Cath Kidston project and self assembly

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It's been a busy week all told, some days I don't know if I'm coming or going and to be honest, yesterday I was running on about 5 hours worth of sleep (not by choice!!) and it was tough to motivate myself to do much of anything.

As my Facebook and Instagram followers have seen, I've been busy this week making the freebie that came with the Cath Kidston Sewing book which I got for my birthday last year. The book comes with everything you need to make the 'Pocket Sewing Kit' and is the front cover star. I'd been putting off making it a little as I was feeling a bit lazy about cutting out the pieces from the fabric and a little scared I'd make a mistake too as the fabric that is included is Cath's Little Bird Print which is so cute (and a little expensive for my budget if I had to repurchase it). Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised when I finally decided to make a start to find that all the pieces are pre-cut - BONUS!! It meant that I could start sewing straight away.  (There may have been a little *happy dance* thing going on at that point).

The pattern itself was easy to follow and I'm fairly pleased with the overall result, with the exception of the binding. I think it's more user error than an issue with the binding itself, but for me it's a tiny bit too thin in width to allow my clumsy old hands to attach it as neatly as I would have liked. Still, it's on and it looks nice as a contrast to the main fabric.

I did have a mild panic attack when I attached the first piece of binding though.  I had dutifully cut the first piece to the required length and evidently I had not been paying sufficient attention when I did so as I had accidentally cut through TWO pieces resulting in two lengths of binding when I only needed one for that section.  The trouble being that until I had moved a little further in the project I couldn't be sure that I had enough to finish. Luckily whoever decided how much of everything to put into the freebie stash was prepared for silly people like me and there was still more than enough to complete the project. HUGE sigh of relief when I discovered that I can tell you.

The other thing I've achieved this week is the putting together of some cube shelving.  I'm aware that

Storage before...                                    ...and after

for some this is a straight forward task and for others it's actually flat pack hell and they'd rather run for the hills; I don't mind it really and when it's something that's purely for functionality rather than beauty as well I'm happy enough to give it a go. I spotted a 3x2 cube unit on sale when I did my weekly food shop and (after a quick text conversation with the other half as, lets face it, January is a loooooong month financially speaking) I picked it up and brought it home. Once little miss was safely down for her nap and I'd run round like a headless chicken tidying up, I sat down and put it together and am proud to say it took me 20 minutes at best. Who needs men eh? 😉 It's to store the toddler's toys in the living room in such a way that she can easily see and access them in the hopes of encouraging some more self-led play. Her bedroom is set up like this now (I rearranged stuff just after Christmas) and she does seem to play better in there on the odd occasions she's in there for more than 2 minutes. I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

Finally, the Lake Baikal cross stitch is still going on in the background and I usually manage a good hour each night on that so it should hopefully be finished this year unless I get properly distracted by other exciting projects. The kitchen is coming along, albeit very slowly. The pantry area still needs to be painted but the wall it sits in/on has been stripped of wallpaper and we've got the fridge and shelving in so it's functioning as it should be. February half term will no doubt see a fair bit of progress as the hubby is on annual leave so fingers crossed there may be some more exciting progress at that point.

Until next time,

M x