There are two situations I have found where I seem to have a wildly misplaced sense of self-confidence. The first is when driving somewhere, especially somewhere I haven’t been before. After all, who needs maps, sat nav or a route planner? We have road signs, right?! I must admit, I’m better at forward planning now but I remember when I was at Uni (back in the dim and distant past!) when I would just set off on a journey and wing it!

The second is sewing. When I was at school I learned the basics and made the obligatory skirt and laundry bag. However, I seem to remember having a slight fear of the sewing machine then and I don’t think I was terribly good at sewing in a straight line. Last year I bought myself a cheap machine, later to be replaced by a very swish one that my parents-in-law got me for my birthday, and now I am *obviously* able to sew anything. I’m not quite sure how I went from being scared of a sewing machine to convincing myself that I am now the sewing queen and can make whatever I want without a pattern, but there we go!

So a couple of weeks ago, when dropping Faith off at Nursery on the Wednesday and discovering that it was World Book Day on the Thursday, it will come as no surprise to you that I thought, “Hey, no probs, I’ll just knock up a quick costume. She already has a red fleece so I’ll quickly sew a fleecy pair of trousers and a hat with ears and she can be Winnie The Pooh!”

Now, I’ve never made a pair of trousers before and this whole experience has taught me you don’t just ‘knock up a pair of trousers’ when you are lacking in actual sewing skills. Misplaced self-confidence alone is not enough to see you through! I can also share with you that simply folding an existing pair of trousers in half and cutting round them is not the ideal way to go. After being so proud of myself remembering that trousers need to have a crotch, I forgot they also need a waist! Those of you who follow me on Twitter will have laughed at my progress.

So I was up until midnight sewing, Faith had a poorly sewn pair of trousers, a hat that was far too small and had crooked ears, and after all the blood, sweat and tears, she was the only one in her room who dressed up!