sewing and messing

When Amalia was born I "inherited" some clothes from some friends with older girls (we still  get a big bag of clothes every now and then, so much quicker and cheaper than sewing ;-)). There was this one very sweet apron shirt that's made in one piece. I love it when something seems very simple but the making of it is clever, especially clothes that are made in one piece - when they work and look good they are even more beautiful for this elegant solution in their making.

Anyhow I worked out the pattern more or less and since then made a few sizes. But being the chaotic crafter that I am, there seems to be no real connection between the patterns of the different sizes, god knows why. I found that out only recently and kind of late in the season for making anything to sell...

I realized that I had sort of missed the summer season about 2 month ago, when everybody started to show off their summer collections and I had done nothing all winter (but watch lots of downloaded films and TV series - hey, it was cold where my sewing machine stands).

A friend phoned me and asked to buy some summer clothes for her daughter, and then added that some friends of hers would also be interested, and should we organize a home-sale at her place before Passover. so I thought, OK, no big plans, I won't even phone my seamstress, I'll just dig up the few pieces which patterns are finished and checked, make 3-4 sizes of each, and make very few pieces to sell. and then start immediately working on winter, since I'm soooo sloooww. I started with this shirt, and drowned in this pattern mess, had to draw it all over again and try on my house model to check it works fine. so much work! I might have some things finished for the girls to buy around September... luckily, Israeli summer runs until about late November.

*It's not so well photographed, it was windy.

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here's a cool video clip of Israeli musician Oren Lavie.

Happy Passover.

spring time

It's only february but it feels like spring already... There aren't many reasons to be happy living in Israel these days. Politically we're going for a disaster, there's no water and there were almost no rains this winter, rent prices aren't dropping enough and the school system is terrifying for parents of a 5 year old. But at least we can enjoy sunny days like today, when every bug is crawling out and every bird is out singing and the air is full of humming and buzzing and the flowers are all blooming in pink and yellow and red and purple...

I made some corn and banana muffins with the kids (so helpful; near nervous breakdown) and we took them for a picnic in the nearby Ramat Hanadiv park.

Hilel was wearing a pair of very warm flannel pants that I finished last night - still there are some adjustments to be made to the pattern - the crotch is too low and there's something wrong with the pockets.

I'm tired... another episode of "the century of self" and off to bed.

peter and the wolf - a beautiful animated version, a bit grim and spooky. the ending is different from the original story, a more humane solution.