Today I shall be Mainly...

[Marilyn]

Sewing on my large dining table today, I lost a hand sewing needle. I had done a lot of tacking, and was immediately aware of the loss. I spent about an hour looking for it as I cleaned up mess while keeping an eye out...searching the floor and 8 chair seats. I shook every bit of fabric and gradually cleared the table ( folding my paper pattern carefully after shaking). Hubby appeared and helped....the last thing we took of the table was the sewing machine...and there it was! Darn needle had rolled out of sight almost underneath it. Phew! ( thought someone might get THAT one in the bum!)

[Stanley]

My mother once left a darning needle in a pair of John L's she was darning for my dad. He did a day in them without injury and found it when he took them off for bed....
Cooking got in the way of writing yesterday. It was another complicated article so I spent the time I had reading the research up. It wasn't displacement activity Sue! The series I am doing at the moment is very dense..... the research takes a lot of time absorbing the detail. Having to stick to 500 words is definitely a discipline.

[Stanley]

I wrote another complicated article yesterday and have another planned for today but housework and shopping might change this.... It never ends.....

[Sue]

Busy couple of days. Took my New Zealand cousin to Bingley and Cottingley to see our family heritage sites. It was thick misty rain, very WUTHERING HEIGHTS as we drove over the rain soaked moors at Howarth. Yesterday was a full day of art and writing, today is hairdressers, craft, early evening meal with friends before the U3A wine tasting evening.

[Stanley]

A friend of mine in Hebden Bridge used to refer to walking on the moors as "having a good wuther....". I like it.

[Stanley]

I've vacuumed, including the stairs, the kitchen floor has been mopped with black disinfectant because I like the smell.... That has buggered writing for the day but it needed to be done! I need a sit down now.....

[Stanley]

Hopefully another article!
Spanish Grand Prix quali at 19:30......

[Sue]

WE have been to a model engineering exhibition in Doncaster and the rest of the day I have been cutting out a dress for Briony as per a picture she drew for me. I am still working on a pattern for the hat!

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[Wendyf]

That looks like a challenge Sue!

[Marilyn]

That looks like it would be easier to cook than sew. A bit of meringue for the skirt.
What has she drawn it on? A bit of wood?

[Stanley]

I think it's time to buy Briony a sewing machine and a book on dressmaking.....
Wrote another article for the paper and I expect to do another today.

[Marilyn]

I would be keeping that drawing too, and hanging it in the sewing room as one of "Nanny's treasures". Priceless, is that.

[Sue]

That looks like it would be easier to cook than sew. A bit of meringue for the skirt.
What has she drawn it on? A bit of wood?

They were playing in the garden and painting on scraps of off cuts of wood of daddies. I have found a pattern for a tiered dress and bought some lilac patterned fabric. The bodice will be covered in lilac lace that I had and I will put some lilac tulle ( that I also had) on an underlining in lilac silk polyester. I will sew some sequins on the lace...oh yes the request was ‘just like strictly come dancing’! The hat will be a pattern for a sunhat made in the lilac flowered fabric and I shall make a fabric flower out of all fabrics. Job done! Many a sleepless night has been had with thought of putting the zip in with all these layers!

The dress is cut out. The sewing commences this afternoon. Yes Marilyn the drawing will be with my treasures plus a photo of the dress with Briony wearing it.

[Sue]

Oh yes the request is a little easier than the Cinderella dress she asked for when she asked for glass shoes too, ...’if you can please grandma! ‘

Briony at 7 loves glamour, her sister is sporty and wants nothing more than leggings and T shirts, with the occasional pretty top.

[Stanley]

Kids..... You can't beat them, best to surrender gracefully.

[Marilyn]

I worry that if I had been blessed with granddaughters, their dreams and desires may out-stretch my skills!
that would be disastrous for my soul...
Mind you, I would give it a decent try!

[Stanley]

They always do Maz. Include the daughters as well. I could never understand how they got to learn things in their teens that had taken me 40 years..... I came to the conclusion we had reared them too well and they were a lot smarter than us! (That includes my Great Grandson Alex....)
Aiming for a start on articles about the Monastic Grange in Barlick but I have to get all my ducks in a row first....

[Sue]

I worry that if I had been blessed with granddaughters, their dreams and desires may out-stretch my skills!
that would be disastrous for my soul...
Mind you, I would give it a decent try!

This one nearly has. I spent over 7 hours on this pattern but it just doesn’t go together as per the pattern. It works out over 10 cm longer than it should and looks all wrong. I have written to Butterick where the pattern was from, complaining and taken it all apart to doit my way today. At least the bodice has worked plus sequins, they took and hour and a half to sew on last night! The dress is far too heavy fora summer dress for a child. Who ever though 5.5 metres for a 7 year old was ok! At the waist there were 7 thicknesses of fabric, now how do you put a zip in that. The design is all wrong. Here is the bodice which I think she will love

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You can see the detail if you click on it and it turns it the right way. It is lining, then fabric, then lace and I have sewn the sequins in the centre of each flower in the lace

[Marilyn]

That is WONDERFUL.
the rest sounds like a nightmare to me. ( gawd...5.5 metres of fabric?! That's "wedding dress territory!)

[Sue]

Yes and it was nearly long enough for me ! Oh yes,I forgot, the pattern is described as easy!

[Stanley]

Sew an underskirt to the bodice and tell her it's a sophisticated top.....
Wrote two Grange articles yesterday. It's going well!

[Sue]

My Briony I am afraid is more discerning Stanley. However great progress was made yesterday. We have a dress attached to a bodice, fully lined , with two tiers. I have the zip to finish and the last tier with the tulle netting to assemble and attach. Then its hemming and its finished. Its the same basic dress just assembled with less fabric and in a simpler more logical way.

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Again, if you click on the picture it is the right way round

[Stanley]

That looks like a triumph to me! You are very skilful.....

[Sue]

Finished.

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[Wendyf]

Fit for a princess.