Rugrat Rodeos: Let Down

There are many types of Let Downs; letting myself down (by trying too hard) that makes me feel bad, but also more productive let downs that cheers me up...

My week has, and still is, being dominated by our looming School Carnivore. OK, I really MUST stop calling it that. It is our School Car-ni-val this weekend - A.K.A T O-bloody-MORROW!!

Today, I'm booked to bake. To donate. And I have to transport many boxes and items up to the school. I have to avoid donating anymore of my time..

I have to 'not' let down the home-team again since I dropped the ball on our Best Dressed Teddy entry. This little cutie was completely forgotten until after the deadline - because my brain was full and as a result fully functioning memory was not an option. She's a bunny not a teddy, but still, she may have won a prize... [I have to let it go].

So a super-quick post this week, riffing on my theme of this week - Let Downs.

So lets talk about Let Downs.. of the hemming kind.

Way back when She-Who-Worships-Pink hadn't yet discovered "the very best colour of all" we dressed her in primary colours and a lot of Denims. Two particular items, a pair of Gap Jeans and her Denim Overalls, I just loved to pieces.

But children do tend to grow and there's not a lot we can do about that. They're meant to. It's their job.

Fortunately for me, our little munchkin was shooting up rather than out, so I had a better chance of getting more life out of these old favourites:

Her beloved Gap jeans got the basic treatment first. Problem: the lovely embroidery put the kibosh on cutting them down for shorts. So I let down all the hem there was and treated the raw edge to a good zig-zagging before sewing some heavy duty ribbon over that. I gained about 4cms (just over one and a half inches).

I played on the colours of the existing embroidery to make it look like it was part of the design and camouflaged the fading, where the original hem had been, using some navy Ric Rac trim. The idea here was to disguise and add texture without making it look too busy.
These jeans were admired by many, and everyone who commented on them assumed the trim was part of the design. [smug grin].

The next wardrobe staple was a bit more difficult because these were so plain; no existing decoration to work with. It was love at first sight with these overalls (or dungarees/ coveralls depending on where you're from). They're breezy in summer with just a tee-shirt, or warm in winter with a jumper and all the while still protecting little knees from scrapes. I actually bought these in the boys department, but in the end they turned out looking quite girly.

As you can see I went to town on these with the Ric Rac. I added home made Gingham trim to extend the hem with ribbon and a little decorative kerchief sewed into the back pocket just for fun.

Here below shows the transition from the original (with turned up cuffs) to where I gained 5cms (2 inches) in length and we got another years wear out of them.

In contrast to all this laborious lengthening of hems, our bunny's school uniform (above), was made from a fabric off-cut from Pinkster's school uniform - so long was that hem.

I still think we could have taken a prize.. [get over it!]

Oh and to add insult to injury (if you can call missing your 'Best Dressed Teddy' entry deadline an injury - brain injury perhaps??) Well you know how I mentioned the baking stuff? I was supposed to produce a box of home-baked gingerbread cookies for the school to sell on the refreshment stand.

I used a recipe I've done a dozen times and still, STILL they came out burnt on the bottoms and under-cooked and crumbling on top. GAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!

Even the shape went horribly wrong; Using my footprint cookie cutter, they were supposed to be cute little feet with red-icing painted toenails. Instead they went all fat and bloated with tiny nubby toes...actually they look exactly like my own feet did in the latter stages of pregnancy (only with black burnt bottoms).

Oh, the shame.

I must except the fact that I am culinarily challenged and leave all things oven-related to my more competent peers.

Can I just say though, that I did ask for your advice/ vote in my last post; I said "show of hands - Bake or Buy???" I asked the question and no-one answered, so here I am smack back in Disasterville.

OK I forgive you, after all I didn't give you much notice.

So moving right along, in case you didn't already click the text just above, click the pic here to find out how I came to be in this sorry state. For any (many) other sorry states, follow the other links to the right of this post. Or a few choice ones below: