A doll and a day in the country

I am feeling very disenchanted by dress making at the moment. It seems everything I turn my hand to is wrong…..looks wrong. In fact, I’d been feeling like I’d lost the knack and then I came down with a nasty bout of tonsillitis. So I’m hoping it’s simply been a case of ‘do not sew under any circumstances if you feel under the weather’ and I’ll bounce back. I actually found a beautiful piece of emerald silk in my stash today and was tempted to make a blouse……but I stopped myself just in time. I couldn’t cope with another failure.

Anyway, I’ve found a lovely way to amuse myself……

Making dolls! I have so enjoyed the last couple of weeks sitting in front of the TV stuffing little dolls.

And don’t you think she’s lovely? I found the pattern in a magazine and given that I’ve always been a sucker for dolls, there was no stopping me. I’m going to make my girls and my nieces one each for Christmas………if I can bear to part with them…..I have so much admiration for those selfless sewers who make presents for other people………I am too selfish. But this year I am going to try and embrace selflessness with my sewing. And gosh I’m loving giving the dress making a breather. Incidentally, the doll’s dress was made out of fabric I found in Mum’s stash. And I do believe it’s a liberty!

On another theme…..gardens. We went to Bowral for the day to look at an open garden. Feast your eyes! It was beautiful. But the cows are not part of it.

Audrey Hepburn cushions

If you are anything like me, the most important man (or woman) in your life is your hairdresser. I would walk over hot coals for my hairdresser because I am so dependent on him! He is better than any psychiatrist because he makes me happy! Not because of anything he says but when my hair is bad I’m bad. It’s that simple. And it’s not easy hair to do. It takes ages and ages and I’m not very adventurous ……..don’t get his creative juices flowing.

So when he told me he had this gorgeous Audrey Hepburn fabric that he’d bought to make a cushion, but he couldn’t sew, I was happy to oblige. These are the cushions……….

Don’t you think they’re lovely? I was so pleased with them. It is a very heavy furnishing fabric and I have backed them with an oatmeal linen. And my hairdresser loved them. And………….gave me the rest of the fabric so I will add some to my Etsy shop. I’m just hoping the rest of the staff don’t bring in their mending for me! Have you ever noticed that when people know you can sew they automatically assume you love sewing on buttons and hemming trousers? We had a formal function at work a couple of weeks ago and one of the girls had bought a beautiful silk gown that had a tie around the waist. The tie was too big for her middle (enviable problem!!!) so I offered to fix it for her because she couldn’t sew. Well, she and I were sitting in the lunch room at work, pinning the tie for me to fix and one of the men came in. He took one look at the pin cushion and exclaimed “oh you can sew? I’ve just paid to have my tux altered! I could have got you to do it and saved the money!” Seriously? And this guy was practically a total stranger!

On another theme, Summer in Sydney. Yes. It’s back. In all it’s stinking hot glory. I thought you might enjoy these shots of Coogee Beach. We had set off for a walk at 9am but had to turn back because it was just too hot. But the beach was beautiful.

Going off on a completely different tangent, there is a place in north west NSW, near Tamworth, called Nundle. It is a country town and I had recently read a success story about a couple who bought the Nundle Woollen Mill in 2007 and totally transformed the business in 2013. It has become something of an award winning tourist attraction. Anyway, I was googling it and came across the following “important life lessons to learn from knitting”. I hope you get a giggle out of them…..

Have a good weekend!