A trip to A & E, and a tropical frock refashion

Yesterday, Noah broke his arm, in a soft play incident involving monkey bars and his brother giving him a slightly too hefty shove. He was incredibly brave and didn't complain once although he was at the hospital for four hours. 

The X-Ray was inconclusive, but the doctors and the specialist agreed that it is probably a fracture in his elbow. Its incredibly hard to tell on four year olds as their bones haven't fused yet, and whilst there was no apparent 'break' it did not look 'right'. 

 

They get free teddies now which he was extremely pleased about! He also got to watch a bit of 'A bugs life', saw his bones on the x-ray, and told pretty much everyone his 'poorly arm' story :)

 

He is coping as well as can be expected with the cast.  We will see the fracture clinic in a week to get a second opinion (leave cast on, replace cast, or remove cast)

In the meantime, the poor boy needs to cope with his restricted movement. Not easy for an active pre-schooler. I'm sure he'll be happy to show everyone at nursery though, and at school. (He is having is transition sessions at the mo, ready for school starting in September.)

This is him raring to get to his first session last Wednesday. They don't have to wear uniform, but he insisted!

 

On the craft front, I finally finished my refashioned tropical jersey sundress.

Last year I bought this maxi dress in a sale, because its really hard to come by tropical prints. At least it was at the time. I had no idea they'd be everywhere this summer! I love tropical prints!

I knew I'd have to pull it apart and start again, because I hated the straps, and the bodice, and I don't wear maxis.

I saw this dress in Dorothy Perkins a few weeks ago. I love it, but I wouldn't let myself buy it because we can't really afford it, so I thought I'd try and refashion the existing dress into something similar.

This is the result. 

This is the inside back pinned and ready to sew.

This is the external front. I think that the bodice looks a bit strange on Kirstie!

...and the back...

...and from the side.

I'm really happy with it and wearing it today. Its comfy and light. Just what I was after!

In which I spend a lot of time making loom bands and trying to fit in some sewing...

The boys recently rediscovered the dressing up box. I'm not entirely sure what they dress up as. They are merely using their artistic interpretations of whatever costumes they pick up :)

John and I seem to spend a lot of time picking up random beads/swords/gloves from around the house...

Also. Loom Bands. A great invention. But frustrating my boys quite a lot. They can both do the finger bands. But the loom is proving more problematic. I have therefore being 'helping'. And for 'helping' read 'making' their bands. Its quite therapeutic, but I would rather be sewing!

In more thrilling news in Pottsland ( I don't get out much) I dyed my hair. It didn't really work but their is a faint hint of red (it was supposed to be cherry red) in the sunlight. I am loathe to use lighteners on it, so I think this is the best its going to get. Here I'm wearing my bargain Cath Kidston vintage style dress I picked up from the outlet for 20 quid. BARGAIN I tell you. I shouldn't really go so often, but where I work, theres a lot of tyre shops, a B&Q, and the Cath Kidston outlet. Where would you choose to visit in your lunchbreak?!

We did a few days out. Wicksteed at War was one. The other was simply to visit the beautiful Cow Lane nature reserve, which is 10 minutes walk from our house. The boys really enjoyed hunting for mini-beasts. There are hundreds of blue dragonflies about at the moment. 

And on a crafty note, I have been furiously multi-tasking. The only thing I've finished is this attempt to design a travel case for when we go to Italy. I wanted something to hold the passports and all other documents you need to hand. 

It didn't go terribly well, however I learnt a lot and the next version will be better!

I found working with the clear plastic tricky, but not terrible. I don't have a proper laminate foot so tried to sew only on the cotton and zip side to reduce sticking/slipping.

Problem 1) for some reason I didn't make the external fabric pieces bigger, which mean the clear plastic zipped pockets stick out of the sides. I can't make them smaller (they are designed to fit folded A4) so I will need to make the outside bigger. There was meant to be an outer zip all the way around, but I couldn't make this happen because of this reason, so I just put a velcro flap on. 

 Problem 2) Credit card slots are slightly too wide. Just need to make that whole right band section slightly narrower.

Problem 3) Passport slots also slightly too wide. Not really an issue as long as I can put an outer zip on next time. And because I messed up the outer sizing, I've caught my label up in the seams. Doh!

Problem 4) This just shows how the outside is not big enough to envelop the inside! And that I needed to use fusible or compressed fleece rather than just standard interfacing. 

I was going to put a phone pocket on the outside but frankly I'd had enough at this point so just finished up!

This just shows that I got one thing right - you can fit folded A4 in there!

The Convertible/Reversible Bag

So here we have the reveal of the bag I made most recently. I have been pattern testing for Sarah of https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cozy-Nest-Design. This pattern will be available for sale on 30th July on www.Craftsy.com. 

Have a look at the Cozy Nest facebook page for other pattern tester creations and also here http://www.cozynestdesign.com/

Its the most amazing piece of construction. As you can see, it can be worn 4 ways which means only one bag required for my hols! 

I made this up in cotton as that's what I have in my stash, but it has also been made up in laminates by a number of people and looks fab that way too. 

I'm happy to take commissions for this bag via my fb page. Contact me for details x

So they say good luck comes in threes..

 

I won again! This time this lovely pattern from Emmaline bags. I'd get going straight away if I didn't have a sewing list a mile long!

In which I brag about winning twice this week!!

So I finally got to name one of Lisa Lams bags (https://www.u-handbag.com/) I've been trying for a while I tell you - but this time she picked my 'Beau Pair' as the name she liked best. Hurrah!

 

Also - all that effort I put into making those dolls clothes paid off - I won the Hell Bunny Rag (http://www.hellbunnyrag.com/)  Hello Dolly competition. A new season dress! (now if they'd just contact me to sort it out I'll be a happy woman. Also they spelled my name wrong. Which I suppose is one up from the ByHandLondon girls who called me Julie on their Flora Sewalong LOL)

In which I complete the ice cream sundae baguette bag, and make Joey a drawstring bag for his lego bits

So Joeys bag - easy enough - was meant to be a rucksack but I only had enough cord for one side LOL. There are two zippered pockets on the outside, but none on the inside.

 

This is the back (or the front) - much the same but the pocket is at the top

And this is ma boy sporting  his new sack for stuff!

I finally finished the Sundae Best bag (with the correct frame this time) It is asking for a strap, but I haven't got the time right now as I have several other projects in the pipeline. 

 

The bag is a bit flimsy for such a heavy frame (those baubles are solid - baby!) and crumples quite a bit, so next time I think I will need to find a denser interfacing (I'm pretty sure I used compressed fleece so its fairly stiff)