Just one more, and then I'll stop. Promise.

I am a bit addicted to this pattern. After the last lot of shenanigans with the seams and turning through, this one sewed up like a dream. But I'm still not going to make them to sell, i value my sanity :) If anyone else is though, use recycled jeans, they work really well!

This one was made on a rainy Lancashire day, but it's being shipped off to sunny Australia, so I thought the tropical blue flowers were quite appropriate. It's going to a very lovely friend who emigrated there about 5 years ago, and who is sorely missed. She has two beautiful boys who I last saw 6 months ago - the octopus messenger bag was made for Ben, her eldest.

I would dearly love to make the trip out to see her one day. Maybe after the neverending loft fund has been repaid. My only worry would be that we wouldn't want to come back...

Show me the money.

This year is turning out to be pretty expensive. Along with the twenty squillion pounds we paid for the neverending loft conversion, we have had to repair the washing machine, then replace the washing machine, replace the hoover, replace the iron, and now the central heating is broken. Not broken in a major way, but it'll still cost about £150 to fix it.


Add to that the extra bill we have from our builder for changing the stair spindles in the loft (they were twirly, and they just weren't right. Now they're straight and they're lovely. Yes it was important and worth the money. Now be quiet) and using better quality wood on the cupboard doors (we're staining it rather than painting), and we're a bit strapped for cash.


I'm still finding things to put on eBay, and we're selling nearly all of our dvds on Music Magpie, but we need more moolah. So one of the obvious solutions is for me to try and sew up a bit of cash. My mum, the lovely grandma pickledweasel, has a little business making and selling glass jewellery and art. She does lots of farmer's markets, and always takes along a little selection of wooden brooches on my behalf. When I started making bags we talked about selling some on her stall, so I thought I'd finally crack on and make up some stock for her. I've been buying bits and bobs of fabric in preparation, and have quite a few patterns that can be used to make items to sell. My aim was 10 bags using this pattern in 7 days. If they sold, I would try a few more different styles out. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.


Er, no. Despite this being the fourth time I've used this pattern, the bag pictured took me around 4 hours to make and is unsellable unsaleable unsellible no-one would buy it. The outer is faux suede and the lining is a bit of vintage soft cotton I found in a charity shop. Both fabrics are quite lightweight so I thought I would use fusible interfacing on the floral cotton to give the bag a bit more structure. Only when I came to turn it through it had obviously added a bit too much structure, because it was like bloody childbirth. The stitches on the strap split, and tore the lovely old cotton. I had to unpick and re-sew the join at the tops of the straps so many times to get the two sides the right length so they would sandwich together properly that there is a whole new pattern of little holes in the faux suede. It just doesn't cut the mustard.

I have to accept that I don't have the speed or the skill to make it worthwile financially. In fact, I'd probably make more money if I stopped buying fabric and bag patterns :) I would love love love to make money out of sewing, but I just don't think it's feasible for someone who works part time and has a two and a half year old the rest of the time. Selling online is slightly easier, as you can make things as they're ordered, but you still need time to promote your business and find patterns that work for you and that you can use to make things comercially (or design your own). I've got rid of my little Coriandr shop, which was rapidly going nowhere due to a lack of promotion on my part. No matter how badly I want it, or believe it's my destiny (in an X-Factor styley), making money from stitching stuff isn't going to happen right now.

So it's back to eBaying the contents of my wardrobe and shopping in bulk at Approved Food in an effort to save money. If anyone has any 100% proven get rich quick schemes, or interesting recipes for tortillas or cous cous please comment below :)

I have cake, and someone has won the giveaway

And the winner is......

Kitschy Cooooooooo! Lucky girl :)

I too am a winner, as I've had a cracking birthday. Me and mr pickledweasel ran away to Llandudno yesterday for a whole child-free 24 hours. Although we'd been there only a couple of years ago, I had somehow re-invented Llandudno in my head as a sophisticated wine bar and Michelin starred restaurant filled coastal resort with balmy nights and 4 star hotels on every corner, so was a little surprised to find it was a freezing cold slightly run down welsh town full of cheap B&Bs and, bizarrely enough, the Cambrian Rally.

We lived it up. I had a tea while we waited for the film to start.

So rather than wear the satin slash neck dress and purple suede wedge pumps I was planning to stun the north Welsh coast with, I just stuck with my jeans and jumper and we had dinner early at a Mediterranean restaurant, and then went to the cinema to see The Other Guys (which is an hilarious film). We stayed in a crappy hotel where the bathroom smelt of swimming pool and got woken up at 1am by drunk rally drivers, and then this morning we went to a greasy spoon overlooking the sea and had a huuuge fry up, and then did a leisurely promenade walk.

And mr p had a coffee.

Back in time for tea with Munchkin and Grandma Pickledweasel, and just as I was thinking I wasn't getting a birthday cake and I'd have to stuff my face with the jelly munchkin had helped grandma make, mr pickledweasel unveiled this beauty:

Isn't it a thing of skill and beauty? I love the foot :) AND it's all different cakes inside - the top is walnut cake, the side is angel cake and the bottom is Madeira. It makes turning 35 just about bearable :)

Giveaway extended!!1! (Because I am tired)

...after doing a twelve hour journey from Kent to Lancashire :-S


Plus a pitiful number of people have entered (the people aren't pitiful, just the number of them), either because a) the things I am giving away aren't exciting enough, or b) not many people read my blog. I am thinking it is a sad combination of the two.


So I will draw a winner on Sunday the 17th, which happens to be my birthday, in the hope that my popularity has suddenly risen dramatically :) You can enter by leaving a comment on this post. In the mean time please enjoy these photos of Munchkin making some new Kentish friends.

Giveaway in a bits and bobs de-stash celebratory past halfway neverending loft conversion styley!

I know, it' such a snappy title :)

So, I've listed a tiny percentage half my fabric stash on eBay, and should you wish to get your grubby little mitts on it, you can look at it here. I was going to put it on Etsy, but I had no idea what price to put on things, so instead everything's starting at 99p and it'll all get sold. All profits go to the Pickled Weasel New Bedroom Furniture Fund.

But if you haven't got any pennies, and you want some of the loveliness that's listed, read on. You can win all the pretty things pictured in this post. The fabric is just bits and bobs, things that wouldn't really sell on eBay but that people with crafty skillz could use, and then there's a few other random things thrown in for good measure. I hope you like them :)

All you need to do is leave a comment telling me about your favourite tutorial on the interwebs, and a link to it if you can work out how to in the comments box (I often can't, being a bear of little brain, so I don't expect you to).

We're cracking on with all the painting (mr pickledweasel even has roller-related blisters), and I can see light at the end of the loft conversion tunnel, so I'm starting to think about all the craftings I can do when I no longer have a paintbrush surgically attached to my hand. I need new things to covet and drool over and stick on my never ending to-do list.

International bods are more than welcome to enter, and I will draw a winner at random on Friday the 15th of October. As an added weaselly bonus, if you enter the giveaway and happen to win one of the things listed on eBay, I'll give you first class postage for the price of second class. Not much, I know, but better than nowt. Good luck!

Spoonflower. Not really about spoons. Or flowers.

I am trying to sort out my cupboard under the stairs sewing storage room as it will shortly be moving to the...wait for it...UTILITY ROOM!!!1! Yes, I know, How lucky am I. Because of the recent neverending loft conversion project we have a bit more storage space, which means I can have an actual real room to sew in, as opposed to putting my sewing machine on the dining room table and then leaving it there for three months whilst fabric and pattern pieces gather round it in some sort of modern art installation styley, until someone comes for dinner and I have to stuff it all back under the stairs again.

Birdies Galore by cabinpressstudio

If all goes according to plan I will have a workbench, a fold up chair, shelving and drawers. I will still have to share the space with the tumble dryer and washing machine, but at least I'll have a permanent space for my machine and the accoutrement's that come with it. Happy days :)

Love Fiesta by sammyk

I'm a long way off from that yet. First we have to finish the decorating. I am on the third coat of paint in the hall. The third coat, people. Which means there will need to be three coats on the stairs, and the landing. *cries*

Medium Elephants by katharinahirsch

But I have made a start on my new sewing nest by having a little bit of a de-stash. As we have officially run out of neverending loft fund loan money, and the electrician's bill came in £700 more than expected, we are slowly putting the entire contents of our house on eBay. This way we get to pay bills and really make the most of all that new storage space, as there won't be any crap left to fill it with. I'll list some of my fabric next week, and will be running a de-stash celebratory giveaway to mark the occasion. It's nice fabric, not just manky bits that I want to throw away :)

Monsieur Wonder Kat by malien00

Which leads me to the pictures that illustrate this post. How can a girl possibly keep on top of her fabric stash when there are beauties such as these available to buy from Spoonflower? The design talent out there just blows me away. Just a shame all the monies in my paypal account will be paying for sockets and switches :(

Bunions and the life-evaulating questions they raise.

Bye bye lovely shoes

I has a bunion. Apparently its proper name is hallux valgus which sounds just as grim as 'bunion' but in a latiny way. Mine isn't very big yet, but looking at my mum's feet and remembering what my grandma's feet looked like, it has the potential to get pretty toe-deformingly large.

I've had pain in my big toe for about a year, but it was one of those niggly things that wasn't really bad enough to go to the doctors with, so I ignored it. It wasn't until a rare sunny day a couple of weeks ago when I was wearing flip flops and happened to glance down at my feet that I noticed the knuckle joint at the base of my left big toe (do toes have knuckles?) was considerably larger than the one on my right toe. Ewwwww.

Off I hobbled to the doctors, to be given an information sheet and told to 'wear sensible shoes'. I went home and looked at my shoes. All 26 pairs. Then I tried them all on. And sent half of them to a charity shop and put the rest on eBay. And then spent the next two weeks looking in every shoe shop in Lancashire for sensible shoes that didn't make me want to poke my eyes out with a stilletoe heel.

Hello sensibleness. Don't worry, I didn't buy these.

I have found two pairs that fit the bill - enough room to wiggle toes, no heel, no pointyness. Some lovely boots from good old M&S, and some boring but 'they'll do for work' black shoes from Tesco, of all places. I'm really struggling with the no heel rule. I'm no willowy thing, more like a little shrub, and I am currently trying to work out how to wear a mid-length skirt and flat shoes without looking like a complete frump. Because if I can't do this, then half my work wardrobe will join the shoes on eBay :(

But what's more unsettling is the deep and probing questions about my life that the discovery of the bunion has prompted. In my mind, no heels = no nights out. This shouldn't really be a massive burden to bear - I last went 'out' properly in May for my sister-in-law's hen do, so it's not exactly a weekly occurence. But then I started thinking about going out, and how I miss it, and how I would love a big girly night out with heels and gin and tunes and a bit of sparkle and maybe an illicit fag at 2am and dancing and lipgloss and giggling.

I used to have nights like that, but there haven't been any since Munchkin arrived. Partly it's because I don't have the same circle of friends any more - we moved up north shortly before Munchkin was born, so all the friends I have here I know within the context of motherhood, rather than from uni or school or work. But should that make any difference? None of my fellow mother friends seem to be off into Manchester every weekend to drink dodgy cocktails and wear tottery shoes. Should I have grown out of wanting nights like that by now? (I'm 34 and three quarters). Mr pickledweasel was never really one for nights out anyway, so I'm hardly likely to be able to drag him away from crappy tv and early bed in an attempt to find out.

I have an uneasy feeling that if I did manage a night out I'd feel a) old b) guilty about spending money on cinzano and lemonade and taxis c) clueless about where to go, but it would be nice to give it a try. Unfortunately I doubt I'll find a partner in crime to accompany me or any shoes that are comfortable enough - maybe it's finally time to give up the idea and give in to the bunion :)