What do cows eat for breakfast?

In the end there were only 6 of us at Craft Camp this weekend, and the gap left by the last minute withdrawal of our two organisers, Suse and Janet, was tangible; felt in the two empty chairs or the gaps in conversation.  But the six of us soldiered on, in the spirit of Crarf Camp: buoyed by fine food, an abundance of wine and  sugar, and the often hilarious company of each other, as well as the beautiful (but cold!) surroundings and the absorbing-ness of crafting our wares.



It was Eleanor's turn for the Princess Room - the one with the double bed and no room-mates - and to properly honour her, Kate knitted her a royal crown.



The other double bed went unused, because it's intended owner - Sue - didn't read her emails properly.  Sue also provided the quote of Craft Camp this year - in response to a facebook thread we'd been looking at - with the sage pronouncement I don't see anything wrong with a fish shirt.  Well, exactly.



Poor Jenny was struck down by a cold for the first few days, for which she blamed her youngest daughter.



She felt so blah she even refused the magnificent lamb with rhubarb and pomegranate molasses prepared by newcomer Terri because there was no point if she couldn't taste it, but we forced her to have some of Sue's walnut and butterscotch pudding on the grounds that it would probably cure her straight away to have it.  Gee, we ate well, but then, we always do.  Eleanor's corn fritters, Kate's delicious soup (which I got to take home in the leftovers divvy-up at the end, and am still enjoying for lunch) Jenny's deluxe shepherd pie. Scrum.



The girls prepared a birthday treat for me, which sat in secret for all of Friday evening and a big chunk of Saturday morning because I was the cook and then I slept in; but when I finally walked in I found the studio, and my chair and sewing machine, gloriously bedecked in purple.  They also all chipped in for a present, my very own pie dish.  Thank you girls, can't wait to fill it with apple pie for you at the next Craft Camp.



As for what I made - well.  I recently bought some vintage patterns in my search for a simple A-line dress, so I elected to first tackle an overall/jumper dress, circa 1980.   Sue, who knows about patterns and fancy sewing, looked through and said it was a proper tailored pattern and that it would make a really great garment and give me some great technique, and she was right.  It took me 2-and-a-bit days to make. I'm so slow at sewing, sigh.  I'm not sure how I feel about the finished project yet.  I think I need to wash it to see if it hangs better.  To make the dress look symmetrical in the fabric-matching of the front buttonholes, I had to sacrifice a bit of symmetry in the cut, so I wasn't happy with how it sat.



I may be able to adjust it via the buckle at the back, but after working on it for so long, I was a bit over it.



So then I made three more things : 

1. A little dress for a rock-n-roll baby, made from my old t-shirt from the baby's dad's band that I used to work for.  I think it looks so ace, except for some bad overlocking at the shoulders.  But maybe that will settle in the wash too?



2. A pair of fleecy pants for the Cherub with pockets cut from the same t-shirt.



3. A film for Suse and Janet.  This was actually a joint effort from all the girls, and was enormously good fun to do. There were mutterings at one stage about my - alleged - bossiness when the instructions to rise up slowly with dead cold eyes were not being followed, but those creative differences aside it was the most hilarious and easy project ever.


Nobody wanted to burst the balloons when we left on Monday.