:: march :: in a nutshell...part i

hey there! where has March gone?! 

it started with a birthday just a week after my sister's. here i am with one of my oldest friends...her birthday is 2 days before mine we have a lot of life to live this year as it's our last before the big one. what big one i hear you say? well let's put it this way, it was my sister's 50th the week before and she is a year and a week older than me...you do the maths.

amongst other things this month...which i promise to come back before march actually ends to tell you about...there was the great british studio clean up. this place was a mess. actually a mess is what a teenager's room looks like. this was a war zone.

it took me many many hours of sorting, decluttering, chucking, more sorting, more decluttering, more chucking...you get the picture, but finally i have a studio that i am proud of and delighted to be in. it has made my other resolutions of not hoarding and of finishing started projects much easier to carry out because i can see them. there is no hiding in this space any more.

these are just a couple of peaks of pretty corners in my studio, but i won't show you any more as all will be revealed in a mag coming to you in the near future and i would hate to ruin your mag flicking fun.

the tidy up uncovered all sorts of things including this gorgeous kei geodots that i had bought from the lovely aussie lasses, Danielle and Jeanetter at polka dot tea fabrics. 

if you haven't come across kei fabrics before, they have that similar buttery feel to liberty lawns and voiles. divine and a joy to sew with.

when i bought the fabric i wasn't quite sure what i was going to make with it. i bought it in the winter and being definite spring/summer fabric i put it to one side (hence getting lost in the mayhem) until warmer climes and inspiration hit.

it is very unlike me to wait patiently to decide what to do but i was determined to with this fabric, as it needed to be right. it was a treat purchase so i didn't want to mess up.

when i found the fabric and had tidied my sewing books to be on view i knew i wanted to make something out of the japanese stylish sewing book which i had never actually used, despite wanting to several times.

thanks to a translation from Kerry i set to work with a bit more confidence. it was a relatively easy make...once i was reading the instructions in english rather than japanese...and was wearing my new top a day later.

i'm really really pleased with it. the fabric was a pleasure to sew with and feels lovely to wear and i would definitely sew this pattern again...with a couple of alterations the next time, but all in all it has the tick of success. i will also definitely be heading back to Polka Dot Tea Fabrics for more of their delightful Keis and other fabrics.

so that's a little bit of what i have been up to this month and i promise to be back before the end of the month to give you a run down of what else i have been up to in march...there i've said it...i had better keep my word.

x

BM time...take 3...

 So it's that time again...the time where when i had wished for more than 3 children i am damn glad there aren't more.

it's bar mitzvah time...again! well actually it's bat mitzvah this time as it's ruby's turn, but full on entertaining our nearest and dearest for an entire weekend.

having done it twice before i haven't quite got the oomph to get going on the organising for a third time.

thankfully ruby being a girl means that this time she has loads of ideas and input of her own. 

that in itself can be double edged...having someone else to consult and negotiate with is just yet another hurdle to jump. still, she's very keen to be on board and it is definitely another pair of hands.

unfortunately my heart isn't quite in this one tho, partly for bad reasons (not having dad with us is playing on my mind) but partly for good (humungous work deadline 2 days after...and one that hopefully by then i will be able to spill the beans about...finally!)

putting all the colour schemes, party prop ideas, food consultations, invitations made, written and hand delivered to one side there is the big issue of dress shopping...

5 people, 3 outfits a piece, 4 for ruby "because it is my bat mitzvah"...as if we didn't know.

(ignore gonky pic...where's a decent photographer when you need on?)

in order to cut down on the wear and tear on my shoes searching for my attire i decided to make one of my dresses and after seeing made by rae's ruby dress it seemed both perfect and rather apt.

when i set out i wasn't sure what fabric it would work for me in but i grabbed what fabric i had in my stash that was big enough to give it a try. i wasn't going to waste precious special fabric if it wasn't going to be right.

after a few changes to the original pattern - the original one has gathers which i felt were a bit baby doll for me so i adapted these to box pleats - i decided that this was indeed a great dress for what i needed it for. next time i do need to use more fabric across the front so the pleat doesn't pull across my ample bazoomerage (yeh right - magnifying glass springs to mind).

the question then was which fabric was i going to make it in. originally i had in mind this nani iro but having received a sample, whilst i love it and will possibly use another time, it wasn't quite right for this event.

looking again i have decided on this beautiful voile below. 

i am actually really excited about having this and bullied kate into sending it pronto (if i could have persuaded her to drive up to leeds from brighton to bring it today believe me i would have). 

because i wasn't sure which one would work best with the voile i have ordered 3 of the brussels washers. i am hoping one will jump out at me when i see them in the flesh. does one of them jump out at you?

so end of october sees bat mitzvah weekend along with **** deadline so if you don't hear from me before i resurface again in november, you now know why!

a little spot of dress making...

 i have been pretending that i'm a dress-maker this weekend.

seriously, i am such a novice dress maker that i have only ever tackled pjs and more recently the staple dress before.

but having searched the high street for summer dresses for ruby and finding nothing and then seeing the gorgeous charlotte sporting a beautiful make from the equally gorgeous Leila's pattern, with my limited dress making skills i thought "i can do that".

and apparently i can!...as long as you don't look too closely at the wibbly wobbly shirring.

next up, full of false confidence after the relative success of a let's face it a rectangular dress, i opened up my newly delivered washi dress pattern thinking i was up to the job.

well whatdya know i was!

the only thing disappointing about the outcome of this top is that i didn't opt to make the full length dress...next time.

having made and successfully being able to wear this item (it actually fits...bust seams n all!) i am now a newly converted dress maker. i'm hooked! 

i'm thinking i may even be up to tackling some of the pieces in the japanese books i have been collecting. 

how difficult can they be? 

over confident? moi?...