Stitched in time

I'm off to the seaside (again!) tomorrow, making the most of the last weekend of summer. This time I am going to be let out for the whole day (yippee!) and am taking myself and Princess Bunchy down to visit my sister-in-law the Seaside Landlady at her bijou holiday house by the sea, which you can see here. The Head Chef and the General are in negotiations as to who will welcome the B&B guests, and I will have to be up early to bake the cakes to welcome them, but the rest of the day is mine in which to have fun.

I have also been having a bit of stitching fun at home - well, maybe not unalloyed fun as there was a bit of unpicking involved, but I have finished yet another of my long list of outstanding projects.

And I took a photo of some of my sewing bits and bobs because they were looking so fetching - somehow having pretty little bits and pieces of equipment adds to the pleasure of sitting with needle in hand. I can understand why in the past women so often gave each other presents of needlecases and pincushions. The Cath Kidston pincushion will probably be familiar to regular readers from this post, the apple needlebook is from Paper-and-String, the matryoshka one from PaperFish, and the square pincushion from Henhouse Homemade.

All were put to good use yesterday, and I have finally finished this dress for Princess Bunchy, made from McCalls pattern M5458. Just in time for the end of the holidays. Although, as you might remember from here, the little princess tends to favour shades of blue and green, she was rather taken with the red check fabric in the photo on the pattern packet, and commanded me to seek out the same.

And find some I did: Creative Fabrics stock a red check homespun fabric, and I used a small check for the dress, and a co-ordinating larger check for the pockets. The effect is very pretty, but be warned, this is a loose weave and thus tends to fray, so is perhaps not the easiest fabric if you are a beginner. And if in a fit of absent-mindedness you sew up the armholes when attaching the facing, then unpicking also encourages a bit more fraying.

Such pitfalls aside, this is a fairly easy pattern, with no zips or buttons. If you are a complete novice then it is probably best to start with a simple gathered or A-line skirt, before moving on to a simple dress such as Miss Madeline from Samantha at the Handmade Dress which I wrote about here. You will then be ready for  gathering and setting-in sleeves which you have to do in this pattern.

So I can tick off another project from my unfinished list, but now I am in a slight quandary. I need some knitting to take to the beach tomorrow, but the blanket needs a bit more stitching, and then picking up round the edge. Not the work for company. And I have a jumper for Princess Bunchy which needs sewing up - for that I need a bit of peace and quiet. And the stripy bag - lots of different coloured balls of yarn - far too messy to take out for the day.

I could always start something new, I suppose ...