be doing that with her family.)

The official announcement came at 12:02 Tuesday morning, and has eclipsed whatever else happened—or didn’t—last week.

(Except I’m still trying to get a roll or two of t.p.  I’m down to my last one, and trying not to use it up.) 😬

Wednesday (tomorrow) is our monthly Virtual Tea Party and I hope you’ll all drop by for a cuppa and some of my spicy Moosehead Gingerbread, from The Fannie Farmer Baking Book (by Cunningham).

I usually heap up the spices, adding whatever’s in the spice cupboard, so it should be an eye-opener. 😉

Lest I forget, reading has continued. Am finding myself really enjoying Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. Am quite surprised to rather be reading it than Jane Austen’s Emma. Both are available for free from Project Gutenberg because they’re out of copyright.

Very scenic, ain’t it? Not!

A special thanks to everyone who posts lovely photos of their walks. I don’t have scenic spaces here and really appreciate your photos. For anyone like myself, here’s an article with additional suggestions (in the “Deep Read” selection) of ways to get our Nature fix each day.

Those who would like to participate in Natalie’s Sunday Sevens should take a peek at her blog, Threads and Bobbins, for details. It’s very simple, and you don’t even have to post on Sunday. Which in my case is a good thing. 😆

Lots of retaining walls to hold back the hills around here. This is the other side of the walkway and the parked cars.

Hope everyone is staying (somewhat) sane and safely inside.

nostalgia, gbsb, and dream wardrobes

I’ve been immersing myself in old GBSB episodes this past week, partly to avoid having to get on with waiting projects, and partly just because.

We’re now in the last week of February.  Why that’s a reason for anything is beyond me at the mo.  It just seems too quick.  🙀

As part of my planning process for wardrobe changes, I’ve been spending too much time discovering the fitting tips & tricks of Peggy Sager, of Silhouette Patterns. Her Fit2Stitch channel is here.  Is anyone familiar with her or Silhouette Patterns? What did you think?

I’m reviewing my old posts on fitting and design rules here, here, here, and here, and thinking about writing another one on proportion. Things like the length of a skirt should never be shorter than its’ width.

The winter wardrobe is going to have severe gaps by next year, so I’m planning out for those whilst trying not to buy more fabric. We all know how that goes . . .  🤣

Sunday I was watching the latest Stitch Sisters video about Pantone’s Spring colours. There are four great colours for my wardrobe: a red, a green, a blue and ochre.

Thanks to witness2fashion I’m trying not to become too engrossed in Great Pottery Throw Down. Like GBSB, it’s British and follows the same general format, but with pottery rather than dressmaking.

Reading continues on a pace, with the next Louise Penny borrowed from the library, and the last of five mysteries from Dean Street Press.

I blame Scott of Furrowed Middlebrow for those, as his latest  post was my referral to Dean Street Press, and an introduction to a woman author from the Golden Age of detective fiction, Moray Dalton (as used by Katherine Mary Deville Dalton Renoir, 1881-1963).

I found this post rating Dalton with PD James:

“Yet she did it with little of the fanfare received by Sayers and her sister Crime Queens Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh, or even ECR Lorac and Anthony Gilbert.”

I would agree, having read the first of the five books Dean Street has published, and finding it  very rocky. I then skipped the second, but have enjoyed the last three. According to amazon, more are soon to be published.

So things are tickety-booing along here, within the limits of what seems to be an annual cycle of 2 days of winter quickly warming to 2 days of spring, then abrubtly reverting back to winter.

Hope you are all surviving in whatever part of the world you inhabit, and are having as much fun as possible.

🥰     😂     🥰

Great British Sewing Bee Season 5 in production! 😄 😄 😄

View this post on Instagram

BREAKING SEWING BEE NEWS!!! GBSB is about to go into production and will be back on BBC2. Presenter Claudia Winkleman is going to be replaced with comedian Joe Lycett. Tag your sewing bestie, this will make their day! Link in stories for the full scoop! #gbsb #sewingbee #patrickgrant #esmeyoung #sewing #hellyeah

A post shared by T H E F O L D L I N E ✂️ (@thefoldline) on Apr 17, 2018 at 4:14am PDT

First seen on The Fold Line’s IG (above), then on Radio Times.

The only downer, besides it not being on BBC America so we can see it over here, is Claudia won’t be back as presenter (a.k.a. “host”). Comedian Joe Lycett, of whom I know nothing, is her replacement.

✂   😂  ✂ 😂  ✂

we’re havin’ a heat wave…

for everyone in the ℃ world… if you’re in the U.S., you already know it’s too hot! (cut & pasted from weather.com)

… and it’s nothing like that Bing Crosby song. (Didn’t he sing that in one of his films? Wonder why I keep hearing it in his voice?? Maybe it’s hotter than I’d realized . . .  😮)

Kind & gentle words to other states on this side the pond, where they’re even hotter.

Before I forget ~ Just watched the final Great British Sewing Bee episode, and it’s an edge-of-your-seat one. Won’t say who wins, you need to watch. (edited: Hopefully, it stays available over here…. ssshh!)

Please bear with me… it’s about lights. Again.

Some Dear Readers might recall the trouble I had with very yellow artificial light in all my apartment fixtures, which I replaced in key areas with sunlight bulbs (at my own expense, leaving less for fabric~whaaah).

Last week the sewing area got a new fixture, and Tuesday so did the cutting room. You’ll never guess. They both use differing styles of lights, but they all share the same characteristic. Wait for it . . . . .

they produce yellow light. AGH ! ! !

Yep. Now there are 3 different kinds of bulbs in this rental, all with very different specifications.

Why am I freaking out, you ask?  😮    Let me show you.  😢

(click any pic for enlargement, then Escape back to this post)

table lamp has proper colour light, but it’s not enough for cutting
regard the wall colour

new overhead gives yellow lighting
regard the wall colour now

see how the background of this fabric shifts from left to right, where overhead lighting takes over from lamp?
totally changes fabric colour & drives me crazy!

Nevertheless, I persisted and got shorts and a Colette top cut out of this 1m of fabric from U.K.’s White Tree Fabrics.

The quality is almost Liberty, and I’ve 1 more piece to make up. Might cut the same things. We’ll see…

What’s going on with that black jacket? I think it’s called procrastination.    😱   he-hee . . .

will these opposites work? (a.k.a., sunday sevens #23)

june looks more like july

Maybe I’m early this week, but it’s already Sunday in at least half the world. 😉

july?? must be southern hemisphere

If you’d like to participate in Sunday Sevens, no matter when your Sunday arrives, check out Nat’s post.

We pretty much make up our own rules, but her guidelines are over here.

Looking at these calendar illustrations reminded me of this week’s Photo Challenge, so they’re hereby submitted.

Below are 2 more opposites: My Shweshwe South African fabric (gifted by the lovely Anne over at The Compulsive Seamstress) coupled with a linen/cotton fabric called Papaya Passion, from Fabworks Online, in Dewsbury, U.K.

If you email them a message it might get answered by George, who was tremendous, answering all my questions about this fabric. Not to mention a couple other things.

my piece of ceedee pumpkin

photo from fabworks online page

I’ve been considering some options for pieces to include in an ensemble, in honor of the Shweshwe.  Anne brought it up to the U.K. after her vacation, then sent it on to me in the U.S. This piece is better traveled than I am.

So far  I’m thinking a very loose kimono-sleeved unlined almost duster & contrasting dress to wear together. So I’m planning a few of those in other fabrics, just to get in the mood.

What do you think about the combination? Too much, or not enough?? I’m hoping they’ll be in harmony with each other, and entering them in Ailsa’s travel challenge, too.

Also spent 2 lovely hours watching the last two episodes of Great British Sewing Bee. Only one more for this year .  .  . makes me sad.

can you make out that threading diagram? need a magnifying glass to decipher all 3 paths

Took not nearly as long as anticipated getting my old serger/overlocker (same thing, different names) re-threaded Yes. The dreaded re-threading.

You can see from the booklet how detailed the innards are.

I was almost finished overlocking every piece in that black kimono-sleeve jacket when it happened. A thread snapped. At that point all I could do was Step Away From The Machine.

😱

On another day the crisis got resolved,the last piece overlocked, but it started wonking out. This time I caught it real quick, discovered a notch that had come un-threaded, tweaked it back into place, and all was fine. Phew!

Now it’s on to the next crisis: having had to piece the 2 front sections, I get to piece them together, making them look like deliberate design “details.” Thank goodness this is a three-day weekend

Hope you’re enjoying yours!

tool kit – those long tweezers get lots o’use. whoever thinks sewing isn’t a form of engineering, refer ’em to me!

 

 

. . . catching up . . .

front of blue sorbetto
see the pocket just above left dart?

Saturday I wore the blue up-cycled first version of Colette’s Sorbetto pattern to lift my spirits a bit, and do a casual wear test. It failed.

Will give it another try, this time with a pin to close up the neckline, which was so big it kept sliding off my shoulders. Why I didn’t noticed that before I haven’t a clue.

Wore the yellow yesterday, and it was much better, although I’d left the men’s shirt tails intact, and they’re too long.

great british sewing bee – 2015 (season 3)

 

Judges Patrick Grant and May Martin

NOTE: To view via YouTube, search “great british sewing bee”.

Photo from BBC Two site. Click the pic to go there . . .

2015 GBSB Sewers
photo from BBC 2 site
click the pic for site

encore that british sewing programme…

click to go to BBC site their clips were working monday.
alas, you cannot view programmes if not in u.k.

Just had the good fortune of locating another almost-hour from season 2 on youtube.

What can I say?!  Jolly good entertainment, and some informative sewing a la telly.  Meaning it might not handle things like a teacher would, but it is entertainment, rather than a class…

Best hint I can give for trying to locate these is check often, and look at length of time of a particular segment.  It should run close to 60 minutes.

Cheers!

more on that british sewing programme…

click to go to BBC site their clips were working monday.
alas, you cannot view programmes if not in u.k.

Mary at Sewzendotcom has a lovely post about how to contact both the BBC and the production company for Great British Sewing Bee, to let them know you’d like to be seeing more of the programmes.

Click on over to her blog post here, and let your voice be heard.

Check the comments section for an add-on that might work outside the U.K. and again, good luck!