Tuesday 20 September 2011

Remake and mending

Such a gloomy morning today. It is our first proper rainy morning since school went back. Windscreen wipers on, anoraks for the kids. Despite his anorak, T looked soaked by the time he got to the school gate. He is of course at eight too old to carry his bumble bee umbrella, though Little I was happy with her lady bird one. "Everyone will think I am a giant insect". I noticed one of his friends with a smart rocket patterned bottle green umbrella. Not too toddlerish at all.
Anyway I am feeling a bit cheesed of with the rain and ensuing gloom. Do other people feel fed up with all the detritus and mess around? I am no great shakes at house cleaning but sometimes a big clear up makes me feel much better. Over the course of the summer holidays things got more and more chaotic here.
I have been fixing and mending, I was so fed up by the mess everywhere in our house, that I decided to tackle The Piles....first up the school uniform pile. Little I starts school in January but we had been given a pile of old school clothes (a year ago!) which I had dragged out from under the bed to see what was there. Added to her brother 's old school sweatshirts and PE kit (t shirt, shorts and plimsolls), plus my summer car boot haul, she only needs me to buy the grey socks and black shoes. Hurray for other peoples' cast-offs. I have to make her a PE drawstring bag but have promised to find some pink fabric. So, I decided to sort and name it all now so all we need to do in the Christmas holidays is buy the shoes. As it is named, each item goes in a shallow plastic box under the bed so all the school stuff is in one place. I have been sewing name tapes in which is apparently a rare and archaic act these days. I like sewn name tapes though, apart from anything else they are re-usable, so in the longterm save money. Once I sat down in front of the tv with my pile of clothes and name tapes it only took two evenings to do.

Then I tackled some of my mending pile, first up was my Portfolio top.



I had made it from Simplicity 2245, view C and a limited amount of stash fabric. I have been wearing it but felt it was just a bit too short for me though so I added a contrast band in brown and white polka dots from the scrap pile.



Next up...my 3835 tunic top had a large and getting rapidly larger hole in the lower centre front. I sliced the bottom five inches off below the hole and then reattached it without the hole. Sorry no before photos to explain what I did. I had worn it out in the summer with the hole which horrified my friend's clothes conscious eight year old daughter. She will be pleased to know I have mended it.


I added purple cord to cover the seam and to give the top a bit more ...something...structure? The purple cord was the cord I had taken from my bumble bee cardigan refashion.


Finally to cheer myself up today I am wearing this new pendant. I made it with Little I and her aqua bead set.


Okay, more clearing up to do... more photos to follow. Hope you guys are feeling more cheery today.






















9 comments:

  1. You have been very productive, and I agree, there is nothing like a good spring clean to lift one's spirits! Although I guess in your case it is an autumn sort-out? I really like how you have fixed up your two tops, and admired the pink and purple-y one over on SSS. The fabric is just gorgeous.
    Thanks for your comment, and I put in that post a link to the wikipedia article on black swans, which states that they are native to the southwestern and southeastern part of Australia.

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  2. You will definitely thank yourself for dealing with the nametapes now - Christmas is not the right time for that job!
    Mess overwhelms me. I have a big clearout every weekend and then by Tuesday the place looks just the same as before with mud and dog hair on top of the newspapers, used tissues, dirty plates...
    I limit myself to a weekend clean because I am out at work 8-6 in the week. Otherwise I would do nothing else. But yeah, it gets me down sometimes! I quite often crack and vacuum the living room mid-week!
    I love the way you slice into garments to make them wearable - I am such a chicken in comparison!

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  3. i'm with you all the way with the sew-in name tags! it took me 2 evenings to do my stack, and i just think they look lovely...i actually went a bit mad and put them on the swimming goggles and towels....i also made reuben and tallulah PE bags, tallulah got russian doll fabric and reuben lego fabric...i just know that in a cloak room full of red bags, theirs will stand out!!!! (am meeting a certain friend of ours tomorrow for lunch...)xxxxxx

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  4. Caroline - I am jealous...if only we lived closer I would invite myself along for lunch with the two of you!

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  5. Wow, you've been super productive! The two tops look great mended, I love the little polka dot border and the cord indeed makes the tunic looks more structured!

    I actually clean better when the sun is shining, rainy weather makes me want to laze around, read a book and drink tea. Or sew... I really should have a nice autumn clean-out one of these days!

    Hope the weather is going to lighten up soon. If not - chocolate and chai tea are almost as good as sunshine! ;)

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  6. I know exactly how you feel ...and I hate to break it to you that it does not get any better as "they" get older.With the advent of university I had to get all the stuff for both to function normally and therefore in vacation I have to assimilate three households in to one very small one...three ironing boards,three sets of crockery...etc....and my dining at the moment has amongst lots of boxes three bikes!! Mess is not the word!!!next week will be blissfully clear,clean but empty.

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  7. We also had gloomy grey weather today. Maybe because I know there is more to come, I spent a good chunk of time cleaning too. Now I just need to wash some windows and then I will feel a bit better.

    I have never figured out how to mend a midriff placed hole like that. I like your solution, add some piping and make it look like you did it on purpose.

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  8. I love that you made a little necklace to cheer yourself up - it is so cute! And I am loving the idea of cutting off some of that tunic and then covering up the new seam with cord. It´s such a clever idea! :-)

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  9. Thank you for the lovely comments. I am glad to have got some more life into two tops. Just got a couple more left to fix.

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