I was actually banned from using sewing machines at senior school, as the result of breaking three in the course of two lessons. I still do not know how I managed it, certainly there was no deliberate attempt to do anything to them.

So I have had to sew everything by hand, purely because we had no machine at home, and no money to buy one (nor indeed repair it multiple times, I'm sure it would have needed that ).

I don't claim to be brilliant, but I can do the basics. And as my daughter's pre-school and school seem to enjoy having multiple occasions to get the kids dressed up in various outfits for little reason I can see, I spend quite a lot of time cobbling together various things for her to wear. Last Christmas, she had to dress as a 'child from Malawi' for the Christmas play. This involved sewing what seemed like a million 'leaves' (from various green and brown odd bits of material) onto the skirt of a dress that she had almost outgrown, and tie-dying a tshirt multiple colours, to wear over the top of the dress.

Secretly I love watching the kids plays, if only to see who has thrown up their hands in horror, and gone onto ebay/Amazon/wherever to buy clothes for their kids. Wicked of me!

I must say I'm appalled at the idea that one can buy ready made costumes for the Infants' Nativity Play. The home-made costumes are a large part of the charm, I think. And so simple that little if any sewing is needed.

Home made costumes are fine as long as you can manage although I agree bought costumes are not good. I suppose the best solution is to have very simple costumes that virtually anyone can manage with people on hand to assist in making if it is decided to have elaborate outfits.

Not everyone has the time.
Or skill.
And sometimes buying everything you would need actually costs more.

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Every life is both ordinary and extraordinary – it is the respective proportions of those two categories that make that life appear interesting or humdrum.
William Boyd//Any Human Heart

Charm is all very well but some people don't have the time and shouldn't be made to feel bad for buying ready made.

When I was a kid, my mother worked full time and was studying for her masters while also running the household. I can just imagine her face if I asked her to make me a costume on top of that.

I still remember when my teacher asked everyone to bring 'home made' biscuits for the school camp for morning and afternoon tea. The teacher stressed they MUST be home made.

Mum gave me store bought biscuits and we put them in a tupperware box and pretended we made them.

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It's fun to have fun, but you have to know how - Dr Seuss

My school had a set of costumes for things such as nativities, no home sewing required. And there was always the (probably culturally insensitive, now that I've actually met Middle Eastern people and seen their traditional clothing) tea towel and dressing gown option after that. My mother was able to make dresses and things, but she didn't work outside the home - it's perfectly understandable that parents who do wouldn't have time, even if they did have the skill.

I can sew on buttons, which has recently come in handy as I got an extra 10% off a dress recently because the button AND the spare button had both vanished - I have a tin of random buttons somewhere, something will fit, and I love the dress. (But who steals spare buttons off the dresses?!)

I've got photos of my entire primary school class wearing white sheets. It looks like a very easy costume to make, but very few people actually have plain white bedding, so I can't think where all the sheets came from! Maybe the school got a job lot of seconds very cheap .

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We really must stop eating like this ...

Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open.

http://setinthepast.wordpress.com/

Home-made costumes are a lot like cooking from scratch - they're simple to do (but do take time), *if* you have the skill and the equipment and materials. If you don't have a sewing machine, and know nothing about sewing it's going to take a lot of work and probably won't turn out well.

Ask a kid, though, I never had a situation where we had to provide a costume for a school or church performance. We generally didn't do costumed stuff at school, and the musical play we did in grade 7 had volunteer parents who did the costumes. For church pageants, the church had a set of angel/shepherd/king costumes in various sizes that got re-used. I did spend an evening making giant cardboard sheep once, but that was as the organizer.

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Ring the bells that still can ring; Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything; That's how the light gets in
Anthem: Leonard Cohen

Horrors, but I don't bake and never have with one or two exceptions. It has never particularly appealed.

A year last Christmas I was attending tai chi classes and the instructor asked everyone to bring something homemade in the cake line for the last class before Christmas. I asked would it be ok to bring crisps or similar and the answer was "no" - that was not in the spirit.

Now this is all very well but what is easy for some people is not for others. Besides, I am diabetic. I was going to buy a cake or something but my niece made one which I took along. I did not pretend it was my baking.

I can sew from scratch and used to make the odd things for my children when they were smaller (plus matching outfit for teddies), but I also work a busy job, and the thought of putting all that time, effort (and expense) to make an outfit every time one's asked for would see me making a new outfit every fortnight. The best investment I ever made was two outfits for about £6 each from Amazon. The 'Ragged Boy' covered Victorian Day, a shepherd and book day (Oliver Twist) all in the space of 3 weeks. The 'Victorian Scullery Maid' outfit has also done Victorian Day, book day (Hetty Feather) and 150 years of our town day. My lowest point was 'Roald Dahl day' when I sent my son as a farmer from Fantastic Mr Fox (Wellies and the cloth cap from the 'ragged boy' outfit)....

If Irma's married name is von Rothenfels, presumably she's related to Paula, but this doesn't seem to get a mention. Is this just EBD forgetting she'd already used that surname?

Just re read Future for the first time in quite a while, always strikes me as odd, that Aunt Amabel wont allow Melanie to stay at St Katherines, as she promised her parents she would look after her, and how could she possibly do that if Melanie was in another country. Yet is happy to allow Melanie to go to Austria with virtual strangers. I know Austria is nearer to Switzerland than the uk, but!!

I find that whole storyline weird. It's very hypocritical of Joey to guilt-trip the triplets, who hardly see Steve and Charles and don't get to spend that much time with the rest of the family, over taking a complete stranger along - when she was quite happy for the Maranis to ask Juliet to stay with them so that she and Madge could have some family time. And, from Melanie's viewpoint, being sent on holiday with a very big family of complete strangers sounds like a nightmare. And, as you say, Melanie didn't even know the Maynards, and all Aunt Amabel knew about them was that they were Winnie Embury's friends.

_________________
We really must stop eating like this ...

Minds are like parachutes - they only function when open.

http://setinthepast.wordpress.com/

The school part makes sense for me - Switzerland to England requires multiple trains and a boat, but Melanie at the CS is much closer. Austria with complete strangers is, as you say, a lot more random.

I do feel sorry for the triplets at the beginning of the book. It's clear that what they really want is a family vacation with no visitors or random adoptions to look after. The previous summer, their brothers were sent away for a good portion of the summer, and their parents were distracted by the Richardson's situation, and this summer, the girls have to look after a strange girl who causes problems when she goes off in a jealous snit. And vacations are the only time that the whole family is together. But they also know that they're not allowed to want a family only vacation. I think it's particularly hard on Len, because she's the one that's going to be expected to be responsible for Melanie, and blamed if she gets in trouble.

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Ring the bells that still can ring; Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything; That's how the light gets in
Anthem: Leonard Cohen