Button Indecision

I've made a good start on my stash-busting attempts that I talked about here. I cut out the blue and red shirting for a JJ shirt last week at Bek's house and stitched the princess, side and shoulder seams. Then I got confused by their instructions for the collar so put it aside until I could look at the one I've made before. Last night I pulled it out and added the collar and sleeves.

I was even thinking at one point that I might be able to wear it today, but then I realised I'd completely forgotten about the buttons! Whoops! I pulled out my meagre button stash to see if I had anything, but the only buttons i had more than three of were the below ones, which I didn't really like with the fabric - they were too shiny and a smidge too small. They were bought for another fabric, so can continue being saved for it.

I laid out the other buttons I've got to see if any of them spoke to me and would help with choosing what to buy. I decided I preferred the slightly larger ones, and preferred the matte ones as opposed to the shiny ones. (I'm also often taken with mix and match buttons in general, but don't think this is the project for that)

What buttons would you use for this shirt?

PS: I'm not sure I'm loving the shirt, the strong vertical stripes down the front just feel a bit overwhelming and I'm not entirely sure that I didn't put the sleeves in back to front, as the poof from the gathers seems to sit wrong.
PPS: I haven't finished fixing the princess seams yet, so it won't end quite as shapeless as the top photo.

Sleeping & Stitching

Despite spending a large amount of this weekend sleeping, it has been a productive one (not that sleeping is bad, sleeping is definitely good!). In addition to cleaning and vacuuming my bedroom, the living room and corridor I did some sewing yesterday trying to fashion a top out of the leftovers from my most recent pyjama bottoms (which was going really well, I'd managed to squeeze all the pieces I needed onto the fabric... and then I cut one of the pieces backwards, causing a slight change in plan, but more about that another time.

Today I set up my sewing machine on the coffee table, put on some classic chick flicks (Love Actually, Bridget Jones' Diary and Bridget Jones' Diary 2) and approached the piecing of my quilt in a slightly different way.

The other day I reorganised my pieces to be in pinned piles separated by sheets of paper in a lunchbox, as suggested here by Aneela over at comfortstiching. I can't believe I hadn't thought to do it before, and it's made the piecing SO much easier to keep track of everything.

Anyway, I decided to stitch all of the white strips onto my pieces (see pic below), and next time I'll cut them all, then iron them all, then stitch it all together. The fact that doing it row by row was taking me almost an hour a row was getting me down, and this way doesn't feel as long as I'm doing so many strips at once! The logic might not work, but that's how it seems.

Even though my sewing was marginally interrupted by homemade pizza and then an excursion for churros by the end of the evening I have finished sewing the white stripes onto all my remaining strips, oh and re-fallen in love with Colin Firth (in all three films!). Definitely a productive time!

Below is a picture of the 8 strips I've sewn together so far, I'm still on the fence about whether I like the design I've picked or not. Not that it matters as I'm too far in to change my mind now! My favourite part of the quilt (and my last one) is that all the fabric has a memory attached to it, so it's nice to look through it and remember the different projects each one was a left over from.


In other news, I tried on my JJ with my Laura dress this weekend, and if I'm not greatly mistaken I think they go together very well. I've only actually worn the Laura once, as the fabric I picked was a bit heavy, and that combined with the shape (and possibly length) of the skirt makes me feel all frumpy. However, with the JJ it is a bit better, so while we're having this cold snap I may whip out this outfit.

Finished(?) JJ

Thursday night was spent at my sewing machine finishing my JJ, which I then wore to work yesterday Overall I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out, and am intending on using the pattern to make some more shirts in the future.

However there is one thing about it that I'm not sure about; the placement of the ruffles. The two centre ruffles on each side are much closer together than the second is to the third... and I'm not sure about that. However, having canvassed opinions from my friends at work I still don't know what I want to do about it, as everyone had a different opinion. The way I see it my options are:
a) Leave it as it is, a couple of people said they liked how it wasn't completely equal
b) Unstitch the middle ruffle and move it to be in the centre of the other ruffles.
c) Remove the outer ruffle from the seam and restitch it closer to the two other ruffles.
d) Remove the outer ruffle completely.
At the moment I'm leaning towards option a as then I can declare the shirt finished... but I dunno. I might wear it a few more times and then decide.

Other than the qualms I have about the ruffles I am now a complete fan of this pattern though! It was really comfy to wear all day (even under my lab coat, or rugby shirt), and I can actually move my arms around this time, unlike when I wear the first shirt I made. Best of all, the pattern is totally free!

(The photo isn't quite the finished product; incase you hadn't noticed it's missing the buttons, which it now does have)

Queens Birthday productivity

It was the queens birthday long weekend this weekend. I wish every weekend were a long weekend as then I'd have so much more time for sewing! Day one is for resting, day two for errands and day three for sewing!

This weekend, in addition to making an enormous mess in the living room, I pottered around doing a few things, including two more strips on my quilt (8 down, 14 to go!), a fabric bag using this tutorial and everything except the buttons and sleeves for a JJ shirt (see the photos above and below) You'd think by now I'd have learnt to buy the buttons when I buy the fabric, but nooooo, I didn't, so a trip to a shop to buy some will be needed before I can finish (and wear) the shirt.