Who’s been to The Night Circus?

I spotted this pretty book during one of my forays into a book shop just before Yule.  I stopped in my tracks, stared and then had a look at the blurb.  But it’s a bad idea to buy things for yourself in the run up to Yule, so I had to walk on by.  After a incredibly unsubtle hint to my gentleman, it magically appeared in my Yule stocking!

Has anyone else chanced upon this book?  I’ve already finished reading it and I’m still thinking about what I think about it, if that makes sense!

Looking Backwards & Forwards

First off – happy Yule to you all!  I hope you each had a wonderful time with plenty of food and drink, cheer and laughter and a huge amount of love.

Rather like a lot of other bloggers at the moment, I’m saying goodbye to 2011 and hello shiny new 2012.  And like Janus, who presides over gateways, I’m looking back over 2011 and forward to 2012.

2011 was a turbulent year, with a lot of hard work towards a teacher training course, the messy business of finding a job (which, thankfully, I managed to do), doing two jobs for a while and then falling ill.  

It’s strange, but I keep thinking that I didn’t achieve anything this year, because I did little to no writing on my novel-in-progress and hardly any sewing, at all.  I kind of forget that I didn’t just scrape by on the bare minimum teaching qualification, I actually challenged myself to study for a higher level than the one I needed (I did a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education with some modules at Master’s level, rather than the slightly lower level Professional Graduate Certificate in Education) and I didn’t just do enough to pass, I bloody passed with flying colours (if I do say so myself).  I worked really hard and that seems to have paid off, with getting a teaching job, despite cuts in funding, and receiving lots of glowing feedback on my teaching.  So to think I didn’t achieve anything is, I suppose, being rather harsh on myself!

Let’s gloss over the whole sorry business of being ill, because I feel that I’ve gone on about that more than enough.  I’ll just say that, again, I have to be a bit more gentle on myself because of this horrible bump in the road that has definitely affected my productivity.

As for 2012 … Well, we never really know what the future will hold, but I have plans for my sewing and writing, which should hopefully come to fruition.

I had such great intentions for writing over December and January, but then I came to and realised that I’ve (and this is very embarrassing) forgotten bits of my story!  How shameful!  But I suppose it’s to be expected, when I haven’t worked on it for a very.  Long.  Time.  Indeed.  So, first, I need to read back over the first 50,000 words of A Thief and a Gentlewoman and The Plan and get myself re-acquainted with Quin and her world.  That is the first order of the year, and after that, it’s write, write, WRITE!

Well, I have a lot to do, but first I’ve got some New Year’s Eve celebrating coming my way.

Wishing you all a fabulous and joyous New Year – love Clare. x

Write Write WRITE!

As we wave goodbye to another November, we also wish adieu to Bonfire Night (a celebration of seeing people hung, drawn and quartered or a chance to channel V for Vendetta, depending on how you look at it), the dregs of Halloween, my birthday (complete with a most civilised tea party) and NaNoWriMo.

As you’ve probably guessed from my radio silence, I was far too busy this year to take part, despite planning to earlier in the year.  However, I do also have half a novel staring at me accusingly whenever I switch on my computer or go in my little workroom.

So, in a moment of what can only be described as absolute insanity (if you saw the pile of marking I’ve got to do over Yule, you’d think me bonkers, too), I’ve decided to have a go at my own NotAWriMo. 

For anyone who doesn’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and happens every November.  It’s not about producing the next Booker Prize Winner, it’s about getting words down (even if that means having your characters discuss the finer points of tea-making because you’re out of ideas).  In the space of a month, lunatics participants all over the world write 50,000 words in order to ‘win’.  They’re not after a prestigious prize and nor are they out to ‘beat’ each other: they’re simply working towards being able to say ‘I did it’.  And when you consider that’s an average of 1,667 words per day in the lives of many people who work full-time, have children and/or social lives, being able to say ‘I did it’ is no mean feat.

What, then, you might ask, is NotAWriMo.  Well, it’s going to be about me ‘getting words down’ after a long hiatus from writing during which I’ve worked full-time (sometimes more than full-time), completed a PGCE, fallen ill and begun my first teaching job.  I need to get my head back in that writing zone and I need to get back into my rhythm of writing frequently and consistently, which served me well during my MA (40,000 words+ written and edited to a Master’s standard between April and August).

To that end, I’m planning to do the following:

• Start on 17^th December (the date the college breaks up for Yule).
• Finish a month later on 16^th January.
• Write 20,000 words in that time (an average of around 650 words per day).

20,000 words as a target falls well short of the NaNoWriMo 50k, I know, but I’m more interested in quality, building up a sustainable rhythm that I can continue after 16^th January, still getting my lecturing work done (planning lessons and marking) and – gasp! – socialising with family over Yule and New Year.

I’ll post on here from time-to-time about my progress and, my stitchy friends will be glad to hear that after the holidays, I’ll be working 4 days a week, so hopefully I’ll get some sewing done – huzzah!

Privacy – now off and why it was on

Hello all!

A little apology – I’ve had my blog on invisible lately as I’ve started teaching and I didn’t want my learners to be able to find this blog by googling my name, particularly because of photos of me in my stays, etc.  I’ve spent a while deleting all mention of my surname, so now I should be safe!

More coming soon on my writing life!

Announcing – Changes – My New Sewing Blog: Magpie Makes

Yes!  Those plans I keep mentioning!  Here’s the low-down …

I have been thinking for a while of splitting the blog between my main two interests – sewing/crafting and writing – but I’ve been unsure about it for a number of reasons and with my PGCE, I haven’t had a great deal of time to think about it or implement any decisions I did make.

Until now!

My PGCE course has finished (Wewt!  What a weight has been lifted!) and I

(a) have more time (huzzah!),

(b) have only a part-time income at the moment (boo!), so …

(c) am getting more serious about my sewing/making life,

and

(d) am getting back into writing A Thief and a Gentlewoman!  (Yeah, bet you’d forgotten about that one!  Rest assured, I have been thinking about it, in between the essays on Pedagogy vs Andragogy and Humanism vs Instrumentalism and the like!)

So, in order to do justice to the two areas I blog about, I am dividing the blog.  Jane of All Trades, here, will remain my blog for all things relating to books, writing and research relating to A Thief and a Gentlewoman, and now I am able to actually work on T&Gw, I hope to actually post about such things around once a week (once a fortnight at the very least).

Posts about my sewing-related escapades will now be at my new blog, Magpie Makes.  I really hope you like it there, I spent quite a while wrestling with Illustrator, Photoshop and Blogger to get the layout and design juuuuust right for you all!

I’m really looking forward to being able to get some renewed direction here at Jane of All Trades and seeing all your stitchy-types over at Magpie Makes for more sewing, my attempts at learning to knit (be prepared for laughs at how that goes!) and that apron giveaway I mentioned the other day.

Apples

So apples may not seem like the most interesting topic, but I was just reading this fascinating article on BBC news … Did you know, for instance, that that tasy, refreshing variety, the Granny Smith apple was discovered growing on a rubbish heap in Australia?! It grew completely by chance, and was found and cultivated, rather than thrown away. What a lucky fruit!

Did you also know that all Bramley apples came from one single parent tree that was grown around 1810 in Nottinghamshire by a young woman called Mary Anne Brailsford? Every single Bramley apple pie every made and scoffed owes its existence to that one, humble, Regency seed.

Is it just me, or is that kind of amazing?

Go here if you’d like to read the article for yourself: British to the core.  As for me, I think I’m going to go and eat an apple.  Lush!

PS – I probably shouldn’t admit this, but when I was very little (about 5 years old) I hated the name Clare and wanted to change it to something different every other week.  For quite a long period of time I decided I wanted to be called – wait for it – Rosie Apple.  Yes, that was what I seriously wanted my name to be.  I think I even refused to respond to anything else for a day or so.  Oh dear!

Petal Apron – finished project

Remember this?

And this?

Well, I’m sorry it’s taken so long, but here – at last – is the full apron:

I love this pattern!  And I love those spring colours!

Being a bit of a worrier (understatement!), I was concerned about getting any horrible stains on this apron since, you could reasonably argue, getting dirty is the purpose of an apron.  Sooo, I sprayed it with that stuff you get to protect suede shoes and it seems to be working well so far.

Things I learned:

• Shoe protector spray works fine on cotton and may well be a good idea for protecting aprons and the like.

• I like the look of bias binding, but not the application!  I never want to see the stuff again (or at least not for the next couple of months!).

I hope you like it – there was a lot of love for this pattern in the comments, so I hope I’ve done it justice!  And, if you love the Petal Apron pattern, I am very pleased to announce that I have plans to make up one or two for a GIVEAWAY!  Yep, giveaway goodness for you, my lovely readers!  Just give me a little while to make them and I will come back to you with more details – stay tuned for this and those other plans for the blog.

I am here!

Hello hello, dear readers!

I am still here, I promise! I’m so sorry for the lack of posts recently, but I hope that if I tell you I handed in my dissertation two weeks ago and my final piece of uni work on Monday, then you will understand. I have been one seriously busy Gentlewoman. I’m still recovering and have been kept busy with the things I’ve fallen behind with, but I have some fun and what I hope will be exciting plans for this blog, so please do stay tuned and expect some announcements in the next couple of weeks!

Love to you all!
x

Dolly’s all grown up – or giving your dress form ‘assets’

Remember Dolly?

Well, she’s gone through puberty rather rapidly:

That’s kinda balanced out those hips a bit, but her shape does look rather ridiculous!  (Well, I suppose, my shape does look rather ridiculous!)

I’m quite happy with her shape and size now, though I probably need to put a little padding on the hips (they’re the right size, but mine aren’t as smooth – they need to start sticking out a bit higher up) – at the moment it doesn’t matter too much as my current plans are for blouses and full-skirted dresses.

Anyway, working with Dolly has taught me a few things, so here’s how I did it:

1) The form doesn’t come with much in the way of instructions for adjustment, by chance, I checked the Adjustoform website – that has the information we need to adjust our form!

2) The Diana has numbered dials that are supposed to show the circumference in centimetres.  They’re not entirely accurate, so don’t rely on them!  I measured me, I measured Dolly, I adjusted, I re-measured Dolly, I checked my measurements, I adjusted again, I measured again … and so on until I was happy.

Not 100% accurate!

3) That chest area.  Yeah, so.  I thought it wouldn’t work, but I wanted to check what the under-bust measurement would be if the full-bust measurement was correct – I was right, the under-bust was far too big.  I think that, like most patterns, dress forms tend to be made to a B cup.  I wasn’t made to a B cup!

The solution …  I adjusted Dolly so the under-bust measurement matched mine.  I then measured from the base of my neck at the front (roughly at the hollow between the collarbone) to the botton of my bra band (centre front) to check where that should sit and marked that measurement on Dolly with a pin.  When I put the bra on Dolly, I made sure it lined up with that pin.

Then I got out the stuffing!  This was the filling of an old pillow that had already been pulled apart.  Instead of pulling out a single wad, I took out small handfuls at a time and gradually built up the padding inside the bra, shaping it and trying to make it a smooth, realistic shape all the time, until it felt about full.  This essentially means groping the filled bra repeatedly!  Feel free to film this stage and watch it any time you need a laugh.  I measured Dolly’s assets and filled a bit more, measured and filled until she was just right.

Of course, the flaw with this way of working is that you end up with boobs that only go as far as the top of the bra cup – and boobs don’t tend to do that!  It’s a good idea to check the high bust measurement in comparison with your own.  With the tape measure taught across the bra straps, Dolly’s is the same as mine, but there is a gap between the tape and her body.  I think a temporary solution could be to put a layer (or two) of batting across the upper chest, above the bra cups, which could be tucked under the bra straps.

Please mind the gap.

I’m losing weight at the moment (slowly and steadily, no radical transformations here!), but when I’m fitting back into my old jeans (again, just one size down, nothing radical!), I’m going to try to make a cover for Dolly.  The Party Dress has a guide to draping a simple body block, so I’m going to grab some calico, a friend, a long zip and some padding and get personalising Dolly.  In the meantime, though, she’ll be fine as she is.

And the first bit of fitting will be …

Needle-felted Pin Cushion – finished project

Craft class on Friday was felting.  We had a go at wet felting.  I’ve done this before, but using a book for instructions is very different to having an expert teacher (a lovely lady from my teacher training course called Natalie) and I picked up lots of good tips!  I made a square of plain felt, which is pretty boring at the moment, but I think I’ll use it for a project, so you’ll see more of that soon.

I also had a go at needle felting, which I surprised myself by loving!  I made a pin cushion:

I don’t know why, but I always though needle felting would be, well, a bit boring.  But there’s something strangely enjoyable about it – maybe the repeated stabbing is therapeutic!  Anyway, I think I might be addicted – I feel the need to make more, more, I tell you!!

Hope you had a great weekend!

PS – I’ve got some cunning plans bubbling away – expect changes here in June!