Placemats

I am not a quilter. I have never been a quilter and I have no desire to be a quilter. I'm one of life's eyeballers, I lack the precision to be a quilter. My grandmother was a successful quilter so clearly the family isn't entirely devoid of the precision gene, but it certainly skipped me.

My mother asked me to make some new placemats. Because I'm not a quilter, I wasn't planning on sewing them. I had visions of crocheted slightly lacy ovals in some nice modern looking 10ply cotton in an olive green to match the colour scheme downstairs. Until she got home one day and presented me with a bag and said 'I bought some fabric that would be perfect for the placemats!' Right. So, sewn placemats then. And I added matching coasters because I felt guilty for taking six months to make four placemats.

I kept things very simple. Two rectangles of the fabric with some batting sandwiched between, straight lines of quilting and bias tape around the edges. Even so, I'm fairly sure my grandmother was turning in her grave at some of the things I did. I rather like the handstitching though.

Gingham Style

Because some days you wake up and think 'I want to look like a tablecloth today'.

It's a pleat-less Sorbetto in seersucker, with the Sew Weekly sleeves. More for comfy around-the-house wear than anything.

Grownup Sorbetto

Like a lot of people I'm a big fan of Colette's Sorbetto top. I find it comfy and versatile- I can wear it tucked into a skirt or hanging out of jeans for a more casual look. It's also a good pattern for playing around with to change the look. I've made a couple of different Sorbettos now, and will be making more. I'd been planning to learn to sew clothes for a long time before I actually learnt. One day in Spotlight I was seduced by the pretties and bought 1m each of a few different fabrics for tops. Because surely a top doesn't use much fabric, right? Um. Thankfully, I can eke a Sorbetto out of 1m if I piece the back. My first two Sorbettos weren't exactly what I call grown-up clothes. So I decided to use a lovely flowery Japanese lawn to make a grownup Sorbetto.

I've been playing around with the Sew Weekly Sorbetto sleeves, changing the shape a bit to try and get the perfect sleeves for me. I think these ones are pretty close. I love them on this particular version, anyway. I was aiming for flutter sleeves until I realised that cap sleeves are more 'me'. I put the bias facing on the inside of the neckline to keep things looking simple.

I'm so in love with it I'm a little bit tempted to make a second one for when this one dies because I wear it all the time.