cold snow and little sleep, Sunday, box, box, plans

It's very cold. We had some snow yesterday, but none today. We still have yesterday's batch, though, which is melting so so slowly that I still can't go out. I wanted to go swimming today, and then maybe try going to church at Leigh Sports Village. But getting there is too dangerous. And I have a cold, so mum reckons swimming isn't a good idea today. Maybe tomorrow, instead. Depending on the roads. This weather is so frustrating. Also I woke up this morning at 6:30 despite the fact that I'm not working today and intended to sleep until 8, instead. I fell asleep again around 7:30, and got up then at 11:30. So I'm feeling a little crabby - disturbed sleep and a waste of a morning makes me an irritated child.

On the plus side, it's Sunday, so I've enjoyed looking at the new Postsecrets. I thought it was a challenging selection this week - no truly definable journey or theme running through, but a strong balance that touched on lots of things. I also made my second fabric box last night, and I'm greatly pleased with it. I'd been pleased with the first one, don't get me wrong - but I knew there were problems with it. It was a bit saggy on the sides, and a bit thin. And the way of putting it together had made it impossible to match the inside and outside evenly, so the sewing had been messy in many places.

Here's the second box:

 I know, my photography skills are pretty poor, so it's rather fuzzy. But it's happier than the first one, no? I think the colours went together better, and I prefer them. I got very excited and added some decorative stitches. I had the top thread as white, and the bobbin as dark blue so there was the contrast where I stitched straight through both layers.

Can you see here how it stands up better?I considered using interfacing to achieve this, but I really needed quite a rigid, medium-weight interfacing and we barely had any at all, never mind of the right weight. So instead, I used a double layer of wadding in the middle, which helped a lot. If I did it again I would still use interfacing if possible, but this worked well to solve the problem and soothe my impatience. I also did everything in a different order. In the instructions they ironed the wadding onto one of the colours before it was sewn up at all, then sewed both colours' fronts and sides together and then sewed them to each other. Trying to sew with wadding makes seeing what you're doing really difficult, though, and this meant that on the green one the two colours ended up different sizes. So this time, I sewed the two colours' fronts and sides together, then pinned them and the wadding together to sew the top, making sure that seams matched and that the wadding was sized more precisely to each face of the box. And I used a more rigid card in the base, and used a layer of wadding on either side of it this time, instead of just on one side.

Overall I'm very happy with it. There are still mistakes, and bits that aren't great - but, considering I've never sewn anything where I've had to go round a 3D corner, it's not too shabby!

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the rest of my day. I could sew something, or I could knit. At least I could knit if I could remember what I did with my yarn. I have no clue where I've put it all. I guess supper needs thinking about, too... And I have letters to write. I sent day 3's letter of LetterMo to nanny college, and day 4's to E. Day 5's is to the wife, and I'm planning to send Day 6 to my sister.

Love love xx