Humpty Dumpty

Some time ago I said that my daughter would be making costumes for this years pantomime.  As they are doing a nursery rhyme theme panto, they are mostly using from the stash of costumes from previous years.
The one she has had to make from scratch is Humpty Dumpty.
Now this did include my help to some degree, but a very small degree consisting of 1 phone call and a number of texts.  So here I go with the details.
Phone call #1
DD "Hi mum, I have to make some shorts for Humpty Dumpty, I have a hula hoop, how do I go about it?"
Me "You need to measure the circumference of the hula hoop, divide by four and draw the waistline of your pattern to that measurement."
DD "What about the rest of it?"
Me "I'll draw a pic and send it to you...."
Still on the phone to her, drawing, taking pic and sending.

DD "So if I draw this pattern and send it to you, where do I sew?"

Me "I'll need a different colour pen, hang on, got the pen!  Ok sending to you."

Me "You sew down the purple bit, then have to sew together the 'J' bit for the crotch."

DD "Ok, will text when I have done the pattern."

The rest is by text.

Pic sent by DD.

Me "Make the legs longer, the 'J' rounder, remember it has to go round the crotch too."

DD "Ran out of paper when realised how long the 'J' would be lol what do you mean by rounder? Also remember the top will be stuck to the hula hoop."

I send back this pic.

Me "Remember I did that with my finger on my  mobile so it's not very accurate!"

DD "Ha ha, ok."

DD "...ish, will cut it rounder!  So is that ok?"

Me "Yeah, looks good, cut legs longer just in case you  need longer crotch than pattern, better to cut some leg off after than have to start from scratch."

DD "Yup was gonna, that way I can cut the length to fit as well.  Will probably cut tonight and make 2 separate legs as well but wait to sew them together tomorrow."

Me "Ok, good luck."

DD "Ok, ended up just keeping on going til I finished lol"

Me "Well done, looks like shorts :)"

The following day this pic arrived. Modelled on 4 year old, being made for older person so obviously too big for the model!

DD "Will have some padding on the shoulders as well."

Me "Excellent job Grasshopper!"

So concludes my tale of how to make a Humpty Dumpty costume.  All I can say is that if she did it from those instructions and sew it all by hand, so can you!

Adventures with a glue gun

We had an interesting Sunday afternoon last week.   Four generations of us sat around the table to make wedding invitations, although the youngest wasn’t very helpful at only 6 weeks old and was being passed around the rest of us!  Youngest stepdaughter was unable to join us as she had a bike accident on the Friday before and has a fractured thumb!  So eldest daughter, whose wedding it is, showed us the sort of design she wanted which was just some lace and an assortment of bows, flowers and butterflies.

The lace came from my stash and was pretty much using up all the odd bits I had kept in case they came in useful.  It’s quite gratifying to know that they finally did as I have spent many years wondering if it was worth it.

I followed her plan, youngest daughter followed her plan, my mother went off at a tangent and concocted all kinds of weird and wonderful things that really didn’t fit with the plan (these were later put into two piles, those that could be rescued and those that would not be used).

It was a lovely time, although mother did worry us with the handling of the glue gun!  Me and youngest daughter seemed the most prone to burning ourselves even though we have probably used it the most.  You would probably assume that we were being less careful as we thought we knew what we were doing, but anyone watching my mother wielding the gun with a completely carefree abandon would, like us, be wondering how on earth she managed not to burn herself as she merrily waggled it around and glue was dripping onto everything in sight, except for the bits she was sticking to the card!

All the invitations are different but here is a selection to show you how they turned out;