Sewing vs. architecture

Our dining room table is a flurry of activity at the moment - the roll of yellow trace is in hot demand, the pencils are sharp and the ruling and measuring instruments are invariably buried under each other's work.  You have to watch what you are doing.  It would be a crime to accidently cut, rip or throw away a piece from each other's project.  Consequences could be dire.  See how much the same it looks:

Sewing

 Architecture

 Sewing

Architecture

We're drawing little lines and making things from them.  Mine is on a 1:1 scale though and infinitely faster to complete.  His is big, messy and makes lots of noise.

There ends the lesson.

Baby tutu fru-fru

I have a friend, she has a baby girl and they're both mad about tutus.  I feel really honoured to have been asked to make some baby tiny tutu skirts.  Even better the request included a "no pink" clause - in case you hadn't guessed, I'm not much a lover of pink myself.  Even though I welcomed the chance to sew with tulle, a new fabric for me, I could not quite imagine myself actually buying pink tulle, that would be pushing my sewing limits.

So, I discovered a few rules about tulle - best to be cut with a rotary cutter for straight edges, it tends to stick to itself a bit which is slightly frustrating so you have to have a good dose of patience to start with, and it's a little bit like sewing air, but you soon get used to it.

I made up my own pattern for these skirts using the measurements of my friend's baby for sizing.  The lining is poplin and I found three layers of tulle lightly gathered together gave a good volume to the skirt.

I have just finished making a green spot tutu with white layers and mint lining...

...with a touch of a doily under it all.  Subtle and cute I think.

It's gone to join it's friends: a pale blue spot tutu with blue layers and silver trim,

and a yellow star tutu with apricot layers and yellow lining.

I tell you, I'm loving the appreciation photos my friend is sending me of her tutu wearing girl.  So sweet!

And back

Whoa, Easter school holidays - what a blur.

I feel like I had just enough time to post off some tutu skirts to a friend's baby, 

complete a custom order for my shop,

and cut out, stick together and trace a pattern for a Washi dress.

All sewing things were then packed away downstairs, the sewing table tidied and dusted and I got on with the business of eating too much (cheap) chocolate and too many hot cross buns, taking boys to the dinosaurs at the museum and trips into the city on the bus.  Then we all hopped on a plane for a whirlwind trip to Melbourne to celebrate my brother's birthday.  An intense couple of weeks that's for sure.  

I came back to prepare for a total waste of time job interview on Tuesday...and just when you were thinking things couldn't get crazier, well yes, they did.  We signed a contract and blokes started coming over to our house every morning at 7am to start a renovation.  

I tell you, sewing has almost, just almost, been the last thing on my mind of late.

Today in between the audio assault of the sound of angle grinders and steel beams and the olfactory assault of steel primer paint I'm alternating between vegging out on the daybed with coffee and Frankie magazine, attending to toddler needs and intermittently attacking tulle with my rotary cutter to make another tutu skirt.

I'm going to leave it there, I think I'm getting high on primer fumes....