Creativity

Today was a bit of a freebie - in that we had completely absolutely no commitments whatsoever, bliss - so I made coffee for my parents who had kindly come over to collect their dog and also my dog to give me some non-Spaniel time; this is refreshing as much as I enjoy Scruff's company, it means I don't have to spend 10% of my day finding the other shoe/slipper/sock. My Howies clothes had arrived which are great and I'm really pleased with them so despite feeling a bit poor (they are sale items but I ordered them before the smashed wing mirror nonetheless) I have worn the sleeveless cardi all day and look forward to trying out my waterproof cord jacket too as I'm sure the weather will oblige.

Anyway after discussing hydroelectric power and photovoltaic cells with T as part of his GCSE something workbook, I gave in to Amber's request to do sewing. I had asked her 4 times during the morning to choose a workbook and the first time she went and fetched her bunny and sat cuddling her on the sofa, the second time she went for a bike ride, the third time she hid under her dressing gown and on the fourth occasion she got out the sewing machine. So, taking the hint that perhaps the workbooks weren't going to float her boat today, we set about making things.

Happy Amber

She made an iPod jacket for me, showed Rosie, with uncommon patience, how to make a little purse, made an iPod cover for Tris which he promptly rejected but she wasn't fazed, and an egg cosy for her step-sister, among other things. She was in heaven. Taking the attitude of if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, I have been meaning to make a laptop case for some time and also use up the old jeans I've worn out but can't bear to throw away as it seems such a crying shame to get rid of good quality, tough fabric just because of a hole in the knee. So, here it is:

I have padded one side of it but as I am rubbish at getting these things to line up and my machine isn't really man enough to deal with 7 layers of fabric, let alone denim, I wondered if there was some way in which I could crochet the sides together so that's what I did. I sewed a line of backstitch along each short edge to give me 'stitches' and then double-crocheted (sc in US!) it together. I then chained and dc'd two button loops and sewed them on and finally got to use some lovely buttons that I bought ages ago. I did also make a pocket for the lead out of a leg of a tiny pair of jeans...I cannot fathom for one minute that either of my strapping lasses ever fitted in to such diminutive clothes but I guess they did...which I may keep or change as it didn't quite go according to plan [ha! - plan? what plan??], but I've got it for now anyway. I was quite pleased with my creation :-) I would like to embellish it with some crocheted flowers and some more buttons but I will pootle along with it and not rush to finish it which is a bit of a failing of mine.

Oh and I also finished my projects for my Evolution course...