The moment of truth

Whew. It fits!

There is a reason it looks a bit rumpled. I didn't have time to wash it before the rehearsal (it needs washing to get rid of the remaining traces of blue dressmaker's chalk), so our Alice will need to wash it next time she's doing a batch of whites, and therefore there wasn't really a lot of point in pressing it. But it works. I was a tiny bit worried about it because (like most sewing patterns from companies like Butterick) it's drafted for a B cup, and Alice here is a D, so I had to fit to the bust and I feared it might consequently be a bit loose at the waist. Well, it is, but not horribly so; and in any case she is supposed to look like a little girl, so it's not a bad thing that the pinafore is making her look a bit flatter than she really is. Our pastor's wife says there's some spare fabric left over from cutting out the dress, so I might turn a bit of that into a self belt, just so the dress cinches properly, because I'm not 100% convinced that the pinafore will do it on its own. But, considering I had to make an educated guess for the length (as you see, it has an empire waist, which complicates matters a bit... and, though the nominal position of the waist is marked on the pattern, it may or may not be where Alice's waist actually is), I'm delighted with that. It's absolutely bang on.

Meanwhile, the Mad Hatter has found a hat from somewhere that is much better than any of the ones I was checking out on eBay; the Caterpillar no longer requires a duvet cover, because she's got a pale blue furry two-piece (I have no idea if it's supposed to be winter pyjamas or quite what, but it works excellently well for the part); and, even more astonishingly, the Cheshire Cat turned up to the last rehearsal with a stripy pink and orange costume, complete with tail, plus a hood with the ears on. It is truly amazing what's out there.

I was hoping to make a start on the petticoat this week, and I still might, but it's been a bit crazy. The Etsy saga is still ongoing. On Wednesday I got an e-mail from them saying "we've noticed you still have a support ticket open, is the issue resolved?" To which I had to reply, "no, please resolve it - I did what you asked me to do and I've been waiting to hear back from you since then. I thought you were talking to my bank." Just to make sure, I attached the ID pictures yet again. So the following day I got another e-mail saying "oh dear, it looks as if you've encountered a bug in our system - we know about this and our engineers are currently trying to solve it, so I'm passing all the information in this ticket on to them in the hope that it helps them." To which I replied "good, because I'm finding all of this quite stressful, so I'd like to be as much help as I can fixing this bug so that nobody else has to deal with it, and incidentally do you have any idea when you're going to be able to verify my identity so I can open the shop?" And then I offered to connect them with my pastor, my local GP surgery, and - if absolutely necessary - my MP, should they need any further proof of who I am. I hope they don't feel the need to contact the MP. He knows who I am all right, but he's ridiculously busy, quite largely because his predecessor never did anything, so he really had to hit the ground running to deal with the backlog.

And then there's a trip to Haddenham in the offing, so I'm also trying to pull all the pieces into place for that. Haddenham is near here, and it is where Spoilt Rotten are based; they offer individual slots to visit their warehouse in person, which I very much want to do because, as is the nature of online photos, they don't always do the beads justice. I think I mentioned that they substituted some sparkle grey beads in a recent order, and I liked what they sent so much that I've been using them a lot and have just needed to order some more. I tracked down the reference number on the site and was astonished. I'd never have bought them from the photo; anything that is called one colour and looks a completely different one is an automatic no-no, and in the photo these looked purple. A darkish purple, at that. In fact they're a really nice light silver grey. So I would like to get a look at the beads, but I can't get there on my own, which is where Enthusiastic Homeschool Mum and the younger of her two boys come in.

This little boy - we'll call him Hezekiah, which is not his name, but I feel it's only a matter of time before some infant in the church gets landed with that one - is just ten years old; he and his brother did the netting class at Easter, at which point he was only nine and not quite ready, but he is very good at making jewellery. (In fact, like me, he specialises in earrings; but we're not in competition, because what we make is very different. His earrings are undoubtedly cute, but they're also small, quick to make, and cheap. Mine are large and complex. They're aimed at very different tastes.) And Hezekiah would love to go and look at beads, and for that matter jewellery findings; so I've offered to get him some beads in exchange for his mother giving us a lift over there, and then it's win-win. Everyone is very enthusiastic, and Spoilt Rotten couldn't be more helpful (the warehouse is on two floors, but they're more than happy to bring anything I want to look at down from the first floor so I can see it, since I'll be in the wheelchair), but trying to sort out the timing is a bit of a nightmare.

So maybe I'll get to make a start on the petticoat today, but we shall see how that goes. And very soon I also need to start a baby jumper, because I have just finished the latest pair of socks and we have yet another baby due in July, and the proud mother has requested a cotton jumper now rather than a warmer one in a larger size in the autumn. Fine by me. By the autumn we'll probably have six more babies lining up to be born anyway.

Oh, and there may or may not be an entry on Wednesday, because it's my birthday party. Yes, I know. My birthday was at the beginning of April. It's just that trying to get everyone together, even on Zoom (necessary as people will be in various different places, including France and, in one case, Toronto) has been impossible. It's still impossible; I thought I had everyone, and then Porthos said he couldn't do it because he would be on holiday, which is a great blow but I daren't try to move it again. I've been trying to get this sorted out for nearly three months now.

I realise I sound a little frazzed at the moment... could this be because, in fact, I am a little frazzed?