Knitted honey bee courtesy of Lesley Stanfield

This bee was made for my sister Pauline who had not just a good idea but a great idea.

I knitted this honey bee over a weekend :) that shows how quickly I knit!! With a great deal of help from my Mum who knitted a bumble bee.  We had a lot of laughs over these tiny projects - they were both from a beautiful book by Lesley Stanfield called '75 birds, butterflies & beautiful beasties to knit & crochet.'  Here is the Amazon link http://www.amazon.co.uk/75-Birds-Butterflies-Knit-Crochet/dp/1844486168/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1349965983&sr=8-3
Here is the front cover:

Patchwork Denim bag for Linda

Last summer before Sam went away to drama school she acquired several pairs of jeans from Freecycle. Being a lover of cut off jean shorts she hoped to recycle the jeans into a good shorts supply before going away!

Unfortunately, many of them were way too large so I asked if I could have them for patchwork and spent a lot of time cutting them into 4 inch squares. Another long period of time passed before I came to have enough free time to make my friend Linda this patchwork denim bag. I lined it with some excess curtain material that was left over from some curtains I made for Lisa's bedroom some years ago. It is quite an ethnic print with a lovely navy, rust and mustard motif which really suits matching up to denim.

Linda wrote me a thank you note, saying how much she appreciated the amount of time that had gone into making the bag which I thought was lovely as not everyone always seems to like a homemade gift.

Knotted T-shirt, Tie dye effect stretch jersey

Simplicity 4076 Stretch top with knotted bodice

I have had this pattern for a few years. Sam had used it to make a lilac jersey dress - another of her successful pattern adaptions! Finally, I have made a T-shirt myself, very chuffed with the knot effect and the three quarter slightly flared sleeves. The knot effect at the bust was actually very easy to sew due to the way the pattern is cut.

I love this fabric - anything with a tie dye look always pleases me. I have cut my head off in the photo because I was texting it to Lisa and Sam and could not seem to get in line taking a photo of myself so it is the beheaded T-shirt!

Lisa has bought me a couple more metres of this as she knew I fancied making a maxi dress out of it.

Royal Blue Jersey Waterfall style Cardigan

McCalls 6084

I made this cardigan jacket from some good quality royal blue jersey Sam bought me for my birthday - one of my favourite colours. I really like the waterfall style as I feel it is very flattering and also extremely feminine. This pattern was very straightforward and it is one I will be using again. Wasn't having such a good hair day the day this photo was taken but I like the look of the jacket! The section that took the longest is the hem that goes from collar, down the fronts and round the hem. Very straightforward pattern.

Butterfly Summer Maxi Dress

M6072 - this is now in the out of print section but is a great maxi dress pattern

Finished the above pattern McCall 6072 whilst away on holiday - had cut it out at home. Bought a second hand sewing machine at a French 'troc' - second hand goods venue - for 25 euros, it is a Pickling, which is an East German machine, not a make I have ever heard of but worked well after a bit of help from the Nuclear Electrician next door who was visiting his mum!

Back to the dress, wondered if the twist in the bodice would be tricky but in fact the most fiddly part was just keeping the twist out of the way whilst I finished the bodice off. Actually speaking it came together incredibly fast and I had many compliments each time I wore it. I last wore it on September 12th for my father-in-laws 80th birthday lunch and to be fair I had been a bit optimistic - it was a little on the chilly side that day!

Evening dresses...

I am the newest addition to the Sherratt's that sew as I have only been sewing for a few months. Compared to Sam's couple of years and my mum's well lets not say how long she's been sewing! (hee hee)

Anyway, I decided that as a novice taking on a simple yet pretty evening gown shouldn't be too hard.... I needed to make four of these evening gowns, to fit four different sized figures and in two different colours. I was very impressed to find some reasonably priced satin and appropriately coloured lining and set to work.

I was given the great idea of folding the material in half and making two at once, not realising this would cause complications, I set about cutting out. Mum was eager to help me with this project as she soon realised I'd bitten off a little more than I could chew! Unfortunately, in cutting them out back to back I'd made some of the patterns the wrong way around, rookie mistake no.1! Mum not realising this had happily sewed them together, only to have to unpick them and sew all over again.

After much unpicking, realigning for larger hips and smaller waists these are the finished results. (courtesy of lmx-creative.co.uk)

This one above is me!