Showing posts with label pyjamas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pyjamas. Show all posts

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Insomnia-induced creativity

If jet lag is the mother of industry, then insomnia must, at the very least, be a distant cousin of productivity. I have forgotten how to sleep. My body seems to have forgotten it needs sleep. Actually, that's not strictly true. When I do sleep, I sleep really deeply and really well, but I am down to about five or six hours a night – four and a half last night – and I am a big fan of sleeping. I love to sleep. Until I had the small one, I was a nine or ten hours a night girl.

So, while I am not necessarily thrilled about this state of affairs, it is true that fewer sleeping hours mean I have inadvertently got my wish for more hours in a day – more waking hours at least – and I have been making and doing and fixing and... did I mention making?

I have very nearly gotten my act together and finished Ruby's room. I have finally screwed the dimmer switch, which I wired in over a year ago, to its back box. I have put up the roman blind I made for Ruby's room, with my very own drill. Yes, all right, it's pink, but it's still a power tool, okay? I am woman, hear me drill things! Rah.

I have bought and bravely ridden a bike, with my precious spawn on the back, on actual roads. This clearly was not done at night, so doesn't strictly qualify to be included here, but it is kind of a big deal for me, seeing as how I haven't ridden a bike in well over a decade. It was the shame and lasting trauma of failing my cycling proficiency that did it, you see.... So I am somewhat proud of my newfound roadworthiness, and thought I'd just squeeze it in there.

Sewing-wise, I have done loads (and thrown away a fair proportion of it on account of it being embarrassingly badly sewn tat, which perhaps goes to show that insomnia is not all good – but let's not dwell on that). Success stories include a shirt-to-dress refashion using this tutorial (I'll stick a piccie up when the girl is not asleep in such close proximity to said dress), a few nighties, since the girl, for no obvious reason, has renounced pyjamas, and a nice little bunch of summer dresses and tops, all from half yards I have been collecting.

This is my pick of the bunch:

A sweet little smock top made using Anna Maria Horner flannel;

A stripy pinafore dress....

.... with a cute appliqué on the back (which, because I quite like how the heart-on-the-bum-look turned out, we are going to pretend was not accidental);

And Ruby's election night dress, a lovely soft peasanty tunic, based on this tutorial, completed at about three o'clock in the morning when the reds and the blues were neck and neck, and I gave in and went to bed.

There's also a really awesome skirt, which happens to be in the wash, but you get the point. I think I have made more in the last week than I have in the last month put together. I have also learnt that lining and reinforcing things, while taking a little more time, makes oh-so-much of a difference to the end result. So, in conclusion, as much as I am wary as to what the long term consequences of sleep deprivation may be, as long as I can keep up this kind of productivity I am not going to complain. For now at least.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Pretty pointelle pyjamas

So, I was rather taken with this pretty thermal-pointelle-type fabric (that's the, ahem, technical term, obviously) printed with tiny flowers that came in my little bundle of goodness....

....and because madam went to bed tonight without playing silly buggers, meaning that I had a whole peaceful evening to myself, I thought I would make a quick pair of pyjamas. I also have my eye on this tutorial for a nightie made of the same fabric, which looks pretty similar in design to the peasant blouse I made from this tutorial at indietutes, but that will have to wait for now.

I used an existing pair of pyjamas as a template, and had to adjust a little along the way as the fabric was veeeerry stretchy and my original pattern would have been miles too big, but save for a few cock-ups along the way, such as cleverly forgetting to readjust the tension and stitch length between gathering the sleeves and sewing them on, and then wondering why the blighters were practically falling off, it all went pretty smoothly. It wasn't until I got as far as the final hem of the top that I cottoned on to the idea that zig-zagging was the best way to stop the hems from looking all stretched out and wobbly (I know, I know, more technical terms; I do apologise). Hence the elasticated legs to disguise this wobbly stretched out-ness prior to this epiphany, but I think they were rather a happy accident. They look a bit like little bloomers.


I'll try and get the small girl to model them in the morning, and add them to my list of things to turn into tutorials. Ah, promises, promises.... x