Tree Fall

Linden Sweatshirt

 

I've been waking up earlier and earlier for the last couple of weeks and have finally given in to the fact that I might as well stop fighting it and put the extra hours in my day to good use.

I bought this fabric last month, thinking that I would probably make a dress with it. I can't work out what the exact composition is, but there's definitely some natural fibres in there. The texture creates an almost quilted look, but the surface is almost flat and the sheen makes it look slightly metallic.

So, having woken up at 6am on Friday morning, I decided not to use it for a dress but to make a Linden sweatshirt with it instead. The pattern calls for fabric with a minimum of 20% stretch, and this only has about 15% (and even that's me being optimistic), but because the neckline is fairly large on the Linden, I didn't think that it wouldn't matter too much.

 

 

 

I cut out and stitched the main body of the top before the girls got up for school and then finished the neckline and cuffs off this morning.

The pattern is extremely quick to sew. You can have the whole thing done and dusted in not much more than an hour, especially if you use standard sweatshirting or jersey.

I've never been one for wearing sweatshirts but since making my first Linden a couple of months ago, I've been living in them. I've now made one in a lightweight grey marl, one in a grey sweatshirting, one in shiny spangly stuff and now this one.

 

 

 

This is far and away my favourite so far. The lack of stretch plus the textured weave stops it looking like a sweatshirt, and makes it look so much smarter. Plus I increased the width of the neckband (also the length, to make up for the lack of stretch), making it stand up slightly, which I really like.

 

 

Because it's so dark, and doesn't drape like jersey it's really hard to photograph (not that the photobomber helps), but in real life it hangs really nicely and moves well. And it got a proper 'wow' from Jim when I walked in the room.

So in short, I love it. Easy to make, easy to wear and different enough to stop me feeling like I'm in a boring old sweatshirt.

 

 

 

This is me wearing it on a trip to Ikea. And that's us trying to ignore the children in the back of the car....

 

Distractions...(or how to not leave your kids by the side of the road)

 

 

 

 

 

 

We appear to have reached a stage in family life where civillity and siblings no longer mix. So after a particularly challenging morning a couple of weeks ago, I dragged my lovely children out to the local nature reserve, with a picnic and some pond dipping nets.

After a very shaky start (I might have threatened to leave them both by the side of the road at one stage), we had a fantastic afternoon, bird watching and pond dipping. And miraculously we all managed to get back home in one piece. There was even the sound of laughter heard.

I'm determined to drum it in to the girls that even if they don't want to spend time together, they have to respect eachother. Which is a bit of an uphill battle at times.

Today though, I overheard them in their room, discussing the fact that they would always be together, so I'm hoping that we're on the right path.  And in the meantime, thank god for nature reserves and picnics and newts.

 

Happy Birthday Mum. There are still no words. Except that I love you. xxx

The future

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the village that we're planning to make our home in. When we visited it this week we had one of those experiances that makes you feel that it's really meant to be.

A combination of coincidences and good luck meant that we were in the village at exactly the right time to view the house that we're now buying.

We had seen a house the day before that was more beautiful than we ever imagined we could own, in a village with a great school and a great pub and had gone to bed that night thinking that we were going to go for it. But the next morning I woke up at 5am knowing that it just couldn't work. It was a dream house, but not a real house that my dad could grow old in and my children could grow up in.

Before visiting the island we had seen a house online that we really liked the look of but had disregarded it for a number of different reasons, until the owner of the B&B that we were staying in urged us to go and see it as it was only in the next village and worth a look at.

By chance and luck and because life was smiling down on us, when we got to the house, the estate agent (who we hadn't managed to book a viewing with) was there! So I'm not going to lie, I was a tiny bit pushy, and managed to finagle a viewing there and then.

And the rest, will one day be history.

So we found a house that as it stands is beautiful. But that will eventually be completely incredible. We found a village that has everything we need in it. It has a great school for the girls. It has a village shop. A village library. A village pub. It has everything within walking distance, for when my dad is older and doesn't want to rely on his car. And for Bella to feel independant now.  And it has the beach less than 2 miles away. And a huge garden. And space for us all to grow and move and breathe. And heal.

So fingers, toes and eyes crossed that everything runs smoothly, because this is exactly what we all want and need. And because, as much as we want and need it, we also have to face up to some more heartache before it can happen. So I'm putting it out there and asking. Please. Please let this run smoothly. Please let this be.

 

 

 

 

Manda and Jim's Excellent Adventure...

 

 

 

 

At the beginning of this week Jim and I took the first steps towards a huge new chapter in our family life. After a year and a half of talking about it, the two of us finally made our way to the Isle of Wight, to look for a new place to call home.

 

 

On New Years day 2014, I woke up feeling miserable about the fact that I was facing another year without Mum, with Jim living away during the week, on my own with the girls Monday to Friday, in a house that's too small for us and in a big city that I really no longer want to be in. And I decided there and then that it all had to change. Somehow. Because life is too precious to waste being unhappy.

 

 

 

And it's taken almost a year and a half to start making it happen, but that's what we did this week. 

It was Jim's first visit to the Island (he has a lot of faith in me!) and he loved it as much as I hoped he would. We spent two glorious, childless days driving around, looking at houses that we've been looking at online for months now (and discovering why they haven't sold for months.....) and getting a feel for the specific areas that would suit all our needs.

 

 

While we were there we walked on the beach and wondered around the most beautiful villages. All the while looking at eachother and asking if we could really have this, as our everyday life. While knowing that the answer is yes, we can!

We viewed incredible homes like this one, and sadly accepted that as incredible as it is, is doesn't meet our needs. We will have three generations plus a business, all in the same home, so it really has to work hard for us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In between house viewings we took a walk in a nature reserve, and almost immediately were blessed with seeing a woodpecker (it's there in that tree, you just can't see it!).

 

 

One of the places that we also stopped at was The Piano Cafe in Freshwater Bay. It was suggested to me by a friend on the Island, but I'd also seen it on the Junkaholique blog I think. It's only 15 minutes from where we were staying and it was the perfect place to sit in the afternoon sun, while eating a huge slice of lemon drizzle cake! Our only disappointment was that we missed out on having lunch there. But we will of course have plenty of opportunities to eat there in the future!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was just a view as we drove from one house to the next..... we spent almost all of our time saying "Oh My God"  as we drove around!

 

 

The Island really is as beautiful as you would imagine. With beaches and countryside and chocolate box villages, plus town life if you really want it (we don't).

We know that moving there won't solve all our problems, Mum of course will still be gone. But this move means that my Dad can live with us, which will make us all feel a lot better, and it means that Jim will be home every night, which would be wonderful. It also means that the girls can have space to grow, in relative safety. And that I can be near nature, which is what I need more than anything, to start healing properly.

 

 

Everything about the trip was wonderful and it completely proved to us that we were making the right decision. Which is good because while we were there.....we found the house.

 

 

 

 

Burda 7203

 

 

 

 

Thank you for all the emails over the last couple of weeks. I've really appreciated them, I just wish that there weren't so many people feeling the same pain.

We've been doing ok though. The girls are on school hols now and we've been blessed with some truly beautiful weather, so everything feels pretty good.

I've been making yet more clothes for myself over the last fortnight. This whole sewing for myself lark is a revelation. Because I've never really used other people's patterns, and I'm not clever enough to draft my own adult patterns, I've hadn't fully grasped the concept that I could stop wishing that I could go shopping for some new clothes, and actually just make them myself! Like I said, a revelation!

I bought this Burda 7203 pattern about 5 years ago and at the time had only got as far as cutting it out. I found it again a couple of days ago when I was cleaning out my studio and realised that it's the exact design that I've been looking for!

What was really interesting about this pattern was that it showed me exactly how far I've come with my sewing in the last five years. Back when I started cutting this out, I obviously had no idea how to read a pattern or follow the instructions.  To start with, I had chosen completely the wrong fabric to make it in - a heavy weight cotton with no drape at all and then I was surprised to find that instead of just transferring the markings for the darts, I actually cut the whole thing out! As in, cut out the triangle used to indicate the darts. It's such a basic thing and I'm really surprised to see that I had no idea that the markings meant that I needed to sew a dart!

I'm relieved to see though that what I once found confusing, I now find extremely straight forward, and once I had recut the pattern pieces using my favourite new fabric, it only took me a couple of hours from start to finish.

And I'm really pleased with the end result. It's extremely comfortable and easy to wear. The darts in the front and back stop it from looking like a boring box shaped top and although you can't see them in these pics, the vents in the side give it a really nice detail along with the boat neck.

Since making this one, I've made up another in an even lighter weight fabric and a size smaller, and love it just as much.

Next I'm moving on to something that I have a feeling won't be quite so straight forward though.

I need some trousers that fit me and have the Colette Clover pattern to have a go at. I'm a little worried about the fact that I've seen blog posts all over the internet for refits and adjustments for this pattern, but I'm going to give it a go. And I've still got two more Top 64's cut out and a new Simplicity dress.

I'm not going to get anything else done before the end of the holidays now though, because today we're off on an adventure....