Mammy List 1: Labour

Lets be clear here, I'm a craft blogger. My blog is not concerned with politics, religion, the intricacies of my personal life, or anything deep or philosophical. It is my refuge from such things. Saying that, there are times when something that is so intertwined with my day-to-day life (blogging) and other major life events (having a baby) have to acknowledge each other's existence.
This is part of a series of blog posts I'm calling “The Mammy Lists”
It's a collection of things I've learned over the last 5 months, don't worry, I'm still a craft blog. Crafting is still happening and documentation of said crafting will resume soon!

Labour

1. In labour, go without pain relief or other interventions as long as possible. You're stronger than you think. You'll thank yourself afterwards.
2. The point of labour is to take home a healthy, happy baby. Remember that if things don't go to plan.
3. Things rarely go to plan.
4. An episciotomy is not the worst thing that can happen.
5. Before you give birth, find out about your local La Leche League group (or other local support groups)  just in case you choose to breastfeed.
6. Even if you don't want to breastfeed consider putting your baby to the breast after giving birth. It will help your womb to contract, speeding your recovery, as well as giving the baby your immunity to the bacteria in his/her new environment. and hey, you can still change your mind!
7. Trust your instincts.
8. Do some research beforehand, go to an antenatal classes and know about the different stages of labour.
9. When you get to the pushing stage. Try to push, hold the push to rest and then push again, instead of pushing, releasing the muscles and then pushing again (you will push several times in one contraction) A baby is kinda like toothpaste (bear with me here) if you release the muscle it gets sucked back in a little, making you work a lot harder.
10. If you've had bad period pains, that's what first stage labour feels like, yea it hurts, but you can deal with it. It's hard work They don't call it "Labour" for nothing. Its worth it.

feel free to leave your own tips in the comments!

KAWAII chubby bow bag

Wanna see something really cute?

I made this cute little shoulder bag out of a turtleneck jumper!! The lining is a pillowcase, and guess how much I paid for them?? NOTHING!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

I picked up both free from a car-boot seller who wanted to go home, the jumper was ruined because someone had tumble dried it, it was supposed to be size 10 but looked like it would only fit a 3 year old.

I used 3 different tutorials:

• Not Dabbling In Normal did a great tutorial on turning a sweater/jumper into a bag, ages and AGES ago my artsy friend Catie suggested the link to me on facebook.
• To line the bag I consulted Very Purple Person's reversible bag tutorial... clearly I didn't use the pattern... and it's a bit wasted because it's not a reversible bag... but it's a good way to line a bag.
• And oh-so-cute bow was crafted out of the turtle neck collar from the original jumper using the Parisienne bow technique which I fist discovered on Burdastyle, but now have etched into the back of my sewing brain.

This bag also includes a little embroidered tag so when I get famous whoever owns it will be able to sell it for lots of money :-)

but enough talk, more pictures!!!

x G

I don't know how I feel about this....

I'm in the middle of re purposing an old jumper and I unpicked the seam so I could use this tag in the final piece... then I noticed the 'cut here' dotted line, usually obscured in the seam allowance.

This just reminded me that it is a person who cut this, not a machine, not in the lovely relaxed atmosphere in which I sew, probably in rubbish conditions, probably all they do all day is snip labels to the right length. Would they give this job to the least skilled? a child? an illiterate woman? because of how simple it is...

... I should stop over thinking things....

... but you know, it gives more importance to what I do, upcycling clothing. How disrespectful would it be to throw these people's hard work in the bin just because of our whims of fashion..... The only thing that is worse than the conditions people work in to bring us inexpensive clothing is how it has distanced us from the work. So many of us consume fashion but most of us have no idea what goes into crafting a garment. It's such a shame.

x G