Florally FIT

So Alice bailed!!! yes she did, but for good reason she's got her flat and as making it all pretty with her mother. so I headed off to class on my tod... minus my pencil, note pad and half the equipment on my list i was meant to get. Trust me Dunelm is not as good as it was. Travis thought it was boring before i even got him into the trolley. though his loud singing was entertaining enough to get us through the building site that was instead of the fabric department!!

Armed with very little equipment we started our final blind making lesson!!! yes the last one. so all that was left to do was attach the Velcro and hooks. tie some funky knots- yes the coolest knots iv seen since my twin sister did them at Brownies when we were 8 and Tadaaa!! one sexy Roman blind made by me :D which is now hanging proudly in my bathroom amongst candles, soap and a bubble making machine I'm yet to understand!

Sadly though this is the last lesson till the 13th September as Miss Hopewell is selfishly getting married pahh!! but on the brighter side it means I get to Dress both Chris and Travis up in suits this weekend- adorable!! even battled with the baby to get his mop chopped this morning as it was getting so long it was curling under his neck- girl? boy? the distinction was getting a tad tricky. 

To improve my sewing skills with all the time of I've started my 4th patchwork quilt and im hoping it wont be as wonky as the last 3 but then again we all need something to define our with or to just  blatantly hide behind :P

Always measure in cm!!

This will show how little experience I have with blogging... I've had to re write all of this as my original update of this week literally just walked off the screen to God knows where!


Still... on the brighter side Alice and I were greeted by a young man in little clothing this time rather than the hot panted gentleman of last week...but the best bit after the woohaaa of me having measured in the wrong metric Alice and I BOTH have a  nearly finished Roman blind, yes just after one observational and one practical lesson, the 1950's style hysteria bouncing between Alice and I is just escalating. Especially since Alice has got the keys to her new house where she will actually be able to measure all her windows for future floral blinds and curtains ( her boyfriend just doesn't know this yet) from the inside and not the out!


After having a rather toned phone call to my husband who is actually rather better at measuring than myself 
(and NO Miss Hopewell didn't get snappy and take the phone off me to get correct measurements faster really!) we could correct my dolls house size blind to fit my human size bathroom window. In gorgeously sexy 'Regal rose' fabric which is actually quite fitting to the room its going to hang as my bathroom is not your typical style it rocks a vintage mirror my mummy found in the attic of her first house some 20 years ago which  is now accompanied by an oversized pocket watch clock and another mirror that boasts a rather alluring  pre Raphaelite women-interesting I know. 


The lesson lasted 2 hours and 30 mins which sounds like quite a while but it just whizzed by due to us having a rather scary looking sewing machine each to work with. face to face the games on, both with our cut fabric and lining we managed to get to the point of sewing on our rod pockets... which reminds me I really should do my homework and finish it off and not leave it to late Sunday evening like I did throughout school.


Leaving with a shopping list for next week and a trip to Dunelm on the weeks events we rattle back to St.Neots with my ever blowing noisy car. embarrassing?? nah not at all, much...
I never realised how much ironing you need to do when sewing!!!

Not a hairy line!

Heading into the class room/ dining room, late, already pink faced and slightly sweaty having come straight from the rather chaotic CK staff sale, we were ready to learn but not quite ready to see the husband to be all lubed up and ready to lunge off to his squash match ( imagine 50yr old, short shorts and sweat bands) entertaing to say the least.

Definitely not quite ready to give up her teaching gene Miss Hopewell  got straight to work with an equipment list- YES just like year 6 science. #1 industrial measuring tape #2 metal ruler #3 curtain rail just three of the top things to have at hand. oh and don't forget a pencil not any pencil a HB "...nice and soft" first thing to do is draw your window as a diagram with nice straight lines not ''hairy one'' or as i said in reply  an arty line for those of us who cant actually draw. so yes i got told of straight away Alice already the A* student in the making- not jealous or anything!!

...measure your window and decide whether its going to be a Recess or not.... i SO knew what that was, I was only checking if everyone else did. honest. ( recess is if the blind is going to be on the inside of the frame and not the outside like normal curtain which is just called External)

So with lots of drawing and then adding and subtracting to get all the window, main fabric and lining  fabric to correct size and measurement i remembered how much i hated both simple mathematics and how dyslexic i am when it comes to algebra! worst thing though is  when its such a small class how impossible it is to physically hide from being made to answer a question publicly.

creative not just yet, but extremely excited about being able to make a bit of perfectly measured fabric to fold up in three perfectly corresponding folds .cool huh!!

Fiddling with fabric

SO Alice my 21year old Cath Kidston buddy and I have been giddy with excitement all day with the fact that Lesson 1 ( observation and understanding the basics of Roman blinds) is in only TWO days time!! 


After having bombarded our soon to be fabric Guru Tricia Hopewell in her dressing gown and bowl of porridge last Monday morning with the quest for her to come out of her retirement having only gone into it the previous Friday... to enhance our skills of sewing! 


' Yes of course I will Lilly, I need to make a Roman blind myself and now I have the perfect reason to bring out the bargain fabric I picked up from Dunelm that iv been hiding in the wardrobe from Peter' (her soon to be husband) 


No sooner asked we had a date and time... Monday 1st August 2011 at 6pm  ( after our CK staff sale that we are also extremely excited about but keep it shhh) 


sew lets hope Im as crafty as I think I am...