Just like mummy

Recently I was slightly perturbed when youngest asked me to make 'a miniskirt'. After further questioning, it turned out that she wanted was a mini *version* of  my skirt. Ah...

My husband jokes that I am making her in my image (as we already have similar haircuts) but of course there is a little part of me that is quite flattered she wants to be 'just like mummy' at the moment. I look forward to reminding her of this when she is a sullen teenager, when she will no doubt shriek at me for not dissuading her from matching outfits. Oh well!

But as I had a spare piece of fabric left over, it seemed foolish not to use it. So I made a rough a-line skirt pattern out of paper, just a front and a back piece, plus allowance at the top for an elasticated waist (much easier for little hands, plus I didn't have a zip to hand). And there we have it one 'mini' skirt.

And seeing as even my trusty H&M doesn't seem to have the clothes that youngest wants to wear at the moment (and I'm not prepared to pay Boden prices), making a few summer clothes for her seems the best way forward. I've already made a pair of cotton shorts (below), but in the interests of transparency must admit that this was the second go at shorts, the first pair being rather on the <ahem> voluminous side. And as they were in blue/white striped fabric, did look a little like pyjamas.

I also had a little moment in Fabricland this morning, and bought these two cute heavy cotton prints. After consultation with youngest, the pink will become a skirt and the blue birds another pair of shorts.

Catch Up

So I give up the day job and I *still* don't blog! Must try harder... So what have I been doing with myself?

Well there has been a little bit of crafting. I finally finished off this little knitted dolly (It's from a Debbie Bliss pattern I think) which had been languishing in my knitting basket for an embarrassingly long time. Typical of me I had completed all the knitting ages ago but hadn't got round to sewing it together. Luckily I had the spur of my friend A having a beautiful baby daughter so I set to and dolly was neat and trim in under an hour, just in time for a visit and squidge with the newborn.

I also made myself an A-line skirt, which although I slightly bobbinsed up inserting the zip, does function in an A-line skirt capacity i.e. it fits over my hips/bum and hangs nicely to the knee. I can now state categorically that I have made socks for each member of my family, finishing off some zingy yellow and pink ones for my daughter (well received). Pics are below.

I've been indulging in all the yummy mummy cliches too. Quite a lot of yoga has been happening (I know! formal exercise!!) and I've been meeting friends for coffee/lunch as much as I can. Including meeting up with old friends, which is especially lovely.

I'm doing my best to ignore the pull of the PTA, for fear I never escape their clutches. But baking a few cakes can't do any harm can it? I mean I can stop any time I want right? Right?! I am back being a reading buddy at school and really enjoying it, and at home I'm reading some corking books with Youngest, who's just got the book bug. We recently finished Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield, which I avoided as a child due to the ballet associations (I wasn't a fan of pink), but I've discovered that it's a great book, full of working women, with the three Fossil sisters full of ambition and determined to make their way in the world.

Next on the list is to try and get some summer clothes made whilst it's still summer. But don't quote me on that...

Happiness is a new pair of socks

Quick A-line skirt

World Book Day Costumes

Our school is one of those enthusiastic ones that goes in for fancy dress on World Book Day. Now, I know the cool parent response is to roll my eyes at being asked to come up with an outfit, but the fact is, I *love* making costumes, although having been a working parent I appreciate that finding time to do it is always an issue.

And never forget that you can get canny and develop a range of 'costumes' which are basically normal clothes plus some accessories. Step forward Charlie Bucket (t-shirt and jeans plus a golden ticket) and honourable mention to Harry and his Bucketful of Dinosaurs (t-shirt and jeans plus... well I think you can fill in the rest). Last year I'd primed youngest child to go as Little Red Riding Hoody, minimum effort from me, only to be disappointed when the school decided they weren't 'doing' WBD that year...

This year we had a theme, which was SciFi or Superheroes. Oldest is really into Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy at the moment and gave consideration to being Zaphod Beeblebrox, but this was dismissed for practical reasons of having to manage an extra head and arm during the school day. So instead we went for Han Solo, which I refuse to be apologetic about (there are Star Wars spin-off books, deal with it). Mainly though, I think he looked pretty cool. He wore his jeans with red bias binding tacked down the outside seam, with a white long-sleeve top from H&M (which I did buy specially, but he will wear again). I then made a little waistcoat from black cotton twill fabric, with a few pocket and loop details. Husband made the belt out of brown leatherette fabric and duct tape, decorated with Sharpie pens. He also made a blaster out of cardboard, and I tried not to be all liberal hand-wringing about my child playing with a toy gun.

Youngest was keen to be Catwoman, and to be honest the choices for female superheroes are a little limited, some of them are a little bit on the sexy side for a six year old. When she was younger my daughter spent quite a bit of time 'being' a character called Red Cat, so anything feline was always going to be popular. I made her a little velvet top with stand-up collar and an over-the-head mask complete with ears stiffened with cardboard. I have to confess that I mucked up the top a little. The zip was supposed to be at the back of the garment, but when Youngest tried it on it was just too tight across the shoulders (even though the velvet had a bit of stretch to it. But when we flipped it round so that the zip was at the front it was a much better fit, and even looked quite cool that way round.

I like making costumes because of the freedom it gives me to create, but also I often find I learn a new technique which helps in my other sewing. This time for example, I created my own bias binding to finish the neckline of Han's waistcoat. And Catwoman's costume taught me some useful things about accuracy in measuring and making patterns (ahem), as well as more practise with accursed zips.

And now that World Book Day is safely out of the way for another year, I can focus my efforts on sewing for ME! I've got a few projects on the go and will update soon...

Make a Pencil Skirt

So being unemployed does have its compensations, more time for sewing - yippee! I have made a bit of headway with my unfinished objects basket (finished off a denim pinafore for my daughter) been knitting squares for a blanket, plus getting costumes ready for World Book Day. So now time to start blogging about what I've been making...

I made this pencil skirt for my birthday night out in half term. These are definitely *not* the shoes I wore for the night out, that was a plenty of pints on the sticky floor kinda venue. But they look good with it I think.

So I started off by googling 'make a pencil skirt' and there are lots of great tutorials, this one on What the Craft particularly appealed to me How to make a Pencil Skirt.  Then I took my measurements. First my 'natural' waist - bend sideways as if you were singing 'I'm a little teapot' and that's where your natural waist is, seems quite high doesn't it? Then 'low' waist, which is sort of level with your belly button. Then hips, at the very widest part. Then I measured around my knees and added a little as I didn't want to be actually hobbled by this thing (more on that story later). Final measurement was from natural waist down to the point I wanted the skirt to finish, for the length of the skirt.

I made a basic paper pattern using these measurements (adding generous seam allowance) and then used this to make a practice skirt out of cheap lining material. Which was very fortunate, as the prototype turned out a little too snug (translation: it wouldn't go over my arse). So I let out all the seams equally (thanks to the generous seam allowance) and had something that basically fitted. I ended up needing to adjust it again over the hips as they then came out too big. But finally I was happy with it.  I then ripped the seams of this skirt and used them as pattern pieces for my real skirt. I found that I didn't need to add any darts.

The front is one piece and the back is in two pieces, as I needed to put a zip in as my fabric wasn't stretchy. I also planned a slit in the back for walkability reasons.

There is an invisible zip in the back of the skirt. I don't have an invisible zip foot for my machine, and although Youtube tutorials told me confidently that I could use a normal zipper foot, it didn't seem to work for me, so I ended up sewing the zip in by hand so that it truly was 'invisible'. I also machine hemmed, which I wouldn't normally do on clothes I make, because I think hand-hemmed looks nicer. But time was getting short and that red fabric frayed like a bastard...

To make the slit at the back I simply stitched around the seam that ran up the centre of the back of the skirt, up to the point I wanted the slit. Then I popped the seam up to that point with my seam ripper and removed any loose threads.

And there we have it, one party skirt, that I can walk in, and dance in.*


*but not as it turned out, go to the loo in, stairs also presented a bit of a challenge

Work in Progress

Exhibit A - un-finished objects (ufo) basket

So what a weird October huh? So unseasonally warm I was almost relieved to finally dig out my woolly tights and fuck-off big boots this week. So what have I been up to? I've been offered extra hours at work during term-time, which is great in some ways, but does mean I have less time for creative stuff - boo!

Just before half term we made a magnificent family effort and created a Anglo Saxon warrior outfit for my 8 year old for a school 'wow' day. If he's not too embarrassed I will post some pics, as he did look pretty cool (although his main interest was the weaponry - he's normally a very gentle soul, honest...). Then during half term we had a big family wedding, which involved lots of travelling but was so much fun, and we now have an Official Auntie C. Managed to squeeze in a visit from my parents too, which even meant a bit of babysitting so that husband and I could go out at the weekend and watch 1930s horror films.

Eldest child (he of the Saxon warrior fame) then celebrated his exciting half term break by suddenly vomiting late on Sunday evening, just as we were all due back at school and our respective workplaces after a week off - timing could have been better. So another day off on Monday then, oh well, better use the time to tidy up the craft stuff, in between providing weak glasses of squash and dry toast of course.

Exhibit B - frog it don't slog it

I discovered quite a few unfinished projects, which I've now gathered together in one place (Exhibit A), in the hope that I might get on and finish them. There's a couple of things that are virtually finished already, so no excuse really. But one thing I've learnt about creative work, sometimes it's better to rip it up and start again, no point slogging away on putting work into something that you don't even like. Which brings me to Exhibit B, which was half a baby blanket that I just lost enthusiasm for, and then ran out of yarn, and then the baby graduated from university (sort of kidding). You know the story... So I frogged it, and now the yarn has the chance to be something lovely.

Or maybe sit in my stash for a while longer, let's not do anything hasty ;-)

Good Enough

Having been lulled into a false sense of security in the holidays, where all I had to do was drop the children at holiday club and then go to work, it was a bit of a shock to get back into the swing of everything that primary school brings with it. So now there's lunchboxes, after school activities, listening to reading, checking spellings, dressing up days, coming up with an Anglo Saxon village crafted from weetabix and string. Possibly...

It got me thinking about my life, and whether I am 'good enough' in different areas. It's something I've also spent time talking about with other women recently, and there seem to be common themes emerging. For instance, it feels like it's not enough to just hang about at home with a toddler and a baby doing the stay-at-home-parent bit. Oh no, now you have to do that (making sure that you're doing all sorts of worthwhile and enriching activities with them, *not* mainlining Cbeebies into their eyeballs) plus setting up your own business on the side, probably involving upcycling vintage milk churns.

My children are older and at school, and as I *only* work part time my tiny little brain seems to think I should have plenty of time for not just paid work but unpaid stuff sitting on committees, helping out at school, attending *all* school events (after all, I have flexible working, there's no excuse!), cooking delicious and nutritious meals from scratch every day. Preferably using ingredients either foraged from the hedgerows or shopped for daily from chi chi la la independent retailers with whom I have a deep and personal connection.

And then there's the creative side. A quick glance at Pinterest informs me that I'm probably slacking in the homemade gift department please don't mention fucking Christmas.  And I'm not drawing enough, sewing enough or or or or...

Except of course, this is ridiculous.  I'm doing this to myself, and I'm sure there are some of you out there who do it too. So I'm trying to say to myself that I really am good enough.

My children go to school every day - big tick
I go to work and get paid - big tick
We finally have new signage outside our local community centre - big tick
I'm going to WI tonight - big tick
I've just finished a pair of socks - big tick
We will eat tea tonight - big tick

And breathe...

Apologies for the rant, I have a cold and may be a little grumpy.

Harry Potter Party

It had to happen eventually, my bookworm boychild has read the full Harry Potter cannon and developed an encyclopedic knowledge of the Hogwarts world (he even shares Harry's birthday). So when asked what he would like for his birthday celebrations, the theme was an obvious choice...

There are some incredible ideas out there for Harry Potter parties, special mention goes to the My Harry Potter Party blog, which is possibly the ultimate in Harry Potter party planning. The books have a very strongly developed 'world', and while I was browsing the internet I found it heartening to see so much creativity sparked off as people made props, decorations and food.

We didn't go too overboard, as the boy just had a couple of his friends over, one of whom hasn't read the books. But it was fun making a few things, and I thought I'd share a couple of photos to show you what we did...

Robes
I made a simple set of robes for the Birthday Boy out of some super cheap black polycotton. After a bit of measuring of limbs, I cut out two large t-shapes, cutting the front piece in half down the middle. I was aiming for a sort of academic robe look. It was very quick & dirty and I finished them off just before the party this afternoon. Machine hems all the way!

Wands

My husband made these, and they really are pretty impressive! He collected likely looking sticks from the park and stripped the bark off. Then he took slightly larger diameter sticks to make handles, drilled a small hole and glued together. They were then stained and varnished.

Potions

We knew there had to be some potion making today, so I gathered up interesting looking bottles and filled them with a variety of liquids (in reality fruit juices and water with food colouring) and attached paper labels. For the record, my son would like to point out that Dragon's blood is in fact green. We also had strawberry laces standing in for worms and various sweeties.

There was a lot of giggling as they sloshed various 'ingredients' into the pan. One of my guiding principles in life is 'never drink a blue drink', one that today's party guests would concur with. When stirred up in my Maslin pan/cauldron, they ended up with this:

Food
There is so much food in Harry Potter, another reason why it makes such a great party theme. We had normal party food (i.e. I made sandwiches, carrot sticks and hummus, and the children chose to take their calories in the form of hula hoops) with a few Harry Potter touches. So we had some Hagrid's Rock Buns, Butterbeer (Fentiman's Cola with a new label, served in glass mugs) and then chocolate frogs and Bertie Botts Every Flavour beans for party bags.

The chocolate frog mould came from Ebay, and other supplies came from Rajanis, possibly Bristol's best ever supplier of party tat. Including knock-off 'gourmet' jelly beans...

And finally...

I think this is the favourite thing that we made: Golden Snitches. Basically a Ferrero Rocher with two feathers hot glue-gunned to the sides. Talk about instant craft! We used these to play Hot & Cold (we judged that this would last longer than a free for all 'Hunt the snitch')

Making Space

Compact and bijou

Last week was half term, and I took the whole week off from work so that I could be at home with the children. It was great to have a break from the school run routine of lunch boxes and book bags.

My children are getting older, and although they have (mostly) happily shared a bedroom, my husband and I decided that now was the time to give Oldest, who will be eight in the summer, his own room. But this of course meant saying goodbye to my sewing room, and we spent the long bank holiday weekend emptying the room, cleaning, painting, hanging new curtains (nope didn't make them myself, ordered them off interweb), heaving furniture around and of course the obligatory trip to IKEA that no middle class home improvement project can do without.

My son is now installed in his new room, which he absolutely loves as it includes a massive amount of Lego and a 6ft wooden bookcase bursting with books. It's the bookcase that I had in my room when I was a child. My mum tells me that she stood in the furniture shop pondering whether she should get the small one or the tall one. Knowing my bookish ways, she went for the latter.

In the space freed up by the bookcase downstairs, we created a mini workspace for me and all my sewing gubbins. I have an extra wide set of IVAR shelves, with one of them serving as a desk for my cutting mat and sewing machine. Above is storage space for bits and bobs and my fabric stash.

Obligatory bunting

The unit is pretty tall, so plenty of storage space, but I have had to be a bit brutal and only keep the things that I *really* love. I should admit right now that I have another couple of plastic boxes of fabric stashed in the loft. I may get round to painting the unit at some point, but suspect it may stay as unfinished wood for quite some time.

I've found that having the sewing machine downstairs does mean that I've felt more in the mood to sew. It's like the machine sits there beguiling me. I've taken the plunge and started piecing strips for a mad scrappy quilt. My aim to to actually use some of my lovely bright fabrics rather than saving them for some mythical 'special' project. Let's just sew them up and see what comes out...

Knitting wise I have just started a ballet cardigan for Youngest, who recently started classes at our local community centre. She has high hopes that it will be finished in time for Saturday's class, I have endeavoured to manage her expectations somewhat.

I love looking at other people's studios and workspaces and dreaming a little. But for the time being I'm happy with my miniaturised area...

Love a bit of orderly storage

Glorious Technicolour

Last weekend we had a craft group outing to The American Museum in Bath, which this year has an exhibition of Kaffe Fassett's work, the American artist who's probably best known for knitwear and his use of colour. Some of the pics are a little shaky, as no flash photography was allowed, but I just wanted to give a little glimpse of all the lovely colours.

'I'm flying high on colour' Kaffe Fassett

It was really amazing to see such a body of work together in one place, some cases included objects collected by Kaffe which had inspired particular pieces. At the centre of the exhibition space was a recreation of his studio, no white walls here! I came home itching to make quilts and stitch together scraps of contrasting colour.

I make no apologies that the rest of this post is basically 'ooh, look at the pretty colours'. I would definitely recommend a visit to this exhibition if you're anywhere near Bath. It's on until 2 November 2014, and there's more information on the American Museum website.

Party Frocks

Who's Queen?

My mum came to visit in the Easter holidays to look after the children while I went to work (thanks mum!). On my day off we asked my daughter what she would like to do, as her older brother was off at a friends house for the day. 'Go shopping' was her prompt response. Where she's picked up the idea that shopping is a desirable activity I don't know, not from me certainly!

However, I'm always happy to browse in the fabric shop, so after running a few errands, including buying more pegs (where do they all go?!) and visiting the post office, we headed to Fabricland. Having tackled blouses I picked out a dress pattern for me and some blue polka dot material. Needless to say this is still sitting in it's carrier bag, but I'll get there eventually...

My daughter loves to look at all the different fabrics and colours, and confidently announced that "You could make me a dress, couldn't you mummy". So I guided her over to the printed cottons (after explaining that stretchy neon swimsuit fabric wasn't the ideal choice) and let her pick one. We bought a metre for less than a fiver, although in retrospect probably would have been better to get a little more to allow for facings.

When we got home I made up a simple paper pattern for the top half of the dress, using one of her vests as a guide for size. I used some of the butterfly fabric for the facings. The skirt is just a straight piece gathered at the top.

I made it over the course of a weekend, including a bit of hand sewing to finish off buttons and hems in front of the telly in the evenings. There are a few things I'd change about it, for example I'd make the waist a little higher, but in general I'm pleased that I managed to take a flat piece of fabric and make it into something that is definitely a dress.

I am also mega chuffed that daughter has chosen to wear it to a birthday party this afternoon, without any prompting from me.

Do you like the lining?

Blurry back view - model getting wriggly

Hand stitched hem

Happiness

Hello, we had our first real glimpse of spring weather this weekend and it was lovely. Bit breezy but plenty of sunshine. It was a weekend of pottering, doing jobs around the house and playing with the children. A friend came over on Saturday afternoon and we spent a pleasant few hours eating cake and making stuff. She brought her button stash along and youngest child was delighted to have a new treasure trove to trawl through.

I've been wanting to get myself a glue-gun for ages, and whilst making one of my surprises decided that I could do without one no longer and ordered a mini one from Hobbycraft. It came in handy on Saturday to make button brooches and earrings, plus I finished off surprise #4. The photo above represents one of my other surprises, which I delivered on a rather rainy Friday morning. They're hyacinth bulbs, hopefully they'll soon settle in at their new home.

In my day job I work for a charity that aims to tackle loneliness in old age. When I talk to our clients, particularly those in their 80s and 90s, it becomes so apparent that relationships and human contact are what really matters. It's really easy to get caught up in everyday life, but hanging out with friends will never be a waste of your time.

Who likes surprises?

I was going to blog last Friday, when I got caught up in running errands. Then on Saturday the rumbling earache I'd been ignoring for a week or so flared up into hot knitting needles of pain, leading me to sit sobbing in the NHS walk-in centre.

But anyway... after a week of antibiotics and strong painkillers, I'm now feeling much better and looking forward to a weekend that might actually include some sewing, hurrah!

Last weekend I was expertly looked after by my other half (I on the other hand am definitely not a Florence Nightingale, and really must make more of an effort next time he's ill) so a Sunday roast and probably some home-made cake will be on the agenda too, because I think he's earned it. I'm also lucky to have some great mates who helped out with school runs on Monday, you know who you are, and thank you!

Biscuits also played an important part in my convalescence, the tin above was a Facebook surprise present from my mate Jo. Knowing me as she does, she knows I appreciate biscuits, but even better than that, a lovely tin to put things in. Now it holds little more than crumbs, I shall find a space for it in my sewing stash - maybe for buttons? And now I'm feeling better I can pay forward the surprise, so here's the deal:

The first five people to post a comment on here or on the link I'm about to post on my Facebook page will receive a little surprise. It probably won't be biscuits, but it will be something nice...

Festive Crafts

Now that my children are 7 and nearly 5, we've finally reached the stage where they will sit quietly and do craft activities, and the whole experience is a lot less stressful than when they were toddlers. This afternoon they very much enjoyed some craft kits from Baker Ross including paper-chains and colour your own Christmas crackers.

After many years of fretting about doing 'enough' at Christmas, I think I've finally learnt not to get too bothered - as an old friend of mine likes to say, to "let the ash drop off..."

I've bought presents and food, but not stupid amounts. We have some tinsel and lights up. I also had a day off yesterday with the Husband, before the children broke up from school. We both did a big cleaning blitz and got rid of a whole load of junk that had previously spent most of its time being shuffled from place to place or ignored completely while we were caught up in working and school routines.

Also this afternoon we 'made' a Christmas wreath. I say made, but what I actually did was buy a plain fir wreath from the local florists for £4 and then add a few bits and pieces from the craft stash. I used thin wire to attach some holly sprigs from the garden (much swearing, fiddly *and* prickly - yay!). The 'berries' are red wooden beads attached with more wire, along with some little gilt bells and a scrap of fabric for a bow. Just hoping it doesn't get blown away - it's pretty wet and wild here tonight.

And tomorrow some friends and their children are coming round for Christmas drinks and nibbles. I'll happily serve up shop bought snacks and crack open the mini-keg of Bath Ales that we've bought for the occasion.

Today is the winter solstice, which means lighter days are on the way. Have a wonderful and peaceful Christmas wherever you are. See you in 2014 for more making and wittering. Thanks for reading :)

Made to Measure

It's been nearly six weeks since my last blog post, and it's no co-incidence that I started my new job about six weeks ago. But I've finally managed to produce something worth blogging about - hurrah! I said in my last blog post that I'd been inspired by the Great British Sewing Bee, and something I've wanted to do for ages was make some clothes for me.

So I bought myself a pattern for a tunic blouse (it's Simplicity pattern ref 2365, if you're interested), trotted to Fabricland for some cheap bright cotton fabric, thread and interfacing and then did absolutely nothing with it for about three weeks... I found that by the time I'd done my stint in the office, picked up the children from school/preschool, cooked tea and sent them bedwards I felt a bit brain dead and more inclined to slump in front of the telly than start whipping up a blouse.

Phwoar, look at the sleeves on that!

However, I gradually got up the courage to start reading the instructions on the pattern and start cutting fabric. This seemed to take approximately a week, but eventually I had all the pieces I needed. It took about another week before I started to actually sew one bit to another, and when I started to do that, something really exciting happened...

You see as I followed the instructions to stitch piece X to piece Y, to clip notches, press seams, baste this that or the other, an actual piece of clothing started to emerge! And quite quickly I had a torso of a blouse to show for my exertions. The sleeves were quite anxiety inducing, particularly fitting them to the body of the blouse, but I got there in the end.

Headless model shows off blouse

I probably should have started with something a little simpler for my first project, like a nice A-line skirt, but something bloody-minded in me wanted to make something a bit more challenging, and I'm most proud of the fiddly detail bits like the tucks along the front (I think they're called pin-tucks?) and the tab detail on the sleeves. And although there are some small mistakes in it, it's a style that I would have been happy to spend money on in a clothes shop - some of the clothes patterns in 'simple' sewing books are a bit floaty hippy for my taste. I don't like patchouli either...

Anyhow, I'm pleased with it (you can just see the traces of smugness playing about my mouth in the photo) and it's made me keen to make more clothes. I'd definitely encourage anyone with a sewing machine and a gap in their wardrobe to give it ago. With a little bit of sewing skill and a lot of muttered swearing, who knows what might happen?

Buzzing

I'm approaching the end of my last week at home full time with the children and I've been sure to fill it with stay at home mum clichéd activities. So there's been home-made houmous and flapjack, a promise to make bunting for a friend's wedding, meeting old friends for coffee, a picnic in the park, feeding the ducks and supervising countless artworks by Youngest. 

I even bought some shoes - ok so they're sensible Clarks ones for work, but y'know, all those Yummy Mummy points have to add up somehow...

All in all a pretty good week, the sun even came out several times, miraculous! I've also done all the practical stuff, including sorting out a rota of people to pick up Youngest from preschool, as although the job fits into a 9-3 school day, preschool sessions are only from 9-12, meaning a bit of juggling before we get to the school holidays (and the wonders of holiday club).

Yesterday evening I caught up on the most recent episode of The Great British Sewing Bee, where one of the tasks was to make a child's sundress. I've always wanted to make clothes, and this project seems simple enough for a beginner. I happened to have some shirring elastic to hand, so spent 10 minutes earlier doing some test runs on scrap fabric. I've found a piece of eye-wateringly bright floral fabric that was approved of by my daughter that should be just big enough for the job. I'll have a bash at it at the weekend (may not do such faffy straps as on telly).

I even managed to score a few buttons to add to the button jar at my friendly local charity shop. It did feel a little like buying something a bit 'specialist' as they keep them under the counter for the discerning customer...

If you're inspired by the BBC's Sewing Bee, A Hell of a Woman is running a Great Twitter Sewing Bee Challenge over on her blog, which would be great to link up with. Happy sewing :)

A Bit Sketchy

When I was in paid employment, I used to be sent on training courses. These would invariably start with a session with the flipchart with lots of earnest batting about of words such as 'synergy' and 'facilitating outcomes'. Still, the refreshments were usually good and you'd occasionally meet someone with a really interesting career history (sadly this was not often the person leading the course).

So now I'm one of those 'Stay at Home Parent' types, are there the same range of exciting development opportunities available? Well, not really. .. There is an incredible amount of noise around all the baby stuff I admit, much advice is thrust at you from a variety of sources, some more credible than others. With my first baby I dutifully trooped off to a post-natal group when the boy was about 3 months old. The first session involved going round the room and telling about our terrible birth experiences (no flipchart this time). I was last in the circle and by the time we'd sat through a litany of emergency caesarians, horrific instrumental deliveries and episiotomies, I was a bit embarrassed to mumble that I'd had a fairly straightforward birth and felt pretty much ok about it thanks.

Now my children are past the baby stage there seems to be an expectation that as I've managed to keep them alive and unharmed for this long, I must know what I'm doing. So instead of taking on a training course along the lines of of "7 Habits of Effective Children" or "Feel the Playdoh and Do it Anyway", I decided to do something more fun, which is where the picture above comes in.

I've been saying for ages that I want to do more drawing, but I never got round to doing anything about it. So I've signed up for 5-week 'Learn to Draw' course at Bristol Folkhouse, which is a fantastic adult education centre. It's been going in one form or another since the 1870s, when it was founded to keep working class men out of the pub and give them a chance to learn to read and write instead. These days it's a charity and a co-operative and runs a whole range of arts, crafts, music, languages and fitness classes. I did a pottery course there a couple of years ago and absolutely loved it. I have plenty of wonky pots dotted around the house too.

The first drawing session was yesterday and I really enjoyed myself. It's a really good basics of drawing course, with a wonderfully encouraging tutor. We looked at basic shapes and did some simple exercises before sketching some rosehips. Next week we're moving on to tone.

My youngest loves to draw, and does so with the absolute self-confidence of a four-year-old, producing vast quantities of artwork (Octonauts often feature). Next time she sits down with her crayons I think I'll join her, take a line for a walk and see where it goes...

January

Let's face it, January is a month that's a bit of a struggle. Christmas is over and done with, it's still dark and cold, and there are a whole thirty-one days of it. I know I shouldn't be wishing my life away, but I can't help feeling glad that January is coming to an end for another year, and the fact that it's getting dark at 5 rather than 4pm is definitely a cause for celebration.

So I'm trying to focus on the things that make January more enjoyable. For me these are:

Socialising with friends - especially if this involves playing games. And I'm not talking about nudge nudge games, I'm firmly in the good clean fun camp of card games and Scrabble.

Craft night - last Thursday I had a streaming cold and the last thing that I wanted to do was to go out in the cold after wrangling children all day. But I booted and scarfed myself and stomped off down the road (a bit of exercise too, bargain). Two hours in a warm room knitting and chatting and I was renewed and inspired. There's a bit of a quilt plan bubbling too, hence the photo.

Volunteering - I know this sounds a bit worthy, but I don't just volunteer because I'm a nice person, I really feel like I get something out of it too. I've been reading at the school three mornings a week and both the girls  I read with have moved up several levels (this is a big deal when you're six) and the pride they have in their achievements gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. Hurrah, I'm useful!

Plans - it's always good to have something to look forward to, so I've booked a short drawing course at Bristol Folkhouse, which starts after half term. And my mum is coming to stay when the children are off school, which always seems to make things run more smoothly.

Whilst mulling over this post I googled 'happiness' and discovered the Action for Happiness site. Now, I've had depression, and I'm not naive enough to think that it can be overcome by thinking happy thoughts, but a lot of it makes good sense. In particular the 10 keys to happier living, and I was pleased to see that my list matches up with theirs pretty well.

How's your January going?

Hush a bye dolly

So as I posted recently, I've forbidden myself to buy any new craft supplies in January and to instead concentrate on projects that use what I already have. And so I give you... the Dolly Bed. It's for my youngest, who has just turned four. She has two dolls, one called Florence (pictured) and one called Nip Nip. Don't ask...

My daughter is funny and independent and quirky and all those wonderful things, but also at the moment we're going through what I like to call the Farking Horrible Fours. Like the Terrible Twos but more decibels and the fact that distraction no longer works. The paddies are few and far between, but when they do come they are legendary. Last night there was a difference of opinion over walking up stairs to bed and it didn't end well. Well, actually after a considerable amount of screaming, the poor girl admitted between sobs that she didn't know why she was crying and demanded a cuddle and a song, which is quite a sweet ending. Many choruses of You are My Sunshine later she finally agreed to put her pyjamas on and was suddenly back to her sunny self as if she hadn't been screaming and kicking with rage for the previous twenty minutes.

However, she has been very interested in the making process for this project, and has been making flattering noises, so I s'pose she's forgiven.

The bed itself is made from an old shoebox. I cut down the sides a little as when I first popped the doll in, it looked a little (a lot) like a doll in a coffin - not really the look I was aiming for. The header is made from half of the shoebox lid.

The mattress is made from a scrap of old sheet with a few layers of wadding left over from last year's rainbow quilt. Then I moved on to a mini quilt as a cover, which uses fabric I had left over from H's wedding bunting. I settled on a simple patchwork of squares which I machine sewed. I used a scrap of an old fleece blanket in the middle of the 'sandwich' as the wadding I had was too thick.

A fat quarter of mint green from the stash provided a backing.I really enjoyed hand-quilting this project, very satisfying and quite soothing. The edges are bound with some white woven tape, again left over from bunting production.

Somehow it's suddenly 3pm again, so I'm off to retrieve my offspring and maybe run through a few show tunes, we'll see how things pan out.

p.s. this project has just given me the itch to to a proper massive big quilt <plots> Watch this space...

Sparkly Things

Youngest child is back to full health, and was badgering to go to preschool this morning (thank god for that - I'm not great at sustaining patience during the 'getting better but still really whingy' stage of illness). So it was time to fight my way past the piles of Christmas presents in the study and get making. We're also hiding two bikes in there, so it was a little cramped.

I found out yesterday that I didn't get shortlisted for a job that I really wanted a shot at. I also found out that they had 170 applications for the post - talk about stiff competition! I just have to be grateful that at least we can manage on one salary, and that whilst I would love to be working at the moment, others are in a much worse position employment-wise. As a SAHP it's hard not to feel the fear that I will be financially dependent on my husband forever, but I just have to trust that we'll find our way through.

I'm also trying to see it as an opportunity, as going out to work would mean less time for other things. So I'll keep doing the worthy bit, volunteering on committees, helping out at the school etc. After all, someone has to keep the Big Society going, eh Dave? Then of course there's all that shopping, lunching and making myself purty for my man, that takes up a fair amount of my time...

Nah, not really. I'm off down the pub now to meet up with my craft group. Cheers!

Fabric Advent Calendar

It's done! I have made my children a fabric advent calendar in time for the start of advent. And despite the grumbles about lack of chocolate or Moshi Monsters, they seem fairly pleased with it. Of course it's not really finished, as I've only made the little decorations up to about day seventeen... But the remaining pieces are all cut and I've embroidered most of the numbers. Now just a case of sewing them all up.

We celebrated the first day of December yesterday by watching our Snowman/Father Christmas DVD straight after breakfast. Now I love Raymond Briggs (we have the Father Christmas books too), but this particular DVD did get watched rather a lot last year. By  February I was begging for relief so did tactically 'lose' it for a while until they'd forgotten about it. There's also the fact that my sensitive six year old bursts into tears at the end of The Snowman. Every. Single. Time. My hard-hearted three year old couldn't care less.

Husband was also despatched yesterday to buy a Christmas tree, and returned with a dinky little pot-grown one. I like to have one with roots as we tend to get a couple of year's use out of a tree like this, it goes out into the garden in a gert big pot in between Christmasses.

Hopefully now I can get on with making a few more bits and pieces to sell, as I've booked a stall at the Ematingz Christmas market on 15 December. I have a lovely bundle of retro style fabrics from Seamstar that is just begging to be fashioned into some patchwork stockings. If you're in Bristol that weekend, do pop over to Easton Community Centre.

Update - I've just added this post to the Mumsnet Craft Round-up. Check out this link for more festive craft ideas.