One of those magic moments

I had this picture in my head 7 years ago when designing the kitchen bench and tonight for the first time it happened. All three boys sitting happily at the bench working on their homework. No tears and lovely interactions with each other and with me. I was on the other side, peeling potatoes for their dinner. Moments like these are pure bliss.

Dress - purple

Okay - so even I don't know what I was thinking when I bought this fabric. Pretty full on, isn't it. It is a stretch cotton so has a fairly good weight to it. It was in my pile of current fabric, so I decided it was now or never. 

This dress is a new look pattern and I have made it in a 12 top with 14 bottom and I need every bit of that. Having said that, the fit is really good and I will be going back to it to make it again - next time in a much more subdued fabric.

 This is the neck detail which is sweet. A small cross over at the neck. I decided to soften the fabric a little by making the sleeves black - which is a faux ostrich leathery thing I had. Doesn't soften it much but the less of this fabric you see the better I say.

Here is an unstyled shot of the dress on- obviously I need to tidy up behind me before snapping but you get the idea of the fit. I on such a mission to get the dress done it has a beige zip in the back but I covered the top with a bit of black nailpolish and you can't tell.

I figure styled with some black it will look better - not that I have any where to wear it. All these new clothes make me think I need a job outside home!

On a roll

With the machine out and a little inspiration, I am a sewing machine - pun intended.
Last night I spread out my 'current' fabrics. These are the ones that I intend to sew rather than the bargains I pick up just to add to the stash. Big difference. As I was saying, I spread them out and let them talk to me. Sometimes the picture of what they need to be is clear from the time of purchase. This was true for the gold brocade that at $7 (bargain) was always going to be a short skirt. Lucky because I only had 70cm of it.

Others can change. This pink and red floral is a stretch cotton and I had initially thought it would be a dress. However the success of my recent balloon style skirt made me want to do another version of that.  So the design changed.

I also had some scrap ponte that I whipped up into a little straight skirt to wear over leggings when I walk to school. Nothing too fancy just a little fabric for a little dignity. Fair exchange.

I saw the gold fabric earlier in the year at Spotlight on special and one of the groovy mums has this awesome gold skirt that she had worn to school that I had to have. Don't think I could pull it off at school like she does - but inspirational none the less. I also saw this post on the Handmakers Factory. I hadn't looked at this since March and it is funny how your mind changes things. I was certain these were pleated tulip skirts but they are very a-line. Something that would have suited me much better but its done now!

I used a skirt pattern with a waist band and front pleat. I made the bottom a 16 with the waist a 12 so there was extra fullness in the pleat and the dart. I also sewed it on the wrong side so that the gold was richer. The other way looked a little beige. I lLove the pockets and properly styled think it is really cute. At least the fabric is sewn up now!

I love the fabric of this skirt and I love the style. On it looks a bit balloony - with the fullness around the knee and then coming in a little lower. It isn't a classic balloon skirt - just has a bit of that look. Sorry about the truly tragic photo here - it can only look better on! The yolk is fitted and it is slim down to my saddlebags and keeps going on that angle.  I have no idea what I will wear with it - but I love it. Not sure of its seasonality - may have to wait until summer, but none the less - its a beauty. It is similar to my tree skirt from the other day - I say similar because I am reworking a base pattern and I make it a little different each time. I freestyle the pattern.

The Runner Incident.

I got some much needed one on one time with my fashionista Spencer today. He can sometimes let the bustle of the family competition hold him back - and today he was like a different child. My realisation that he needed this became evident last night.

We went out as a family to the shops after school last night. There was no sporting activities on and we had to pick up the big squirrels car from the mechanic. (!) We hit Chaddy with no specific goal in mind, but maybe some runners for Benji.

We browsed happily. Spencer was happy to look at things and be aspirational about clothes and toys. However, when we got to Benji getting runners and Spencer not getting anything, the stuff really hit the fan. It didn't help that they are really cool runners - his previous ones had a hole in them. Spencer thought them to be much cooler than his recently acquired runners. Benji really wasn't helping the situation by tap dancing in exuberation though the store. The harder Spence cried, the more extreme the dancing got. I get it - he was happy with the shoes, but in a way he was happier that Spencer didn't have any and it was certainly driving that message home.

In some consolation, Spencer got a notebook and a pencil. Hardly runners, but I didn't need a big spend just to make it through some food and to the car.

The next day we set off - just Spence and I (with his notebook and pencil) to purchase the Fox Sweater which was on the top of his list. 
Apparently easier said than done. We ended up travelling to Brighton to get it in his size as it was a May release. While we did manage to get the jumper, and he was very happy and looks really good it in - we had a lovely time together- both shopping and driving. It was a real opportunity for him to talk - if he wanted and me to take the time to listen. We did some of our school stuff, but it was really nice to wander hand in hand and just be.

Tree Skirt

With the machine out to do the bags, I was inspired to do a little more. Spotlight recently had 30% off and when I was getting the plastic for the bags, I also picked up this drill. I wanted a skirt but something a bit different than the standard A line which I always have. One of the ladies in B Inspired had an interesting cut on her skirt and with that in my head I saw a burda pattern discard which I could adapt.

It has a yolk with a v front but when its on you cannot tell. There are four pieces to the front and back with a centre seam. Each seam goes out like an aline, but then returns back in - giving some puffiness to the skirt at this point. The pattern I had (which I now cant even find) was very short. It finished mid thigh. I added a good four or so inches to the length and also changed the volume point to be at the end of the pattern. Really happy with how it came out. It is modern and graphic without being too much.

Styled up - this is how I wore it and got comments in a number of shops - which is always flattering. Love my grey boots- they are extra long and go right up behind my knee.

Monet

For Mums birthday we decided to take her into the National Gallery to see Monet's Garden. 

She is still well enough to do this kind of thing and art is something that we all love so Mr P, Mum and I went there today. Together we wandered the large exhibition. It was magical to be able to see these much published works in the flesh - both up close to examine the movement of the brush stokes and the visible canvas and then to step back and see his true magic at work. The way the eye mixes the paint and illuminates the work is amazing.

The other thing that was lovely to see was the scale of the works. That is something that you don't appreciate from books. As he aged the works got bigger. There were also some studies so you could see his base painting and how quickly he worked. Up close these seemed out of place but from a distance, these basic paint sketches had a magical quality.



I really enjoyed the later works - bigger, bolder and much more expressive. Painted in France during World War 1 after the loss of his second wife, one can only imagine that his painting became a form of escape from the horrors of life and he built his beautiful garden for solitude.

If you are in Melbourne, I highly recommend it. There are no haystacks - it is really about his garden. There are a few landscapes and early works, but a really good exhibition and Mum, Mr P and I all really enjoyed it. So much so that I will take the boys to see it too.

Fine Motor

We are on a home education kick at the moment and part of that is building up strength in the boys fingers. Finger strength helps with handwriting. (It is a shame that that doesn't come with the swipe ipad movement because they are really good at that!) I decided that today we would cook.

I found some cookbooks that the twins could read -  very picture based simple recipes. We worked on everything - reading, numbers, measuring, more and less and also temperature. We also worked their fingers. The "Monkey Bread" which is Banana and Sultana Loaf had the butter rubbed into the flour. That got the fingers working. The shortbread cookies were the same and then they needed to be made into balls. All good stuff - and yummy at the end.

In retrospect, I probably should have left it there - but of course on a roll took it one step further and we made bread rolls but by this stage everyone was kind of over it.