A lesson in fabric choice

I love my original black and white Coco top so much that I decided to make a red one and accordingly bought some striped Ponte Roma from Ebay. It was only a tenner so was worth a punt. Well, when it arrived it wasn't as thick as the (twice as expensive) black and white fabric but was lovely and soft - more like a cotton jersey knit. And it was nice and wide. So I decided in my infinite wisdom to make a Coco dress  instead. It worked out okay in the end but was not without its challenges!

My mistake was using such a stretchy fabric with too much drape and not enough structure. The a-line shape at the bottom especially needs it. Because it's drafted to stick out slightly, when mine didn't? The side seams were an inch lower than the centre front and back. Grr. And it was too long and frumpy looking. And that armscye has gotten all stretched, you can see it in the photo below. See how the armpit doesn't actually GO to my pit? That. And, to top it all, the sleeves themselves are a bit baggy. Which they are in my other Cocos but you really see it in the soft fabric.  Oh, and this was after I'd sewn half the thing with the wrong seam allowance (3/8 instead of 5/8) AND when tracing the pattern hadn't graded the waistline in a size like I did on my tops. And wondered why it was like a tent when I tried it on. *rollseyes* But I fixed all of the mistakes and some of the problems (chopping and reshaping the hem being the biggest.)

But it's skill kinda cute. And is SO comfy and I can wear my new shoes with it. They are Anarchic Mary-Janes by TUK and, yes, they have skull buckles. Whee!

I was hoping to have 5 outfits to wear to work for Me Made May and I'm up at 8 already! With one skirt needing a top and one scarey pattern-matching nightmare shirt waiting in the wings to be sewn. Which means I may get two weeks of me-made outfits before May. Yaas!

Can you tell which photoshoot Chook was available for David Bailey-ing purposes? Heh heh.

Garment Deets:

Pattern: Tilly and the Buttons Coco dress

Fabric: Ponte Roma, polyester/viscose/lycra, 148cm wide x 2metres

Size and changes made: Size 4 graded to size 3 waist, boat neck and full length sleeve. Hem raised by 3 inches and also curved from 5 inches out from center front to side seam by 1 inch (so side seam is 4 inches shorter than pattern)

Accessorising

No garments today - aren't you glad! I got something finished that I planned last summer, though, a birthstone necklace for me. After buying the supplies from Jewellery Maker (in September!!) I couldn't think exactly how I wanted to construct it. My August birthday gives me peridot as my stone and as I love green? Perfect. Pretty, no?

The other stones are faceted snowflake obsidian and peacock pearls. The pearls and peridot both have tiny holes so needed something fine to use for construction. They have been snuggled away in a basket waiting for inspiration and when I spied Chook's roll of tigertail wire the other day I was blinded by simplicity.  

 I just threaded them on in groups of three, alternating the order of the end beads and separating them with a little double Sterling silver seed bead. The lock came in a kit with other findings, it's unnecessary for function but adds a nice detail. I adore the lustre on those pearls and am so chuffed with its understated bling.

And today these came. Chunky Mary Janes to wear with all my new wardrobe skirts. They make my feet look tiny!

And, yes, that's skull buckles. Coz why wouldn't ya? *g* 

Now I really should go and cut out the collar for another Ondee sweater. Although due to the cotton jersey this one is more of a t shirt - I'm not sure about it but am finishing it anyway!

Love all the fandoms

She was shopping in town today. Away on the train with a friend for Mother's Day stuff.

(For easy reference: Panic! At The Disco tee, Attack on Titan hoodie and Liberty zodiac vans.)

There may or may not have been an ulterior motive when she returned with a pair of these. She's been saving up since Christmas - her skinny calves just about fill them. 

Yes,  there's no mistaking her for my child. Black band tee and everything! 

She wants her hair dip dyed black next week in lieu of her usual purpley brown. Not even fourteen and the alternative streak is strong - sixteen will be all  sorts of fun, no? I'm thrilled to bits - I can do alternative mentoring, it's fake tans and false nails we'd struggle with!

Busy, busy

So there's been lots of... stuff... happening the last few days round these parts. The nicest of which was me turning another year older! 

My Wee Chookie outdid herself and asked my mum to take her shopping to spend money she'd saved from her holiday fund. She had asked if I wanted anything in particular and under duress (13 year olds are past masters at pestering, no?) I mentioned the photo frame for my favourite photo* had finally bitten the dust after one too many paw-pats off the window ledge. Her choice of replacement is sterling, I think. There was also favourite chocs, nail varnish and a killer solar powered dragonfly for the garden. The girl done good!

I had asked the big members of the fam for Trollbeads for my necklace. They did not disappoint!! And my friend totally hit the nail on the head with that wee dragon on the top, heh heh.

(that bottom bead,"Blizzard"? Glows in the dark!)

Ooh, and these chaps? These are about to be bought with the voucher my brother and his wife furnished me with for that finest trainer emporium, Schuh. And Adidas Gazelles are just about the finest of finest in the gutties stakes.

And besides an awesome birthday? Well there was a less-awesome unexpected trip to the dental hospital when the top of Chook's zombie tooth turned pink. Pink!! Turns out it's her gum growing inside the tooth. Which should give you some measure of how truly fecked the root is inside. So we're at the end of the road for the valiant wee tooth - what is left of it gets pulled at the end of September (10 days short of the 5th anniversary of it being knocked out - it wasn't expected to last 6 months!!) and we find a new kind of normal for the time being with a brace-with-tooth plate type thing. Here's her brave-girl sushi on the homeward bound train. 

And Spouse is unexpectedly working in Ireland this week. Including an 8 hour journey there yesterday and the same home today. Great planning by his work!! I'm on holiday myself until Thursday and spent yesterday watching Thor 2, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: TWS, Step Up and Save the Last Dance. There is a Lynz-shaped dent in the couch. I may try and make it out of the house today. Or, I might start my new Moss Mini with this awesome canvas!

But I think I may knit some of my shawl. Decisions, decisions. *g*

*The photo was sneakily taken by the photographer at my brother's wedding in 2006. Chook's looking really anxious having just done her flower girl aisle walking duties (only me and her will ever know what it took that shy wee 4 year old to actually do it) and I'm in the middle of telling her how perfect she was and how proud I am of her. And that's Beloved Wee Granny smiling in the background. Best reportage ever!

ordinary life

Whoops, almost another week and no blog? There's not been much making happening here lately - just knitting of the green shawl. Which is going slowly and swearingly but well, I think. But we've had some little things going on.

We've been trying out a new riding school. Not as a replacement for where we are but as an as-well-as. It is right out in the country and so pretty! You can just see Chook on Torrie the pony in the background.

My view to the right. The farmer was out ploughing his fields just before I took this.

And, a rather lovely thing for me, they have a wee tearoom in the farmhouse! So I had a beautiful pot of mango and passion fruit Rooibos tea and a cherry scone (fresh from the oven!) with homemade apple jelly. Nom nom!

What else? Chook continues to play her baritone horn - I bought her sheet music of her favourite song. She has also announced she would really like a ukulele for her birthday in July. Awesome!

She has an interesting inter-departmental thing this afternoon at school. The technology, home economics, music and business & computing departments have been running a "coffee shop challenge" and her team is in the final! There has been design work (including posters and loyalty cards), an advertising jingle and menu planned. They are baking, feeding and making bevereges for 16. Their shop "Kawaii Koffee" has a Japanese theme - hence the cutesy badges she made for them to wear. I'll hear all about it later, no doubt.

I got new shoes. Irregular Choice, natch. Ignore the ugly background in this photo, I'm at work! (Editing to add, I'm not wearing them TO work, they were just delivered here! I am a lab tech and walk the almost-mile most days, I wear Clarks flats!)

And the cats are doing what our cats do. Which means Temple is chasing other cats from our garden and marking his territory (and I am trying like mad to not have him spraying in the house. So good so far!) and Jones is so chilled out he is horizontal. "Hey, laydeez!"

Normal, ordinary life. Just how I like it. 

all about the feet, 'bout the feet, no fingers

This post is brought to you by the letter F. No, not that F word. Feet. And also finish-along. But more on that later. And please excuse the grainy photos, if I waited for some decent daylight I wouldn't blog til about March!

After the great wardrobe renovation of last weekend my thoughts have turned to my own closet. I've had a bit of a clear out and unwittingly caused some horrified exclamations on Instagram when I announced I was chucking these shoes in the direction of the charity shop. You see, they are my wedding sandals. Dun dun duuuuuuuun!

I haven't worn them in the 15 years since my wedding, they cost £15 in a local cheap shoe shop (I'd been thwarted at every turn getting fancy ones) and they are hopelessly dated. Not to mention the soles are starting to lift and the glue is showing. They are taking up valuable real estate in my wardrobe and need to go. So they have. It's not like it ruins the outfit since I hired my dress!

However, these chaps found down the bottom of my chest of drawers? They are very much staying within my sentimental clutches - they are, of course, Chookie's first shoes. I have her first boots, too! I think I'll buy one of those deep shadow frames and hang them on the wall!

And these chaps? They are my first finish-along tick! Gifted this evening to a birthday-having friend. Yaay!

In the interests of easy finish-along checking my original proposal is here and now I need to find something else to occupy my pins! Oh yeah, there's another sock-lover birthday on Sunday. Day-um...

Yarny deets:

Yarn - 2 50g balls of Superwash merino dyed with Dylon dyes
Needles - 3.5mm dpns
Pattern - the KnitFreedom Beginner Sock for magic loop adapted to give a 4 and 2 rib.
Stitches - 48 cast on with a Fleegle heel

Blogtoberfest day 27 - my week in Instagram

A fairly quiet week on IG the past 7 days. In fact, no cats until late last night!!!

Hand drawing graph paper for a quilt plan.  Before I knew you could download sheets of it from Incomptech.com. Which is genius!

The beginnings of the Anderson shelter project I shared a few days ago.

Inappropriate work shoes! I thought I'd broken my pinkie toe kicking the bed last week.  I don't think I have but the shoes I can comfortably wear are limited!

Hand quilting a quilt!! My first.  I've done about a quarter of it now - it's quite fun once you begin to embrace your imperfect stitches!

Rain necessitated even more inappropriate work footwear!

A last cuddle for Chook and her favourite pony, Fudge, yesterday. The owner of her riding school is retiring (she is 77!) and the stables are closing.  Yesterday was Chook's last day and we're all a bit sad over the whole affair.  It's not all bad, though. We're going back to her original school tomorrow for a test run. Her first instructor is back and the arenas are all newly surfaced and extended (our 2 reasons for leaving in the first place) so fingers crossed it goes well!

I am coming back as a cat. That is all.

So another busy week ends. I've sewn today with my extra hour since the clocks went back but can't show you yet - Chrimbo pressies!!

Blogtoberfest day 25 - flashback Friday, vintage dresses

This photo lives in my living room. It is of my maternal Great-Grandfather*, his daughter my Wee Granny and her daughter, my mum. It was taken in our wee town high street around 1960. We reckon Mum is about 4. What I love best about it - apart from the sentimental familial connection - are the fashions. Mum remembers the wee dress she is wearing,  it was red with the white stripes and bows on it. I love that sharp suit Granny has on. And the beret. And oh my,  the gloves. All this for an ordinary Saturday morning trip to the shops? Class.

Vintage style clothes are massively trendy just now. But Mum and I were stunned and amazed when Chook chose this tea dress for her Christmas party outfit! She looks amazing in it, the dropped hem at the back is quirky but stylish and the wee collar is all kinds of modest. But it's really edgy looking on her.

 I've not run them by her yet but I think these shoes will totally rock! Little t-bar patent ballet pumps!

She definitely will NOT go for a rockabilly style pomp hairdo. But I think I might get away with a curly ponytail or small scale up do. It's times like this that I totally love having a girl!!

*My Mum called him Pop instead of Grandpa. And now my Chookie calls her maternal Grandfather (my Dad) Pop in his honour. Dad's not got a bunnet, though. *g*

On not wishing it away

I hate people who wish other people's time away. You know the sort who gush "that's so-and-so's holiday almost over" when it's only Wednesday?  That really bugs me. But I'm finding myself more and more often quietly despairing that Chookie's childhood is nearly over - despite her only being newly 11. She just seems to be leaping towards teenage and adulthood at an alarming rate. A case in point? The new school shoes and bag.

Look at these. They could be MY new work shoes and bag. That actually is a ladies handbag. It's cool though,  right?

And then there's the new trainers. Excuse me, hightops. The size and style are just....too grown up. Even though they're not really grown up. But they're - again - what I wear. That's mine at the front for comparison. Bye bye baby.



But maybe I should be enjoying this stage. You know, still getting a blether with her without her thinking I know absolute nothing about anything. Having a giggle together at her Dad's expense. Doing cat impressions. Making Nigel the toy pony "accidentally" swear to make her laugh so hard she cries. 

She did ask me to make her pencil case. I suspect she won't go to the high school next year with a homemade anything.



And when we couldn't find a lanyard anywhere for her house badges to go on? We bought a keyring and fashioned one.



So maybe I do need to stop the mid-week "holiday's over" thinking and enjoy my last few days of vay-cay. Before the Monday morning that is teenagerhood really hits! And after lamenting how fast the time has gone? This 4 year old post with her High School Musical obsessed school stuff feels like a lifetime ago!

I'll have 2 sweeties, Mum.

There is an excellent programme produced by the BBC called "Child of Our Time" which is following the lives of 25 children born in the new millennium until they are 20. It's not been on so frequently the last few years although I've just discovered I've missed 2 episodes in February - rats! Apart from getting to know the children and parents it has always been very interesting as they research "are we born or are we made."

One experiment I always remember involved the kids aged around 5 (I think) sitting in front of a bowl of sweeties. They were told they could have one sweet now or, if they waited 10 minutes, they could have two sweets. To a man they took the one sweet now thankyouverymuch. Proving that children are all about the NOW and not so good at thinking about a point in the future. Even if that point is only 10 minutes away! It's apparently why teenagers can make such bad decisions,  that cause-and-effect part of the brain isn't formed properly yet.

Where am I going with this? Well, on Monday night I realised it's the end of year summer disco at school next week. Would Chookie like a new outfit? Yes please,  Mum, can I have denim shorts with leggings and a new tee? No twirly dresses this year!  So off to the Next website we went. And that's where the problems started.

See, she spied these knee high lace-up boots and fell in love with them. And they were out of stock. So we had a lookie about and found proper Converse versions, only they are £60. Which is a lot of money when your feet are still growing. This is them.

So we had another wee lookie about and found very similar ones for £25. That's more like it! And when I went to order them? They were ALL in China or Hong Kong and would arrive after the disco. Plop. So we looked again for an alternative. And she rather likes these.

Now, it's her birthday next month and after a bit of a chat, Spouse and I decided to offer her the Converse that she really, REALLY loves as an early birthday present. I explained that she'd need to try them on in the shop and they wouldn't be here til next week. Which was fine. And then I explained that what the problem might be was her very skinny calves. I have problems myself with knee high boots being loose and I'm an adult - she's not-quite 11 and wearing adult sizes. And she has legs like matchsticks. But I explained (again!) that as long as she realised they might not fit and we might struggle to get a replacement in time for the disco (we'd get something - just not something as cool as these) then we'd totally go for it.

And then she did it.

She looked at me all thoughtful like. And said,

"Hmm. I have got very skinny legs. Okay. Forget the Converse coz I really want cool boots for the disco. Can I get the punk teddy ones? I'll save up my birthday money for the Converse coz it doesn't matter THEN if they don't fit."

My jaw may have hit the floor. Coz 6 months ago (hell, last week!) she would have sworn the Cons would be fine and fit and just get them please, Mum. She is just growing up so much just now. It's kinda nice but kinda sad, too. And she's got cooler boots than me.

P.S. All fingers crossed please that the damn things arrive in time after all that!!

some shopping and 2 birthdays!

It's known that I have a thing for 2 kinds of footwear. The brand Irregular Choice and anything in a sports utility style. So basically improbable but funky heels and gutties (trainers.) Well. Browsing a well known auction site I spied a pair for sale that combine both loves.  I had to have them. Had. To. They arrived on Tuesday and, as you'd expect from IC, they are presented in a brilliant box with patterned tissue paper inside.

And here they are. Weird, right? There's grey ankle ribbons tucked under the card insert to extra-prettify them. They are surprisingly comfy with that bit between your toes and I couldn't deny myself the Japanese influence. I'm hoping they'll be fab with my new favourite outfit - even though the spouse says it makes me look like Doctor Who. Not entirely sure that was the effect I was after. And, no, it doesn't involve a bowtie OR a fezz.



Also arriving on Tuesday were these beauties.



When I first saw Geekly Chic I knew I wouldn't be able to not have some.  I could use a new cross body bag (I'm thinking a satchel - any patterns I should know about?) and these were perfect but I couldn't decide between the blue or white cassette fabric. Then I found grey and all was right with the world!

Now, I have cats to marshal in the back garden (Jones has discovered his line is long enough to jump the fence. Bother.) but it's their 1st birthday so I'm feeling generous and have left them both enjoying the sun.

I myself have a cup of tea to enjoy and a book to peruse. Happy days!

On the 9th day of Christmas blogging - Chookie's shooz

The Chook needed a new pair of riding boots so that we had enough room in them so that we could fit a pair of thermal insoles. She gets get very cold feet at her riding. Because she spends the whole day on a Saturday there it's in effect 7 hours outside and it has gotten extremely cold here. In fact, her lessons have been cancelled until it thaws a little - the hard ground is too dangerous for the kids and ponies alike. Anyways, her current pink ones are too small and I've been on the lookout for another pair with easy access front zips. We spied these purple ones on eBay and actually got them for a bargain price. Result!  

Then yesterday we were in town and found a sports shop that had bought the now defunct JJB Sports stock and she got some little lowtops for an even more bargain price.

And THEN we got little pumps for wearing with her v. cool Christmas party outfit. They were even MORE of a bargain. In fact, all 3 pair cost less than thirty quid. Woo-hoo!!

The night out was really lovely,  thank you all for asking. Great company, fabulous food and time spent with my man. What more could you ask for?

new shooz and wee old shooz

You remember these shoes from a few weeks ago? Well, one pair was never going to be enough. These arrived just before Christmas.

 I've worn them three times so far - I just loves them to pieces. My Dad called them Minnie Mouse shoes (cheers, Pa) and yes, they have clear heels. And a big plastic heart on the bow!

Today was my last day of festive holiday (I'm glad I wasn't working with the carnage caused by the gales!) so I took down the Christmas tree and all the trimmings. We need work done on our roof and have been talking about emptying the loft so while stuffing the tree boxes back up there I took the plunge and brought down four boxes of baby clothes. Most of the contents have been donated elsewhere for recent arrivals but I had to get a photo of these. I always had a thing for baby socks and wee shoes!

I couldn't part with these wee guys, though. You know I adore the Disney store, aye? These were Chook's first indulgence from there - bought by my Mum, natch!

I also kept a small pile of clothes that I still have an immediate emotional attachment to. Like these first size romper suits. That one on top with the pink rosebuds was a particular favourite for about her first 6 weeks. Jasper Conran, no less! *grins* Cannae hide money! And the Debenhams sale...

I've ended up with about 20 wee outfits that I think I'm going to turn into a quilt. Just a wee one with squares of fabric (all those wee ruffles and dungaree buttons included!) but I need to give it some thought coz I don't just want charm squares. I think I'll struggle to get a uniform size cut anyway. I can see lots of pretty patterned sashing and modern "drunk love" style blocks to get them to fit. A longterm project unless inspiration hits me over the head! Which it often does...at the weirdest moments, too!

If you're in Britain I do hope your house (and car!) is still in one piece!!