When life gets in the way

It's been more than a month since I last posted here and I have been getting complaints... from my Mum! I would love to say that there were exciting reasons for not being here but life is just going about twice as fast as I can keep up with.
 
Mum's cancer roller coaster reached a new low 2 weeks ago, we got 'the call' from the hospital to say come now, but thankfully, with elephant strength antibiotics, she pulled through. She is now home and hopefully on an up with the peak coming in a few weeks when Grandchild number 4 is due (my sister's second baby).

While all this has been happening so has everyday life and a house in chaos. Also, my small business, that I set up a year ago, has just started to get quite busy. Typically at the worst possible time in my life.

I have done a fair bit of sewing though, in the moments I should be hemming folks curtains or fixing zips! Why is it as soon as you turn something into a business it automatically turns into a chore...

When I dragged my winter clothes from the loft, along with the giant spider living in the box (ugh), I realised that my autumn uniform consists of tops with skirts and leggings. The only problem is that all my skirts are smart and I don't have all that much need for smart at the moment.

That was easily rectified. I used my usual, super simple, skirt pattern but folded the sides of the pattern so it wasn't as wide an A-line shape.

These two fabrics are upholstery weight from Dunelm. I went in for thread and came out with thread and fabric for two skirts, oops... They are a bit stiff but I like them.

While I was on a skirt making roll I raked out my stashed liberty fabric. I bought it on ebay from someone selling their stash (for £8 inc postage!) so there was only 1m but I managed to squeeze the skirt out of it.

I think this one may be my new favourite, I wore it today for the first time and it is so comfy, the stretch in the cotton makes all the difference.

I have also been frantically sewing tops and leggings but will save them for another post, hopefully it won't be another month.
 

p.s. sorry if this reads really badly, I am totally out of the habit of writing anything, never mind anything to actually be read by others :)

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Sewing for Sanity

via

This image was in my facebook timeline a few days ago and it sums things up well at the moment.

I have been squeezing in some stress busting sewing time, I even emptied my to mend pile which has now reformed with the bits and pieces that didn't fit in the pile before. Some of that is paid work though so I can't complain.

Cabin Dress Fail!

The only problem with sewing like I have been is that it seems to include quite a few fails. I made a top for my Mum and the neck was far too wide, I made a dress/tunic for me and it looks like ill fitting hospital scrubs and I made another top for me from woven fabric which is far too small across the bust so that will hopefully fit Mum!

hopefully it doesn't look squint on...!

I have had a few successes though. I made a bridesmaids dress for a friend by cutting up and making a pattern from a RTW dress. This was the first time I had exactly copied another dress and I had great fun doing it, it pleased the inner physicist/mathematician that has been in hiding for 10 years :)

One of the things in my to mend/ WIP pile was this little owl. I cut him out about 2 years ago from various scraps. It has now been adopted by little e and is living on her bed.

The next few things on my to make list are leggings and A-line skirts so hopefully no more sewing fails!

 

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Minion Bob Birthday Cake

Little e was 7 a couple of weeks ago and, after falling in love with Minion Bob after seeing the Minion film, asked for a cake like him.

I made Husband a Minion cake a couple of years ago so used the same method, cook the top in a pyrex bowl to get the curved head and layer it on normal round cakes.

This time I propped the whole thing on a cake pan because there is only so much cake I can eat (no one else in the house is a big cake eater, wierdos!) and decorated over the pan so you can't tell.

The cake was half chocolate sponge and half normal Victoria sponge. Both sponge had raspberry jam in the middle and the whole cake was crumb coated in vanilla buttercream before the decoration. To decorate it I covered the whole cake in marzipan then used coloured fondant for the rest.

It turned out surprisingly well and she loved it. I don't want to eat any more cake for a while though...:)

Linking to some of these places.

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