Catch-up Chit chat

Hey there peeps! Long time no speak. I started writing a catch-up post at the beginning of lockdown here in the UK but I found it so hard to find the right words that it got abandoned. I still don’t know the right words but I’m trying again anyway as I miss writing here.

I hope you’re all safe and well. I won’t go into the pandemic much because I’d be in danger of writing an essay. I’m very lucky and haven’t been been affected that badly. I’m lucky to have a job where I can work from home, none of my friends or family have caught Covid and I’m an introvert so staying home hasn’t been too hard for me.

The hardest part of lockdown for me was not seeing my mum at the beginning. I’m lucky that she lives close enough that now we’re allowed to have extended households here in Wales I can see her again – more than before probably!

I’ve been working from home for 6 months now and my work have massively embraced it. Like a lot of places they are going to adopt it on a longer term basis and as soon as we can get our of our lease on our office they will.

So I got a dog!

Meet Ivy

I’ve been desperate for a dog for a long time but as we both work full-time too far from home to call in during the day we’ve never got one. So working from home means I’m finally able to. The ex-partner of a friend of mine who passed away late last year had a litter of springer spaniels from their dog and it seemed like really good timing and a nice way to remember her.

She’s named after Ivy the Terrible from the Beano, which I loved as a child. But she’s also Ivy League when she’s a good girl. I’m hoping she’ll be a good running buddy when she’s old enough to go running. At the moment we’re sticking to the 5 minutes per month of their age rule so we can only go for 20 minute walks, which is quite hard to stick to!

The pandemic hasn’t been great for my anxiety and I’d become pretty agoraphobic so having a reason to go outside has been so good for me. Having a puppy also means people talk to you, which will be good for me too even if my social skills have gotten even worse than before!

But this is a sewing blog

In terms of sewing, I haven’t done a lot. I did a bit back in March and April but it tailed off. I made:

• Style Arc Clare pants  – I love these, I’m wearing them now and they’re so good for my new home working, puppy wrangling life.
• New Look 6217 tee in viscose jersey – another good one, I need to make more.
• Tilly and the Buttons Stella joggers
• Hey June Mountain Pose Pants
• A long Blackwood cardigan in black viscose jersey

And I have these in progress:

• Sew Over It pussy bow blouse
• Hey June Lane raglan hacked to be more swingy
• Jennifer Lauren Handmade Mayberry dress hacked to be a ruffley smock top thingy
• True Bias Southport dress tank top in viscose jersey

The future

The manfriend and I made it official at the beginning of March so at some point there will be a wedding dress to make but who knows when with things the way they are.

I’m not really a big wedding person so I have suggested to him that we just get married now as soon as we can get a slot and then do the party part when we can as it may be years away and I want to be married to him now.

At the moment you can have up to 30 people at a wedding here but who knows how long that will last. I’ve already started mentally planning my “legal wedding” dress though… I’ve got 2.3m of midnight blue silk crepe de chine in my stash that I’d make either a tea dress or a wrap dress with.

We’ll see. But whatever dress I make at whatever point I’ll be sure to blog about it. Promise!

Other Sewing Plans

I haven’t done much sewing since we got Ivy at the beginning of June because she’s really clingy but also really naughty so I can’t go in the sewing room or she’d eat anything she found on the floor, which would undoubtedly include pins and pattern pieces as I’m not a tidy sewer. So I can only really sew when the manfriend is home and that’s usually when I’m either knackered or want to hang out with him rather than disappear upstairs. I have managed to snatch a bit of sewing time recently though, which has been nice.

As always I have plans coming out of my eyeballs. I’ve continued doing the wear log I mentioned at the beginning of the year so that has made me a lot more aware of what I’ve been choosing to wear most. Basically my stretchiest jeans, t-shirts and Blackwood cardigans. Which isn’t very inspired.

So I’d like to build up more comfortable clothes that look a bit nicer. Or even just more of the same to have more options to choose from. I bought the Deer and Doe Dressed ebook to help me plan a sort of WFH capsule wardrobe but I’ve got a bit stalled at the moodboard stage. I definitely see more elasticated trousers in my future though. I’ve really liked the look of the Pietra pants for ages but I didn’t want to support Closet Core Patterns. I had googled dupes of the pattern and even scoured the Burda site but I couldn’t find anything I liked as much so I caved. I’ve got a Style Arc pattern that’s elasticated at just the back to try too.

I’d also like some more comfy dresses. A surprise hit for me has been a fitted jersey dress my mum gave me a while back because it was too small for her. I have the Deer and Doe Givre pattern but haven’t made it because I thought I’d be too self conscious in it but it’s very similar to the dress so I plan to give that a go.

Other stuff

I’ve done some different crafting and I took a couple of paper flower making Zoom workshops. I took a sunflower one a shrub rose one and I really enjoyed them both. It was so nice to try a different craft and I love the flowers I made. I’ve signed up to the new kit subscription too.

I don’t really have anything else to report. It feels like my life revolves around the puppy these days – my camera roll certainly does! I’m also really busy at work so after I’ve finished and taken Ivy out all I want to do is vegetate.

But I’m healthy, happy and just wanted to check in with you guys. Take care everyone!