Productive times

Last weekend, for the first time in a good while, I felt the madness again. You know, that urge to make things. It was really good. I'm determined to get my ass in gear now, and sell things, so a new bunch of monsters was called for. A couple of them are still waiting on eyes, but the other two are done.





I like this one. The front is made from an old coat, which I bought for the equivalent of about £3 at a fleamarket ages ago. It was one of those pieces of clothing where the idea of wearing it is far more amusing than actually doing so. It got me quite a few stares, and several lots of desperate sighs from my mum. I didn't wear it often. The back is a particularly crazy type of plush, which seems to be mega-static. It gets absolutely *everywhere*. But it's just the best shade of pink, too.



Nils tried to adopt this one, but I've got to be strong! I think we're doing really well on the avoiding-to-buy-every-piece-of-crap-he-asks-for-front, but when it comes to stuff I make I give in far too easily. Flattery will just get you pretty much anywhere with me...

On Monday, I finally made a dress!



When I saw this fabric in the shop, I bought it without even thinking about it. Somehow, it just seemed to have decided to follow me home and resistance was futile. I had no clue at all what to do with it, and for a while it just lay in the bottom of my fabric box, and only occasionally came out to serve as a tablecloth or photo background. And then, about a month ago, the idea for this dress came to me in a dream (no, really!). Since then, I had been playing with how to do it in my head, and on Monday I finally set to it. I adapted the top half from this pattern in Burda magazine (11/2007), and did a circle skirt for the bottom. I'm really pleased with it.

Now, I'm aware that sewing snobs who look closely, or see it in person (Hello mum!), might feel tempted to point out that the fabric is squint at the top. I know that, and yes, it was, with hindsight, a mistake. But when I cut the fabric I honestly couldn't work out if the funny crinkly bits were supposed to be level. When I tried to straighten out the fabric it went into all sorts of wrong-looking folds, so I went with it the way it was, which turned out looking a bit... well... wrong. But oh well. Most people I know aren't sewing snobs, so I think I'll be fine.

The picture above doesn't actually make it look particularly exciting, and I tried to take a picture of myself in it, but the best one I could come up with before my camera died is this:



Maybe I should just pay somebody to do the photographing for me.