Update

So... I've been absent for a few days. Hubby and I've been staying with my parents near London, taking advantage of a wedding present we were given for a lunch river cruise on the Thames and a trip on the London Eye. Whilst I do have access to the internet at theirs, I've been trying really hard to prioritise my real life connections over my virtual ones, and part of that is spending time with family first and foremost, and updating my blog and Facebook second!

I'm gonna give you a bullet point update of the things I've been up to of late, then I can fill you in in more detail over the next few days.
-Made birthday cake and present for one of my best friends
-Did a pregnancy photo shoot of one of my other best friends
-Made soap (yes, I still haven't told you about that, have I?)
-Made Sloe Gin
-Did some tailoring for my sister
-sent off two job applications and a bunch of CVs
-Went on the aforementioned London trip

See? Told you I'd been busy!

I can tell you about the tailoring now, since it's a simple story and I forgot to take any photos to go with it. My sis started her first job on the Monday just gone and, in anticipation of this, bought herself an entire new wardrobe. Insane amounts of clothing. Anyway, due to the family trait of short arms and legs, which we both inherited, two of the pairs of trousers she'd bought were too long, even though she wears 4 inch heels and is only a UK size 6 anyway.

As well as this she had a suit jacket with really cheap, plasticky looking buttons on it. For the small remuneration of £10 I replaced the buttons with some amazing Art Deco style pewter effect ones out of my mum's button box and took up both pairs of trousers. This benefitted both of us, because she can't/won't sew and a tailor would charge her a fortune for the same services.

Unfortunately the task was rather more onerous that it needed to be, since I have no overlocker and it took forever to get the tension right for the zig-zag stitch on my mum's Singer. Plus both pairs of trousers were slightly stretch, prone to fraying and my sister is very particular about her clothes - scary job! Still, I think I did an OK job, using two lines of zig-zag stitch instead of overlocking, then doing a simple overhand whip-stitch to hem it. I could have done what I generally do when I take up a hem and turned it over twice before whip-stitching, but that can create a bit of a lumpy hem and since these were work clothes I needed them to look as smart as possible. I wish I had taken pictures, but even more I wish that I had an overlocker... Though a working sewing machine of my own would be a good start!