New sewing project with a dash of self confidence boosting.

Sorry things have been quiet here recently. I have rediscovered Tumblr. Actually I have distanced myself a little from blogs and Instagram recently. I started to feel like they were effecting my self confidence. When you have these perfect lives, styles and bodies thrust at you every waking hour of the day, you start to question yourself. I know deep down that these bloggers and Instagramers only show the best parts of their, lives much like I tend to do. But I really did feel like it was having an effect on how I felt about myself and my life. It also changed the way I started to blog. I wanted to use this space to document things in my life and to share it with like minded people. Instead I started to focus on how I could look like these perfect people and have lives like them. Does that make sense? I hope it does.

Tumblr for me is more of a safe place full of fandoms. They give me a warm feeling and make me proud of myself and my interests. Although I know I use my fangirl ways as a type of escapism, it doesn't effect or decrease my self esteem, it actually makes me feel far more content and happy.

Anyway, this was meant to be about some sewing I have done this weekend, bit of a heavy start to the post huh?

So this year I have gotten my sewing machine out a few times, after years of it sitting lonely in a box in my parents loft. I made a skirt earlier in the year which you can see here.

I had planned on making more, but I sort of forgot about it. I have been so desperate for some just plain coloured circle skirts to wear with t-shirts and jumpers, basically an all year round skirt. If I do find ones I like, and that's a big if. They are usually far too short. Or if they are long enough the fabric is usually horrible or the pattern or colour isn't to my taste. So basically although I have searched long and hard I really haven't had much luck. I know exactly how I can fix this and have something that is perfect, I know I can make them really easily, but you know.... I'm pretty lazy haha!

This weekend I had, had enough. I wanted to wear some at work with clear tights and t-shirts as it gets so warm in here. So Saturday I popped to the fabric shop and picked up two colours and on Sunday I got to it!

I had my pattern from my previous skirt, which I had altered length wise so that cut a lot of time off compared to the first one I made. I was too safe and made it far too long, and after washing the fabric I got straight into it!

I picked a lovely hot pink colour for the summer, I also thought with black it could add a real pop of colour to miserable cold days too. Again this one was far too big round my waist like the first one I made, I believe it is to do with cutting it on the bias of the fabric. One website suggests making the pattern smaller but I didn't alter that as I thought it was far more easy to cut some extra off than try and add some if it was too small.

The skirt came together really easily and the waist band looked really good on it too. I was so happy with the end result!

I also picked a charcoal grey colour with a hint of blue to it. Both fabrics were a thick jersey material. I like this material as it flows nicely and doesn't cling and has a good weight to it. But it is also super soft and comfy so will be great on warm days and casual days (which are most days for me at work).

This skirt was a little trickier to sew. The pink fabric was stiffer and had a texture to it, where as this one was very soft and more stretchy which meant the ends kept rolling up and was harder to control. I took my time with this one more and I was happy with the result.

The only thing I wasn't as happy with was the waist band as you can see the seam through the fabric, but that doesn't matter too much as I tend to wear my tops over the top of the waist band.

This one also came out too large as well, and i discovered its actually easier to sew the waist band on and then cut it afterwards as I know the waistband is a good fit.

I am really happy with the end results, and I am also really happy to have something that is the exact length, colours and style I want. The price also isn't too bad. One reason I am reluctant at times to make my own clothes is it can cost considerably more. But these two cost me just under £30 and that was for 2 meters of fabric each, I think if I did it again I would only need 1.5 meters. 

I am super happy with these, and I hope you agree but I think they look fab with a t-shirt or even a jumper style top (FYI the top at the top with the cherries is my absolute favourite!). I don’t have any plans at the moment to make more but I will be keeping an eye out for fabric. Also if you made it to the end (kudos to you) and know of anywhere that sells jersey geeky fabric then please PLEASE point me in that direction as I would love to make some Star Trek, or Walking Dead  or or or… to be honest with my list is huge so please do send me a link!

I did mention in my previous post, but please do check out AnnikaVictoria’s YourTube channel, this is where I found the tutorial to make these! She has LOADS of amazing videos and idea to get you DIY-ing! 

I really hope to do some more sewing this year, including two cosplay ideas! Fingers crossed I can be less lazy for the second half of the year ha!