Hurrah! I love how quick clothes are to make compared to quilts. This is a jacket based on the same pattern as my jacket that I accidentally ruined, which was based on a jacket that I bought from Gap for Kids over the summer. Also known as a jacket for Dame Judi, but I'm wearing it in the meantime.
It's made from Dorte's delicious boiled wool, which comes in a whole rainbow of colours.
I'd planned to underline this jacket before getting the actual roll of fabric. I was imagining how lovely the contrast of fabrics would be and got totally carried away...so much so that when the fabric arrived and I realised it really didn't need lining, I went ahead and lined it anyway. Instincts are such good things and even better when listened to: it would have been more cosy and casual if I'd omitted the lining, but never mind, I do love my jacket. However, from a sewing point of view I love the realisation that boiled wool really does offer the opportunity to make something in just a few short hours with no need to line it or even finish the edges - it's a perfect fabric.
A few posts ago I'd written that I believed our tabby cat was capable of making any fabric or piece of sewing look more lovely. On this basis, I went and interrupted her all-day sleeping marathon, which was taking place on my daughter's Liberty print quilt, and carted her through for a photo with me, ready for me and my jacket to be made lovely by her presence. She was surprisingly happy to oblige in this unsolicited cuddle and even purred. Which makes me wonder whether this cat is in fact drawn to the handmade, because she normally endures my cuddles with far less audible sign of enjoyment, but on this occasion went as far as nestling her tiny head into my hand for ear scratch. However, I don't feel me or the jacket look noticeably different for being in close proximity to her...so despite her purring, I'm wondering whether my theory only holds true for Liberty prints. I do like the idea of photographing my makes surrounded by the full menagerie of creatures though, so next time I might just pull in the other super-feline and maybe Nell too. They will love it.
I've just noticed that Dorte now has this boiled wool in even more colours...look....mustard! You may remember that I'd said I wasn't overly enamoured with the dark grey as it was a bit too much on the khaki side of grey for me...but there is now a choice of four greys to pick from and the Grey Melange looks like my idea of a perfect grey.
I wanted to let any of you who use our Squeebles educational apps with your children know that we're running a competition asking children to design a Squeeble to feature in our next app. As well as the winning design featuring in an app, the winner's school or family (you can enter as a school or an individual) will receive a brand new iPad 3. We've run similar competitions in the past, but without the iPad incentive, and it's been one of the highlights of running our business to see the Squeeble designs and the character descriptions arriving in our inbox and then, when the competition is closed, to finally spend a morning eating cake and trying to whittle down which design my husband, Ian, will create a computer-generated Squeeble from. If your children might like to enter you can find details here and children can read a blog post about it here. Below are a few of the winners we've had in the past. On the left are the children's drawings and on the right is the Squeeble we've created, based on their design. (Credit: Raino is designed by Joshua, aged 8, and Bebe is designed by Poppy, aged 6).
Returning to fabric, one of my sponsors, Backstitch has a gorgeous, shiny new website and Alice has asked me to share it with you. She's also offering a 10% discount off any order - just type in WLFLO at the checkout (valid within three days of this blog post...so I guess that takes you up to the 10th October inclusive). Any orders placed in October will automatically enter the purchaser into a prize drawer for the chance to win £50 off your first order and then 20% off all subsequent orders for an entire year. There are also second and third prizes. You can find out more here.
Finally, back to New Clothes for Florence, I've made something else too (don't worry, I haven't suddenly become someone who is able to sew quickly, or super-efficient - I actually finished the jacket in this post nearly two weeks ago, but hadn't had time during daylight to photograph it). This time I've been sewing with the Reality Knit fabric that Frances sent me. I loved the fabric when it arrived, but it's even more lovely when sewn into a garment. I'll hopefully post about that later in the week.
Florence x ADSENSE HERE
