SAHM Guilt Overload

In a fit of what I can only think of as 'Stay At Home Mother Guilt' (as opposed to 'Working Mother Guilt' beautifully described by Maxabella recently), I got it into my head to help my kids have really good costumes for the bookweek character parade at school today. (That and my now-Year 7-er proclaiming a year ago that as it's his last year at primary school he really wanted to have a 'decent' costume for bookweek this year - looking back, we've cobbled together costumes from things in the house each year, and he doesn't have much to complain about, really. Must have caught me at a weak moment.)

I present to you Fantastic Mr Fox and The Mad Hatter.

So in the last 3 days I've made my first ever foam costume hat (a learning curve, I tell you), fur ears and a tail, and a suit jacket and pants out of half-priced mustard coloured faux-suede. Yum. Thank God for dear Annette stopping by and mentioning that her daughter had dressed up as the Mad Hatter just last week, so the rest of the outfit was borrowed from her (she has a doctorate in op-shopping, that girl!).

I blame all the lovely, encouraging comments on this blog, for raising my levels of self esteem and self-perceived-skill-levels ... I was actually at the stage of thinking I could pretty much sew anything! It was just a pattern after all... cut it out and sew it up!

But no, that jacket looks ok in this photo, and yes, it's only a costume - but dear God, how do you sew sleeves in well? These were a total mess. Ah, but the ears and tail, they were fun to make!

The kids were suitably appreciative (very sweet actually), had a great day, and now it's over I'm going to bed.

If you could see the massive pile of folding due to my sewing bender you'd be pretty impressed too. Oh yes you would! Guinness world records material.