My most exciting news for today is that this evening Tom and I are going out to see Bonnie Prince Billy tonight. We've been fans of his music for a while now and so couldn't believe it when we saw posters for his gig go up around our tiny town! It appears he's only visiting tiny towns so there you go. (If only more artists would adopt this policy?!) I don't think I've really seen any live music since Arlo was born so I've very excited!

Since this is supposed to be a craft blog I thought I'd show you some of what I've been sewing this week. I finally got organised to make some boy's pants for my market stall which is tomorrow. I've been changing this pattern around a lot lately, trying to get the perfect fit. And I think the most pleasing thing about this pattern is: that the top part of them is big enough to fit cloth nappies (woohoo!) I really hate it when store-bought pants are too tight around this area on little babies- like they always expect you to use disposables. I've used quite a soft elastic which means most sizes fit Keira and other pre-one year olds as wide-legged pants, and Arlo and his friends as shorts. Long-lasting clothes have got to be a good thing, right?

The two pairs on the left were my first foray into fabric dying. Also possibly my last, as I really need to find out more about this and I didn't much like the chemically smell or mess involved with the little pots of dye I bought at Spotlight. But I admit it was really fun waiting to see how the fabric turned out and the different effects achieved by using different base coloured fabric. I used light blue pinwale corduroy and green dye to get the colour on the left. And the next ones along were made from calico which I dyed brown, but the colour was too orange-y so I dipped the fabric in a pot of green dye instead. I'm really into pseudo-tie dye at the moment, especially for kid's clothes. I love that uneven, patchy look. I think next week if there's time I will try and track down a woman in Nelson who makes natural crystal dyes. I used them a few times for dying my handspun wool but I haven't seen them around in a long time.

All the pants have appliqued patches on the bottom of one of the legs, and just below the waistband on the back too- one is of native toitoi bushes and the others are vegetables!  Let's hope I don't get anyone asking where the racing car and truck pants are!!