The Anonymous Blueberry Muffin Thief Sews...

I made another squid. I'm sort of wishing I hadn't, because these things are a bastard to do (although hopefully now I've made a couple of pattern modifications, future ones might not be) This was a commission for a friend of a friend as a present for his wife, so the first drama was working out what to charge (I didn't want it to be too cheap because that devalues the work of other people, but at the same time, I didn't want to over charge); in the end we agreed on £40 + fabric.

  My second #crazydogladysewing item, is this awesome Alder skirt (it's awesome because it's basically my ideal skirt pattern; elasticated waist, pockets, and hits just above the knee) I want to blather about how amazing this is, but I have a steaming headache after spending several miserable hours tromping around town, so you'll be spared a good chunk of the blather.

Well, you're getting pyrography first, because that's what I have pictures of. This was never just going to be a sewing blog, but if you're not interested in the sweet smell of charred wood, this post is probably not for you. This is a bit of a work in progress, because I'm short 2 discs and I need to make a case for them, but the case is in draft stage, and 2 more discs won't make a lot of odds in photos.   These are for the LARP system I help run, and also a shot at pyrography practice, as I'm a real novice at it.      

I have 3 things to post, and I'm not sure what order to post them in, so I'm currently flailing around like a flailing thing, and will be adding to the list of stuff over the course of the week. Why? Because the LARP season starts in 2 weeks (for me) and I am valiantly making props for our first event of the year. (current list: new Polly top, CrazyDogLady skirt, weapon carry disks for LARP. Forthcoming: lock puzzle props, maps and possibly a gargoyle head)

    There's a certain amount of irony in the title, as Polly was the name of my gran's dog hating cat. But only a small amount. I am a crazy dog lady, or I would be if I had the time to have a dog. I grew up with dogs, my birth was announced in the local paper as "a chum for Holly", and Holly licked chocolate pudding off my face and tolerated me trying to ride her round the house when I was very small. Then came Roxy, who wasn't my dad's dog (despite my dad being his favourite) who we weren't supposed to get, who peed in everyone's shoes and who had us (me) chasing over walls at 2am because he'd spotted a cat. Roxy who when my dad got re-married and moved out, went with him (I got the house). Sadly both are now long dead, and while I miss them massively, I know I'm out of the house far too much to responsibly have a dog. That doesn't stop me fussing every dog I meet up the woods (that lets me) and doesn't stop me searching out n

I may have failed on that "not buying fabric" thing. I popped into Hobbycraft yesterday to get some chalk for marking up some dark blue fabric, and then 3 bundles of super cute fat quarters fell into my hands. I'm blaming my friend for at least one of them, as he pointed it out to me.   I seem to be accumulating owl and fox fabric like it's going out of fashion (it may well be), but since I'm adamant I'm not going to start quilting, there's a limit to what I can do with it. Pocket linings, bags, that sort of thing, that's about it.   In regards to the fabric woes of the other week, I ended up buying 2 metres of 2 shades of grey, and ended up using the one that I'd bought the sample of. It isn't quite the right shade, but it's close enough, and now I desperately need to get sewing. They're response to my complaint was basically "we can't take natural light photos because we're in a warehouse and so