Some people just don't know when to stop...

Yep, that would be me actually!!  You see its that time of the year again when rehearsals start, mangers get dusted off and the good old donkey has to start carting about a heavily pregnant woman (and I pity the poor donkey, and pregnant woman, doing that in Perth at the moment!!!).  Yes its nativity time and as the kids go (or are going to) a private school the lower primary years put on a nativity each year.  Pre-primary children are always the angels, probably because they've only been at school a year and are therefore still sweet and innocent.  The year 1's traditionally get the "main" roles... last year Samuel was Joseph!!!  And in year 2 they are given narration parts and are required to dress up as either shepherds or kings, depending on which class gets which part.  I was stoked this year, if it was shepherds I would be recycling last years Joseph costume and if it was kings, well I'm a bellydancer... I've got access to all the riches of the mystical east!!!  And the winner was.....



KINGS!!!!



So what has that got to do with anything.  Well, upon finding out that kings it is, I immediately started rummaging through the bellydancing costumes to find appropriate kingly attire.  One circle skirt, a coin belt, scarf and chain and I was set.  The theory was the circle skirt would be popped over the head, slits in the seams would serve as arm holes, a belt around the waist to hold it in, coin belt draped over the shoulder and tied at the waist and a red scarf to act as a cape.  This is totally working, except maybe it could just use a little bit more... now where's that...

Can you see where this is going???  You see I knew that I had a length of sari border somewhere that I was saving "just in case".  As it turns out this was the "just in case".  The border was going to be perfect around the hem of the skirt, except there wasn't quite enough.  No problems there, the skirt gets laid out flat on the floor and ends up going on an impromptu diet which involves taking off about a quarter of material from each side.  As it turns out this is actually a good thing because there is less material all round on Samuel's small frame and heaps of sari border.  So skirt now has a rather flash gold sari border and is looking rather royal indeed, except maybe it just needs a little bit more...

I know, the sleeves, instead of just having two slits in the seam for the sleeves I could se the left over sari border and create some proper sleeves instead, now that would look very royal indeed.  So little sleeves are added and everything is looking very good, except...

Mmmmmm, yes given that Samuel is shall we say somewhat of a slightly skinny disposition the whole neck/sleeve thing isn't really working quite the way I envisaged.  Ooooo but I know, if I take the waist band off , hem the lot and add a few pleats/tucks it'll all fall into place perfectly.  And so off we go.  The neckline is now made up of a series of box pleats which pulls the sleeves back up onto Samuel's shoulders and they fall beautifully with the satin. 

So what started out as a quick slash-the-seams type exercise turned out to be a couple of hours work, but despite that I loved every minute of it. The really scary thing is I keep looking at the costume now and keep thinking, maybe I should add something around the neck just to hide the top of the pleats, or maybe some embroidery would look good on the front panels.  Then the more practical side of my brain points out that its probably best to stop before things really get out of hand, it is just for the school nativity...

But still, I know where I've got some rather smashing jewels which would just look awesome, excuse me while I just go fish them out.  Afterall the play isn't until Wednesday morning........

Its been a parcel-y kind of day...

I've had 4 parcels arrive today, delivered by 3 different parcel guys at 4 different times LOL.  The last to arrive was something special for Paul which is going to be put together with something else special for Paul to make an absolutely blow-his-mind type something special... but more on that later.

Before that was a delivery from StrawberryNet which was lucky because I was kind of needing the moisturiser!!!

The first two that I received were infinitely more exciting though.  The first one came from Japan... to be precise it came from Fabric Tales.  I actually found this place when I was looking for printed bias bindings... and some rather cute cherry blossom bias binding might have accidentally arrived today in the package (I got the cream one...)

They also have the lovely echino chelsea double gauze of which I helped myself to a couple of yards.  But gosh they have some absolutely gorgeous cottons - the sweetest animal prints, delicate floral, traditional Japanese patterns

Check out these bunnies in their kimonos and tell me they aren't totally irresistible

What I loved most was these stunning reversible double gauzes.  I got this pink one...

but the one that I really, really, really wanted (bunnies and cherry blossoms) was gone in the time between finding the site then actually placing my order.

Shipping time was absolutely astonishing - from shipping to receiving was 4 days and that included a weekend!!!  I cant get things from the Eastern States in 4 days so I was thrilled to receive this today.  All in all, fabrictales.com has received a massive thumbs up from me and I cant wait to add to my collection.

The other package I received today was from Eternal Creation. Here is a bit about Eternal Creation from their website:

After graduating from the East Sydney institute of fashion design in 1994, designer Frances Carrington registered with Australian Volunteers Abroad, hoping to use her skills in a community in Africa. Instead she was sent to India. She was put in charge of the fledgling tailoring department of the Norbulingka Institute in Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in exile. Her job was to teach newly arrived Tibetan refugees the finer points of tailoring and design. She oversaw the growth of the department from 2 to 15 fulltime staff by the end of her stay.

Falling in love with Indian and Tibetan culture, not to mention the fantastic landscape of the Himalayas, she determined that at the end of her tenure she'd find a way to use her skills to continue to benefit the local community in some way. In 1999, armed with a $5000 loan from her father she started Eternal Creation, with the aim of producing quality womens' sleepwear and accessories.

The early days were difficult. Frances started with only 3 tailors, in association with the Gu-Chu-Sum movement of Tibet, an ex-political-prisoners' organisation based in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala. Gu-Chu-Sum's 200-plus members are all former prisoners of conscience, some of whom have endured terrible privation and torture at the hands of the Chinese authorities. The organisation is dedicated to improving the lives of recently arrived political refugees by providing jobs, training, health care and accommodation.

The small tailoring unit slowly grew, employing several ex-prisoners and battling with fierce monsoons, water shortages and frequent blackouts, often simultaneously! One of the biggest challenges was training people who had previously led a pastoral or nomadic existence, to understand the concept of delivery deadlines and international quality standards.

With the birth of her 2 children, Frances found herself naturally gravitating towards designing children's clothes, and sales of her initial childrens' collection quickly proved that there was a market for her classical look, love of colour and immaculate tailoring.

As the sales of Eternal products grew in Australia, the company was faced with a difficult decision - outsource or expand? Outsourcing would bring with it the ethical dilemma faced by many designers: how do you know your designs are being made under fair labour conditions and not subcontracted to other factories that may not meet these standards?

Frances felt that outsourcing production would ultimately end up betraying the original reasons she started the company. So she decided to increase the capacity of the workshop, which would provide more jobs for the local Tibetan and Indian community as well as ensuring that Eternal Creation's trademark high quality standards were maintained. In 2005, Eternal Creation opened the Himalaya Tailoring Centre in lower Dharamsala, and today is one of the largest private employers in the area. Eternal Creation products are sold in over 200 stores in Australia, Europe and Asia.

 Now usually I buy stunning clothes for the kids from Eternal Creation, but recently they offered a few of their overstocked fabrics for sale and once again the offer proved irresistible.  So here's what I grabbed from them...

So as hard as it might be to believe, I'm now well and truly all parcelled out!!