Sunday sevens - 9th August

In the attempt to blog a bit more, I'm joining in with the Sunday Sevens blog series hosted by Threads and Bobbins.  I first came across this while following Teresa's blog at Navy Blue Threads.  

The idea is to post seven photos from your week (have I cheated with a video??!), which is hopefully a bit easier than sorting photos and writing more extensive blog posts! Not sure how long I'll be able keep it up, so we shall see!!

Here goes.....

1:

It was a long weekend in Canada last weekend so with the factored in rest day I still managed to get out twice! Yay! That's the problem with having so many outdoor interests - there's never enough time. So I went hiking in Kananaskis with Calgary Outdoor Club, an exploratory hike up Rocky Creek, just to see how far we could get. I think this was one of the trails that was destroyed in the floods of 2013. We wandered up for about 3 hours then turned round and came back. Not sure how far it was as it's quite slow going walking up the creek, picking our way among the rocks and small pools no more than mid-calf deep.... It was hot as well so the creek water was a welcome relief.

2:

Headed out to Banff with the COC again and this time accompanied by mountain bike... A gentle paced ride around Tunnel Mountain - dry swoopy single track and some great views of the hoodoos.

3:

Who knew than one person needs this much veggie risotto! Obviously carb loading after the weekend (and freezer stocking, now that I've figured out that reheated risotto for lunch is delicious!)

4:

Some Liberty of London Tana lawn that I accidentally bought in Abakhan before leaving the UK, has now been cut for my third Paprika Patterns Onyx top (I promise to blog them all when I finish this one....)

5:

Finished, photographed and blogged my new Simplicity 1538 shirt! So I could wear it to work on Friday with my cowboy boots (I love my boots)!!!

6:

Lunch break quilt maths... I'm getting a bit behind on gifts and I really should start thinking about Christmas! This is a block designed by Jess (Elven Garden Quilts) for Alyce of Blossom Heart Quilts for The Bee Hive series (I know, complicated. Keep up....) I wanted to make a small quilt, so will the 12" blocks I'll do 5 rows of 4 blocks. Not sure I can manage from the current (very small) fabric stash, I might have to go shopping!! 

7:

Another day in the mountains with COC, this time an early start to drive out to Yoho National Park and a walk up to Twin Falls. It wasn't a huge walk (16km, 300m) just a nice distance and good to get out in the mountains. The views of the mountains were amazing, but my favourite thing was the waterfalls.  I could have stood there for hours, listening to the roar and getting wetter and wetter!!

Now in Cow Town....

I've been gone from the blog for a long time (again) and that's due to the massive changes going on around here!  In the last 3-4 months I've up sticks and moved country!! Now coming to you from Calgary, Alberta, Canada!

This change really kicked off last year. We had our fantastic biking holiday to Indochina, then one of my colleagues moved to Singapore, and along with that there were significant changes going on with my place of work (which hasn't been a pleasant place to be for the last few years).  I had itchy feet, was bored, and truly dreaded getting up in the morning to go to work..... So when a job opportunity came up with my employer in the Calgary office, I applied.  And probably because our software is so specialised, and importing a Brit is cheaper than training someone from scratch - I got the job!

Because of the situation (customer relations and visa requirements), there was a very quick turnaround between me leaving my UK job and starting the Canada one.  So my poor long suffering boyfriend is stuck back in Blighty trying to sell the house, while I'm swanning around in the mountains with bikes and hiking boots.

And now my mother (Hi Mum!!) is complaining that I haven't been updating the blog, so she can't see what I'm up to (she didn't get on with Facebook, and doesn't use Instagram).  I thought I'd better start back up.  What better way to start, than with a western style shirt....

In honour of Calgary Stampede (ok, that was a month ago but I'm prepped for next year now) we have Simplicity 1538.  Lots of people were wearing plaid shirts at the Stampede (and at work during Stampede week - it's a uniform really....), but I wanted to make a more traditional style and I already had this pattern with the front and back yokes.

I bought the fabric here in Calgary, it was only $6pm and is quite a loose weave cotton so will be great for summer wear.  I cut a size 12 and graded out to 14 at the waist.  I often find the cuffs on shirts too tight so I cut a size 14 cuff and graded the sleeve out as well, but I think now they're a bit big - I'll try and get pictures at some point but I don't have a tripod here at the moment....  It might be a little tight around the top of the sleeve now - I have ex-climbing muscles at the front of my shoulder (pectoralis major? anyway that bit that creates the hollow of your armpit) that often create fitting issues.  So I might need to swap the sizing and do the sleeve head in a 14 and cuff in a 12.

I really like the yoke details, pockets and flaps in this pattern, and the general shape of the shirt, but I'm not so keen on the cuff placket.  It turned out quite neat, I just would like to have the placket visible - so I'll hunt around for different methods when I make this shirt again. Oh and if you look closely at the left cuff in the back photo below, you can see that I got the placket the wrong way round....

The instructions tell you to gather the excess in the back before attaching to the back yoke, but I didn't like the look of the gathers so created a pleat in the centre instead. The yoke pieces are all cut on the bias as well, so you get that diagonal plaid.

I did manage to match the plaid across the front and almost at the side seams, but the button placket is 'upside down'.  I haven't decided if I like that, or if I'd prefer all the lines to match across the front. I really should have got the pocket flaps in line as well I suppose.

I did try to flat fell all my seams, which was easy enough to do (plenty of tutorials if you search on line).  For the next one, I'd prefer to have the two rows of stitching on the outside though, so I'll need to remember to sew all the seams wrong side together first.  All the double rows of topstitching are in the pattern instructions as the 'Western Style' design feature,, and I even used Tilly's trick of moving the needle over (I used position 5) and lining the edge up with the centre of the foot to get the neater line.  If you look really really closely you can tell which were the first wonky tries, and what came later with more practise!

And just because I felt like it, I added a loop to the collar on the inside of the shirt!