The Go-To Shirt

You can often find me staring at the knits in my fabric closet, wondering what to do with them. I plan complicated designs with plackets, and zippers, and gathers, and features. And then do nothing, and grab a woven.

Thing is, I actually really enjoy working with knits. If you look at my kids' RTW wardrobes, 98% of the time they wear knits (at least on the top). And by and large, there's nothing complicated about those shirts.

So I decided to just go back to basics and let the fabrics speak for themselves.* Coloured cuffs, neck and waistbands but other than that, just lovely fabric. Sometimes it just makes sense to keep it simple.

*If these fabrics could speak for themselves, they'd obviously say 'Your reds don't match' and I'd say 'Shut up'.

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Another addition to the Geekatarium

After seeing my geektastic Ipad sleeve the other day, one of my friends asked me to make her one. Although she was tempted to partake in a gadget version of Teenage BFFs by having matching sleeves, it might have been embarrassing* when we are out simultaneously being awesome with our Ipads.

Or we could've by accident switched our Ipads and she would go home with mine and all the rubbish free apps a certain very tall member of my household insists on putting on there, and she would be disgruntled and I wouldn't want to give hers back because there are actually worthwhile things on hers. And then I'd lose my only American friend in Edinburgh, and her Swedish husband would never introduce me to Alexander Skarsgard. Too risky, guys. I had to make her a different one.

I love the colour combination on this one. The Echino front has turquoise scooters, lime polkadots and orange stripes and the back is orange twill with an Amy Butler zippered orange polkadot pocket. The front has an interlining of neoprene, and a lime green fleece lining for a bit more screen protection.

*Embarassing for her, obviously.

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Operation Save our Collective Lives: The Pint-Sized Phase

For the last couple of weeks I've been working almost exclusively on improving the kids' room. At three and a half, I decided it was long-overdue to move Maia into a proper bed (even if she didn't share my sentiments). The problem was that the room couldn't house all their toys, four dressers of clothes, a bookcase and two single beds. Major downsizing of existing things ensued. Then major upsizing of new things ensued.

Most notably: bunk beds. Why didn't anyone tell me how big they are?

Behind the Artist Formerly Known as Maia is the resurrected Uncomfy Couch, named thus for obvious reasons. When I removed the cover to make a new one, it became clear why: rather than proper upholstery webbing there were very thin plastic ties that had cheese-wired straight through the foam. My anticipated Quick and Dirty couch resurrection became a Slow and Stabby one as I not only had to make a new cover but also re-string and re-foamed it. The cushions you are au fait with.

I made new light jersey curtains to allow more light than the previous plain red ones.

One of the toys I removed for floor space was an blackboard easel; instead I have painted a section of the wall with blackboard paint for drawing and practising their writing and math. It is 'magic' blackboard paint, but more on that another day...

Although I truly love my kids' (superlative) artwork, I did not love they way they stuck it all over every available surface. Instead, I've strung a line along the ceiling and clothes-pegged up my favourites.

Please note the safety bar above the safety bar on the top bunk; he is still determined to fall out.

My final act of Dutiful Mum was to make them matching duvet covers today with cowprint to one side and snuggly red flannel to the other . I'm still not done completely with my plans, but I'm certainly fed up of working on it so the smaller things are going to have to wait until I've a) made more money to fund it b) stabilised my mood. In other words, they might never get done.

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The Cheater's Pettiskirt

The day after we returned from the States I had the rare pleasure of fabric shopping, outside the confines of my house, with another human who is actually enthusiastic about fabric. I'm not sure if that's ever happened before. Overfraught with excitement about meeting Emmy, being outside of my house, and fabric shopping I bought some pre-ruffled fabric thinking it'd be an easy way to make Maia a cheater's pettiskirt. Let's blame jet lag (again).

In my head, it looked so nice. In actual fact, I was a little bit grateful when Maia peed on it so I could take it off.

'How Mum felt about the skirt whilst sewing and also when finished' by Maia, aged 3

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The Year of The Gadget

In a major bout of avarice, we treated ourselves to an Ipad on our hols. Yes, I know, I got a spiffy new smart phone recently. And was gifted a Kindle for Christmas. Do you think if I make them all cases they count as business expenses?

It was hard to decide on a fabric but in the end I concluded that geeky things should be covered in more geeky things. As you can see, I wasn't willing to part with enough of my geeky fabric to make the back of the cover. Red twill is fine. I added a zippered compartment for cables and the twelve credit cards required to purchase all the apps I need.

I wasted a day of my life trying to track down funky-printed neoprene but the search was not fruitful (even plain neoprene is hideously expensive), and although I was sorely vaguely tempted to buy a heat press and sublimate print neoprene myself, that would have made the case more expensive than the Ipad itself. Which is saying something.

I did come up with a solution to my neoprene-induced conundrum, however. Doesn't the picture above look a little bit bendy? As it turns out, craft neoprene is neither hideously expensive nor hard to track down and other than not having fabric fused to it I think it's the same thing! Using a second fabric, I made a rectangular pocket in the cover, slipped a piece of neoprene in and sewed around it so it doesn't shift. Et freaking voila.

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Does Child Protection actually endanger our children?

Strange and frustrating week, guys. As I've mentioned before, Maia has had recurrent Urinary Tract Infections and this week we had an ultrasound and a renal consultation to discuss the issue. Thankfully the ultrasound showed that there is no physiological reason for her infections, and neither was there damage from her previous infections. Good news. What they did say, however, that the lab results from her previous infections showed that they were caused by poor wiping technique, i.e. E Coli (!) bacteria from the back was making it's way into her urethra. Armed with a lot of information about how to prevent future infections (most importantly good hygiene), I spoke to her nursery and asked for their help in making sure she always wipes properly.

Apparently, Child Protection guidelines prevent the nursery staff from physically helping the children in the toilet to protect the staff from allegations of improper touching. They have agreed to encourage her to wipe properly, from a distance. Which is something. But does anyone else see the irony here? That a Child Protection policy that forces children to control their own hygiene (at three years old) might endanger them when they aren't able to do a good enough job? I've been taking advice from the council this morning, and have another meeting with the nursery manager next week. Maybe a compromise will be possible, I'm not giving up yet.

What do you think?

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Ottobre says 'Party at the Back'

A slightly surreal issue of Ottobre this quarter. Things are different across the channel, I'm sure of it. Some of the differences are very good:

Less gendered designs and colour palette, hooray!


Unusual detailing, hooray!


Things I would wear myself, hooray! No, truly, this is almost the same as the woman's one I still haven't made. And yet...


By virtue of being Continental, I am inclined to allow them a handful of WTF outfits per magazine. Harem trousers would probably be cute on a baby. And practical.


But I cannot get behind them on people who are bi-ped.


Ruffles: in and of themselves not alarming, but I find the fervor with with they are embraced in 'Euro-fashion' alarming. Especially 'Euro-fashion' as interpreted by Americans. Ruffles only to the back of a shirt? A stepping stone towards hard-core weirdness.


Yes, that cardigan is on backwards; it can be worn either way. Anything can be worn either way. But people will think you're mental. Probably even in Europe.

Any dissenters in the ranks? Do you rock your cardigans backwards?

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