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Foxgloves
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Hello! Hope you've had a good weekend with some time to relax. 

This past weekend has come and gone in a flash – they do that, don't they? Keira and I had found ourselves with a free Saturday morning so we did a bit of sewing. K's keen to learn to make some clothes for herself, especially as next year she won't have to wear a uniform at her new school.

Anyway, I thought a simple boxy top would be a good thing to start with, and remembered Mum helping me to make something pretty similar when I was 12.

We used the Lou Box Top pattern and cut it down a little to fit. I've made a couple of these before (here and here) and it's a great little pattern with lots of details that are easy to adapt to your own liking. And the fabric is a dark brown drapey cotton with small pink flowers, leftover from this dress I sewed a while back.

We have foxgloves growing the garden! I remember planting the seedlings in the autumn but never really expecting they'd take off in the way they have. They're now nearly as tall as me and have opened up in the most beautiful colours: plum-purple, peachy pink and a lemon yellow. 

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An exciting thing that happened last week was that I finally worked out how to loan audiobooks from my local library.

I suspect I'm about a decade late to this party, but that only makes it a sweeter discovery. I downloaded the app 'Libby' for my phone, and listen through a little bluetooth speaker I was given for mother's day this year.

I've so far listened to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off: The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting while planting the summer vegetable garden, and Solar by Ian McEwan while knitting and doing other work. Both are highly recommended.

Are you an audiobook fan? Any recommendations for me and other readers? XX

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10 responses to “beginner sewing and audiobooks”

  1. Ella Avatar

    Isn’t it great (and so satisfying) when your kids are old enough to make things themselves? Mine are into knitting and cross stitch, and I have had a request for “real sewing on the sewing machine” but I haven’t been brave enough for that yet.
    I absolutely love listening to audiobooks, because I can craft and ‘read’ at the same time. Heaven. Some of the first I ever listened to were the Portuguese Irregular Verbs trilogy by Alexander McCall Smith. They’re narrated by Hugh Laurie and I still think about them fairly regularly. They’re quite, quite mad. And I mean that in the best way.

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  2. tinyhappy Avatar

    thank you ella for the recommendation – ill check that trilogy out. i have read some others by a.m.s, but not those.
    yes, being able to read and knit at the same time is fairly life-changing! XX

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  3. Daffodilangel Avatar
    Daffodilangel

    Gorgeous blouse. Love audio books. Have lined up a couple of Persephone recommendations….wartime stories.. Also have β€œread” a thriller set in Sweden and an Alexander McCall Smith. All via audible.com. Plus have tried a few via Librivox (freebies). Very good actually. Wishing you a lovely spring day. Sunny here in the land of down under πŸ˜€

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  4. Karen Avatar
    Karen

    Hi Melissa,
    Audio books are fantastic. I have a few ladies in the aged care facility where I work who listen to them regularly. Our local city library selects books to suit each individual and they are changed monthly. I get the job of sorting them into their CDs before they are returned due to some resident vision difficulties!!. Just thought I’d share this as an aside.

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  5. tinyhappy Avatar

    thanks, karen! yes, audiobooks must be such a treasure for aged care facilities… its lovely that your local library picks out the ones they think your residents will like.
    m

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  6. Susan Hemann Avatar

    sweet top, I liked Big Magic by Melissa Gilbert

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  7. tinyhappy Avatar

    thank you for the recommendations! sunny here too – hooray for spring πŸ™‚

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  8. tinyhappy Avatar

    thanks susan, ill look that one up!
    m
    X

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  9. muenzeeins Avatar

    such a lovely top Keira made! it’s wonderful that she wants to learn sewing… i do hope our daughter emma will like that too one day (for the moment she’s four, so it’ll take a while :)…)… super idea with the audio books!! i’ll have to say, i haven’t listened to audio books until now, like you, but i guess i should while knitting or else, it must be really relaxing… philippe my husband is a huge fan of the bbc audio series “the hitchhikers guide through galaxy” (not sure if i got the title correct) and we listend once to paul auster “the red notebook”, i remember that it was really good.

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  10. tinyhappy Avatar

    hi cecile,
    thank you for the recommendations! yes, the hitchikers guide is a favourite here too πŸ™‚
    it is lovely when you can spend time making things with your kids… wont be long!
    m

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