Better late than never! Here begin my advent blogs in the lead up to Christmas! We’re having friends over for Christmas dinner, which is lovely because we all like similar things and generally have a fantastic time. My close friends are my family as far as I’m concerned anyway. So

Its 8:30pm on a Friday night – I’ve done a full day at work, come home, cooked a roast dinner, washed up, made dessert and in return? I get kicked out of my living room because the kids want to watch season 2 of Stranger Things and I’m not interested.

My piping arrived! I tacked it onto the dress, put one sleeve in and it looks brilliant. Tried it on to get the positioning right for the next bit … and the left top section that’s supposed to fold down is 4 inches too short. Face palm. After scrapping around

I’m (patiently) awaiting the delivery of my bias piping in order to continue the dress, I finally came up with a design for this years’ Christmas cards. They’re crochet based (shocker) to match the (frankly alarming) amount of crochet gifts I’m making this year. I’ll post pictures of them when

Mild panic time – the dress making timetable has been moved up somewhat. Turns out I have some corporate awards thing I need to go to in November and because I hate shopping, I figure I’ll use the dress for that as well, even if it does cut a month

To be brutally honest, I’ve done very little in the way of crafting recently – I’ve been indulging my history geek side and spending a week in Athens. Much sun, lots of good food and one brand new textbook later and I’m back in the inevitable UK autumn. I did

I’ve spent my afternoon getting re-acquainted with my dress-makers dummy. I love this thing – I honestly don’t know how I ever made clothes or cosplay without it! I’ve pinned, cut and re-cut my lining fabric for that dress, so I’m happy enough now to order the main fabric and

Another quiet evening to myself – what to do? Well, there’s one of several Christmas projects I’m in the middle of, the Christmas card ideas I haven’t drafted any ideas for yet or the outfit I’ve foolishly decided to make myself for a party I’m hosting at New Years. This