So this morning a happily fat and squashy package was sitting on the washing machine when I woke up at the crack of ten. It was the fabric I’d purchased online at significant expense to the management, to kick-start my stash for my patchwork skirt project (like this one, but in browns). Happy to see it had arrived (my inner Luddite still being a tad wary of such things as online purchases) I burst open the packets and spent a happy ten minutes sorting the fabrics into the browns suitable for my skirt, and the rest - mostly a pleasing collection of old-fashioned dusky pinks and blues.
Unfortunately, the presence of these spare fabrics combined with last night’s perusal of a bunch of quilting and sewing blogs meant that my never-very-single-minded mind began to leap to contemplating yet more wild and ambitious projects. I’m used to this happening in the middle of a project, but to have it occur while I’m still gathering fabrics for the previous one - before even a stitch has been stutch - is impressively flaky even for me. For the record, my UFOs currently include:
- ruffly cushion
- hand-sewn chevron quilt started about eighty years ago, only I’ve sort of gone off the colours and definitely gone off hand-sewing
- small square baby quilt; the top is done, but it needs to be backed and quilted and edged and so forth
- gardening apron made out of old jeans
- the snortlepig’s polar fleecey pyjamas
- winter shirt for the snortlepig (not even begun, but planned with fabric purchased and thus taking up mental energy)
- winter hat for the snortlepig (ditto)
- patchwork skirt for me (ditto)
- wall hanging thingy for the baby’s room to contain wet wipes and so forth (essentially abandoned, but sewing room still contains incriminating piece of batting which looks at me reproachfully when I enter)
- bolster to cover for living room
- smaller bolster, ditto
- wraparound skirt for moi which I managed to completely bungle, now stuffed away at the back of fabric stash pretending it isn’t there
You see the situation? And yet the moment I’m faced with some attractive bits of fabric I start thinking things like “Ooh, I could make a Dear Jane-inspired quilt, but with a different-coloured background and my own block designs! By hand! In a week! With one hand tied behind my back! While trialling polyphasic sleep! And teaching myself koine Greek by listening to podcasts!!!1111″
And then I go and surf the net in my pyjamas, while feeding my baby bits of toast.
On the bright side, I did get said snortlepig’s costume done for the party today. Well, mostly; it lacks a pocket, but I’ll have to sew that on by hand because when I was winding the bobbin with white thread I got too absorbed in watching it wind on and accidentally wound on the whole lot, which was the last of my white thread, so my reel thread is now a paleish brown which necessitates sewing everything on the wrong side, which works OK for sleeves but not so much for pockets. Anyway. I’m moderately pleased with the result, given that I didn’t have a pattern and made up myself. The costume is a French painter, inspired mostly by my little sister pointing out how well the snortlepig would look in a moustache. I made a smock out of muslin, which taught me two important facts:
- Sleeves need to be wider than you think; and also
- The snortlepig is also wider than you think.
It was going to fit over her head like a dress, but when I realised there was no way its waist and hers would ever chill out together in harmony, I slit the whole thing up the back and made ties to close it shut, which when I came to think of it was more smock-like anyway. And just as well, because there’s a gap of a good five inches at the back. Next time I’ll make the bodice wider. Anyway it looks kinda cute in a rough musliny way, and in theory she could even use it for an actual painting smock. I’ll try to take some photos of her in costume, but as you can see, on this blog that is something of an empty threat. I suck at photos.
While I was out buying a birthday present I also picked up a cheap green beret from the op-shop, and with a miniature artist’s palette my little sister is making for her, a fake moustache drawn on by eyebrow pencil and either her puffy trousers or tights, I think she will look quite the business. Drawing the moustache might be tricky - we tried last night and she kept wriggling so the result looked a bit Impressionistic, but I suppose that’s semi-appropriate anyway, no?
Well, thanks to my challenge-lite week I now have a few free hours before I have to get us ready for the party. I think I’ll go cut some of my browns up into five-inch squares.