english girl at home

A Sewing & Knitting Blog, Made in Birmingham, England


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Star Trek Mini Skirt

Homemade Star Trek Mini Skirt
Inspired by Lladybird’s Star Trek fabric PJs (did I dream those, I can’t find the blog post anywhere?!) I had a mooch online for Star Trek themed fabrics and discovered quite a large selection of quilting cottons. This was my absolute favourite, it’s called Red Star Trek Character Octagons and is produced by Camelot. I ordered mine from Etsy.
Homemade Star Trek Mini Skirt
Fabric selected I needed to decide what to make. Given that the fabric is a pretty bold print & is a quilting cotton I thought a mini skirt might be a good match. I used the Mini Skirt pattern from the February issue of Burda. I actually picked up that issue of Burda in Turkish (which I don’t speak…) as I’ve been spending quite a bit of time in Istanbul for work & lots of time on planes when magazines are much appreciated. However this pattern was so simple that not being able to read the instructions wasn’t a problem. The zip is in the side so there are just two main pieces plus the waist band.
Homemade Star Trek Mini Skirt
I ordered the fabric from the states and the postage wasn’t cheap so I ordered a couple of metres to make it worth while. As I had more than I needed for the mini skirt I also made up a matching bag using the free online Reversible Bag tutorial by Very Purple Person. It’s a really nice free pattern with an accompanying online tutorial and it came together in no time. I’m afraid in this case the bag will never be reversed as the red fabric I used on the other side (purchased from a French market a couple of years back & sat in my stash since) while nice enough is no match for the Star Trek print!
Homemade Star Trek Reversible Bag
Homemade Star Trek Reversible Bag
Homemade Star Trek Reversible Bag
This weekend I had the perfect first outing for my mini skirt and bag, as me and Phil visited the Memorabilia show – a general convention for comics, etc. in Birmingham.
Homemade Star Trek Mini Skirt
Enjoying a dorayaki (Doraemon’s favourite food) at Memorabilia
And just so you can get a closer look at the fabric here are a few close-ups of some of the images on my skirt. I love the smirk on Bones’ face best of all.
Star Trek Fabric
Star Trek Fabric
Star Trek Fabric
Live long and prosper everyone!
Homemade Star Trek Mini Skirt

P.S. While we are on the subject of Star Trek, me & Phil regularly listen to Adam Buxton’s amazing Star Trek song from The Adam and Joe show:) Enjoy!


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Burda Style Waterfall Top

Today the Christmas/New Year holiday ended for me and I went back to work. The Christmas holiday is my absolute favourite time of the year. Partly because I’m crazy about Christmas (I watched the documentary about Liberty recently and their staff plan Christmas all year! Clearly I should be working there). Partly because I get a couple of weeks off work (the benefit of working at a university) so have two solid weeks to do whatever I want (e.g. sewing, crafting, gaming & watching loads of old movies!).
Handmade Burda Waterfall Top
Along with an Anna dress and Archer shirt, I made the Waterfall Top from the January issue of Burda Style. I made this right at the beginning of the holiday. I read the Paunnet review of the January edition of Burda one morning, went out shopping that day and picked up a copy, and had the top finished by the evening. I thought it would be a nice speedy sewing fix and it was.
Handmade Burda Waterfall Top
The only alteration I made to the pattern was to reduce the height of the waistband by half, as I found that my fabric wasn’t draping well with the very high waistband. The fabric is a 100% Viscose, purchased from Guthrie and Ghani. It’s perfect for this blouse, nice and drapey. As you can (kind of) see from the photo below it features a retro print.
Handmade Burda Waterfall Top
The January issue of Burda features a few other projects I fancy giving a go. If only I were still on holiday I could have them sewed up in no time!
Handmade Burda Waterfall Top