Pencil Case

The posts about things I sewed in the school holidays continues! Today, we are going to have a look at the pencil case that I made for Rachel. It matches her library bag with the awesome fabric that initially made her Nature Bag. 

It turns out that Sophie's pencil case for school is also made out of this same fabric (with different contrasts and lining). I didn't realize it until I was cutting it out and Sophie commented that it would be matching. Don't know why I never blogged it. Busy maybe?

Anyway, It's lined with some donation fabric that I've used to make skirts before and uses zips that I've horded from who knows where. Bags? Dresses? I dunno! I look at it now and realize that I put one of the zips in upside down, but can't figure out which one, and also can not be bothered to change it.

It actually took three tries to get the top zip in in the first place. I sewed it, thought I did it wrong, unpicked it, re sewed it, realized it was now wrong and the first way I had done it was actually correct! So then I unpicked it and sewed it a third time.

Moral of that story: don't second guess yourself. Trust your instincts; if you sewed it one way to start with, it was probably for good reason.

I know I haven't said anything about the fun dragonfly print yet, because I actually bought it for another project that I haven't finished yet. It was cut out waiting for ages, I finally started sewing it but it's still not finished. It's a secret present kind of project, so I need to sew it when it's intended recipient is not around. Tough call! I'm hoping to get to finishing it soon though.

Library Bag

While I was there cutting out shorts and skirts in the September holidays, I was also forward thinking about what Rachel will need for school next year, namely a library bag and pencil case. Here I will talk about the library bag, saving the pencil case for the next post so as not to bore you with sewing stories. 

Rachel's library bag was modeled after Sophie's with a few tweaks. I used the leftover fabric from her Nature Bag, which is such fun wonderful fabric that I'm sad to use the last of it. It's got a slip pocket on the inside for the library card, a Velcro closure and is fully lined. Easy. I kind of wish I had looked at the yellow corner fabric a little more because I could definitely have cut it to match the pattern, but oh well.

It's lined with some purple fabric that I found in the stash (thanks anonymous donor-person), and is fully functional. Rachel is now just a little bit more ready for school.

Cake

It was the holidays. The end of the holidays. I needed to do some cooking and was craving some ginger slice with caramel topping; something that I knew the girls would probably not really be into. When the girls asked what I was doing, I threw caution to the wind and told them as I was cooking, they could both also choose one thing to make and provided we had the ingredients, we would make it. 

Cook books out! Rachel choose some honey jumbles, which were relatively straight forward. Easy. Sophie saw this cake, and was sold. There was a lot of washing up this day, but all delicious things were made. 

The girls did all of the measuring and stirring for their respective cooking. I just sliced and iced the cake for Sophie while both girls made the bees out of fondant. They added the stripes with Nutella and used flaked almonds for wings. 

The cake itself was honey with lemon and was delicious. Unfortunately for Sophie, who had chosen and made the cake, it was too sweet for her and she ended up not eating any of it. Oh well. She liked the bees. 

This cake was a fun way to end the holidays, and I'm glad we made it. I wonder if there are any other parents out there who let their kids make ridiculous cakes on a whim too. Probably.

I also wonder if the girls will remember this, or if they will complain in the future that I never do anything fun with them. Probably that too.

Limeanade

We have an amazing lime tree that makes lots of limes every year. Usually such an abundance that even giving them away in spades we still have heaps left over. 

One solution to this has been making limeanade. Which is like lemonade, but with limes. Obviously. 

Steve usually undertakes this venture with the girls, the last time I documented it being in April 2018. Interesting. Does our lime tree fruit twice a year and I haven't noticed? Maybe that's why we seem to always have so many limes!

Anyway, it's so fun and so yum that I can see limanade being in our future for a lot longer.