Well, it ended up taking a week or so for my sewing machine to come out of its summer hibernation: I hurt my back. I suffered several days of walking around looking like I was trying to do the robot. This, of course, had to coincide with our new hamster making a bid for freedom in the middle of the night. Luckily she chose my bedroom, as I was the only one still awake. Still, I'm sure that you can imagine that someone with a rigid back trying to catch a small lively rodent that is under the bed rates pretty highly on the ridiculous-looking scale...
Luckily I regained my mobility in time for the Kids Clothes Week Challenge. Unluckily my mother-in-law decided that she was going to stay at the start of the challenge week, scuppering my plans for the first couple of days. Plus I found out that my kids would need their Halloween costumes earlier than planned. So, plans scrapped, here's day one's effort: a hand sewn felt wolf mask. My theory is that sewing while entertaining a guest is not anti-social if it is hand sewing...
Not strictly an item of kids' clothing, but oh well. I might as well confess now: the next couple of days were filled with Halloween costume making, too. A late evening sewing session after soccer practices produced a little red hooded cloak for a Little Red Riding Hood:
She then needed something to go under the cloak, though, so I came up with this little dress:
Please do not look too closely. I do not believe in spending too much time on costumes that will only get a couple of wears, so I've been sewing these with the pedal to the floor...
I've just been making up the patterns for all these as I go along, but I do plan on attempting a proper pattern tomorrow. Wish me luck.
Translation of the Day:
UK English: scupper = to defeat, ruin or thwart in US English
As in, the lack of discipline displayed really scuppered England's hopes in the Rugby World Cup. Oh England, I had such high hopes for you...
I never did round up the end of KCWC, did I? Like I said, we needed the Halloween costumes ready earlier than expected: my in-laws had invited us to a ranch place and there were going to be some early Halloween festivities going on. Little Red Riding Hood was pretty much finished when I last blogged, but the Big Bad Wolf was just a mask.
I improvised the pattern. To be honest, I don't want to sew 'fur' ever again: it sheds everywhere. I still keep coming across the odd tumbleweed of fake fur gently roaming across the hardwood floors...
The poor kid roasted at his school's Fall Festival last week with all that fur on. Still it should be good for trick or treating on Monday, going by the cool evenings we've been having lately.
That's the tail. Hopefully people will be able to tell what animal he is supposed to be when he's next to his sister.
As for the KCWC round up, I did end up attempting a pattern for once.
The pattern is Sailboat Pants by oliver + s. It is a well-designed pattern and I liked the little details, but I did have to alter it to fit my slim-hipped lass. Still, I managed to squeak these trousers out of a half yard of twill that I had in the stash.
As for the trip away, it was nice. My kids didn't win the pumpkin carving contests (possibly because they didn't get much in the way of help from their parents) BUT my daughter did win $60 at bingo...
