Sunday 28 September 2014

39/52

little e: At the end of the school fun run, tongue out, just like her Mum!! 


Big E: I will cross that finish line!

Joining in with Jodi again for the 52 project.







Sunday 21 September 2014

38/52


No individual photos today as I was a bridesmaid at my friends wedding (the kids were
only there to spectate, they stayed with my parents for the weekend hence the casual clothes!)

Joining in with Jodi again for the 52 project.


Wednesday 17 September 2014

Nervous anticipation

Rainbow Falls - Skye
I am sitting here, well past my bed time, unable to switch  my brain off. Tomorrow is the day that  people living in Scotland get to decide whether to remain part of the UK or become an independent country. What a responsibility.


There is 49/51 ish divide in the population at the moment and I am nervous that all will not be well after tomorrows referendum. Will the 49% of the country that looses be gracious in their defeat or will there be anger and accusations flying around?

via
My hope is, whatever the outcome, Scotland does not remain the divided country that it seems to have become.

See you on the other side!








Monday 15 September 2014

Super simple blouse alteration

There seems to be a trickle of unwanted clothing in to my house at the moment and it is stressing me, my suitcase of items to refashion has turned into a suitcase + a pile by the bed + a pile by the sewing machine!

Then main source of the clothes is my Mum. She is a clothes fiend and my constant gently nagging about cheap clothes and the poor people who make them is not working all that well... When she decides things don't suit / fit properly, I can't bear to see them wasted. Someone has made these clothes, some almost certainly earning below a living wage, in factories where the conditions are awful, so I think it is my duty to at least wear the clothes.

My Mum is a couple of sizes bigger than me so everything needs altered. I started with the easy things, the first was a blouse.

It started very baggy and making me look massive!


All I did was take it in from the upper arm then down the side seams. I kept it loose so I can comfortably wear a top underneath, it is very sheer!

It is still not very flattering but fills the 'smart/casual evening' gap in my wardrobe nicely, in fact it had its first outing last night!

Now for the next thing, a pair of jeans.







Linking to some of these parties.

Sunday 14 September 2014

Saturday 13 September 2014

DIY Elsa Dress


This is my second Elsa Dress, version one including a tutorial can be found here. I made this in July for little e's 6th birthday party at the start of August, it was a hit!

This time the spec was a proper Elsa dress... i.e. skirt with a split and sheer blue material on top!

All my fabrics are from ebay and go against all the ethical fabric buying rules I have set myself but you don't get organic fairtrade sparkly material so I suppose ethics have to take a back seat sometimes... The sheer blue is stretchy power mesh used in underwear, sequin stuff is also stretchy and the skirt is stretchy satin.


I used a kids t-shirt pattern and cut the mesh out as the pattern but shortened it to be to the waist.

I then cut the sequins using the sheer blue as a template and curved the top slightly. I forgot to make the waist a v shape - next time! Sequins were then sewn over the sheer and the snowflake organza added in the seam between the sequins and mesh on the back. The top was then made as you would any t-shirt and the neck was rolled on the overlocker.


I then measured the waist and used them measurement to free hand a maxi length skirt to attach to the bodice. I obviously can't measure because I messed up and made my skirt too small... I cut the skirt on the fold and just put the seam at the front and didn't sew all the way down. The edge of the slit is hemmed as usual.
 
It is not perfect but stood up to two days of constant wear, one of which was spend jumping on a bouncy castle!


Queen Elsa now wants an Anna costume for Christmas (and I secretly really really want to make myself Anna's coronation dress, if only I had a ball to go to!).








Linking to some of these parties!

Tuesday 9 September 2014

Monday 8 September 2014

Surviving a cub camp!

I spent Friday night and all day Saturday helping at Big E's first cub camp. I am a Beaver leader so Cubs were new to me and, oh boy, do you get some cheek from the older ones!


The camp was in converted fisherman's cottages at Canty Bay near North Berwick, it was a stunning location with amazing views of Bass rock.


When the tide went out the rock pools were amazing!



Hopefully I will be back in the summer with my Beaver colony!



Sunday 7 September 2014

Monday 1 September 2014

A catch up

If anyone can tell me where the last three weeks have gone I would appreciate it!


The start of the new school term has gone well, little e never settled well in p1 so I was dreading the same in p2 but I didn't need to worry, she seems to love it although still says she feels a bit sad having to leave me :(

All the after school clubs started last week and after vowing I would not turn in to one of those parents that is running their kids to thing every night I seem to have turned into one, kind of...

Last week was also the run up to the local show, I am on the committee and was in charge of the home baking stall as well as trying to get things together to enter. I managed a few entries and got a few prizes,



and made £60 on the home baking stall!

This week is also going to be crazy, today has been spent trying to find the floor in the kids rooms, tomorrow I am running off my Church magazine , Wednesday is my first day looking after my nephew (my sister has gone back to work so I will have wee G every Wednesday) and Friday I am at Cub camp for a night! Life is very full at the moment so the luxury of sitting and blogging is rare although hopefully I might find some balance soon!

I also plan to try and change the blog a bit. I am very conscious that this space isn't very 'me' , some changes are afoot!