Various exciting developments

It's a random roundup post! No specific projects to show off, but I have not been inactive...

1) I went to Ikea and bought boxes and sorted out all my fabric and all my clothes for recycling and all my sewing supplies. It was a MESS. Now it's not. No pictures because I am still in denial about exactly HOW MUCH fabric there turned out to be hiding in the pile.

2) This was partly in anticipation of getting a sewing corner once we have 3 new bedrooms (attic renovation in progress!). But also in preparation for this:

Which starts today and which I am utterly signed up for. It's the excuse I've been needing to dive into ...

3) This book. I ordered it a few weeks ago and have been humming and hawing over what to do first ever since. I am particularly pleased about the fact that it contains a lot of intermediate and advanced things, so I can push my limits a bit without getting too fussy about it.

4) However, I'm also going back to the most basic of basics with a (very) beginners sewing course. I'm doing it for the fun - I've been wishing I could find a sewing club in Brussels (there seem to be many, funky ones in Flanders), and then found out about this from a friendly parent at the school gates. So I get to sew with other people and chat and make new friends at the same time! And at the end of it I will have a nice apron.

5) And finally, you might correctly think that I'm not lacking in ideas or inspiration. However, I was getting very frustrated by the bottomless chasm of folders and sub-folders in which my "favourites" were organised. Utterly impossible to remember what I'd bookmarked half of it for, and totally not user friendly. So now I have this instead:

I had heard about Pinterest on various blogs over this spring/summer but decided it was a blogland fad and ignored it. Turns out everyone was right and actually it's great. Instead of bookmarking text, you bookmark pictures, and the internet being a visual kind of thing, it's a MUCH easier way to organise one's creative thoughts.

Upcoming project ideas are here, my list of useful resources for tutorials etc is here, random other ideas are here - all accessible at a glance. I've put the link to my boards in the right hand column in case anyone fancies clicking through to my link treasure trove.

~

And that's it for now. My sewing energy was a bit depleted after September's burst of productivity, but after a good bit of organising I'm ready to go again. I intend to be back soon with lot's of kids' clothes made this week!

I'm not really a seamstress

In my head, I mainly sew clothes. Almost all my thinking and planning about sewing is about which garment, with which pattern and what adjustments, in which fabric, and do I have shoes to match? What needs adding to my wardrobe next? What techniques am I confident in and how do I want to experiment? And, not unimportantly, will I find time to carry all this off before the season changes (again! Doesn't time fly.)

Well, the answer to that last question is usually - no. A resounding No, in fact. Because while my head is plotting lists of beautiful homemade garments, my hands have other plans and are just busily getting on with them.

You see, my hands like things like this. Little, cute, fun, projects, easy to both plan and execute successfully (not quite at that stage with my own clothing yet...).

Small lovely things such as, to take one example, snugglers for freshly born babies.

I may have mentioned that my friends are having their very own 2011 baby boom. And frankly, when faced with the choice between pattern tracing, adjusting, cutting, sewing, trying, unpicking, sewing again, all the while sweating and swearing, or choosing some lovely polka dots and fluffy light soft fleece and then whipping up a swaddling blanket. Well!

When it comes down to it, my head agrees with my hands.

While they were at it, they decided it would be a good idea to whip up a pacifier clip too. Because, let's face it, altogether this makes rather a nice little bundle, doesn't it?

Yes, friends, feel free to have as many babies as you like. I love making this stuff.

Plenty of time left to make next summer's wardrobe, after all. (Yeah, like that's actually going to happen).

cake+tea

With thanks (especially from my lucky, cake-loving colleagues) to J for the book of French vocab-increasing recipe fabulousness, and to L for the pretty silicone cupcake cases.

Yum yum yum!

Three bright bibs

Welcome baby J! We're so very happy you're here!

Apple happiness

With thanks to L&J for sharing their unexpected delivery of 25 apples!

Apple pie in the fridge, apple turnovers in the freezer, 7 apples left for cake and other delights. And I have finally overcome my fear of pastry!

Housewarmer

2.30pm on Sunday, first visit to K&J's new house in Halle scheduled for 3.30pm. Just enough time to bash together a housewarming present! I found this fabric at ETS Berger the other week and, like everything else in there, it was cheap enough to buy a metre on the off-chance it would come in handy (I have to stop doing this - I popped in for a few cm of felt the other day and came out with enough to sew stuffed animals for an unlimited number of babies).

As usual there was a very handy tutorial on Sew Mama Sew - although in fact this was so simple to do, it was hardly necessary. Wooden frame + fabric + drawing pins = cheap and cheerful kitchen art. And we only arrived at K&J's an hour later than intended (I point the finger at the last minute bakery cake dash).

The kids fill up on sugar before testing out the new living room with a 3-hour balloon fight:

Bib for baby A

In flat contradiction of her father's wishes (no homemade presents - err, sorry Toby), I had been itching for an excuse to make bibs. Bibs are cute and bibs are useful - and I have a Martha Stewart book with some very straightforward ideas for making them.  So the arrival of baby A was the ideal opportunity. And as she turned out to be a girl, I was able to bring out my favourite baby-stuff colour combination of lime green and loud pink:

While making it I was struck by how much sewing stuff is like having babies. The whole process takes and feels much longer than you think it will, and the romance of conceiving the idea (this fabulous bib in these fabulous colours!) is soon overcome once you realise that there's no going back: the fabric is bought and the pattern printed and all that remains are the painful practicalities. As you approach the very end of the project you realise that you vehemently hate attaching bias tape and swear blind you will never ever again sew anything that uses the sodding stuff and whose stupid idea was this anwyay??? And then it is actually finished and it's so darling and lovely - it even smells nice - that you are totally enamored of it and immediately start thinking about the next one.

Now there remains only the great pleasure of meeting baby A to hand it over. I hope she gets dribbling on it immediately.

Pre-Christmas crafting bender

Amid all the Christmas shopping, planning and cooking dinner for 13, I managed to make these things for my friends. I don't really think they look that impressive given what an achievement it felt like to get them all done in time! But it was nice to give them - and I will learn to take better photos...

Heat therapy bags filled with rice, for those who need a bit of pampering to soothe aches and pains and general pregnancy discomfort. I made these folllowing this tutorial on Sew Mama Sew.

Tin can lanterns for L and J's garden, from the crafty bit in the Guardian.

Flea market crockery stuck together into a stand for fabulous H's fabulous cakes.

Mugs by L and T for their godparents, done with a painting kit from the wonderful Hema.

It was all rather addictive - I fear no-one will ever get a present bought from a shop again.