Aaaaaand... restarting

I did very little sewing for about 2 years.

I made lots of babies. I changed lots of nappies. I read lots of books. I sang lots of songs. But not much sewing.

Then my daughter hit the "I'm a princess" phase. I had no idea that to be a princess, you have to change your dress every 10 minutes. And only clean, long dresses will do. Preferably expensive dresses.

At first, I tried to diffuse the situation by using an old skirt to make her a mermaid costume for Hallowe'en. I thought it was awesome. Shirring is so cool.

She wore it for a good 30 seconds (while I took the pictures), and then started to scream, because she's a princess, not a mermaid.  The costume went into the dress-up box, and comes out about once a month.

Then she asked for a bridal gown with one armhole.  She was very determined about one armhole.  It wasn't princess-y enough, so I had to make another layer for it.

By now, it was getting cold, and she kept insisting on wearing summer dresses outside.  So I used this tutorial with some second-hand skirts a couple of times (it may not have helped much with keeping her warmer, but I had fun doing it!).  None of these dresses cost more than £3 to make...

Through this work, I cam to some realizations - once upon a time, I enjoyed sewing clothes.  However, fabric is expensive, and you often don't get quite what you want.  Then you have spent a bunch of time and money on something you don't like.

On the other hand, I hate shopping for clothes.  

Shopping for my daughter is a nightmare, because she wants pink dresses with frills and sits down and screams if I buy her anything else.  I have never even tried to take her into a changing room, so size is a crap shoot.  

Shopping for my husband requires a lot of persuasion and pre-shopping so that he can do man-shopping and feel efficient.

Shopping for myself is even worse of all.

1. I would need to get enough time away from the kids to do it.  Not sure when that could happen. 
2. I am a really odd shape & size (this may be true of all women).
3. When I do get something, it often doesn't fit once I get home.
4. I have had 2 babies in the last 3-1/2 years.  I have gone through a lot of sizes in that time.  Anything I bought pre-family doesn't fit.  Anything I bought post-baby doesn't fit.  Yeah, anything I ever buy doesn't fit.
5. I'm cheap. I'll admit it. I hate spending money on clothes.

So, my New Year's resolution was to continue to alter clothing from second-hand stores for myself, my husband, and my kids.  I need to learn more about tailoring and pattern fitting - I suspect that understanding more about my body shape and how clothes fit will help with making clothes I can love.

I am not going to update this blog every day, or even every week.  But hopefully, with time, I'll get a catalog of alteration ideas for kids, men and women's clothing.