A Simple Fit

May Craft Club saw me embark on making a pair of linen trousers but it took me until June Craft Club, and the impending deadline of needing to wear them to a job interview, to complete them.

After making myself a pair of grey linen trousers last year, which didn't quite turn out as I'd hoped, not to mention being really fiddly to make, I swore I wasn't going to make another pair of trousers. However, trouser shopping is equally as 'fiddly'.  On one memorable occasion I remember trying on 12 pairs in I don't know how many different shops until I found a pair that fitted.  I don't even think I'm a particularly strange shape.

However, it wasn't the fear of trouser shopping that led to me making this pair. It was the simple lure of beautiful fabric at a bargain price. (There, now you know what temptation I can't resist!) I can't even remember what I went out to buy but whilst in the John Lewis haberdashery department I spied a heavy-weight, navy linen with a white pin-thin check reduced to half-price. It must have been about September and so they were selling off the stock of 'summer' dressmaking fabric. It seemed an absolute steal so I promptly bought 2 metres, knowing that I could easily make a pair of trousers from that much.

The fabric then sat in a bag for months as I both plucked up the courage to tackle another pair of trousers but also thought about how the check pattern would work on the trouser patterns I had. In the end I decided simplicity was the order of the day and I began to long for the pair of trousers that took me 12 pairs to find.  They were straight legged with no pockets, not even a waist band, and fastened with a concealed zip. I remember always vowing that when these trousers fell apart I would keep them and use them as a pattern to make another pair. The trousers are no longer in my wardrobe but where they are now is anyone's guess. Do I turn the house upside down trying to find them or see what the shops could provide in terms of a paper pattern? I decided on the latter option and was pretty pleased with what I found; burda 'super easy' pattern 6817, even if they did describe the style as being inspired by the 1970s. (Really?!)

Anyway, May Craft Club was my motivation to finally start making these trousers, perhaps also helped by the fact that another pair of work trousers was about to bite the dust having been worn to holes in unfortunate places.

What did I say about the previous pair of trousers being fiddly to make? These were no exception thanks to the weave of the fabric and the check pattern. I would normally fold the fabric in half and pin on the pattern for the leg front and pattern for the leg back and then just cut out two thicknesses of fabric. However, the loose weave meant that the fabric was very keen to shift on the diagonal and so to get two identical shaped pieces let alone ones where the horizontal line of the check lined up seemed impossible. In the end I had to cut out all four legs (two fronts and two backs) individually. Whilst catching up on the gossip and having to stop for tea and cake, all I managed in May was cutting them out and sewing the darts and the side seams. Very disappointing for a pattern billed as 'super easy'.

A month later, Craft Club came around again and the fabric, pattern, even the pins and scissors, were still sitting in the bag that they had returned home in in May. Out the project came again, but this time with the added urgency of a job interview in 4 days' time!

It was at this point that I began to worry about the fit. I confess, all I had done was cut out the pattern along the UK size 10 lines and sewn according to the pattern instructions. No adjustment had been made whatsoever and, seeing how hard it is to buy trousers off the peg that fit me, surely these would need a lot of adjusting - nipping in here, being a bit generous with the seam allowance there?

With the two legs joined together and the concealed zip inserted it was time to put the fit to the test and... can you believe it, they were a perfect fit! So, why can't high-street stores do the same?! 

Anyway, a fellow Craft Clubber kindly pinned the hems for me and I spent that evening making the finishing touches. Teamed with a jacket from a vintage suit I bought last year, the outfit was all set for my interview, and seemed to do the trick!

Post-interview, complete with genuine creases!

As a brief aside, watching the last series of the Great British Sewing Bee, I was amazed to learn that a concealed zip foot actually existed, and judging by the reaction of the show's contestants, I was not alone. I promptly ordered one on-line and these trousers were the test run of this small piece of metal. I can confidently report that it's really simple to use and gives brilliant results (assuming it wasn't beginners luck?) If you don't have one with your machine and are likely to be inserting a concealed zip into anything, I can't recommend it enough. Previously, I had always used the regular zip foot resulting in my concealed zips looking not exactly concealed, although definitely more 'wallflower' than 'party animal' in the world of zips.

Anyway, there is no going back now and I may even be tempted to make another pair of trousers from this pattern. Well, with that promotion under my belt, I probably ought to smarten up my work wardrobe!

Appliqué Duvet

After a rather stressful week in the office, which included having to deal with three crises and a job interview, there was only one way to spend the weekend. Appliqué!

I have mentioned before how therapeutic I find this sort of sewing, not to mention the drawing of the templates and cutting out the shapes. I also have a project that I've been itching to get to grips with. I have already written about it - a project that combines an unwanted plain grey duvet set and the fabric from a dress I made over 20 years ago to wear to my brother's wedding. I had done a test piece but had ideas to develop a large rabbit template to be the anchor piece in the appliqué design. In the end, I decided that less was more and just stuck with the original flying swifts.

However, the intervening months from making the test piece to actually completing the project, had me questioning the colour of thread I'd used. The weekend therefore began with a quick trip to the local craft shop to find an alternative. The one I chose is more of a red than a pink and suits the bedroom much better.

Mind you, there's therapy and there's a challenge, and this project wasn't quite plain sailing. It's all very well in theory to sew around the edge of a fabric shape but when that fabric shape is at the top end of a king size duvet cover and you can only sew through one thickness of the duvet cover, you end up with an awful lot of fabric to keep out of the way!

Anyway, after an afternoon of semi-concentration with Radio 4 podcasts playing along in the background, not only do I have a new duvet set for the bed but I feel ready to face another week in the office.  Happy days!

Heaven on a Plate

The last few weeks have been rather busy and I'm really missing having some proper time to get creative. However, this doesn't mean that nothing has been hand crafted at ElleAyJay Towers recently. In fact, hosting this month's Craft Club on Saturday was a good excuse to make a cake. And oh what a cake it was!

The title of 'Chocolate Cake with Marscapone Icing and Fresh Berries' makes it sound relatively ordinary but it was far from it. This was the perfect combination of chocolatey loveliness but also fabulously light. Almost a cross between a cake and a mousse. Oh, and really easy to make.

So, if I have tempted you to give it a go, here's what to do.

Preheat your oven to 180C or gas mark 4 and line a 20cm diameter loose bottomed cake tin with baking parchment.

Start by melting 100g of dark chocolate and 100g of milk chocolate together in a bowl and then leave it to cool to room temperature.  Then beat in the yolks of 5 large eggs (keep the whites for a later step) before sifting in 2 tablespoons of cocoa power and 125g caster sugar.

Take another large clean bowl and whisk the reserved egg whites until they form medium-soft peaks. Take a few tablespoons of the whisked egg white and mix into the chocolate mixture to loosen it up. Then, with a metal spoon, carefully fold the remaining egg white into the chocolate mixture about a third at a time.

Pour the mixture into the tin and bake in the pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes.  It should be risen and firm to the touch. Leave it to cool in the tin.

For the icing, mix a 250g tub of marscapone with 50g icing sugar and either the seeds scraped from a vanilla pod or a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

When the cake is cool, remove it from the tin and place on a serving plate; dollop the marscapone icing on the top and smother with soft fruit. The recipe I followed suggested a handful of blackberries but T was on marscapone and fruit shopping duty and arrived with punnets and punnets of berries. I therefore piled a combination of raspberries and huge blackberries as high as I possibly could.

As the title says, it was heaven on a plate. I will definitely be making it again!

A New Look for the Garden

Life has been rather hectic of late and I'm sorely missing being able to quietly sit and work on a creative project. Particularly one that I actually finish!

However, hectic can also be good and, after a few years of wishing I finally have new garden furniture. Sadly, it's not hand-crafted, unless Ikea have changed their brand ethos without telling anyone! Mind you, I did have to attach the legs to the table myself - does that count as home made?

I'm pleased to say that the old furniture is slowly finding new homes. It's about 35 years old and has lived outside for that whole time, so it has seen better days. The table is extremely wobbly and will probably end up being burned or recycled in some way.  However, the bench is off to my friend's house to be painted and made into a garden feature up against the side of her house. It too is wobbly but seems fine when placed firmly up against a wall. As for the two chairs, I'm pretty sure they will make their way next door. The students there have a tiny outside space but nothing to sit on and when I offered them some furniture they almost bit my hand off. One slight snag is delaying delivery - they've misplaced their back door key! However, I'm hopeful that it will turn up before too long (and before I get sick of looking at old furniture cluttering up my garden.)

I can already feel the need to make some accessories for the new furniture.  I'm thinking of chair cushions, place mats and coasters - perhaps in a nice royal blue to match some of the garden pots? If nothing else, it will give me an excuse to go out looking at fabric... as if I need one!

I've also been busy planting out most of the seedlings that have been slowly growing since I sowed them in early March. The first of the tomato plants have been out a week, followed by most of the climbing beans and a couple of the patio peppers which went out this weekend. They have experienced sun, rain and wind in equal measure so are hopefully getting used to everything that a traditional British summer can provide.

And finally, with a big family holiday next week to celebrate my parent's 50th wedding anniversary, I've also made a cake. Not a big celebratory cake, but one to fuel us in our walks and adventures in the North York Moors. It's a Fudgy Banana Loaf and looks pretty stodgy, even if I do say so myself. Mind you, that's because I know what went in to it and it's mainly mashed banana (3 unripe) and ground almonds (250g) mixed into a fudge sauce made by boiling together equal amounts of butter, agave nectar and Demerara sugar for a few minutes (125g of each), with some ground cinnamon (1tsp), ground allspice (1/2 tsp) and two eggs beaten with a pinch of salt. It has been baked in a cool oven (150C, gas mark 2) for an hour and 10 minutes before being partly cooled in the tin and then lifted out onto a rack. I've left it on the baking paper so that I can lift it back into the tin for transporting to Yorkshire once it's cold.

The recipe suggests glazing it with a sticky mixture of apricot jam and lemon juice but I have decided to forego this to make it easier to transport. As it is, I fear the car will be at bursting point as we prepare to cater for nine healthy appetites! I have fond memories of eating banana loaf as a child so I hope this one lives up to expectations!

Emergency Baking Therapy

This weekend didn't turn out quite as planned but, if I'm honest, how many do?

I was preparing for an early and very speedy trip to Ikea to pick up a few bowls and jugs for work before settling down to write a job application.  Then there was the laundry to do, the house to clean and, if all that was done, I should really pot up some climbing bean and sweet pepper seedlings.  That was, until the phone rang and I discovered that a very dear friend was very much in need.  Plan A was soon swept aside as I drove off to pick her up so that she could have a weekend of TLC.

Mind you, I wasn't going to let her get off too lightly!  After a swift assessment of the situation, I formally proposed that baking therapy was the order of the day.  As I began to get my head around my job application and its rapidly approaching deadline, my friend slowly examined my baking folder. Yes, I am an organised so-and-so and tear tempting recipes out of magazines to keep in a folder. But not in just any old haphazard way - oh no! My recipe files are colour coded with labelled section dividers. Oh, and if I'm really honest, no tearing of recipes takes place, all are carefully cut out and, if they go over two pages, equally carefully pasted back together. [Right about now my mother will be scoffing at such organisation.]

Anyway, this meant that I could present my friend with an organised selection of recipes to peruse; although admittedly, if my recipes weren't filed she could have occupied herself for a lot longer, mainly just trying to find the baking recipes! I had decided that much tea was to be consumed over the next two days and something good and sweet would be required to soak it all up.

After due care and consideration, my friend chose a Hemsley and Hemsley recipe for Peanut Butter Shortbread Cookies. They reminded her of something her late mother used to make and I can't think of a better reason for choosing a recipe than that!

After lunch, work on the cookies began by mashing together a tablespoon of soft butter with 8 tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter, 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste, a quarter of a teaspoon of salt, a quarter of a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda and a quarter of a teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Into this was mixed 100g of ground almonds.  The crumbly dough was then placed in the fridge for half an hour and the oven was pre-heated to 160C, 140C (fan) or gas mark 3.

Once things were appropriately chilled and heated, tablespoonfuls of the dough were rolled into rough balls, placed on a lined baking tray and gently squidged with a fork.

They were then popped into the oven for 15-20 minutes before being carefully removed and allowed to cool, still on the tray.

It was at this point that I suggested that a walk around the neighbourhood would be good for us both. Besides, the sun was shining and there was a house that D and I had come across a few years ago, fallen in love with but never found again. I decided a mission was required and off we set. We found lots of lovely houses and some even more beautiful gardens and plants, but alas no house. I'm now convinced we must have imagined it or that it lives in another dimension. However, the walk did us both good and we arrived back at the house to be greeted by the smell of fresh baking and cooled cookies.

Oh, and it was just about time for another cup of tea!

What a perfect welcome home

Surely not all for me?

In the end, the job application did get done, as did the laundry; most of the house has been cleaned; and the peppers and beans have even been potted up. That just leaves the trip to Ikea, but there's always next weekend for that!

Spring inspiration

What a busy few weeks it has been, with scant time for making but lots of time for reflecting and being inspired.

It began with the former whilst house and cat-sitting in North Devon, where much time was spent reading in the sunshine (mostly) with long gazes out to sea. It was a perfect few days spent relaxing and appreciating nature. Plenty of beach, gorse and even a beautiful walk by a stream through the woods surrounded by bluebells, wild garlic and primroses. My favourite place? Probably this blue bench but can you blame me?

Next stop was the Cheltenham Jazz festival. I'm not sure if that was inspiring or reflecting. Perhaps in reflection, I can now say that I'm not a fan of 'avant-jazz' but it was fun, even if the Indian inspired street food stall was my favourite bit (aside from the company of course!).

Following that there was the May gathering of Craft Club where I chatted so much I only managed to half make a pair of trousers. You'll have to wait a few weeks to see them I fear. They are now in the sewing room along with the grey duvet set which is still awaiting its appliqué adornment.

However, the icing on the cake was the RHS Malvern Spring Festival - a true feast for the eyes. The show gardens were jaw droppingly beautiful and the flower tent (or should that be tents since it looked to be three giant marquees joined together) had some fabulous displays. I'm sure the following photos won't do it justice but I feel that I have to at least try to share what inspired me so much.

The Festival 'best in show' garden - a competition for new designers

Spot the Cheshire Cat in this 'Alice' Garden 

And the fun water feature

The Bees Knees! 

The Gift of Life - Organ Donation Garden

The path of life - if you say Yes to donation

The 'No' Path

The Journey Garden for St Michael's Hospice

A 'tapestry lawn' able to be mowed twice a year 

Cornerstone - with a great idea for storage in small garden

An Andalusian Moment - an incredible recreation 

The white houses are really just painted chipboard - amazing!

I certainly came away inspired but not quite empty handed. Well, who could resist a plant called 'Bunny Tails'?!

My first purchase

Planted at home (with room to grow of course!)

I also picked up some Ajuga Reptans 'Catlins Giant', featured in one of the show gardens, but it took us a while to track down one (or two!) to buy. These were the final plants to go into my much planned new trough for the front garden, which I'm proud to say got planted up this evening.

For gardeners out there (or more appropriately 'non-gardeners' like me). The Ajuga is the blue flowering plant at the front.  The climber is a Passionflower, which I'm hoping will cover the railings, eventually.  The bright green shoots are Crocosmia, dug up from my friend's garden when she was having new paving laid and handed over to me last Autumn in a plastic bag. Not quite a show garden but a welcome splash of colour, with hopefully more to come as Spring moves into Summer. Now I need to go an clean the soil from beneath my finger nails - strangely satisfying, probably because its evidence of having done something a tiny bit creative.

A Couple of Blankets for a New Couple

Today my friends are getting married and next week will be heading off for a five-week honeymoon to Spain and France in their newly converted camper van. I couldn't let them go empty-handed so I've made them each a blanket and a hot water bottle cover.

Now, I know what you may be thinking, a honeymoon is supposed to be a romantic holiday and should not require blankets and hot water bottles! They are also heading south, and France and Spain in April and May should be nice and warm. However, hot weather is certainly not guaranteed and however hot it is during the day, clear skies at night can be cool. Surely it's far more romantic to be sitting out under a cosy blanket with a glass of something and admiring the stars than cooped up inside feeling a little on the cool side of comfortable? And if it's that hot, the blankets can always be sat on rather than under! Besides, if the blankets don't get used in on this trip, I'm sure they will come in handy for camping adventures closer to home.

Anyway, having confirmed their favourite colours - orange, and yellow or green - I've been busy sewing. In fact, I've already featured the hot water bottle covers which I made at craft club in March. I decided to risk featuring them in the blog believing that my friends would be far to busy planning a wedding and honeymoon to be keeping a regular eye on my web ramblings.

I'm now pleased to be able to share the finished blankets.

Better dash - I've got a wedding to go to!