Step 2: The First Incision.

I could spend all day looking at beautiful fabric. Put the kids to bed, get out my collection, and goo at how all the pretty colours look together. Or scrolling through Etsy.com adding one design after the other to my favourites list - almost as fun as buying, and usually, unfortunately for my bank account, leads to extravagant (but very beautiful!) purchases. Then the kids wake up, the lap top lid goes down or fabric goes back on its shelf and I give a heavy sigh of desire and disatisfaction. There just aren't enough sleepy hours in the day!
A few weeks ago, around the time I decided to start blogging, I also decided to start cutting. I'd put it off for years. It's so much safer to collect, to admire, to keep it in that neat 1 yard cut. What if I decided there was a whole lot of other things I wanted to make from that beautiful yard? What if I RAN OUT?? What if, and this was the most scary, I discovered I wasn't actually that good at sewing. Or I just got bored of it. What if it just passed on like every other grand dream that gets shelved from dying motivation like my garden, my singing, having 6 children... I had to ask Mum to help.
A sewing holiday was appointed during Tully's daycare days and off to Sydney I drove, fabric and baby in tow. (I'm fortunate we now have a station wagon!) I purposefully chose the fabric I liked the least, bought what looked like an easy pattern and got out my scissors.
Here is the fruit of our labour:

 I was somewhat amazed. Designs which had been at the bottom of the pile suddenly looked so lovely cut into shapes, the frayed edges hidden away for good. Aren't they fun? Since then, wielding my scissors had become a little addictive. Here's some more creations:

The next dreaded incision will be the button holes. Might need to head down to Mum's again for those. Oh the thought of putting irreversible holes in my reversible dresses! It agonises me! Oh but the thought of leaving them forever unfinished, folded up in a cupboard, only to be brought out for show and tell when the kids are asleep...