Same bat(wing) place, same bat(wing) channel...

LOOK WHAT I MADE!

(Not over that feeling yet...)

If you get the reference in the title, LET'S BE FRIENDS. And a disclaimer: awkward photos abound in this post! Adding crowd control of a pair of toddlers to my self-consciousness when posing for the blog does not improve matters on that front, it turns out. Who knew?

New house problems: I need to find somewhere decent to hang makes for photos. But that, friends, while possibly being the very definition of a first world problem, is probably not your concern. Let me get on post haste to the things that are.

Like this top! It is the lovely Named Blair Batwing top, and it's made up in the fabric I originally planned to make it in, which seems quite an achievement given the time scales involved. I made it in this very fine, slightly textured (poorly photographed), silvery grey marl, merino knit, probably found in the bargain basement in Misan Textiles years ago, but I'm not entirely sure because, well, it was bought years ago. I LOVE IT. IT IS PERFECT. See my giant grin as evidence.

This story's going too smoothly - shouldn't there be a catch?! Oh yes, there is. One as awkward as this shot of me pretending to catch my daughter.

Just another day embarrassing myself for all to see on the internet, no biggie.

This project is the kind of thing I see seamstresses/sewists talking about whipping up in an hour or so all the time. Even I was pretty sure it wouldn't take me too long. I mean, this has 6 seams, and a few hems. Dassit. Even the neckline is hemmed, and thank goodness, cause I've abandoned a Grainline Hemlock because neckband issues were driving me bananas. So, I was thinking maybe four or so hours, because I know myself, but hey, no need to muslin! No fitting issues to speak of! Just a straight sew, right?! NOPE. It took days. Daaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyssssss. Mostly because of my fabric choice - as usual I seem incapable of making things easy for myself. The knit is so fine that figuring out how to sew it without it being sucked down & chewed up by my machine's feed dogs took patience, trial & error, a lot of unpicking (which gave me the nervous sweats on this fine fabric), & using a bigger seam allowance than suggested. Thankfully that didn't impact on the fit much, because of how oversized and boxy it is, but it was quite the learning curve.

And it was worth it. I mean, look at the lovely top that I have that I dreamed up in my head & now exists in my wardrobe! In a fancy, delicious fabric that some high-end-high-street shop would probably try to charge me a hundred quid for! (I'm looking at you, Jigsaw.)

But this photo right here, where one toddler is trying to get my attention, and I'm shouting at the other to "put down the camera!", epitomises the experience of making this top, or indeed sewing anything at all since having babies. I managed to finagle a block of a few hours for myself to tackle this top, and it was only when I'd finished, and frantically cleared all the lethal sewing implements from the kitchen & was dashing to pick up the children, that I realised. I'd had something in those hours, something I adore about sewing, and that's been rare to find in the last few years. Flow. That wonderfully enjoyable state where you get completely immersed in something & lose all sense of time. I'm lucky that I get some of that in parts of my work, and there are definitely aspects of caring for a newborn that involve a similar state. But they come with stresses that the sometimes really bloody challenging, but ultimately joyfully frivolous task of making myself something pretty to wear does not.

Can we just take a moment to appreciate my twin needled hem and notice how far I've come? Improvement! Progress! Despite not sewing for years & feeling like my brain had turned to Ella's Organics mush! I'm not going to show you my obsozky neckline, but hey, who's looking apart from me, anyway?

I don't know which way this story is going to go. I suspect that, as my children get older, I will have more and more chunks of time in which I find the space for flow of various sorts, rather than existing entirely in this place of near constant interruption, and sometimes relentless demands. But, having written the bulk of this post with one child dozing on my lap, and another playing at (& sometimes with - she's obsessed) my feet, who knows? I'd love to hear the experience of other mothers who sew, or have other creative hobbies. How do you cope? Have you adapted to working in fragments of time, or have you carved out longer periods? How did things change as your little ones grew? How do you keep your toddlers from stabbing each other with pins, and how the heck do you manage not to cock things up when you're sewing, knackered, after bedtime?

Or is all of that also just part of the learning curve?