Fun Monday# 19 =Crafty Monday

Karmyn has asked everyone to

"show us their "CRAFTY SIDE"....let us see something you've made - it can be ANYTHING -....post something that was handmade....junior high shop table, scrapbook pages, burnt meatloaf, knitting projects, muffins, whatever - just let it be your handiwork". There are so many 'crafty' bloggers out there that this looks like the BIGGEST number of participants since Fun Monday began.

When I first read Karmyn's challenge my immediate thought was, I've not got anything to show (I pondered about cooking but as I sometimes share my recipes I thought no one want to see those photos again). I then started having a look around the house to see if I could find anything I had made. Surprise, surprise because I can't bear to part with 'memories' I dragged out from my grandchildren's toy basket a few things that I had knitted when my own girls were young. Believe it or not Sam did wear that little green outfit back in 1966. There wasn't much money about in the 60's so we tended to make as much as possible, I knitted the yellow blanket and bound it with satin ribbon, and I made the cot cover from knitted squares that I backed with some left over material from the curtains I'd made for the nursery. I didn't knit the squares, these were done by my grandmother who died three years before Sam was born so I could never part with it although it's falling apart. I used to knit a lot of the doll's clothes and when ponchos were popular (70's) I knitted them for the girls and they wanted their dolls had to have them as well.
I still have lots of the costumes I made when the girls were in dancing displays. I've just shown a few (you may have seen some of them before) and the elephant costume originally worn here by Beccy was also worn by Dillon (her eldest son) as fancy dress. He probably wouldn't want to be reminded of that now he's a teenager! The embroidery is a tablecloth I started nearly 30 years and have never finished and the little paintings were done on scaps of paper almost 40 years ago. (Wendy[Purpleworms] if you read this don't look too closely!!)

 

The girl's dance teacher used to ask my friend and I to make sample costumes for the rest of the class to follow and this Spanish dress is one that I did. I remember being in a mad panic at the time thinking I can never do this, I searched the shops and found a summer dress that was similar and used that as a basic guide. You can imagine I was pertified that I would waste the material (we were only ever given the exact amount so no margin for error). Luckily it worked and I was able to provide all the parents in the group with a newspaper pattern (immense relief I can tell you). All the sewing that turned out OK was definitely more luck than skill I assure you!

The real artists in the family are Sam, Beccy, Dillon (look here to see some of Dillon's work). They do not get their artistic genes from me, worst luck. I suppose I would say I'm practical and I'm prepared to try my hand at things.

PS I cannot understand why blogger has suddenly stopped publishing my Fun Mon Logo.