There are moments where life is just too…. peopley. Last Sunday was one of those moments. It was the first weekend in what felt like months (it was months, to be fair) where I didn’t have to be anywhere, there were no plans afoot and no one required my presence. I’d booked the Monday off as Thing 1 had an appointment, I had some fabric from the Stitch show which needed to be turned into something, and my living room was not full of teenagers. I was going to cut out the fabric on the Saturday, do my ironing first thing on the Sunday and then spend the day making a new version of the Folkwear Basics jacket.
Readers, I do not need to tell you that man plans and god laughs. Oh yes, she does. Loud and long. By early evening on the Saturday I had managed to cut out the outer fabric and then one of the big girls turned up with GT2 and his daddy in tow, all of whom then slept on my living room floor so sewing was out of the question. So was the ironing. I was disgruntled and after kicking about for a bit I threw all my toys out of the pram and stomped off to Harlow to meet Miriam for a coffee. Harlow was equally peopley but none of them a) were asleep on my floor or b) required anything from me.
Work has been particularly paper-based recently, without opportunities to be creative (some months are like that). It’s been productive in terms of gettng projects started and thinking about chairs and signage and practical things, but sometimes I really need to get hands-on and create something substantial with an outcome I can see and feel. This was one of those times, but instead I drank hot chocolate at Geek Retreat and went food shopping in Lidl, where I resisted all middle-of-Lidl things (yay me!) but did get some rum and raisin ice cream. Rum and raisin is my favourite, and it’s surprisingly hard to get hold of.
The creativity had to wait until Monday – the one benefit to the clocks going back was the inability to sleep past 6am. The ironing was done by 9am, with the help of a couple of episodes of Northern Exposure, and I managed to cut out the lining pieces from a piece of deadstock fabric in sunny orange before taking Thing 1 to her appointment.
This jacket pattern comes together really quickly – the two lining pieces and the two outer pieces are stitched together down the centre back, the sides and sleeves are sewn before putting them together and bagging out through a sleeve. The sleeves are bound with a bias bind which I chose to turn fully to the inside with a deep hem. The whole thing is top-stitched and voila! One new jacket. It’s an oversized style which is great for layering over hoodies and jumpers, and I do love a layer.
I also made a bag with the leftover fabric – another quick make using the Robin & Birch Nori Kimono Bag pattern. I made the large size and omitted the central ties, mainly because I never use them on the smaller version I’ve made. The finished jacket and bag (I won’t use them together!) are really tactile thanks to the fluffy fringes, and they have a good weight to them. It also has big patch pockets. Of course.
I felt a lot better after an afternoon of making and a lot of rum and raisin ice cream.
Other things making me happy this week
- Crocheting yet more tiny things that fit in small jars – a tiddly pud this time. It needs some work, and also some googly eyes.
- Testing ideas for a charity event we’re taking part in in December – glowing lanterns. Now to tell my colleagues they’ll be helping me cut things out for the next few weeks…
- Panic buying sweeties for trick or treating, and now we have to eat them as we only had two. Mmm, Drumstick lollies.
- Making banana bread with Maltesers – I forgot to put the eggs in though but hopefully there were enough bananas to make up for it!
- Hobbycraft with Miriam, her Thing 1 and my Thing 2. There were these notebooks…
- Bara Brith in the oven – I have a new starter this week on my team and I haven’t baked this for a while. Even I can’t get this wrong.
- Making a lot of crochet ‘pigs’ to go in blankets….
Today I am to the lake for the first time in aaaages, and I’m SO looking forward to it. Really.
Same time next week!
Kirsty x
What I’ve been reading:
The Lamp of the Wicked/Prayer of the Night Shepherd – Phil Rickman (Audible)
How the Light Gets In/The Beautiful Mystery – Louise Penny
What Kirsty did next 