Monday 4 June 2012

Jubilee Mmmmmmmmnesssss


Hi Everyone,

I'm sure you're aware that here in Britain our wonderful Queen is celebrating her Diamond Jubilee.  Union Jacks and bunting are festooned everywhere you look, and we are all enjoying an extra long bank holiday to add to the celebrations.  So, to keep to the jubilee theme, my union jack cake tin is muscling in on all my pics today, so the least I could do is fill it first!


Custard Shortbread mmmmmmmmmmmmmmness; recipe link here.


These shortbreads really do melt in the mouth; they are much more like viennese biscuits than shortbread really with a yummy vanilla custard taste. (but none of that piping nonsense).

So, tin full, time to unearth my sewing machine...

(can you spot tin?  It's turning into where's Wally!!)
I love my machine.  I think that I have mentioned before that I was taught to sew (and bake, knit and  crochet) by my fantastic Nanna.  As my parents worked in the afternoons, my brother and I would always go to Nanna & Grandad's house after school, where there was always scrumptious home baking and wonderful grandparents who had endless patience.  Nanna, although retired had been a trained tailor, and she taught me to sew, initially with an old, very small singer machine that produced chain stitches when you turned the handle (when it wasn't jamming, which I remember was often), and then on her electric singer sewing machine.  Years later I inherited that sewing machine, which sat in it's own table and I had it for quite a lot more years, until I started to make noises about wanting a more modern machine and my husband bought me a new one.  This was a toyota, and a good machine, but a few years later, now separated from said husband, I started to yearn for a machine that I had actually chosen myself, just to suit me.  And so I bought this one...


A brother; I remember we used brother sewing machines at school (where I made a floral blouse, nice, and a pair of navy cord peddle-pushers, I know... I've always been a special trendsetter...  or maybe just special...)

Overall I am still very pleased by my choice (the only downside is there are only two needle positions, on the left and the middle - no right, which you would think wouldn't matter until you want to sew in a zip without bothering with the zipper foot!!  But it does do one-step buttonholes!


And what did I dust my beloved machine off for I hear you ask?  Well, I have been tempted with some fabulous sewing tutorials on pinterest (where else!).  This one here, particularly caught my eye.  Brilliant tutorial and a great blog.  And this was the result -


Not bad eh...  lovely clear instructions; this is slightly smaller than the one in the tutorial, as I made up my patchwork rectangle first and worked from the size the patchwork was rather than the precise measurements from the pattern.  I then added wadding and quilted this first before making the rest of the bag.


Inside is lined with some gorgeous aqua gingham, and I covered the raw seams with some white bias binding.


When I make another one I'll take the time to sew the side tabs instead of lazily using some ribbon (the result of which is a bag that is sticking it's tongue out a both sides and blowing a raspberry...)

On a roll, I also thought I'd quickly try out this pattern.  This also is a lovely blog, with some great free tutorials and also a few patterns to buy.  This was a quick make and produced this-


Very nice, as long as you don't look too closely at the outer seams and corners...  So I'm off to make up some more to redress the coaster defecit in my house.


Happy crafting everyone!

Karen
xx

14 comments:

  1. Karen,
    Glad you are enjoying the Jubilee and finding some time to sew. Love what you have made so far. Beautiful fabrics.
    Hugs,
    Meredith

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  2. Do you have a recipe for those amazing shortbreads or did you buy them!

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    1. No I didn't cheat and buy them honestly; the recipe link is above and they are really easy to make.
      xx

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  3. That shortbread looks delicious and the bag is amazing! I wish I could sew. Rachel x

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  4. Loved watching the Jubilee on the Thames yesterday on CNN. Even here in the States we enjoy watching your celebrations.

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  5. The shortbread looks really delicious.

    Lisa

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  6. Love your cosmetic bag! Thanks for linking to our recipe:)

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  7. Wow, that is a lovely bag. I love the fabric you used. Soft colours. Very nice.

    Groetjes, Monique

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  8. Those biscuits look scrummy! My OH said he could just eat one now. You bag is beautiful too :)

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  9. I had to skip past the biscuity part of the post as i'm on a diet and STARVING! Love the boxy bag, the colours are gorgeous.

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  10. Karen, I think you are so amazing. I cannot describe how much I enjoy your blog, appreciate you talent, and love my time spent here. I share you site as often as I can and everyone is so thrilled to find you.

    Do you have a Facebook page? I'd love to follow you there as well.

    Thank you so much,
    Charissa from MadMadme.com

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    Replies
    1. and my 'r' key sticks a bit, so please forgive my illiterate sounding note...

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    2. Charissa, your comment has brightened my day so much!!! Thank you, thank you very much, and you already know that I love your writing style. I have been thinking of making a blog facebook page for some time, and you have nudged me into doing something about it today. It's brand new, with not a lot on it at the moment - I need to familiarise myself with what's possible on there - but for now the link is - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Colour-in-a-Simple-Life/351378438266217?filter=1
      Thanks again for making my day!
      Karen
      xx

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  11. I have a Brother sewing machine as well - although not the same model as you've got. When I got it I also wondered why it had a left and middle needle position but not a right until I discovered that, when the needle is at the left, I can move it to the right by increasing the stitch width button. Mine has numbers from 0.5 up to 7.0 - 7.0 takes the needle fully over to the right. I wonder if you can do the same on your Brother?

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