Dress from "Stylish Dress Book: Freedom with Wear"

Well....  it's been a while but not only have I finished some sewing projects, I've also sat down to record them.  It's been a phenomenal few months not only for me, but for my family too.

• I'm halfway to being a social worker
• I am employed two days per week in a job I love (as a family support worker) 
• We've decided to home school our son
• We're renovating our home, including a classroom (I can only take credit for occasional moral support and bringing pies)

Wrapped up in Memories and T-shirts

I know there's no need to explain why I haven't blogged for six months, but I'm giving in to the urge, mainly because I'm quite proud of it.  There hasn't been much sewing going on but I'm now a quarter of a social worker.  In addition to this, I as of yesterday can ride a skateboard.  The latter is possibly the the most exciting thing that has happened to me in the last decade, although it might just seem that way because it happened yesterday.  My final achievement is making this pair of t-shirt quilts.

Burda Magazine Combo Shorts

I continue on my seemingly never ending quest to get through my own personal Fabric Mountain.  I bought this purple linen with the intention of making shorts about two years ago.  The pattern is a combination of two from Burda magazine; one too short and the other too wide.  I made the short shorts before, about which I was left with a long list of internal complaints.  Now I have these, with their own list.

The One Trick Party Pony

Once I’m on to a good idea I find it hard to let go.  I will possibly be making my children piñatas out of cardboard boxes for their 40^th birthdays.  All my youngest wanted for his 7th birthday was a few friends over to watch a movie, bless his little homebody socks.  His movie of choice was Despicable Me 2, one I have a soft spot for myself.  The obvious choice for hitting repeatedly with a large bat was the Purple Minion.  It also just happened to be an easy shape to make out of a cardboard box.  I used with the same basic structure as the Ghast Pinata I made for his big brother's birthday.  The original design of which coming from Domestic Femme.  It was a big hit (excuse the pun) with the little kids but it was lucky my older and stronger nephews were there or we would have been there all night.

 

Slow Fashion Just got Slower

I have spent this term learning pattern making with St George and Sutherland Community College, and loved every minute of it.  I had to get over the sick "I'm in over my head" feeling in the first lesson, but thanks to a great teacher and taking things a step at a time I got quite far along the road.  It unraveled a lot of the mystery of patterns.  Drawing them up was more like an exercise in geometry than creative genius.  It was an extremely satisfying process for my mind that is clearly far less terrified of maths than imagination.

A Change of Name - What do you Think?

I've been thinking about changing the name of my blog.  I'm not worried about losing readers, as I certainly don't have many, and intend to make it clear where I can be found in the future.  While it was coming up with the name that finally got me to sit down and start posting, it hasn't really stood the test of time for me, its too long and not very evocative.

I'm considering

• The Hare and the Tortoise (although this very nice blog exists already)
• The Snails Pace
• A Snails Pace of Life
• It's a Snails Life
• The Snail and the Tortoise

As you can see I've got a bit of a snail thing going on, the underdog of the cute crafting movement. 

I don't usually invite comments in my posts, due to my low readership and not wanting to watch the tumbleweed roll by the comments section.  But here goes..... Any thoughts on the name change?

Space Station Costume

The school's book week always fills me with a mix of fear and ambition.  Particularly so this year as my son was still mentally scarred by the supposed Harry Potter costume I threw together in two minutes for the school disco.  It's rubbish-ness did not escape the attention of the other kids there.

I love that my kids think outside the box for costumes, not stopping to consider whether their ideas might be humanly possible. For the first time this year the book parade had a theme, Space.  Despite the fact I don't think this theme has much to do with books, or lends itself to costumes brilliantly, we rose to the challenge.