Time is of the essence

Time is of the essence! It's a saying my mum used to use so many times when I was a child. She'd say it to make us hurry up if we were running late or to finish off something so that we could move onto the next task of the day (or evening).

I am currently using it because it is just so precious and I seem to lose time where ever I go these days.

Take for instance the sudden realisation that it has been SIX MONTHS since my last post! Honestly! This was not supposed to happen.it wasn't intended, yet it did! How on earth am I supposed to keep people coming back to my blog if I let the time lapse?!

It isn't all my fault.

We had a dreadful season last year. Our harvest started very early - October is early! We had so many breakdowns it was not funny! And we averaged very poorly. With only 110mm for the growing season, it was a miracle we had anything harvestable! Yet we did and for that we are very grateful.

In November, I had a few trips to the city with my children, to prepare my eldest daughter for boarding school.

We had the end of the year and my 40th birthday.

And then my husband had an accident three days after! So we spent a week in the city by his bedside, meaning the biggies had to take that time from school.cAnd while we were there, Chloë took her first steps!

We do not have supportive family members living near us so I had no choice but to take all three of them with me. I couldn't leave them even with friends!

Bottom line is he is alive and his arm is healing, although very slowly. I still have to drive him around but we hope to have him legally driving again as soon as we can get to see an occupational therapist.

With that, Christmas came and we had visitors in the form of my sil, bil and niece. They came for another reason and this was to inter the ashes (finally) of my fil who passed away from Bile duct cancer in November 2014, six weeks before Chloë was born. This happened the day before our baby girl turned one year old. I still haven't made her birthday dress but we managed to have a little celebration for her with our guests.

January brought lots of trips to the city to ready our eldest for her life away from home. I was too busy to stop and think and process my feelings, until the week before we had to take her to school. I cried and cried! I was happy and excited for her and all the opportunities that she would be exposed to. But at the same time I was grief stricken. My thirteen year old was going to be away from me and I would only see her periodically. It saddens me still to think about it even though her schooling will improve because they actually care about her wellbeing and her education. It is the best place for her to finish her education at.

So February whizzed by and here we are now in March.

We have just enjoyed long weekend which was also the midterm break for Imogen. So we stayed in the city after being there for the week anyway, seeing as Murray had another appointment to attend.

Noah had a work pack to complete by his teacher to try and keep him up with the schoolwork and we managed to get to have some family time also.
So we are now brought up to speed and so now we can possibly continue on and catch the time before it runs away again.

A puppet show at playtime

This wasn't meant to happen! Two really great patterns but basics in some ways were put together when it wasn't really intended.

I made the playtime leggings a while a go, in a 6-12 month size because Chloë was beginning to move around and she needed something simple to wear. These were just the thing. I made a few in plain colours (mostly shades of pink) and then I found a remnant of Hilco stripe I had in the stash for a little while. I couldn't resist!

The intention was to make a playtime tunic to match but as yet it hasn't come to fruition.

The Puppet show tunic on the other hand, was started just prior to the Monochrome project challenge being organised on the Oliver and s forum. I thought it a perfect piece to crack on with and include with a pair of shorts in black. Alas, the top is the only piece in that duo that is actually done! It is made using cotton with a raised windowpane type pattern. It was horrendous to sew the buttonholes onto but it is just so pretty, I couldn't help myself!

So, the pairing of these two items of clothing came about due to a lack of washing being done! I hide my head in shame! But let me justify my actions by saying, three kids with illness and running around after a very busy husband had me behind the housework ball and consequently, I dropped it. I had to drop something and it wasn't going to be the kids!

So with nothing decent to wear and with the weather a bit warmer, I had to put the two together. It's cute and practical but in my opinion slightly mismatched. One day I will team them with their proper partners. But for now it will have to do.

A quilted bedtime story

Chloë uses a sleeping bag to sleep in but it is not easy making sure she is warm all night without a few changes during the night.

When it gets below 18 degrees celsius, she is supposed to have a sleepsuit with padded arms. We don't have one of those!

I had always wanted to try adapting a pyjama pattern to accommodate padding in the sleeves. So after making a pair of bedtime story pyjamas and finding them very straight forward, I decided this was the pattern to use in my experiment.

I used some left over battig from some finished quilts to make the sleeves. I used the flannelette print for the top and another plain colour flannelette for the underneath and sandwiched the batting inbetween. The sewing was just straight lines, nothing fancy.

Because the sleeve is basically a rectangle it was very simple to put together.

The result is a warmer pair of pyjamas!

Dressing up baby!

We went away for the weekend at the beginning of August, to a place called Narrogin. It took seven hours to get there and the kids all travelled really well. We were expecting it to be colder than it was but thankfully, we packed appropriately for the weather.

It was a great excuse to dress up the baby!

Catching up

It's been a while since I last checked in. So let me fill you in on what's been happening.

Firstly, it finally rained.

This is the view from my sewing room. Perfect sewing weather doncha think?

Secondly, we expanded our taste sensations

Chloë is tasting avocado in this photo but unfortunately, we suspect an intolerance due to an ezcema flair up. We are yet to try again.

Thirdly, we became a sitting up and moving around baby who loves to pick up threads and play with the ironing board wheels.

And lastly, I have been sewing

and sewing

and having a grand time!

Kids clothes week days 3 and 4

And so it continues, my frenzied but favoured and very much looked forward to time in the sewing room. This week I am on a high with the commitment to join in sewing Kids clothes for one hour a day for the whole week.

I cannot, I confess, sew for just one hour! If I am in for one hour I am only just getting started and would be most displeased to be pulled out of my creative zone before another hour is up. This is why I decided that seeing as I finished off the pants I had started on Wednesday, I would bog myself down and finish from the start, another item of clothing. Enter the Afterschool shirt!

I apologise sincerely for the less than professional photos! I didn't "do" photography at school and perhaps I should have!

I decided to follow the "travelling" theme of the week and use some rather precious fabric I had saved from the Children at Play fabric line by Sarah Jane. I had intended on making my son some sketchbook shirts with this but he has grown so significantly that the pattern is now too small for him and at age almost ten, the fabric looks a little too babyish for his tastes now (unfortunately!) So, I felt a little guilty cutting into it and a tiny bit reminiscent of the fact that it was once Noah's choice and I am not sewing for him. But look at the result though. A very cute little shirt!

Once I had finished the shirt I felt ready for something else and was actually starting to panick a little also. Along with kids clothes week, there was also a sew along on the Oliver and s forums which allowed one the chance to enter and win two pdf patterns. So I decided to jump headlong into making the butterfly skirt and it took me all of an hour from scratch.

So all in all a good day's worth of sewing! Chloe has a whole new outfit and I feel like my creative time has been well used!

And here she is!

Parachute pants for play

It's Kids clothes week and I have decided that it is high time I joined in. Not that I don't sew, like, all the time! But I just thought it would be fun to actually make sure I made it into the sewing room everyday.

So I made a pair of Parachute pants from the new Oliver and s pattern and I have been using them on Chloe quite often. I felt that more pants were needed so, seeing as the first pair took only two hours to make (including cutting), I decided I would make some to start the kcw experience off.

All three were in the same size as the first (6-12 months) but this time I went without the ties. It wasn't that I didn't like it. I do think its cute! I actually ran out of the ready sewn bias I used in the first pair. So that's why it was omitted.

This pattern is a great way to use up scraps. I bought a metre of the pink fabric and have some still left over even after using pieces to make all four pairs!

So without further ado, here they are!

And here's the pair I made first!