I can't think of a witty and concise title

I'm just going to pretend that it hasn't been nearly two years since I last blogged OK? Just going to dive right in and blether about my inconsequential life and a bit of sewing. Normal service has been resumed etc etc.

Except that things don't seem to be too normal right now, in fact this if this is the new normal, I'd rather stop being a grown-up. Brexit, terrorism, the complete fucking mess of the general election, followed by the likelihood that residents of Grenfell Tower have lost their lives due to rampant pursuit of profit rather than making sure homes are fit for habitation. Add to that the fact that my local council is slashing services across the board, because our Tory government is starving them of funds. The fact that once places like local libraries are closed, the buildings can be flogged to private investors to build yet more 'luxury appartments'. I'm usually a fairly chipper type, I'm generally optimistic, but this is hard stuff.

I had a brief trip to A&E with youngest last night, who had managed to bang her head on a wall. The service was amazing. We were triaged within ten minutes of arriving, the doctor was friendly and approachable with my daughter as she quickly checked over her eyes and ears. The doctor then encouraged my daughter to hold my hand while she prodded the massive egg on her forehead to make sure there wasn't any serious damage. And I didn't even have to worry about how I was going to pay for my child's medical treatment, bargain! Free at the point of delivery see... So while this was a wonderful experience and we were back home within two hours of the head banging incident, it only served to depress me further about the looming privatisation of the NHS.

Wouldn't it be handy if we had a system where we all put some money into a pot to pay for all the things that we jointly need as a society? Those of us who have more money could put in more to subsidise those who have less. Oh hang on a minute, I think there's a word for this...

Because I'm tired of being told there's no money for things. I look around my city, and I look around London, and there's plenty of it sloshing about.

There are things that I'm trying to hang onto, to retain my faith in humanity. One is the turnout in the recent election, particularly by young people. That gives me a little hope. And in a small way by putting my voluntary labour into a local community building, I'm helping to cling on to one little piece of public space in our neighbourhood. I may be living in a Bristol bubble, but I also take comfort in the fact that on the morning after the election I overheard three separate political discussions on the school run, and not from the usual suspects. I would love to believe that 2017 is when things start to change, and in a good way for once, not continuing our slide into the shit.

Here's where I could insert a whimsical bit about how my children are my joy and one bright spot in a dark world. But I'm not really that sort of blogger, so you'll just have to fill that bit in yourself. Oh and here's the sewing bit, I made a new hairband for my daughter, to keep her hair out of her face and hopefully avoid another head bounce off wall incident.

Tune in next time for the next thrilling instalment...

Making It

If I was a proper craft blogger, the photo here would be a beautifully composed arty shot of my handmade clothes flying on a traditional washing line (with authentic vintage pegs) against a beautifully tweaked blue sky. But I'm not.  So it isn't. Instead it's a quick snap I took on my phone while hanging up my washing on a slightly grey day.

But the reason I took it and why I include it here, is because it helps to illustrate some of the things I feel about making and sewing. I've been making stuff for most of my life - my mother says she was constantly in trouble for asking me to tidy up 'work in progress', but have got back more into sewing when I started this blog over four years ago. And one of the things I've been thinking about is the little buzz of pleasure I get to see handmade things around my home, and not just made by me but by my children and my husband. Clothes, quilts, toys, furniture, pictures, pottery, weird 3D printed widgets... All things that are used but are also lovely and custom made to fit our lives.

So even putting the washing out becomes more fun :)

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

Learning to Let it Go...

Firstly, apologies for the pun in the title, I just couldn't resist it... Even if you haven't spent any time recently  in the company of a girl under the age of eight, the Disney film Frozen has probably entered your conciousness on some level. But more of that later.

I hope you had a peaceful Christmas. Ours was very enjoyable, and although I hadn't made a Pinterest board of all the things I was going to make for Perfect Christmas, a fair amount of handmade festive things happened anyway, now I come to look back on it. I also completely relaxed about the children eating rubbish and watching telly, which has made the holiday particularly peaceful. I've warned them that it's back to gruel and strictly educational programmes for just 15 minutes a day come Monday.

Home-made stuff that I did this year included: Damson Gin (dead easy, just put damsons, gin and sugar into a big jar and leave in a cupboard for months), Christmas cake (easy to make in advance), and Gingerbread Houses (this was a bit faffy, but the children really enjoyed it). I also had a couple of lovely table decorations that were made by a very talented fellow WI member for our Christmas night out in mid-December. As the foliage was fresh it was looking a bit sad by Christmas so I headed out into the garden with a pair of scissors for new supplies. So I kind of made it myself, and will definitely be stealing this idea (and saving the pot & ribbon) for next year.

But of course I'm also desperate to be the kind of mother who just whips up a fancy dress costume with her sewing machine, so I did add a little stress to myself by promising youngest child a Frozen dress for Christmas. I used McCalls Costume pattern M7000, ended up going for the smallest size (3-4 years) as any bigger and it would have swamped my daughter, who has just turned six. Fabric came from trusty Fabricland, a slippery blue/silver slightly stretch jersey type stuff for the main dress and the net curtainy gauzy stuff (shown at the top of the page) with printed snowflakes and glitter for the top layer. There is a bit of lining on the bodice, I just used some grey cotton fabric I had in my stash. I muttered a bit about whether I really needed to do the lining at first, but it really does pull the costume together and make it more comfortable to wear.

Although I started at the beginning of December I was *of course* still sewing on Christmas Eve. All was going well until I buggered up putting in one of the sleeves and had to unpick it and re-do. But instead of stressing like I normally do (well, ok, there was a teeny bit of tension) I made a list of jobs that needed to be done and handed them over to husband. So he made mince pies while I sat and sewed, then the children decorated the cake (with Nana's help) while I sat and sewed. But by about 8pm the dress was done and I could knock back the mulled cider with abandon.

So was it worth it?

Absolutely YES! Smallest child is delighted with her dress and has been wearing it and twirling round the house in it pretty much constantly since. And I learnt a lot whilst making it (not least putting in a zip properly). Settling down on the sofa to finally watch the film on Christmas Day with her is a memory I will definitely treasure.

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

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

Mothballed

This really is a poor neglected blog. A steady trickle of visitors find it every day, so if you're reading this - hello, how's things with you?

I suppose that it's a bit of a cliché that I pretty much stopped blogging as soon as I started paid employment, because before that the blog filled the little slot marked "it's not all about the kids y'know... what about meeeeee!". But there you go, it is what it is.

So what have I been up to in the last 3 months or so? Well, there was a *bit* of sewing and creative work. I organised a pop-up tea room as part of a local community festival and made an appliqué banner out of stash oddments and an old bedsheet. I also did some quick tablecloths by buying cheap gingham from Fabricland and hemming it fast and furiously. And then made a squillion scones and a couple of cakes.

It was a lovely day and we had an amazing team of volunteers serving teas. We completely sold out by the end of the day and made over £150 for the local community centre.

And talking of the community centre, another thing that has made me very happy was finally getting round to putting up a new website for the place. It's pretty basic (uses Blogger) but is sooooo much better than what we had before, and can be updated much more easily. It's here if you'd like to take a look (probably only relevant if you're in East Bristol, but hey!).

I'm also very excited about a new Women's Institute group that's setting up locally. Amazing group of women with lots of plans, we're having a launch party in September.

The fabric at the top of the page is a lovely print from the aforementioned Fabricland that I'm hoping to make into a blouse very soon. This may actually happen, as I have a completely child and husband free weekend coming, where I'll have the house to myself to strew bobbins with abandon. Anyway, my tea's ready, better go...

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 :)

Ch ch ch changes...

This post has been swirling around in my head for the last week or two. I've not been focussing on the creative side of life so much recently and there's been a few reasons for that. One prosaic one is that it's been the school holidays and I've been a DIY widow for most of it whilst my husband and his brother fitted a new kitchen in their mum's house.

As my children get older and theoretically more able to entertain themselves I find that they often seem to want more of my attention when we are together. Riding bikes is more fun if a parent is there to see how proficient you've become, even better if they're happy to get on their own bike and ride alongside. I think we're all aware that we're moving out of the baby/toddler/preschool stage, as Youngest will be starting at full time school in September. I watch my fiercely independent daughter as she masters such tricky things as putting on her own socks, and tackling the fiddly zip on her coat. She's so proud of her achievements, but also needs the reassurance that she is still little enough to be looked after when she needs it. "I want to stay with you forever Mummy" is a fairly constant refrain.

The other thing that's been occupying my time is job hunting, and I'm pleased to say that this time it appears to have been successful. I've been offered a part-time admin job with a small local charity which should fit round school hours (bit of a holy grail post-children). It's my first step back into paid employment after nearly four and a half years at home full time. I'm nervous but excited to make a start on something new.

I should probably insert a cliche about new beginnings/springtime here... (but I'm sure you can provide your own).

The picure about shows the one creative project that I have on the go at the moment. It was a bit of an experiment with a couple of cheap rolls of fabric strips. It's pretty much done, I just have to finish sewing the binding around the edges. It's not huge, but should keep toes warm whilst curling up on the sofa of an evening (as it's still pretty nippy around here).

When I started this blog two years ago, one of the things I wanted it to be was a creative scrapbook of projects I've worked on.  I think I've managed to achieve that, and it's satisfying to have a record.  I'm not sure how much time I'll have for sewing and blogging over the next couple of months, but I'll check in when I can.

Thanks for reading :)

Presenting Mr Wonka!

It's done, phew! Ok, so maybe a cardboard top hat of unusual size is not the most practical of headgear on a rainy day in Bristol, but we got there...

Willy Wonka

Hat: made from A2 piece of black card, lots of sellotape and swearing
Bow-tie: yellow spotty ribbon hastily stitched to a piece of elastic
Coat: purple velvet, lapels and everything, hurrah
Waistcoat: silky gold dragon fabric, made from my old dressing gown
Golden ticket: model's own

Very Hungry Caterpillar

And not wishing to be left out, youngest was happy to reuse a Very Hungry Caterpillar costume that I made a few years ago (we made a new hat together, so that cutting and sticking ain't faux naive it's just plain naive). The body bit is basically a sack with an elasticated neck and seams popped at judicious points to make arm holes. Thanks to Aunty C for coming up with the idea in the first place.

Next year I'm totally stitching gert big leaves to this costume and calling it a Beanstalk...

You can read more about creating the Wonka costume here. And Mumsnet is hosting a Blog Hop about World Book Day costumes here.

World Book Day

My son and I have a deal for World Book Day. He's just got into reading Roald Dahl, and one of his favourite books (I've read it at least 10 times mum!) is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. So the deal is... I will attempt to make a Willy Wonka costume for him, but if it doesn't work or doesn't get finished in time then he can go as Charlie Bucket - which is basically your own clothes plus a golden ticket. Excellent.

Having never done any dressmaking (bar a circle skirt for a party last year), it seemed that a purple velvet tailcoat for a six year old was the perfect place to start. I made a paper pattern by drawing round the boy's school jumper, and worked out that one metre of fabric should do the job. Fabricland provided some fab velvet of just the right shade of purple. I cut out the pieces, and was even clever enough to cut out two sleeves.

Then I threaded up the trusty sewing machine with some purple thread and got going on all the seams. It was all pretty quick and dirty, as sewing a fancy dress outfit is all about what the costume looks like on the outside, for one day. Well, that's what I kept telling myself. Turns out velvet frays quite a bit, ho hum.

I re-used the jacket pattern to make a waistcoat from an old dressing gown of mine. Turns out (cheap) woven silk frays even more than velvet.

By this point I decided that velcro was the way to go for fastenings, as I'm not spending hours handcrafting buttonholes for a costume that will probably be trashed by the end of the day. As luck would have it I still had just enough left over from the Dolly Nappy.

Current state of play is that the waistcoat is finished, the coat is just waiting for final touches. When the boy gets home from school we're planning to wrestle with a large piece of black card and make a top hat. Oh and a bit of spotty ribbon has to transform itself into a bow-tie.

Only slight fly in the ointment is that youngest was sent home from preschool today with possible ear infection. Main symptoms seem to be lots of whinging/crying and clutching ears. I do so enjoy craft sessions with the accompaniment of a poorly child. Still, amazing what a dose of Calpol can achieve.*

Suddenly that Charlie Bucket costume is looking very attractive...

*other super sweet kiddie painkillers are available

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...

New Year, New Projects

I hope you've had an enjoyable Christmas. We stayed at home this year and so was just the four of us, which was really lovely. For the first time it seemed that our children (now 4 and 6) were young enough to be excited about Christmas, but old enough not to be such bloody hard work.

For the past six years, broken sleep, nappies and all the day to day slogging of looking after young children sort of takes the shine off the festive period. And being woken up after a night of too much mulled wine at sparrows fart was too much to contemplate.

But this year I sat with my excited children at 6.30am on Christmas Day as they competed to show me what Father Christmas had brought in their stockings. Oldest had been asking some awkward questions about the existence of the big man, but this year was convinced as he'd got a Hexbug Nano in his stocking which apparently showed that "I think FC really knows me, because he knew I'd like a Hexbug and I hadn't even said anything". I'm not about to mess about with icing sugar footprints or any other kind of glittery shit, but I'm glad that the belief was still there, at least for this year. I can just about remember the pant-wetting excitement of feeling a lumpy stocking at the foot of the bed and just knowing that 'he's been!'.

I had a few crafty presents among my gifts and also rather excitingly, a digital radio. This will go up in the study so that I can listen to Radio 4 as I stitch - bliss! This is traditionally the time of year to think about plans for the new year, resolutions and all that jazz. I'm planning to kick off 2013 with a bit of a crafting detox. Basically I have banned myself from buying anything new in January, any projects will have to use materials already in the house. And trust me, there's plenty in the stash to be going on with...

I have a couple of birthday presents to sort for January (I think knitted gifts may feature) and I have a box of card blanks left over from Christmas so I have no excuse not to make the cards as well. I'd also like to make a little dolly bed for Youngest and am eyeing up a handy-looking shoebox. But for now my presence is demanded at the great Lego contruction (as it is of course still raining, this being Bristol and all).

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.