Finally in favour

A rare moment in my house... BOTH the littlies having a midday nap at the same time!! And with the big girl back at school today, that means a little sacred time to myself. Anyone with kids finds, I'm sure, that when you're faced with some of this precious commodity your mind races "what will I do first? What has been really hard to do with the kids around lately? I'll call my mum, I should probably get onto the washing... again".

But actually, it's a treat just to be able to sit and have a coffee and a piece of the latest nougat (more on that later) and write a blog post without children nagging me for food/craft projects/anything or at 12.30am (have I mentioned there's not so much sleep happening in this house these days?). I might even have a flick through my new Frankie magazine, excitedly bought after my 18 year old niece very kindly assured me that no, I was not way too old for this groovy magazine, and being a 39 year old mother of 3 does not make me too daggy to be in the demographic. Good on her for being such a diplomat!

Anyway, what I thought I'd show you today is a jumper I made for the big girl about a year ago. It's made from the pattern that I based her recent jacket on, as I wrote about in this post, and is true to the pattern with cute little side inserts that make it look kind of pixie-like.



As always with handmade items, when I presented it to her after I'd stayed up the night before finishing it, I lowered my expectations and told myself it didn't matter if she didn't like it - kids are brutally honest and they know what they like and don't like. When she said it wasn't 'pretty enough' I was not too wounded, it was orange and purple afterall, with no frills, tulle or ribbons. She wore it once then I put it away. But, a year on the pink fog seems to be clearing and we are heading out of the exclusively pink/princess stage. Yes, she rediscovered it and wore it all day on her last day of holidays yesterday. It's perfect for scootering and mucking around. I would definitely recommend this pattern. And fleece is so forgiving to sew with - no need to finish seams off if you don't want to, easy to sew and washes well.






Before we went on our recent long weekend away I also made my skirt-mad little girl this skirt to go with tights, so she wouldn't feel left out. Just an elastic waist and a bit of the fantastic Amy Butler fabric as a decorative pocket. My model was a little reluctant to follow any photographic art direction from mamma, but you get the idea.





I hope you've had a little time to yourself today too.