How to lose 40lbs in a year

My New Year's Resolutions last year were to stop biting my nails, to be less shouty with the children and to lose 3 stone (aka 42lbs). Well, my nails are still bitten to the quick but I did manage to shout less (not congratulating myself too much there - having both children in full-time education helped enormously) and, as you may have guessed from the spoiler in the title, I lost 40lbs. Not quite the 42lbs I'd aimed for but it still translates as 4 dress sizes, which is really quite significant. ("Really quite significant" is of course hugely underplaying the pride I feel in this achievement. A more realistic description would be "yyyaaaayyyyyyyyy!!!!! I'm slim! slim, I tell you!)

This weight-loss has not gone unnoticed by friends, family, or anybody who knows me. And do you know what is the thing I am asked most often? It is "Have you been trying to lose weight or...erm...?" The alternative to 'trying' is never vocalised and at first I thought people might be wondering if I had lost loads of weight through some kind of illness, but since they invariably then say "you look so well!" this was clearly not the case. And I finally realised that they are hoping I am going to tell them that weight loss is actually terribly easy once you know the magic secret. So I do tell them the magic secret: hunger + sweat = weight loss. And their faces always drop.

Because the truth is that losing weight is, in fact, really quite hard. The theory is simple enough - you eat less, you move more, you lose weight. Back in March 2011, I tried moving more when I started running (using the Couch Potato to 5k programme - highly recommended by the way). I could see my body changing but I wasn't losing weight. So I moved a lot more - I did hooping, cardio tennis, ballroom dancing. All great fun but the scales still didn't budge.

The penny was starting to drop so I added in some eating less - you know the kind of thing: cutting out sugary snacks; eating less fat; yada, yada. My portions remained the same and .... you've guessed it!... the scales didn't budge. So I eventually joined Weightwatchers and the scales finally started to oblige.

Don't believe the Weightwatchers advertising puff. Believe me, if you do Weightwatchers, you will know that you are on a diet. For the first 4 months I was hungry for 19 hours every day. Truly. But eventually, I got used to eating so much less, and now only feel hungry at the normal times. And I have only 7lbs left to go to reach my ultimate dreams-come-true target.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that losing a lot of weight is a serious commitment to make. It's especially hard to do when you have small children because it involves making time for yourself. This is not trivial. You have to be selfish - even a 30 minute run never takes only half an hour. If you don't want injuries, you have to warm up and cool down. The time all adds up and we all know that mothers of young children do not have time to spare. And this is where I do have a magic solution to offer.... and that is Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred! (NAYY)

This is a flipping brilliant DVD for the reluctant or time-starved exerciser. It takes just under 30 minutes to do, including stretching, and as long as you take the DVD out of the sleeve, put it in the DVD player, and follow Jillian's instuctions, it really will work. Or at least, it did for me. Not on its own - I like to vary my exercise regime so as to reduce boredom and injuries - but when you need a short burst of indoor exercise, Jillian's 30 minute workouts are the business.

Not least because they helped me to realise that exercise can be fun.

I know lots of mums who run. I suppose I can see why - it's free and it's effective, but by golly, it's dull. I never really took to it. The good news is that there are lots of other forms of exercise that are nearly free and much more exciting. For example, I do taekwon-do with James, so we get some family time while working out. It also helps his coordination and confidence so we all win. Zumba is great fun and very social and not hugely expensive either. Ballroom dancing won't get me thin, but it's fun to do so, why not? My husband has lost 3 1/2 stone using a stationary bike. Now THAT is dull, but it's working for him and I think that's the key. Find something(s) that work for you and suddenly, exercise becomes to fun part of losing weight and keeping it off.

So there you go... how to lose 40lbs in a year! But what would any gloating weight-loss post be without the before and after photos? Truth to tell, I don't have many before photos. When I was fat, I hated having my photo taken. By December 2010, I tipped the scale at 'obese' and I wasn't queuing up to have pictures taken of that. But Nigel snuck one in....This is from our summer holiday 2010. As you can see, I'm not slim. But I still managed to add another 8 or 9lbs before Christmas 2010.

Christmas Eve 2010. That's actually a fairly flattering picture by the way - thanks Nigel!

And now for the after. Again, I'm not so photogenic that I like having my picture taken, but in the interests of inspiring other mummies, here goes....
As you can see, still a bit of a way to go - 7lbs to be precise - but I now feel as though I can eat cake in public without people tutting at me (yes my slim friends, people - even some fairly rotund people - do audibly tut when they see fat people eating cake in public. It is not helpful.)
And I finish with a different kind of 'before' and 'after'. The above photograph is of a coat I made in winter 2009/10. It was a fab coat - swingy and flattering, from the Ottobre Salma pattern, and it fit me beautifully and got loads of compliments. It was also size 18 to 22. I hated it. I could now fit two of me in it. So out of the 3 or so metres of fabric, I made this beautiful formal coat for Laura. It's also an Ottobre pattern. Now this coat, I unreservedly love!

Credits Thank you to Maria who dragged me to cardio-tennis in January 2011, thereby making me realise that I was quite frighteningly unfit, to the guy who developed the C25K programme, to Jillian Michaels and Weightwatchers and all those people who complimented me over my hungry journey for the last year. Especially thanks to my darling supportive husband. I couldn't have done this without you. Mwah! Mwah!

Birthday overload (dodgy photo overload, too)

If you are thinking to yourself "well blow me! Kathryn Driffield's done a new blog post. I thought she was dead!" then I don't blame you. As you can see, I'm not dead, but I have been manically busy. Up to my eyes in birthdays, sewing orders, face painting, summer fetes, and other fun but somewhat draining activities. No time for blogging (though I have rediscovered Twitter and am now a proper fan).

Anyway, dealing with the procrastination sewing first.... a skirt for me. I have since Christmas been exercising hard and dieting reluctantly. With the result that I urgently need some summer skirts that actully fit and have pockets for my phone. When I'm a size 10 I am going to treat myself to a Desigual skirt but since I am still two sizes away I ran up a Desigual knock-off. It's kind of hard to achieve that edgy Desigual look when you mostly have kids' prints in the stash, but I gave it my best shot....
It's comfy, it fits, and it has pockets. Result!

Then onto Laura's pressing need for summer skirt & leggings combos. These are intended for wear at Hatton Country World and other places where protection from fast slides and grazed knees is required. I ran up 4 sets over the course of a day - it's an Ottobre pattern and has pretty much gone viral in the sewing for girls community. I love it!

And now for the birthday sewing... James turned 6 last week and here's his new jacket. Ottobre strikes again! It's in an outdoor wear fabric that was very cheap at Fabricland in Bristol. It was an absolute swine to sew, so I bitterly regretted choosing a pattern that featured welt pockets. It's not my best work, but it's the best I could do and James really likes it.

Though not as much as he likes his new shorts. Also an Ottobre pattern and huge fun to make.

Then came a crochet aquarium for my father-in-law on father's day. Trouble-free fish! He saw the funny side.

Laura's birthday is the last on the list. Believe me, the four weeks from June 9 to July 8 is tough going in this house - five birthdays, one after the other, with Father's Day thrown in just to make life interesting. I hardly have time to catch my breath! But Laura's is the last birthday where I feel the compulsion to sew. This is her birthday jacket. It's an Ottobre pattern (no? really?), which should have been made up in wool but which I did in fleece. Laura does actually need a fleece jacket and I was getting tired of hearing about her best friend's coat which is pink with flowers, so I embellished the fleece with heart pockets and some flowers. And pom-pom trim just for fun.

It even comes with a zip-up hood. She will simply love it!

I'm not so sure about her dress, and I think she'll be a bit 'meh' too. She really wanted something twirly, and this combination just isn't. Also, I screwed up the collar somewhat which doesn't add to my dress-love, but I think the real problem lies in the fabric choice. Both are pretty enough but lack drape, so they somehow don't flow. I suspect the pinafore will get a lot more wear than the dress, especially once I've added the strawberry buttons.

I felt a wee bit guilty about imposing my own dress choice on the birthday girl (I can't tell you how much she wanted a twirly dress) so I painted some faux Lelli Kellys for her. Don't get me wrong - I don't think they rival the real thing, but they cost me a mere £12.50 (and a fair amount of time). I used sequins, fabric glitter and fabric paint from stash, and hoped to keep them secret from her until Sunday. Unfortunately, she opened the box when they were half-finished, and the cat was out of the bag. She liked them then and now they're blinged up, I just know she'll love them.

Speaking of cats, she decided last week she wanted me to make her a kitten costume for her birthday. With claws on the hands. Now that's a challenge I decided not to try to rise to but watch this space for a Halloween post!

Useful sizing chart for children - downloadable

I know that buying garments for women is a bit of a minefield, what with vanity sizing and all, but sewing garments for children from commercial patterns is no less tricky. Especially if your child is not a 'standard' size - my daughter for example is all round dinky with very short legs (alas! her mummy's genes won through there!) while my son is of average height but super-skinny.

And if you're sewing garments to sell, it's even worse! I never know how to label mine and generally end up erring on the side of caution. I recently bought a Japanese pattern book and want to make a Communion dress from it for the shop but I wasn't sure what size to go for. So... I put together a sizing comparison chart. It might look like a procrastination task but it's actually been very useful. I shall be passing it onto my sewing pupils and thought that you might find it handy too. So here's the link - Sizing Comparison Chart. Now you may wonder why I haven't just included it in the blog post - the answer is I created it as a Word document and can't just paste it into the blog. So I resaved it as a PDF and posted it on Google Docs instead - that way everyone can download and print it, no matter what version of Word they may be running. And it also means that I can never lose it... yes, there really is no such thing as altruism!

The Klimt party dress and reinventing the wheel

For some time I've been thinking about doing a garment inspired by Klimt's The Kiss. The trouble was, how to recreate those beautiful patterns he used. I dithered over using fabric paints but decided (I think correctly) that I'd just run out of talent. And then I realised that the beautiful little symbolic flowers he used so often could be rendered in crochet motifs. So I started hooking..

Twenty motifs in, and during a brief vacation from the virus that's been dogging me since early December, I started thinking about joining them. I had an idea that I could do it in a laissez-faire free-form way to build them up into a bodice. I used Ottobre's sundress pattern from 02/2002 as the block for the bodice. Once I'd twigged that the easiest way to shape the fabric as I was building it was to pin it to the bodice lining, it worked out great.

I kept to the Ottobre pattern for the back - I love that lace up detail. This is a dress that will fit Laura for quite some time!

Now this post was going to be along the lines of 'ta-dah! look at my wonderful new invention: FREE-FORM CROCHET!!!! And then I googled free-form crochet (kind of patent checking, you know?) and discovered that it's actually been around since the 1970s when it was invented by James Walters and Sylvia Cosh. Go figure! Those gits even stole my name for it!!!

Stolen glory aside, here is the finished dress in all its yellowness. It's actually much more yellow in real life (no, honestly, it really is.)

I'm already planning the next - maybe a nod to Monet? If I'm going to skank from fine art, I might as well skank from the best....

The Psychedelic Raincoat

Pure Carnaby Street, don't you think? I'm not sure what the designer was on when s/he came up with these wavy stripes, but it was clearly powerful stuff.

I have a fairly significant stash of PUL (both solids & prints) left over from my nappying days. They were originally bought to make nappy wraps (aka nappy covers) but Laura's nappy rash precluded the use of any kind of plastic wrap. I had been wondering for a while if PUL would make a raincoat and decided, in the continuing absence of my overlocker, to give it a try.

I wouldn't say that it's the drapiest raincoat you'll ever find but by golly, you'd go far to find a brighter one! I lined it with spotty poplin, also from the stash, and you can see Laura coming from quite some way away. This, I think, is a good thing.

The pattern is Ottobre's #11 reversible coat from 01/05. It is, as you would expect, a really nice little pattern which went together beautifully. I love the retro A-line cut! It is indeed reversible, though I don't think the spotty lining will ever see the light of day.

It hasn't been tested out in the rain yet and I will update this post if it turns out to be anything less than showerproof. But if all goes well, I have enough fabric for raincoats for the next 5 years, which is a thought to keep me warm on even the dampest day.

Ottobre - guitars, reggae & wailers

I sometimes wonder what the sewing mothers of boys would do without Ottobre. In a landscape dominated by ruffles and pretty dresses (and regular readers will know that I have a weakness for a pretty dress myself!) stylish patterns for boys are pretty hard to find. And then you discover Ottobre and suddenly, there's almost too much choice! The most recent issue was spattered with clothes that I fairly itched to make for James. So I devoted this weekend to some serious boy-type sewing.

My recent makes have probably erred on the cute side. James is nearly 5 and my darling DH has started to query whether tab-hemmed turquoise shorts:



with co-ordinating polo shirts:




and hoody tops featuring photos of the wearer and his special bear, each sitting happily in the pockets of the helicoptor applique:




aren't just a bit too babyish for our boy. Now personally, I'd see him in such garb until he's, oh I don't know, 20? But I can't deny that he looks a lot less streetwise than most of his peers and small children can be cruel. So... time to swap cute for cool.



First up: the Guitar raglan sleeve t-shirt.







Thanks to not reading the instructions (will I NEVER learn??) I put the applique in the wrong place. But James doesn't know that, and it still looks pretty good. I love the applique but am not at all keen on the pattern. The neckline is cut very wide and, even though I replaced the cuff binding at the sleeves with a longer underlayer, I think the sleeves are a tad too short. It's wearable and James, despite no interest in music or guitars, likes it very much, thanks to some careful propaganda along the lines of 'your big cousin Joe will really like this shirt because he likes electric guitars'.


Next: the bermudas that feature in about 4 different pattern versions, the differences lying in the pocket styles. I did the Wailers, which have bellows pockets on the leg, and used some Ikea plaid cotton. I omitted the drawstring because the cotton has quite a crisp hand and I suspected it would crease at the front rather than fall into gentle gathers. I used buttonhole elastic at the back to get them to fit properly.



You will notice that the plaid matches in the pocket and across the side seams. I'm pretty proud of this and simply love the pattern! James also really likes them so I'll be churning out another couple of them for the holidays.







And finally, the Reggae jacket, which is actually a retro-style bomber jacket.



Words cannot describe how much I love this pattern. I had difficulty finding ribbon elastic and am wondering if it's a figment of the Ottobre imagination. After experimenting with ordinary 1cm elastic and FOE, I found some stretch binding in the stash and this was thin enough to do the job nicely. I'll check out where I got it from if anybody's interested.



I struggled with the pockets (this was my first time doing welt pockets and the Ottobre instructions were as sparse they often are for tricky techniques). In fact, during the two evenings I spent sewing this,I had to rip out quite a number of seams, so it's surprising how much I enjoyed doing it. When I had finished it, darling DH pointed out that it was lacking a touch of yellow (this can be a deal-breaker), so I knocked up a badge with a yellow rescue helicoptor on it, and told James that I'd made him a pilot's jacket. And James simply loves it!

Ottobre Harebell dress

My darling DH finds this hard to believe, but Laura needs some new knit dresses for summer. I've given the Farbenmix Olivia pattern a good run (now that he DOES believe!) so although I could just make up some short-sleeved versions, I wanted a bit of a change. But I'm having a bit of a job finding another pattern that's different enough to make it worth purchasing it. I really like Patty Young's new Abigail pattern, but that isn't available to buy yet, so I was thrilled when I saw the Harebell dress in the new Ottobre.
















Keen-eyed readers will note that this is a dress for woven fabric, minus sleeves but with an invisible zipper. It also starts in size 98, and heaven only knows when Laura will be big enough for that size!






It struck me that I could make the dress up in a knit, omit the zipper, add some sleeves, and I'd have just the dress I wanted. Being fairly realistic about my sewing skills I tried it out in some very cheap jersey that I wasn't all that keen on. I graded down a size, cut the back in one piece on the fold, and used the sleeve from the flounce sleeve t-shirt in Ottobre's 03/07 issue. I didn't bother with the edgings or back tie because this was only a muslin.









When I make the next version, I'll omit the seam allowances to reduce the wearing ease, increase the width of the sleeve head, reduce the width of the neckline, and use contrasting fabrics so that the effect of two different fabrics isn't completely lost from a distance. I'll also be including the tie-back because that's what gives the back its apron-effect. But flaws aside, I'd say that this is a very successful muslin and I've already picked out the fabrics for the next two, which will also help to reduce the stash in time for the June/July delivery of my Patty Young knits pre-order. Don't you just love it when a plan comes together?

Get thee hence, puckering!

This picture might not look like much to you, but it's been the source of serious pleasure to me! It's a picture of cotton interlock finished with rib-knit binding. And not a pucker, stretch or ripple to be seen.

I posted my plea for help on the Ottobre Yahoo! group. And as well as some very sweet comments on the puckersome hoody, I got some excellent advice from Margaret (aka Once and Future Stash Empress). (Side note: If you want to improve your sewing, this Yahoo group is awesome. The members are uniformly polite, friendly and knowledgable. They will pour their sewing expertise over you - you just can't help but get better! And the Ottobre magazines have some of the best sewing patterns around - they're definitely worth the extra step of tracing them.)

But to return to the rippled seams: if you have sufferered from horizontal seam stretching on knits in the past and want to know how to de-pucker, Margaret recommends that you:-

1. reduce your presser foot pressure;

2. increase your stitch length;

3. (for overlockers) reduce the differential feed.

She did so in a beautifully lucid post, which explained exactly why these three steps would work. And they did! I had a happy half-hour this evening playing around with some interlock scraps and making little samples, to which I have attached notes setting out their stitch length, width, presser foot pressure and (for the serged sample) differential feed.

So all that remains is for me to retrieve the hoody and re-do the ribbing. Oh, and come up with another name for the boys' clothes collection. It turns out that 'Les Pets' on the label will set French speakers guffawing because "pets" means - well, I'd rather not say in polite company but here's a clue: it's an anagram of RAFTS. Go figure.

Addendum: Nicole from Dots & Stripes has left a comment on the Hoody post, advising that she reduces the presser foot pressure when she does horizontal seams on knits. And if you check out her blog, you can see that it really does work!

Yay! Snow and cake and tow-trucks!

We were at a sledging party today at the Snowdome in Tamworth. It's an indoor skiing place, complete with real snow (heaven knows what their fuel bills are like at the moment!) The children really enjoyed it - even Laura , who prefaced every sledging attempt with "I not going to be scared this time".

I made the 3-year old birthday boy a hoody, appliqued with a tow-truck. After last week's pinafore escapades, I was going to chicken out and use an Ottobre pattern but decided to have another attempt at drafting - after all, it's only been the pinafores that have been failures so far. And there must be something about doing boys' clothes, because this pattern came together beautifully, hood and all. It's still on the large side - I am drilling myself to remember that a centimeter on the side makes 4cm of ease, which is a fair amount on a 3 year old. And I have got to work out how to stop the cotton interlock puckering when I sew along the horizontal. I suspect having a fiddle with the differential feed may do the trick. As you can see, I used the round pockets (skanked from Ottobre!) as the wheels of the tow-truck, and experimented with a t-shirt transfer for the little motif, which reads Les Pet's Autos. I'm going to be putting it in the shop once I've cracked the puckering problem, as part of my Les Pets for Boys collection. It's nice to end the week on a high.

I've cut out (yet) another pinafore, and hope that next week I'll be able to post the final, final successful photos in the Pinafore Drafting tute.

It's a new day and a New Year!

After a handmade Christmas, I had an only slightly less handmade New Year. I have been thinking for a while about doing boys' clothes for the shop and I started the new year by making a shirt for James to wear to a New Year's Eve party. I am so tired of seeing him trot along to parties in t-shirt and jeans, no matter how nice they may be, when the little girls are arrayed in their sparkly twirly finery. His friend Benny attended the last party in a super-smart shirt and tie, and while James wouldn't be persuaded on the tie, he did think he'd like to have a nice shirt. So I got out Winifred and set to work. It's a very simple short-sleeved shirt (both James and I being new to this shirt business). I put my foot down on the yellow theme and made the shirt in a good quality quilting fabric featuring helicoptors! He really likes the print and while it'd look a bit naff on a 10 year old, it's cute for a 4 year old. He doesn't like buttons, in common with quite a few of his classmates (what IS this button thing about? I really don't get it...) so I used poppers. I have a smarter version planned with cuffs, collar stand and back yoke. Time to do a bulk buy of cheap muslin I think!

Anyway, here's a little gallery of the Christmas and New Year makes. Everyone got at least one handmade present, even if it was only a hat, and everyone seemed to really like what they got. So I had lovely holidays too!

Socks for Nigel. The self-striping yarn was such fun to use I didn't even mind making the socks extra long for my husband's extra-long feet. No pattern required because these were pretty simple, but I unfortunately did one sock in 3+1 rib and the other in 2x2 I and didn't notice until I was wrapping them up. Nigel doesn't mind though.

Milo Armadillo for Laura. My first attempt at a soft toy. He looks a bit lumpy in the tummy but that's just the photograph.

Two pairs of socks for my mother in law. She asked me for socks and I thought "Aha!" She is thrilled with them. The patterns came via Ravelry - there are so many gorgeous free patterns out there for socks - the internet knitting community is uber-generous.

Walking socks for my father in law. No pattern required - it was very simple!

Hat for sister's boyfriend - the free Lillehammer pattern found somewhere on the internet.

Beret for my sister (no pattern - it's just a beret with stripes!).

Self-drafted dressing gown pattern for Label Bear, James' special bear.

A fleece jacket from James. It's a much modified Ottobre pattern and is going to be modified more. I lined it with microfleece and so it's a little snug. It could also be reversible if it weren't for the zip. So I am going to take out the zip, add some width with a yellow placket and put on poppers. The blue microfleece is the perfect colour for my boy, so we'll both be happier once I've done the alterations.

Cabled cardigan for Laura. Hold your breath because I actually bought this pattern! Mind you, I did serious searching for a free version first before biting the bullet and parting with the cash. It's Sirdar pattern and was lovely to make and lovely to wear. I am about to start a version for myself using the Cable Luxe free pattern from Lion Brand.

I even made an Ottobre top for myself, which I absolutely adore. In fact, I've ordered 2 more Ottobre Woman magazines on the strength of it.

Hat, scarf and mittens to go with Laura's upcycled coat.

Laura in her Mary costume for the Los Posadas party. Very cute though not exactly a masterpiece of stitchery. I used one of Nigel's old t-shirts for the tunic, which is worn over James' old t-shirt.

James wore his innkeeper costume to Los Posadas.

An experiment in making bloomers. Very cute and practical. Super for soft play! I just embellished an RTW t-shirt to go with them because tempus was seriously fugiting.

Laura's Christmas outfit including the pettiskirt (I had yet another hack at it to improve the proportions... I reckon there's 14 hours of sewing gone into this one skirt.) A fleece hoody from the Olivia pattern, with some fun fur around the sleeve edges. A pair of viscose leggings completes the outfit. It is even cuter in real life - we were mobbed coming out of Mass by people wanting to tell her she was a gorgeous little angel!

Fleece digger romping trousers for James. Self-drafted pattern.

A skirt for my sister (no pattern required - just two skirt shaped pieces attached to an FOE waistband). I made her another one from an old jumper of Nigel's. This is more of a spring weight skirt, in some aqua and orange hearts I got from Nature's Fabrics Black Friday sale.

A Fair Isle beret for my mum. It was a rush job (I only started it on 21st December!) and I made a screamingly obvious mistake in the pattern. But it's still a nice beret and she really likes it.

So that's the Christmas stash. I'm looking forward to a handmade 2010, with lots of ideas for the Spring collection for both boys and girls. I hope you're looking forward to a 2010 filled with whatever it is that you do that makes you happy.