Liverpool Giants

D2 has been working as a volunteer costume technician with the French creators of the 3 day        Sea Odyssey parade in Liverpool. She had to re-stitch part of the Girl's dress on the first day and this morning was busy re-sewing on buttons and repairing zips of the Lilliputian pupeteer costumes before the show began. What a great experience for her to be involved with and good use of GCSE/AS French. She has an early start for repairs and the big finale tomorrow. Good luck D2

The Hope 4 Kids Workshop

The primary school held it's Hope 4 Kids workshop as part of DT last Monday (2nd). Two other volunteer mums came to help, Mrs M who had made one of the kits up for me already, and Mrs O who was willing to learn quickly. They kindly agreed to man the dresses stations whilst I made shorts. Originally it had been intended as a project for the juniors (yrs 3, 4, 5 +6) but the headteacher felt all the school would benefit from involvement. Everyone assembled in the hall and I was asked to explain a little about the charity and how we could help and where the dresses and shorts may go to. Each class came in turn throughout the day. Reception children got involved cutting out pockets for the shorts and all children had the opportunity to watch the sewing machines being used and most had the chance to press foot pedals or use the trusty workhorse.
D1 and D3 organised groups making woven friendship bracelets and managed 35! All the children made small cards drawing a picture of themselves and a message to go in the pockets of the dresses and shorts.
Everyone worked really hard and I am so gratefull to the other mums who carried on all day.
We made 12 dresses on the day and 7 pairs of shorts. There are still about 10 dresses to come back from outside stitchers.

our dresses and shorts displayed on our tree from all 4 sides

I got very organised with my homemade bias tape too

somebody had donated 2 skirts along with other fabrics for us to use and I thought they were too nice to cut up and use bits of so I made them into complete dresses.

Hopefully we should have about 25 dresses and at least a dozen pairs of shorts to send after the Easter holidays. The best part is how much fun the children had from making something for a good cause and their imagination in embllishing the pockets. The daughter of one of the teaching assistants has also taken a kit and the charity details back to Uni in Edinburgh to get their stitching group involved so maybe som eclectic tartan designs will wing their way to Louise at Sew Scrumptious.

WELL DONE TO EVERYONE INVOLVED

The Trusty Workhorse

The very nice people at Singer got back to me within 2 days regarding Ednas history. She is a model 28K and was made between January and June 1906 in Clydebank. I also found out she can be a treadle machine and would love to find an old table to put her back into.

April already!

I seem to have had a thousand and one things going on recently and none of them involved a post on here. The Guides finished their pillowcase dresses and tried them on for a photo (not taken by me so I will try and get it e-mailed to me by their leader) and so they all got their 'together we can - volunteer' badge


The Old Workhorse
I dated the workhorse back to 1907 but it has no model number so I am waiting to hear back from Singer as to its model and origin

I wish I had her box lid

Bunnies Galore

D1 bought me a lovely book, The Knitters Year by Debbie Bliss, for mothers day and one of the spring projects was a bunny egg cosy

I simply had to make one there and then and couldn't believe how quickly they knitted up. I decided to make a batch in lots of bunny-type colours (although I did make a pink and a blue too) to sell for the Good Shepherd Appeal at school. They vanished as soon as I brought them out of my bag last week. D1 and D4 wanted me to make them as a hat. A friend at school asked if I would make one as a baby hat for her friends daughters new baby so here is my finished product, with bunny booties too, to be delivered tomorrow

Dress a Girl Workshop
so tomorrow is our big pillowcase dress/ shorts workshop for yrs 3, 4, 5 + 6 at the primary school. Some mums have already made up the kits I made and their results are displayed in the entrance hall at school. Hopefully we will have some adult volunteer helpers. D1 is home from Uni at the moment  and D3 is on holiday from college so they are coming to help. They are brilliant at making woven patterned friendship bracelets which D1 was taught at camp in America so are going to make them to put in the pockets of the dresses and shorts. Lots of other mums have been interested in the dresses for their own children and I may make some up to sell to cover the cost of postage to Louise at sew scrumptious.

my bags and boxes of all things pillowcasy ready to go for tomorrow. I have 3 sewing machines (including the workhorse) and my sewing box in the car ready. Fingers crossed we do a good job!