Life after the holidays

So the kids started back at school last Wednesday. After 12 weeks of holidays I think we were all ready to get back to school and settle back into some routines. I spent my first few days to myself catching up on some of the many jobs that need doing around here (still oh so many to go though!), catching up with the school mums for coffee, and then doing some shopping for a new bike! I did my first triathlon almost 2 years ago, and have done a handful each year since then. I only do sprint distance ones, but really enjoy them - well, I don't enjoy the 5am starts on race day, but after that it's mostly all good!! Anyway, I really needed a new bike, so in the weekend I bought myself a lovely new one, and she's called Ruby! And here she is:

She the nicest bike I've ever had, and will probably ever have, and she's gorgeous. Took her for a spin yesterday and it's incredible the difference she makes to my riding. Bring on my next triathlon in October!!

Sewing-wise I've been a bit quiet lately. In my quest for the perfect fabric shop, I recently went to High Fashion Fabrics in Houston with my daughter, Elyse. Well it's huge and has some fantastic fabric, but as is the way in most fabric stores, not many knits which is what I was specifically looking for, for my Knappy Knickers. Anyway, Elyse and I both saw this gorgeous fabric which I thought would look fantastic on her. It's a Robert Kaufman Organic cotton print, Pick a Bunch Posies, and I made it into the easiest quickest thing I could think of, a basic elasticated skirt.

I love it. Elyse - not so much. Thinks it's too puffy!!! So I might take out some of the bulk of the fabric to make it less puffy. Then she said she didn't like the elastic waist and wanted (what I got from her convoluted description) a ribbed band instead of elastic. So, I've now got the ribbing, stay tuned for the new, updated version of the skirt! 

The other thing I had promised for Elyse was a swim robe, similar to the one I made for Ollie, here. I had bought the towel for it from Ikea ages ago, and had a pattern from here but it was only to size 4 and I didn't have the time to upsize the pattern. So I got another pattern but then had only just enough towel to fit the pattern (I had one bath towel and one bath sheet.) So after a bit of playing around with the pattern layout I got it to fit, and ended up with the band from the edge of the towels down the front of the robe, and on the sleeves. I think it looks quite good, will see what Elyse thinks! Here it is, work in progress. 

Of course I forgot that I hadn't bought all the bias binding for the edging, so will have to make another trip to Joann's for the rest. But for now, on with those jobs....!