Not a patch on her

We had our two month follow-up at the Orthoptist yesterday and the girl is now patchless! At least til our next appointment in February, anyway, and if the vision in her bad eye remains stable we can remain so :)

The Clean Line Tunic

One of my best customers asked for a tunic for her daughter for Christmas day, and despite being crazy busy with orders, I managed to squeeze it in today.

As her daughter is a bit older, she preferred a non-elasticated neckline so I kept it simple and clean with a bound edge with polkadot binding. The binding has a lovely crochet edge. I did the same for the sleeve edges.

The back has a single button and loop closure with a coordinating green button.

Christmas orders have been oh-so-busy but I'm probably closing up shop tonight to give me time to make things for my family. Today was hopefully my last trip to the post office! Which is just as well as the post office this week has given me Hulk Rage.

The Festive Frock

It was the annual Kitschy Coo Christmas party on Saturday (this basically just means me and Friend Sarah hit the town), and I rustled up a festive frock shortly before / during / after I was supposed to meet her. It took me less than an hour, but I was still late. It's a red ponte knit using my cowl neck pattern but with a normal neckline. It has super-long sleeves in my futile effort to keep my wrists and hands warm.

I had every intention of being a proper blogger and getting pictures early on at the picturesque Christmas market, but it was crowded and freezing so I pulled my typical headless bathroom shots near the end of the night. I am nothing if not classy.

Crafter's Ceilidh

In the off-chance that there isn't a single soul who doesn't already read Debi's very inspirational blog, she's organised a Crafty Meet-up in Edinburgh on the 21st of January. It's not just for sewists, but plans are to accommodate a cornucopia of crafty types.

If I can conquer my social anxiety, I'll be there. Anyone else?

The Dread Lego Lord

There's nothing actually dreadful about this hoodie (I hope), but I think the angle of this shot quite foreboding. Or maybe I'm just reading too much George RR Martin*. Probably both.

I must be full of the Christmas spirit, however, as I'm letting people freely order things with the last of my precious hoarded fabrics.

Such small pieces require a bit of ingenuity, however, and I pieced this side with horizontal strips of blue twill, red twill and lego fabric.

And for the other side horizontal stripes on black twill.

With an accent to the hood. The tiniest bit of the lego fabric remains in the stash and the world collectively weeps.

**All right, who has read the George RR Martin books and would like to enter therapy with me in the hope of getting a group discount? I am almost finished part two of book three and I AM HARROWED.

The Geek Exchange Programme

My web guru (hired through this very blog!) did a stellar job pimping my shop up, and even had the kindness to except partial payment for his services in textile form. To his son, a lego t-shirt; but to the guru the spoils: a space invader iPad cover. Aren't we ironic trendy hipsters putting Androids on our Apples? Yes.

For illustrative purposes, this photo shows it with my rather lacklustre and forlorn iPad 1. His iPad is an ipad 2. I was determined not to be impressed by it (as any iPad is a joy and a blessing), but I was consumed with jealousy for the magic magnetic be-coloured screen protector in apple green.

As punishment for having nicer things than me befits an iPad with integrated screen protection, I omitted the neoprene inner lining I usually use for my covers but in my infinite magnanimity still bequeathed a handy back zippered pocket.

The Sentimental Pajama-ist

You might think that making new pajama bottoms for the kids is not necessarily blog-worthy, but you'd be wrong. These pjs have history.

Rather than use brand-new fabric from my stash, I repurposed some of my old sleepwear that I didn't wear anymore but was too soppy to bin. The penguin flannel for the girl's bottoms came courtesy of my fifteen year old self. When I was a pre-teen and teenager, I was obsessed with novelty pajamas. I may or may not have wore a flying squirrel suit (which for the unfamiliar is the pre-curser to a slanket).

These stripey jersey ones for the boy were made out of a nightgown. Now, let me state for the record: I do not normally wear nightgowns. In fact, since I was old enough to choose my own sleeping attire, I have worn precisely one nightgown: this one. And I wore it for the express purpose of expelling this very child out of my body. Nightgowns are infinitely more practical when giving birth than flying squirrel suits, bum-flap or no.

If you were ever wondering how much my kids look alike when their faces are identically daft, here's your answer.

The Alternative Christmas Gift Guide

It's that time of the year when the air is filled with the dulcet tones of my progeny chanting 'I want that, I want that, I want that' at every commercial and catalogue they see. Lengthy and precise letters to Santa have been written, and every adult within a ten mile radius (whether we know them or not) has been instructed what to buy.

Gifts for the girl
Steven and I have been arguing about to what extent to give into Maia's wish fulfilment. Never has a more gender-stereotyped child walked this Earth. The feminist in me objects to at least 80% of her list; she does not need anything in her life that solidifies her notion that girls are vapid and superficial.

The girl wants a Barbie head, ergo I will get her this one. I win.


The girl wants a My Little Pony, ergo I will get this one. Two- nil.


Gifts for the boy
Not as contentious as his sister's. Batman-centric.

I've mentioned before about Jamie's deep-seated fear of bears. Will a poster of Batman Bear change his mind?


Nah, probably not. This ursaphobia is seriously disruptive to our lives: the hall light needs to be on overnight with their bedroom door open, he requires a chaperone in every room in our own flipping house for fear of The Bear. Bat-Bear is cool, no doubt. But this level of fear calls for some aversion therapy:


Worried about finding youself inside a bear's stomach? No need. So plush and cosy.

Venturing into ridiculous territory. Or just Scandinavia.

What to you get when you cross a nun and a knight?

Elefanthue. That is, apparently, the technical name for this hat / hood / scarf lovechild. Google Translate kept telling me it meant 'elephant' in English and I was mighty confused by the relevancy but then I spelled it correctly and out spat 'balaclava'. Linguists, how can 'elefanter' mean 'elephants' and 'elefantheur' mean 'balaclavas'? That's some pretty weird stuff.

Needless to say, this balaclava was very popular with the under-four-feet-tall set and was modelled by Maia, Maia's friend, Jamie, and Jamie's friend. And me. Eighty percent of testers wanted their own out of snazzier fabrics, twenty percent wished she they hadn't looked in the mirror.

What say you, hive-mind, snazzy fabric at the ready or snazzy fabric under lock and key?