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It has been a month of sorting and planning rather than undertaking large projects. I have made myself new “byGaenor” tags to sew into my products, I invoiced for my first commission and I made a big list of all the things I need to make over the next month or so.
Starting with these for the school fete.


Robert was kind enough to say they even tempted him to put down his kindle and read a proper book, just so he could use one. Think these too might make a good addition to the shop, especially as they were so easy to make (once I put a sharp needle in my machine and solved the knotting thread problem).
Here’s to the next three weeks of making – before the school holidays start and I get nothing done.

Back in business!

It has been a while, but I have now (finally) updated my Folksy shop. We managed a photo shoot back at Easter and it has taken me until now to get focussed on putting the photos, descriptions and shop all in the same place.
It looks like this:
(models not for sale)

There are a couple more things to come later this week (tea towels, a reversible bag in Amy Butler Love Sunspots) and in between birthday presents I intend to add some Baby Bunting. Hopefully I can work on getting word out there and people will want to buy something.

It’s been a busy week.

I approached this half term week with some trepidation, as there was just so much to do!

We started out with the Jubilee weekend, and the grand cake making.



This was supposed to be followed by a day out in the New Forest with some grandparents, but Matthew broke his toe on the Bouncy Castle at the Jubilee Party, so Monday was cancelled. Instead we made another stripy back pack for a birthday present.


Then we had lovely visitors and some horrible weather which we combined with making more Baby Bunting for a new baby and tried to have a picnic on the most ridiculously wet day of the whole week.
Having said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa, we made cakes like they were going out of fashion (2 birthdays this weekend), and personalised them! (Gotta love ready roll coloured icing).

A bit of frantic beaching, an outdoor birthday party and then a family tea for our own birthday girl and we are about done…

Roll on school.

Oriental Tea (towels)

This very exciting (in a tea-towelly sort of way), because I am about to get paid for sewing for the first time!
My sister in law wanted some tea towels for her kitchen which were a little more individual than the regular shop bought/Cath Kidston style tea towels which she had seen so far. So a few weeks ago we did a little research and found some cotton duck which she liked.











After a ridiculous amount of time spent measuring and calculating and curling up in bed feeling rotten I actually cut into the fabric and have just despatched “6 Oriental Blossom Tea Towels in Fawn and Duck Egg Blue”. Hopefully Sue will like them as much as mum and I do.

Because of the way things have turned out I actually have another pair soon to be listed on Folksy once we have done a little photo shoot (that doesn’t involved my camera phone and the washing line).

Boeuf

by Matthew
This week’s make was Matthew’s. His school is a Rights Respecting School, and the children there created a creature called Beegu as a focus for their for learning about rights respecting activities.
His homework assignment involved making a “Rights Respecting Friend” for Beegu and then writing about him.
This is Boeuf. (Note: we helped provide a spelling which matched the pronunciation he was using).
 (I guided the method of construction, given materials at hand and time scales, but the design was all Matthew’s).
Matthew wrote:
Appearance:
Boeuf has yellow button feet and all of the holding together bits are wire. He has beads all around the wire that the Yellow buttons are on. He has two faces with painted on eyes. He has pipe-cleaner arms and Green buttons for the bit holding his legs on to his faces. He’s a little bit shorter than my drinks bottle.
What are the qualities of a good friend?
Sharing
Like the same things
Play together
Write about Boeuf.
Boeuf’s rocket booster feet help him move around really fast in the water and in the air. His favourite food is mint ice cream with chocolate sauce and chocolate stripes. At night Boeuf sleeps above where his food is. Beegu and Boeuf play hide and seek most of the time.

More Trouser Art

Just recently I actually got around to making some more decorative patches, specifically for my elder sister who loved the one I made for my daughter’s trousers last year. The timing worked well as not only does she now have holes in her trouser, but I managed to get them ready for the new school term – my sister is a teacher who loves her job, but gets end of the holiday blues, so she got these with instructions not to open them until the last day of the holidays.

I actually forgot to photograph these at the time, but conveniently she had them with her when she stopped by for birthday-ness at our Mum’s house last week so I attached and photographed them there (in good light!).

Technically this was quite an interesting project as I wanted each patch to be different from the others, but still very Cathy. The daisy was fiddly, but basically a reworking of the one I made for Piper’s trousers last year. The blue patch was very simple, but so satisfying and possibly my favourite. The orange and  yellow was a bit of a departure in style, as it came from a piece of flimsy printed fabric which I reinforced with calico. It then needed brightening up as it had black outline, so I hand-stitched satin stitches all around the edge and inner boundary to match the heart of the flower, and made the stem green. Time consuming but also satisfying.
Lots more projects coming up over the next couple of months, so hopefully I’ll have time to blog about them too.

Oops!

Somehow another month has passed without me reporting in on anything, not even domestic activities. It was sunny, then it rained a lot so we haven’t really done anything. Apart from housework, which I don’t routinely photograph.
However, the last week has been a little busier with two birthdays to present make for. The first of these was my Mum’s, and as  part of my goal to make her all the things she likes I made her the Reversible Shoulder Bag, Mark II.

The same weekend a friend celebrated his 40th birthday and his wife organised a Christmas themed party for him. We weren’t able to attend (celebrating with Mum!) but I did send them a pair of Christmas Stockings (it seemed appropriate).

They were made completely out of things I already had in my cupboard (thereby justifying my hoarding) and came together relatively easily – especially after I realised I could hide a multitude of sins with ribbon!
Now I need to have a go at personalising the ones my mum made for my children last Christmas (when I ran out of time on Christmas Eve).