Author bellecitadel

New knit: The Carbeth sweater by Kate Davies

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I think it’s high time to post a few started-but-never-completed posts and catch up a little. I didn’t make a LOT over 2022, but I did make a few garments last summer. I also worked on numerous quilts, decorated a lot of house and knitted a couple of things. I even dabbled in a few random crafts here and there. This is one of the knitted garments and is/was my first ever completed sweater! I don’t know about you, but here in Scotland we had a couple of unusually cold snaps this last winter and that, compounded with rising energy costs, meant this sweater saw a lot of action. And baby, it is ccooozzzzeeeeyyyyy.

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New shirt: Seamwork Roan in electric blue

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I bought this electric blue semi-sheer cotton in Athens when I was visiting with my sister in March – not only is it beautiful, but it was so reasonably priced! I knew I wanted to make a shirt with it, and preferably something a bit oversized, so when I saw the design for one of May’s Seamwork patterns – the Seamwork Roan, I thought of the match-up right away.

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New shirt: Style Arc Blaire (or is it Blair?)

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Yes, that’s right! Another Style Arc pattern and I actually made this one before the Hope dress and also took it to Greece with on holiday – I just didn’t get decent pictures the days I wore it. In fact, this is probably the project that really got my sew-jo racing back after a rather lacklustre 2022. The project is the Style Arc Blaire/Blair shirt, which I’ve had on my to-do list for literally years. I had the pattern already printed in A0 version, the fabric washed and primed and even the perfect buttons ready to go, so there was absolutely nothing stopping me. And how happy am I with the finished product? Very, very happy. What a great return project to get my teeth into.

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New dress: Style Arc Hope dress in double gauze

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Well, hallelujah! It’s finally the time of year where we can don light, floaty dresses again and I’m really happy with the way this one turned out. As you may have noticed, I’ve really not been sewing much the last year and certainly not blogging much at all. There are numerous reasons for this, mostly to do with moving country, decorating a house and a general lack of free time, but I definitely did also lose a little bit of garment sewing enthusiasm there for a while. I’m pleased that it seems to be back and I’ve sewn a few garments over the last few weeks – now to catch up with all the blogging I haven’t done! I’ve missed the ol’ blog…

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New dress: Seamwork Luxsy in a graphic knit

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Hello folks! I am BACK! I mentioned in my last post, which was way back in February (gulp), that I was going to write a big update post, but things suddenly got crazy busy – the reason being that I am now back home in Scotland! Yes, after almost 15 years away, my family and I have relocated back home to the bonnie banks of my homeland. I want to apologise to anyone who’s commented or asked a question in the last few months as I haven’t been online much at all, but I promise to reply in the next week or so now that we’ve settled in somewhat and I can get back online regularly.

I will also deliver on my big update post, but in the meantime I want to share with you the first thing I’ve sewn in months – the Seamwork Luxsy dress. My sewing equipment got packed in January and is still in transit (yes STILL), but I managed to steal my mum’s machine for a couple of weeks. Living out of one suitcase for five months is getting OLD, I can tell you.

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New dress: Seamwork Taylor in red

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Happy New Year folks! Yes, it’s me! Well, that was an unintentional hiatus away from the blog and social media! I must say it was rather pleasant once I got used to it, but I’m definitely happy to be back with a new garment today. It turned out that, in the end, my ankle was significantly more damaged than we initially thought and so I had to sit out most of November and early December until it really started healing properly. Then we went away for Christmas to visit my mother-in-law, which was lovely, but craft-free. I also have some big old life news that has taken up most of my bandwidth the last two months, but I’ll write more on that in my next post. For now, here is a fab new dress from Seamwork!

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New shirt: The Gilbert Top from Helen’s Closet in Heirloom

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Hey folks and a happy Autumn to you! Did you have a good Halloween? We definitely did here and it was lovely to see the kiddos getting out and about almost as if it were a regular pre-Covid year. I had my own little horror story a week or so ago when I tripped in a pothole while walking my dog at night. Ouch! I may have a tiny fracture but mostly it’s just a very bad sprain and I’ll be wearing a boot for a few weeks, as you can see in some of the photos. I only had the second sleeve to sew on my new Gilbert Top, so I managed to get it finished yesterday and here are a few pics!

Summer was all about dresses for me this year and I really enjoyed trying out a few different patterns and styles and wore them all a lot. For autumn/winter I’m absolutely feeling a pull towards shirts and blouses and I have a few more patterns I want to try out. Here’s one of them: the Gilbert Top from Helen’s Closet. I couldn’t decide between this and the Hey June Willamette shirt for a while, but Helen always provides lots of extra content and hacks with her patterns and that, combined with the fact I really wanted a shirt with a tie-front option, decided the matter.

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New test: Grainline Tamarack jacket in extended sizing

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The new extended 14-30 size range for the Grainline Tamarack jacket is now available and I tested the pattern for Grainline back in August. This came at an opportune moment for me, as 2021 has certainly been the year I GOT INTO QUILTING. I’ve already posted about three quilts and I have four others in various stages of completion. In the grand scheme of things, it’s still not a huge number I’ve got under my belt, but I was quite excited at the thought of doing a little quilting practice on pieces of a manageable size.

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New top: DP 004 batwing top from DP Studio

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Bonjour et bienvenue to my latest little projet. It’s the DP 004 batwing top from the French design team over at DP Studio.

I have quite a collection of DP Studio patterns now and they have been on my “must-crack” list for, well, years now actually. I had a bit of a dud with the first one I tried – the Le 5001 – but as I mentioned in the 2020 fails post in which it appeared, that’s not strictly speaking the fault of the pattern. I then started Le 603 but got waylaid for supplies when Covid hit and just haven’t found the life essence to finish it since. I pull it out of its project bag every so often, puzzle over the instructions for a while (incomprehensible to my brain) and then gently fold it away again, sighing.

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New jacket: Seamwork Larkin with ruffles and exposed zip pockets

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Lumberjackie? Lumber Jill? Take your pick! All I know is that Seamwork has been releasing patterns of a more complex nature recently and I’ve really been enjoying them! This month I was immediately attracted by the Larkin bomber jacket, which makes the perfect fall or spring outer layer. A few of us Seamwork ambassadors were chatting about what we might do with the pattern at the beginning of the month and it’s been really fun to see how everyone’s turned out. They are so great! You can check them all out on Instagram under #seamworklarkin.

For mine, I decided to add a little ruffle at the shoulder and also to use exposed zipper pockets instead of the pattern’s regular welt pockets. I have absolutely nothing against a welt pocket, but I’ve made a few recently, so fancied a wee change. I also thought the exposed zip would look quite good against the plaid and break it up a little. I’ve included a short tutorial for both further down the page in case you wanted to try them and weren’t sure how to approach the process.

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