Like lots of folk who sew and do other crafty things, I have a LOT of fabric and patterns lurking – oh and wool from the days of machine knitting (must drag the machine in from the garage and see if it still works). Then there’s all the clothes that might offer up useful bits and bobs and, yup, covers from the suite we replaced last year, just in case….you know…..

So the new life HAS to include a lot of making! I did a couple of years of tailoring at evening classes quite a while back and I’ve missed making things that are a bit different and fit my weirdly shaped body! Must be time to escape from the incredibly dull stuff designers seem to think we want to wear!

I tried my hand at posh glueing and sticking a few months ago – decoupage – and am really keen to attack the furniture with mod podge and paper! Husband’s horrified so not too sure what I can transform first.

Late December, 2020

And I’ve started to tackle the 20 year old sofa cover! I’ve always been surprised when you see things made from recycled fabric how expensive they tend to be – but the cost of lining, interlining, threads, fasteners, etc add up fast – and it takes a surprising amount of time to work out what fabric can be used and how.

The Tote Bag really didn’t want to be made! From using the wrong sort of interfacing (when I started to iron it on it behaved VERY oddly and turned out to be the water soluble type you use for embroidering on velvet and fleece), to the sewing machine misbehaving for about an hour, to doing the corners at the bottom wrong (yes I know I should have gone back and looked at the how-to vides on You tube), to it being too long (didn’t use a pattern either).

The two most important things I learnt at tailoring classes were to take things a step at a time and that fabric can take a surprising amount of punishment – you can win through in the end! Yay!! Although it’s a bit wonky!