Colette Clover trousers

I have been eyeing this pattern up for quite a few months now.  I have seen these made in a youtube video and a few blog posts and Pinterest posts. I was smarting a bit at the price of the pattern though.  By luck I popped in to my local fabric/haberdashery/wool shop Boutique Haberdashery last week for elastic.  They didn't actually have the elastic I wanted but they did have a 40% off sale table with a lot of patterns including this one.  So I grabbed it and last night decided after everyone else had gone to bed to trace out the pattern.  I did version A and no pockets

These need a  press but I was so pleased to get them made and almost all going well that I took photos pinned to my Dressmakers Dummy instead of parading around the garden and getting Gary to take photos.  As a side note my iron seems to be not working to well and only produces steam when it feels like it and same for heat.  Definitely going to have to invest in a new iron. People who know me well will be laughing at that thought! 

It's a nice cotton with subtle stripes and embroidery flowers and leaves.  Look a lot better than the photos are showing.  They have a side invisible zip that somehow I have managed to put on the right side instead of the left side.

The embroidery isn't as shiny as this and seems to be hard to photograph.  I will try another day or when I first wear them more like. I might crop them to a 3/4 length for the summer, I haven't made my mind up on that just yet.

As for the pattern itself, it was a breath of fresh air compared to some of the mainstream patterns you can buy.  I felt things were explained really well.  I did wonder at the thoughts of putting it as a beginners pattern with an invisible zip fastening it it.  But as I said it was explained well and there was also a video link you could go look at if you got stuck. Definitely becoming a fan of Colette patterns.

Hope your weekend has been a great one but for now

Take care and stay crafty

Jules x 

Staunton Country Farm

Now and again we have a little adventure day with my older son and his fantastic girlfriend. It's been well overdue for this one so we were all excited to be visiting Staunton Country Farm in Havant. I didn't get millions of photos and I am only sharing a few. 

This hairy chap we found in a pot near the beginning/end of the maze. to see what made us chuckle you have to look closer

Somebody has been braiding it.  Much like someone might braid a beard.

And for once I can say it wasn't one of my lot that did something like this.  As if they would *coughs*

We had a few showers and the raindrops looked so magical almost I couldn't resist taking a few photos of them.

Luke took 5 minutes to think and ponder the meaning of life looking at his calm serious face here.

This little terror kept trying to headbutt us, mostly my older son. great character but very antisocial.

And these fascinated us up close it was hard to believe it was a tree.

They get stranger don't they?

I had to ask what tree it was and given everyone seemed to answer me at once I think I was the only one that didn't know it was a Monkey puzzle tree.Very impressive indeed.

I should have taken a video to because these pigs tails were moving so much you would of thought they were happy dogs and about to take off with the force they were wagging round.

We also saw rabbits, Jersey cows, Alpacas, Llamas, Guinea Pigs, Rheas, geese and ducks.  They also had walled gardens and a Victorian greenhouse.

Something for everyone I think, even have some friendly goats 

It's not the most biggest of places or cheapest but we enjoyed our get together and seeing what they did have.  Roll on the next adventure day. I may just have something up my sleeve ;o)

But for now I hope to get back in the sewing room tomorrow with another upcycle idea to try on an old tee shirt and maybe start sewing a dress or pair of trousers. Depends on the amount of sleep I may or may not get tonight 

for now though

take care and stay crafty

Jules x 

upcycling jeans

I have this pile of jeans, they are jeans that some I have had for a few years and some just 5 or 6 months.  All now are way to big so I had an idea about making a jeans quilt with them.  It hasn't happened yet unfortunately. This morning a weekend challenge was announced on the Facebook 'Just sew' to upcycle an item of clothing into something else.  On the spur of the moment I thought of my last summer shorts that were currently lounging on my sewing areas floor. Being I love to cook and sew what better than a new apron?

So these are the before photos

I unpicked the side seams and cut the fronts off along the top leaving the waist band so I could do the apron up with existing button. Trimmed the shape around the side that was left so I was left with a flat piece to use as the apron front.

I measured around the now apron front and doubled that width an added a few inches and sewed together 4 inch strips to get to the length I needed. I hemmed one long edge  and decided to give the gathering foot on my serger a go.  Boy I love that foot :o) Sewed on the ruffle and topstitched it.  Then admired my work.  The fabric for the frill was leftover from sewing bits for my granddaughters and the jeans were ready for rag bag or charity shop.  Cost me nothing and I really like the outcome 

Not glazed carrots!

I discovered glazed carrots a few years ago, really loved them.  Being I am following the slimming world lifestyle I choose not to make them because I didn't want to use all that butter in carrots.  I tried this way out one day ( or rather forgot these were still cooking) and discovered although it wasn't exactly the same it made some delicious carrots.  So I thought I would share with you all how I do them.

I start with chunky cut carrots, If you try this you can cut them however you want I will not shout at you.  And one oxo cube, can be any flavour, Vegetable and chicken ones are the ones we prefer.  Put the kettle on to boil.

I put the carrots in a non stick pan with the crumbled oxo cube and poured enough boiling water  to just cover the carrots, bring to the boil and keep the neat to a medium maybe a touch more. DO NOT put a lid on or it won't work. 

The liquid should start to boil down to a syrupy consistency

It's hard to see here but the trick is when the bottoms just start to caramalise to take them out.  That crusty looking coating on my pan just took a wooden spoon to scrape it off.

I like doing my carrots this way as they come out quite sweet, tender but not overcooked.  If they aren't quite cooked through when water runs out I just add more water to the pan and keep an eye on them, Adding thyme or other herbs to the stock in the first step is a good thing to.