Off for a bath...

me, in a moment !
It's been a good two days, 12 rellies on Saturday and 10 today, and I think I deserve a long soak! DH has been a star with all the washing up & drinks serving, and the children have behaved wonderfully, despite late night on Friday and needless to say a fairly early start on Saturday morning -not to mention the chocolate fueled excitement later on!!
The PJs were a great success - Ds kept saying " mine blue...SNOWW"
and the proof of the pudding was in the wearing as far as the girls' dresses went! They've worn them 2 days solid now :-)

The Nephews like their stuff too... well #2 Neph is only 10 mnoths so his mum did the liking for him! #1 Neph was very chuffed with his Thomas/James hoodie and left wearing it... I foresaw problems getting it off him later!

The bath awaits...
Merry Christmas

ps to avoid the leftover turkey tyranny.. cook Chicken! smaller , nicer and barely any leftovers! (leaves more fridge space too!) Goose for NYE...

Christmas Dress #1 for DD1, just finished and in need of a good press and sleeves hemming (she's asleep!) but it's done!! Whoo hoo only 2 lots of sleeve hems to do in the morning and then I can get on with tidying & wrapping :-) Not bad when you consider how behind I was at the weekend.
This one is PRR bias plaid from last year, dyed dylon hand violet.
the plaid matching on the back took an age - it's not a totally even print.. but here's as good as I got it

Christmas dress #1

yes it's the 23rd and yes this in only the first Christmas dress! but it's done -all but the sleeve hems -but DD2's not here so I can't measure them right now -my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!
PRR honeycomb cord, dyed raspberry procion, a tad deeper colour IRL.
and apart from the woeful pattern matching (I forgot LOL!) I was rather proud of how well this zip went in -first time and flat :-)

3 Pairs of Christmas Pjs -all in snowflake PRR knit :-)
They're a mix of KS and Ott patterns, bottoms all converted to no side seams, nice loose ribbing to edge... yummy... I want a pair but I only got 4yds!
They're dyed with Dylon CW - no soda ash to give a slightly faded look which I like, 1 tin per pair, purple vine, french navy & ultra violet L-R

Nephew #2's Christmas Sweat pants - PRR dino dyed Dylon CW moon blue -I've done him 2 pairs in two different sizes cos he'll probably grrrooooowwww soon!

nephew #1's Christmas hoodie -yummy royal blue sherpa and TTTE embroidery, he's a bit of a Thomas nut....! and here's a close up of James

Almost there...

I'm not very good at this blog thing...! I'm either too busy to update or it's too boring to document!!

How did it suddenly get to be a week to Christmas? I'm had a bit of a sewing drought this autumn, mainly doing bags and catching up on custom orders.. nice to be busy :-)

I'm in the thick of pre Christmas sewing at the mo though... Just completed the Nephews' Christmas presents, and am doing my children's Christmas PJs now, and then it's time for their CD outfits... a stocking to sew up for a friend, and then if that leaves any time I was going to redo stockings for my 3..... just lost a week though due to them all being ill.. and now I have a cold (sympathy please) Term ends today -so do I gain the time I normally spend on the school run, or lose time cos they're all in my hair! When I was teaching I couldn't break up early enough -now I wonder why they can't keep them till Christmas Eve... no I don't really but it's tempting!!

Dh is taking the older 2 to the cinema on Monday.. I shall be doing my own Mrs Incredible impression at home. In the mean time... cards to write (failed miserably last year and no one got one at all, they probably all think we've fallen down a drain or got buried in the foundations of the extension -mind you they wouldn't have known we were having that done as there were no cards....) things to plan, stuff to sew....

Oh and we have to get the tree this week too, the children are beginning to ask where it is?!
If I had my way it would wait till the 24th, but needless to say I'm outvoted on that one, and to be honest there's more than enough going on on the 24th anyway! Good enough that we never do it before the end of term :-)

right I'd better get on...

Yes, I'm catching up!!

These wild trousers were made this weekend for my nephew -a rather belated birthday present, they're lined in flannel which I dyed to match the turquoise fabric, so they're yummy and warm... you can get away with this sort of thing when you're 3! They'd just make my bum look huge. That said my brother (not the little lad's dad... t'other brother!) fancies a pair of chefs' trousers in this fabric... maybe no flannel lining for him though...kitchens get rather hot!

STOP PRESS!!!
I just won an embroidery machine on Ebay!!! WHOOOOOOO:-)
a Janome 5700 for those who know these things... watch this space!!

Sew much fabric Sew little time

I haven't actually been feeling very productive lately, but here's some trousers I made for DS... they're very cute with little dinos on them, but he does keep peeing in them!!! Still, I know they wash well ;-) I have a list as long as your arm (or maybe longer if you have particularly short arms!) of stuff that needs doing! all the children need more clothes (clothes that fit would be good!) I feel so much better when I get some sewing done... so all it needs is a little more time in the day! I bought some cool goodies on Ebay last week.. a walking foot and an adaptor thingy so I can use cheaper accessories with my Bernina machine..yeyyy! so much fun for only $30!!! Oh and I got 25 bobbins... so I can stop wasting time unwinding the wrong colour from one of the three I have that actually fit!

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

For October I'm making special bags to sell in aid of Cancer charities -this is just my little bit to help and to say " more power to you" to the friends of mine who are battling with this horrible disease.

This is one such Pink Ribbon bag more to come!

90 years old!!

no not me, though I do feel it this week! I just took delivery of this baby which I won on ebay last week...for the grand sum of 99p!!
She is in need of a little TLC but so far everything that should move does move (and a few things that shouldn't move , do!) I've been suffering sewing machine envy this week as so many of my sewing friends have been getting various new machines! so this one goes a little way to help!! she was made in the Singer Clydebank factory in 1914 and I wish she could talk! I imagine all sorts have been sewn on her. the original (tiny!) manual is still with the machine! but it's soaked in oil!! Fascinating though:-)

Ah well.. off to sew more stuff to sell so I can treat me to a shiny new embroidery machine!!

SOLD!

Pink cord & hippy print bag
I sold this one this weekend in my other guise as a bag lady! (website very much under construction!) I think it's rather groovy - it's very theraputic making them (well any kind of sewing..) I was feeling very stressed when I sat down to get that done the other day - I do find it hard to balance sewing to sell and sewing to wear though, there just aren't enough hours in the day!!

and here it is...

Ribbing T shirt with cord PRR sleeves
not a terribly good picture ... was in a tearing hurry yesterday!
The body is natural ribbing machine dyed with CW dye (Riviera Blue) and the cord dyed the same -except that that had already been dyed & stripped once -so started a pale peach colour (not terribly boyish!!) Top stitching is in burnt orange Guterman

How to bore the pants off people.. (and then sew more!)

Instead of ( as well as?!) displaying my sewing projects on a plain jane website I thought I'd ramble on here about the hows & whys... If you're here I guess you're either interminably nosey or you're a fellow sewing list compatriot so you'll know what I'm wittering on about..
naturally I'm sure some other stuff will creep in, sometimes life just gets in the way ;-)

It's Sunday afternoon, it's P -ing downing with rain and we're reaching the end of a disgustingly busy weekend... mainly involving being a taxi service to the children. I did manage to sew a t shirt yesterday so that DD2 could give it to a friend for his birthday... no feedback as yet. There shoudl be a picture nearabouts;-)