o make me happy. Because if I'm happy, so is everyone around me. Oh yeah.This weekend, I found myself searching for pinking shears, threading a sewing machine and wrestling with school-learned terms such as 'baste' and 'welt' and looking over my shoulder to make sure the purists couldn't see me using iron-on interfacing (gasp). All this and, regretfully, a deal more, in aid of Miss Dunnit's big hobby. I am making a Manga costume for her to wear to a convention in a fortnight. Yep. A fortnight. A tailored jacket and trousers aside, there are other accessories required. I don't really want to talk about it. The deadline certainly pushes me on - I know every time she steps into the house and sees that I'm not sitting at the machine, she's a bit disappointed. So am I to be honest, I really want to get it off my list! But I'm a part time working mother with enormous domestic responsibilities - why, just this morning I had to dust, clean and hoover around the East Wing! OK OK, I know. But you're starting to see my point aren't you - my epiphany if you like. It has occurred to me that the last 16 years and 10 months have seen a gradual erosion of the number 1 rule in this house. Mr Dunnit seems to have neglected to notice and I apparently am an accomplice. Luckily I've recognised the problem and just as soon as she leaves home - I believe her deadline is 2050 - I'll be changing the locks and having things get back to my kinda normal pretty fast, I can tell you.
Oh my Julia...
ReplyDeleteWhat a job you have there!
I love sewing and making bits and bobs but making a suit for someone else.
Not sure how old Miss Dunnit is? Is she old enough to help? hope you have worked out the meanings of all the terms..baste is american for tack. Good luck!
All I can say is, good luck!
ReplyDeleteI utterly, totally, promise you that, as long as you stick to your guns and NEVER say you'll look after any little grandkiddies that come along one day, LAC is wonderful in terms of glorious, unending Me Time. For hobbies, for just reading, for daft telly if you feel like it, for you & Mr Dunnit. Believe me, it WILL happen.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, rant all you like. I understand completely.
LAC - Life After Children
Oh the joys of being a loveing, able to sow Mum!
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear your folders wont stick together. I use masking tape - just lock the folder pieces together run a three short pieces front to back tightly and then one long down front and wrap over to back. Should work! ikki x
If miss Dunnit is old enough to go off to a convention, she's definitely old enough to help. I, unfortunately have 15 years before I can expect them to leave.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your sympathetic comment, BTW
Oh the joys of children! Poor hannah has been waiting for me to mend a blouse that she caught on a Door handle 2 weeks ago, now normally my excuse would be "next time I have the sewing machine our" but as said machine has been "out" for over a month it's a poor show!!!
ReplyDeleteGood luck!!! If you like I have two more you could borrow and their list of demands are endless!!!:)
ReplyDeletehehehe Good luck with it Julia.
ReplyDeleteI've never been the sort who gets things done ahead of time - homework at school, essays at college,orders for making all sorts of stuff - Last Minute Minnie is my name
Oh Julia what a job you have there! I don't envy you! Kids do have endless demands - mine is 24 and the demands are still coming but I must admit in a slower pace! Good luck with the Manga costume!
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Cardarian
Oh Julia
ReplyDeletethat did make me laugh, brill post, hope you get the costume finished in time, hope we get to see it, sue,x
your post is a joy to read =). Good luck with the costume, and since my kids are 8 and 18 I'm not seeing any relief in the domestic duties for a long, long, long, long time
ReplyDeleteWell I don't have kids so can't empathise on that front! Iron on interfacing though - well I emember using it at school and had it upside down, metled all over the iron and the teacher ranted and called me a STUPID girl, surely a mistake anyone could make at 11.I went on to make all my own clothes with the stuff and never made the mistake with my own iron LOL!
ReplyDeleteLinbyx
loving the deadline. although I bet you don't stick to that one! i know just how much you adore the beautiful Miss D :)
ReplyDeletehehehehehehehe Ah well such is the life of a mother ;) As for iron-on interfacing it's a real boon ;)
ReplyDeleteAnne xx
Promise not to tell about the iron-on stuff LOL
ReplyDeleteHope you manage to meet the deadline without coming to the end of your tether.
Toni :o)
All I can say is shout if youre struggling :-)
ReplyDeleteA x
I made a dress and a few other things for my self but I would hate to make something on a machine for some one else (don't think I am good enough) although I loved knitting them jumpers and they all loved them lol hubby would like me to knit an aron but although I started it three years ago I got half way up the back and that's where it still is, I just can't so it any more (it's a running joke in our house)
ReplyDeleteBut good luck with the suit and I am sure you will get it sorted with some perserverence. I hope you have finished your project off for Wednesday! (it is this wednesday isn't it?) I have finished mine and very pleased but I have to say I am really looking forward to having a nosey to see what every one has created.
Love Dawn xx
Wouldn't know where to start with that project but good luck and I hope you show us what you made! Tracey x
ReplyDeleteGood luck - been there - done that - and DON't get me the T-shirt. But she will love you for it - if that is any help. =0)
ReplyDeleteI think 2050 might be right lol My DD has left home and returned so many times that we came to an agreement ...this time you come back as long as you look after me in my latter years ... thought it would put her off but she thought it was a good deal lol ...thats what she thinks ..te he
ReplyDeleteoh Julia, even when they leave they come back! Mine is home at the moment and every day I ask him when he is going back to his flat lol I love to see him, and he is great company but he takes up so much space in my tiny house and wants stuff doing all the time like laundry and foodstuffs!!! sheesh, what does he think I am, his mother or something!
ReplyDeleteI see you are stitching, my desk is covered with bag parts today too, I will have to tidy up in time for Weds.
What convention is Miss.D going to? we have a Manga convention in our town sometime soon.
I couldn't sew a straight line if someone paid me. I'm so in awe of your sewing skills. Maybe you should not wait till 2050, but allow said daughter the opportunity to make her own outfit. OK, we can all dream, right?
ReplyDeleteThat made me laugh - thanks I have a 16 yr old - going on 25 and a 13 yr old copying her sister...like you - when they leave home we are moving - with no forwarding address....and at the moment the eldest cannot see beyond the fact that she has no prom dress - date yes..but no dress - apparently there was nothing in the whole of York, Meadow Hall and Leeds...guess she is going in bra and pants then!
ReplyDeleteHahahahahahaha! You think she'll be gone by 2050?? Devon has already informed us she is one of these new breed of kids that never leaves home. Like. Ever. Seriously. I think I may have shed a tear... not a happy one!
ReplyDeleteYou are hilarious - and quite mad at the same time... I am so glad I have boys - am I, did I ever mention they smell and come home covered in mud and leave towels festering... when they leave home - I going to visit them, leave their toilet seat up and pee on their bathroom floor, leave mugs and glasses on their windowsill, thrown my bag on the floor and make sure its somewhere where they are bound to trip up, walk all over their new carpets/clean floors with wet and even better, muddy shoes on... the list goes on... Hey ho - I suppose its just simply called parenthood!!! Good luck with the costume - if my boys ever needed them, it was off to good old woolworths - now you wouldn't get them within a party blower of a dressing up outfit = the eldest refused to go to his prom last year - well that saved me the hire of a tux at least - oh and no photos to embarras him with in a few years time!!! Happy days!!!
ReplyDeleteIf you need a hand with your costume - i'm the last person you should ask - but that WIPSO woman is another kettle of fish entirely!!!
hugs
Paula x x x
Sounds very much like our house !i can hear hubby saying those words exactly.If you need another 2 girlies just holla there yours...lol
ReplyDeletehugs judex
I don't sew much these days, but it reminds me of the days of my childhood when mum made all our dresses, skirts, blouses, pyjamas, etc., and how I learned to sew.
ReplyDeleteOne cannot fail to be impressed at your tenacity with the sewing machine. What is a 'manga' costume? Am I showing crass ignorance? Oh dear.
ReplyDeleteI am impressed by your devotion to your offspring!
Most admirable! (But we all like to do it don't we!)
Chrissie