Oh Florence, you absolute fool!

I had a card-making evening last night (that makes it sound like it was a group activity...but no, it was just me) as my mother had asked me to make some up for her to send on birthdays to the vast number of small children that she seems to know. The one above is done using the very recognisable Anna Maria Horner 'puppy love' applique print out.

When I make cards using fabric shapes, I tend to iron on some heavy-weight interfacing first to stop any fraying, cut out my shapes and then stick them on with this fabulous uhu fabric glue (it really is so good - not too runny and it never leaves horrible white marks over the fabric once it's dried).

Above are some of the girlier ones. Do you recognise the cat? It's taken from My Little Mochi's free pattern for her stuffed Chibi Kitty. I've been wanting to see how difficult it is to sew straight onto card for ages....and the verdict is not too bad. The outline of the cat is sewn straight on in pink cotton, and I've filled her face in using silver pen. Her skirt is more of the interfaced fabric glued directly on. I ended up sewing quite a few of them, as it was nice to work with something other than fabric on the machine for a change...mmm, perhaps I'll need a new needle tomorrow though!

Here's another machine stitched one...and below are some cards with a more boysy feel:

Anyway, back to some proper fabric sewing...after tackling my first arm-hole a couple of weeks ago and eventually winning that battle, I've been thinking about recreating my favourite dress, but in another colour. It's a very simple short a-line jersey shift dress...I even went and looked at fabric this morning, but then thought: No, Florence, you must leave it until after Christmas (I hope I didn't mutter this out loud)...my list of presents that I want to make is growing longer and longer....and it feels as though I may well drown under the fabricy weight of things that I want to do. But then this afternoon I made a horrible mistake, which may well put an end to my surprisingly rational thinking of earlier in the day.

And it is this: I made the mistake of keeping my eyes open when I saw something utterly lovely today. I could have stopped reading, not clicked on any of the links, or even tried to click the 'close window' button with my eyes squeezed tightly shut, as in not doing any of the above I was painfully aware that it would only be prolonging the time it may take me to complete my present list. But no...I just kept drooling, barely able to breath, over these dresses on Shim & Sons' blog...and then more drooling as I clicked the link through to the Wiksten Made blog (which has a tutorial for the most divine Peter Pan collar). And now I'm feeling so utterly inspired....I'm just not sure I'm able to put off plunging myself into a dress-making frenzy any longer...thinking of all the little details I might work into the copy of my own favourite dress....would it really be so bad for my family to celebrate Christmas in January instead?