Thinking bags...

Go Outdoors! called a few days back, agreeing completely that my tent did indeed have a three foot gash in the built in ground sheet and that this damage probably happened before it left the factory. I headed over on Friday night after work and picked up a replacement and fingers crossed that this time, it's as it should be.

Now we just have to find time to do a test pitch and this time, inspect it thoroughly!

I bought a couple of new books this week, Making Handbags and Chic Bags, both bought from The Book Depository. My thought was to have a go at making bags, since it would keep my sewing hand in but each bag should be relatively quick to make. Of course I hadn't reckoned on how hard it would be to find suitable supplies in Coventry.

I flicked through Making Handbags, which is a fairly basic book compared to Chic Bags (which has some very, very nice bags in it) covering basic bag designs - namely the tote, the clutch, the drawstring and the beach bag - and variations on each. I'd decided to have a go at making a basic drawstring bag, which is not disimilar to a tote, but with gromits set into the top and finished off with a clip on strap.

Sadly it was not to be.

I found some upholstery fabric offcuts I liked without difficulty after sticking my head into Busy Fingers in town. I rather fell of the wagon there, buying fabric, despite the fact that I've probably got suitable fabric in my stash, but it was pretty... And I justified the purchase after Dave commented that the fabric would make excellent breeches, so it has a secondary purpose already.

Then I walked up to Hobbycraft, thinking I'd pick up some grommits and either dog leash clips (as the book describes them) or key ring split rings. This is where I was thwarted. Hobbycraft had 8mm grommits which are possibly too small but no starter kits or die sets, to fit them. The 11mm grommits, were sold in starter kits but it was a case of you can have any colour you like, so long as it's black. Clips and keyring split rings were not to be found.

After scouring the store, I sought out a shop assistant... who proceeded to patronise me and act in a generally terse and aggressive fashion. She did try to help I suppose, but only after I stopped acting like I knew what I was talking about and apologised for expecting her to do her job.

I left the store without buying anything at all, which demonstrates just how frustrated and generally demoralised I felt by the time this woman was done with me.

So, no gromits and no clips which means I'll need to hunt down the required bits online.

On the plus side, we popped over to see Esther and family yesterday for a natter. I got to hold the latest addition and received some tips for the kind of store to search for. So far, the places which seem promising are Corsetry Suppliers (a store I already use here), leather working suppliers, saddlers and pet shops. I did look at online chandlers, who sell all manner of interesting clips but nothing quite like I was looking for. Bead shops sell lots of other things I'd like to buy and are very tempting, so I'm going to have to return for a second look. And of course, camping suppliers...

I did find out the proper name for a dog leash clip is a trigger hook - which helps no end when trying to do a search.

And now for a very important announcement

In the interests of finding a palatable alternative to my current favourite tea (and yes, tea has finally made it onto my blog) in order to stave off the fear that Morrisons (the only place in Coventry that I can find it) will stop stocking it, I decided to give Twinings Everyday Tea a try. Mostly for Richard's benefit this, but I can report that I have decided I like this tea. It's still not my favourite, but it is on a par with Tetley's normal tea, so it's mild, inoffensive and refreshing but without the kick found in standard breakfast teas.

In other words, just like a lot of the Twinings range, it gets my thumbs up.

And now that I've covered the vitally important subject of tea, onto creative pursuits.

Last weekend was very sewing orientated as I settled down to start making Dave a new costume for Shards. Friday night I drafted a pattern for a new robe and then drew straight onto the fabric, since I was running very short on time and it is quite a simple garment. Some time later, after much pain from my knee, bloodshed from Dave - who pinned one piece when I had to get up from the floor for a minute - and some wielding of scissors and I had all the pieces cut out.

Saturday afternoon I edged them, since experience has taught me it's a lot easier to edge fabric *before* it's sewn up than after. Edging is of course boring and tedious, but absolutely necessary since this robe will not be lined, is made from cotton which will fray if I don't take steps to prevent it and is going to be subject to significant wear and tear... LARP is incredibly hard on costume and of course, the robe needs to be able to survive the washing machine.

Sunday I sewed all the pieces together. I even set the sleeves and attached the collar, much to my amazement at my own efficiency. Over the last two nights I've continued with the hand finishing bits, namely I closed the collar by hand and I've oversewn the side seams using a matress stitch to make the gores sit right.

Alas, no photo's yet as it was quite late when I finished last night and I need to get Dave to pose whilst wearing it for me, but I will get some taken soon-ish.

Tonight I'm intending to leave Dave with a pile of ironing, in the form of the cotton for his cyclas. I've washed it and dried it, but he's been studiously ignoring it for the past few days. Since I intend to start on the pattern for that one tomorrow night, I think it's down to him to finish prepping the fabric so I can get started ASAP.

In other news, in an effort to earn brownie points Dave bought me a selection of jewelry pliers at Hobbycraft. Apparently they have sets of them half price at the moment, so those who like to make wired jewelry or stitchmarkers, take note.

And finally, I finished my second attempt at a washcloth (of which I do have a picture).


While its the same diagonally knit square as last time, taken from One Skien Wonders, this time I've crocheted a Picot stle edge, taken from Knitting Loves Crochet.

The last time I tried to crochet around some knitting, the crochet was too tight and forced the washcloth to curl up around the edges. To overcome this, rather than fighting my naturally tight crochet - a battle I'll leave for later methinks - I used the next size up hook, i.e. a 4.5mm rather than a 4mm and this time it worked well. I'm quite pleased with the way its turned out and envisage making many more...

As always, click on the photo to see a bigger version.

As I sit here shivering...

A couple of weeks after moving from my sub tropical office, in which the temperature rarely dropped below 28C, I have now decided I hate air conditioning. Or rather, I have a strong dislike for aircon which is set to an inhumanly low temperature, blows fiercely, has no obvious temperature or direction controls and the only way to deal with it's bitterly cold enslaught is to use a very long stick to close the vent immediately in front of my desk. Sadly, the vent reopens itself as soon as my back is turned and I am engaged in a never ending battle to try to stop myself from being chilled to the bone.

A complaint has been registered (the maintenance guys are coming to rue the day I moved) and even though a guy from the environmental office showed up and played with the controls for an hour, he could not stop the offending vent from blasting freezing cold air at my desk hour after hour as I try to work. I suspect there is nothing for it and I will be forced to bring a cardi and gloves into work to combat the cold.

The cotton I ordered from Chawla's showed up yesterday afternoon, so top marks to them for service and delivery. I ordered on Sunday afternoon, so three working days - including Monday as the day they processed the order - is not bad at all. The fabric itself is as advertised and I forsee much sewing in my near future. So much sewing and so little time, which means I've warned Dave he might need to lend a hand. It is for him after all!

I headed off to Knitwits last night, but didn't make much progress on the scarf I'm working on as I didn't seem to be able to concentrate. I kept making mistakes, loosing count and having to unknit stitches which was proving frustrating.

I'm going to put it down to where I was sitting; the accoustics seemed to be making everything echo and very loud so it felt as if I was being overwhelmed by noise which crept up on me as the evening pressed on. I've been sat on that side of the room before and the noise has never been a problem in the past so I'm not sure what was going on there. Perhaps I was feeling more sensitive to it? Or they moved something in the room? Wierd really.

Right, I'm off to find a long stick. I have an aircon vent to prod.

The dangers of Hobbycraft

Today I popped into Hobbycraft to buy some cotton tape. It was a genuine errand, because the bump is growing and I'm starting to pull out the layers to the side and top, meaning it will soon be done. Only, now it is so much bigger it's going to need an extra strap to give it a bit more support under the bust and one inch cotton tape will do the trick nicely.

So off I drove to Hobbycraft, because I didn't really want to head into Coventry and more specifically the market just for cotton tape.

Sadly, Hobbycraft did not have any cotton tape, either carded or on a reel. Obviously, I had to search the store - just in case - to make sure they hadn't hidden it anywhere else. Of course, I totally forgot the inherent danger in searching a store such as Hobbycraft.

I came away with a pair of bent cable needles, which I'm going to need if I put my newly taught ability to knit cables to use. Seven different satin bias bindings, all very pretty. Some buttons, also pretty. A knitting needle bag. Oh and some angora yarn... OK quite a bit of angora yarn which just looked too fluffy and soft and in colours I liked, that I bought it. Which of course means I'm going to have to knit more scarves. I can see what everyone is going to get for Christmas this year!

I blame work. It's been a hard week since I've had to move office, which entailed packing up a whole lot of stuff and throwing even more stuff away since I was moving to a cubicle. Then I persuaded my (nice) boss into helping me carry everything to a van so we could drive it a mile up the road and then unload it again. On arrival, the lift ate my chair. It's still in there three days later, nice and securely locked in a steel cage that appears to be stuck six inches up from floor level. Hopefully, someone will arrive some day soon to release it...

Hence, after the week I've had, I probably should have avoided Hobbycraft which is packed full of goodies. At least I didn't make it onto the mezzanine, or I'd have acquired books and beads and tools and numerous other goodies.

Now, all I have to do is see if Dave can be persuaded to go into Coventry market for me, after all I do still need that cotton tape...

A quiet weekend doing not much at all

Another weekend gone and it's been a quiet one. I called in sick on Thursday and Friday, so I could rest up after visiting my consultant. He injected my poor knee again and having suffered badly last time, I did exactly what he said afterwards, staying off the leg and elavating it. Five days on and so far so good, I'd go so far as to say I haven't felt this pain free in months! Of course, I'm back at work now and after sitting at a desk for hours on end and facing stairs on a regular basis the familiar burning sensation is starting up again, so I'm not sure how well it's going to last...

Staying home for a couple of days, I reacquainted myself with daytime TV, a dismal, depressing experience if ever there was one. The number of life insurance ads was frightening, with mature actors - all of them household names - inviting me to put money aside to help towards funeral costs every ten minutes... In the end, I put a DVD on before I lost the will to live.

I have done some sewing this weekend, working on a jacket which I made up last week. I set the sleeves and hand sewed much bias binding, both of which could be done sitting down without too much running around. I'm not done yet as I need to set the frogs on the front as my chosen fastenings and I'm toying with adding ties of some sort to the side panels, both for decorative purposes and to cinch it in. Photographs and a more thorough description will be along in due course.

In the meantime, I finished off the spike stitch scarf on Wednesday but just haven't had an opportunity to upload any photos. Better late than never though, so here it is.



Spike stitch is of course a crochet stitch and my scarf is based on this pattern. It's worked in alternating double and treble crochet (or single and double if like me you read American patterns) with the treble stitch spiked in every second row and as you can see was very effective.

I took it along to Knitwits on Wednesday and Kellie said they really needed to get me off scarves. Now, I like making scarves and at the moment, I'm not looking to be challenged overly, but I do get the point. I think I'd like to have a go at something else now, just for a change... Then I can do another scarf.

So, the search is on. What to make?

Finally, a purpose for scrap

It's with some degree of surprise that I have to admit that I've been making costume for over five years now. Never one to be daunted by a challenge, my first project was a full length semi-fitted coat. It was made of thick coating and lined with linen, which was very prone to fraying and creased if you looked at it. Over the years, I've progressed from those tentative days when I consulted with Esther (who has oodles and oodles costuming experience) over every stitch and these days she's only likely to receive a panicked call if I'm really, really stuck - something I'm sure she's eternally grateful for.

The point of this nostalgic trip down memory lane may not be obvious, but in those five years of sewing costume I've accumulated a lot of scrap fabric. At first, I used to save all of the scraps as I cut, putting them aside, not sure what I'd do with them but reluctant to just throw them away. As the months turned into years and the project count increased, so my scrap mountain grew and grew and grew...

Now, I no longer keep every scrap but I do keep those fragments which I think may be large enough to do something, anything with. Unfortunately, despite my long standing intention to give crazy quilting a go, those scraps still pile up and I never have got around to making anything from them.

Until now that is. I finally found something I can make which uses scrap fabric and here it is!




This is an 'Acorn Hat' taken from The Medieval Tailor's Assistant and it is made entirely of fabric taken from my scrap mountain. The outer shell is grey wool and I've lined it in calico, with four pieces of each sewn together to form the hat shape. I used an even tinier piece of scrap from cutting out these pieces to make a stalk and I'm pretty pleased with the result. In fact, I'm so pleased I may well have to make some more which may end up being donated as kit to Andy.



Before I make any more examples of this little hat, I think I may need a rotary cutter to speed things along. Cutting out the eight pieces of fabric which sew together to make this hat took as long, if not longer than making it up. With this in mind, I dropped by the Singer shop in Coventry on Saturday morning to try to purchase one.

The obvious mistake there was assuming that the ladies who work in Coventry's Singer shop would be more helpful than they usually are. Instead, the conversation went something like...

Sales Lady #1: Can I help you?
Me: Yes, I hope so. I was wondering if you sell rotary cutters?
Sales Lady #1: *Puzzled* A what?
Me: A rotary cutter? It's sort of like a pizza cutter but for fabric and you use it to cut out shapes.
Sales Lady #1: *Shaking head* Never heard of a...'rotary cutter'? Is that what you called it?
Sales Lady #2: *Coming over* Is there a problem?
Sales Lady #1: This lady is looking for something called a 'rotary cutter'.
Sales Lady #2: Oh, a rotary cutter. *laughs* No one uses them any more, so there is no call for them and no one makes them. Sorry.
Me: *Blinking in surprise* Pardon? I think you'll find they get used quite a lot by quilt makers.
Sales Lady #2: Oh no one bothers to make quilts anymore, so as I said, no call for them.

I refrained from commenting further and put this down in the list of bemusing conversations I've either had or overheard in the Singer shop. If it were not for the sewing work they take in and their sewing machine sales, I really don't think this shop would stay in business. My worry is that sometimes they give this kind of advice or information to customers who don't know better. No one makes quilts? Have they checked the craft section of a book stores? Or the magazine rack? Or looked online?

Mesmerising...

I just came across this graphic illustrating how a bobbin catches the thread in a sewing machine, forming the bottom stitch and locking it in place with the top thread.

It's absolutely fascinating to watch and after a few rotations its obvious why timing is so important in a sewing machine. If either the needle or the bobbin is just a tiny fraction of a second out of sync you can see why this would go horribly, horribly wrong.

My question now is how does it work with oscilating rather than rotating bobbins such as you see on most side loading machines?