I like making things: September 2020

Saturday, September 26, 2020

Finally finished the baby hoodie

A different font today, nice to have the options.

I finished the baby hoodie, finally, and it has been passed onto my neighbour's grandson for their new baby. They thought it was lovely. I said I thought it might be too big but the grandson said that at the rate the baby was growing he would soon be too big for it. I hope he gets some wear out of it.

Monday, September 21, 2020

What a lotta fonts

One of the blogs I read said they were trying different fonts.

I thought I would try the one she used but when I went to find it I found a gazillion different ones.

Such joy!

I am easily pleased, what can I say?

Saturday, September 5, 2020

A great bargain and photos of my revamped sewing room

I have been ordering my groceries online for quite a while and this week when I went to pick up my order I needed to go in to go to the optical shop to get my glasses adjusted.

I saw they had some summer clothes on sale so I took a look. The store wasn't crowded and almost everyone was wearing a mask so I didn't think it was too risky.

I found 2 skirts that had been reduced from $18 each to $3 each. It would have probably cost at least that to purchase the buttons on them so it was a no brainer. They jumped right into the shopping trolley.

One is shown here and the other is black with fine stripes.

They were both a little on the large size waist wise so I put some elastic through the waist bands and they fit perfectly with plenty of gather.

My sewing room now looks like this:-

We have our own little brew station set up in here to make tea and coffee. My crafting/cut out table is now free and clear of manuscripts. The two skirts were on it waiting to have the elastic sewn into the waist. My knitting machines sit underneath and can be set up on the craft table when I go into one of my knitting machine phases.

You can see my husband's studio/office through the door in the picture above.

The treadle machine was under the window previously, where the organ now sits. The pathway is between the organ and the treadle machine but as I only ever play the organ when I am alone (as I am not good at all) my husband walking through is no longer a problem. I can sit in my little enclave and sew to my heart's content without disturbance on whatever machine I choose.

Oh such bliss!!!

I really am quite child like when it comes to my sewing and knitting machines. I just love to play!

Thursday, September 3, 2020

Re-arranging my sewing room

As my knee is so much better now I am way more active. The hot weather has kept me inside more than I would like but I can't do the heat and humidity very well so I am better off indoors. Hopefully the cooling down will start soon.

My husband had (with my approval) moved a lot of his stuff into my sewing room in a bid to sort out his office/studio. He is not the tidiest person in the world and he always seem to be in the midst of a crisis of some sort. The latest being his Mac computer and hard drive issues. This has lasted a month but thankfully it seems to be settling down now. But I digress, he had a lot of his manuscripts scattered over my working table and had set up a computer on my desk.

I needed to work on my treadle sewing machine as last time I used it it was not stitching properly. Well, I was working away and he needed to get past me to go to the bathroom. (His office is a room off my sewing room and he needs to walk through my room to get to the bathroom).

The way my room was set out meant that I had to get up to let him past. I thought this was not really a good arrangement so I decided to revamp my sewing room.

I moved my work table to be at right angles to my desk and I moved my treadle machine at right angles to the work table. I moved my other sewing cabinet to right angles at my desk on the other side and my office chair sits right in the middle and I can get to my table, my treadle machine, my sewing machine cabinet and the desk without having to get up. There is a space for me to get into my little enclave and the route through my room to the bathroom is free for my husband to pass back and forth as often as he wants without disturbing me.

I cleared some shelves for all his manuscripts so they are off my work table and the leaves on my sewing cabinet can now open fully for me to sew. Before I just used to sit the sewing machine on top without opening up the leaves of it as there was not room to do that.

I am a happy camper now and I worked on my treadle machine and got it stitching correctly again.

That coupled with some new glasses, well overdue as I had been wearing the same pair for 10 years, has cheered me up.

Still working on getting my husband's health issued sorted. We saw his new primary care physician last week and she is young and dynamic. She is getting him a ct scan done on the area in his chest where he has a port implanted as he has been having a lot of pain in the area. Once we know for sure his port is OK she will pursue his neurologist about getting him some treatment asap. He needs the port to be functional to administer the infusions or plasmatheresis.

Pictures to follow in the next blog.

Glad you stopped by

I started this blog in 2011: Ever since my Mum taught me to knit at the age of about six or seven I have made things. Back then it was doll clothes. I was also inspired by Mrs Levitt an elderly lady who had a sewing room in a conservatory type room on the back of her house. I would sit and watch her in awe as she sewed.

When I was a child living in England the school system was such that you started at 5 years, did two years in Infant School, then four years in Primary School then five to seven years in Secondary School, depending on whether you chose to stay on after fifth form to get qualifications to go to University. I can't remember much of the Infant school other than making the standard square doily thingy from fabric that had holes in it so you could embroider patterns into it. A bit like the modern day cross stitch fabric but with bigger holes and spaces to make it easy for small hands to use. I also remember with great joy getting a toy sewing machine one Christmas which sewed only chain stitch but I did make doll clothes on it and that was before I started Primary school. I do have very vivid recollections of Primary school and having sewing and knitting lessons. In Primary school I knitted gloves and made a dress from scratch hand sewing it all.

Secondary school continued on with sewing by which time I had progressed to using full sized sewing machines and was making more intricate skirts and dresses. My parents bought me a proper sewing machine when I was thirteen. I used that same machine right up until I emigrated to Canada at age forty six years.

I have always had a fascination for sewing machines and knitting machines. I bought my first knitting machine at around age twenty one from an ad in a newspaper for twelve pounds. I had absolutely no idea what one was just that I wanted one. I trundled on the bus to the address in the advert and handed over my twelve pounds having absolutely no idea what I had really bought. Fortunately it came with a manual. It was an aged Knitmaster, very basic and I loved it. I wore it out. Next was a Brother push button one which I didn't keep because it was at a time in my life when things were difficult. Later on in my life, around forty, when things were better I bought a brand new Brother punchard machine with a ribber attachment. I loved it and made many things. Life took a different turn, I moved countries twice and along the way, regrettably I sold it.

Now, through the universe's blessing I now have another machine. It is a vintage one because they stopped making them early 90's but works perfectly and I love it. So I decided to make this blog to document my knitting progress and include sewing projects.

In 2013: we embarked on a new hobby, leather-work. My husband got started with it and it drew me in. It is something we can do together. We have a workshop so have plenty of room to work. We added another workbench for me to work on in 2013. We already had one but we were tripping over each other both trying to work at it. We only make things we want to make. It is strictly a hobby. We made some things for our good neighbours who help us out a lot. I am also working on Christmas presents. So this blog now incorporates the leather-work. Knitting and sewing will always be my first love though.

Fast forward to 2023 and now age almost 75 years. I have seven sewing machines, four knitting machines, several ribber attachments and a garter carriage for one of the machines. I am blessed beyond words, but I know that I have more than enough machines to keep me going in my lifetime so I don’t think I will be adding to my collection any time soon……….unless a nice embroidery machine manifests itself very cheaply.

I am a Brit living in the USA, sometimes I spell like a Brit and sometimes like an American. Sometimes I use slang and even make grammatical errors. I blog for the pleasure of it and to record my endeavours in the event that my memory fades, as I am sure it will with more age. I will be able to look back and remind myself of the things I have made along the way. So please forgive my mistakes when reading about my life making things here in the hinterlands and I hope you get as much enjoyment from my blog as I do from reading the blogs I follow.

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