Face masks with wire!

So life is opening up again and it feels weird and worrying so this weekend I hid behind my sewing machine. That's not strictly true, we did have drinks with a few friends and of course I ferried the kids around but I did spend a large amount of time sewing and it was great! I started with making a few super pretty masks with pockets in the back for an extra filter and pipe-cleaner wires across the nose for good fit. They're beautiful but honestly, I'm still not really sure what to do with them. We don't travel on public transport at the moment but when the kids return to school and university they'll probably need them. There are many many articles out there about making your own masks but I particularly liked reading Happy DIY Home because it's so comprehensive and practicle.

My pattern designs on actual fabric!

Next in the sewing project queue is pyjama making! The absolute best thing in the world for an illustrator is seeing your own work come to life on products, whether that getting first editions of children's books or seeing note books, paper, cards or fabrics printed. Last week some of my own fabric arrived from Next State (a digital fabric printer in Melbourne I use. They're awesome) and I was joyful! It's from my African Discoveries collection. The colours are a touch more vivid than I planned. And that's why you really have to do a print test! But then again sometimes mistakes are happy mistakes and lead to bright and cheerful pj's and you can't complain about that. A few weeks ago I bought a pyjamas pattern from the fabulous Style Arc and I'm itching to get going with it.

A quilt in a day!

I am shocking for getting diverted into other projects if the mood grabs me. I do all the grown-up things like making lists and plans. But on a rainy Sunday if one of my kids says 'Can I make a quilt?' my head spins and it's 'Ooh, a shiny thing!' So that's what happened yesterday. Literally no housework or meal prep was done by me. We planned, tacked and sewed until a gorgeous quilt was made. I'd like to say that I guided my daughter and taught her and that she did loads of the sewing, but that would be a total lie. She designed it, chose the fabric and helped me tack it. But honestly when it came to the sewing I hovered over her painfully correcting her until she gave up and I did it.