Sew easy!

I've been promising myself that I will start sewing for some time. Well, I haven't yet blown the dust off the sewing machine, but yesterday I did get round to making little skirt and matching headscarf for Honor. The skirt is a simple circle skirt I made by following a short tutorial on youtube (complete with annoyingly loud music!). I bought this green cotton in Dunelm Mill. It was a roll end so I got 2 metres for about £1.98, or something like. I drew around one of the kids hula hoops to get the circle and then cut a smaller hole in the middle for the waist.

Then I, very crudely, hand sewed the hem and waistband, with elastic, and cut out some heart shapes with this scrap of strawberry fabric and sewed them on, too.

The headscarf was made using the basic pattern from the book I bought recently, 'Carefree Clothes for Girls'. It is simply a triangle cut from the same green fabric and I've used the strawberry fabric to make the border and ties. Then the sides are frayed to give that homespun effect!

She was delighted with her new outfit. It's just a practise, really. I had to re-sew some bits this morning that started to come apart. Honor wants more skirts like this so as this one is a bit on the short side, I had better make the circle a bit bigger next time.

And just look at these gorgeous peonies, roses and fatsia japonica from my garden! I've had trouble with my peonies over the last couple of years. The plants come up with lots of lovely lush green growth and plenty of buds, but then the buds have failed to open. I looked up the problem on the internet and some of the advice suggested that it may because they are not getting enough full sunshine. Apparently they need at least 6 hours of full sun per day. Well they've opened up this year and there certainly been plenty of sun. We are set for much, much more this weekend. A real scorcher. Hubby put the pool up last night so tomorrow will be spent playing in that. I hope we won't literally be drowning our sorrows, though, after England play Germany.