Sewing - the journey so far

This whole journey started when I realised it will be thirty years this year since my mum passed away.  She to me was the epitome of sewing.  My goodness she could have taught Esme and Patrick a thing or two. She was born in 1935 so was a 1950's women.  She was only little well under 5ft and the suits and dresses she had made all of which had a handbag and shoes to match. Then she had us four girls so her attentions turned to making outfits for us more than herself, although in the 1970's Dinner & Dances were a big thing. She always made her dresses which usually had to be full length so not something she could have bought off the peg with being so short, she always joked that the amount she would have to take off the bottom would make an outfit for one of us, but her dresses were stunning and to us she was always the belle of the ball.  

I had been having this conversation with a lady at our crafting group who is also a very accomplished sewer and can turn her hand to anything.  She is currently making scrubs for the medics. I was telling her how I had learned to use a machine at school but it was one of those with a handle. She was telling me she had one in her loft if ever I fancied having ago with it for old time sake.  I decided  I would quite fancy having a go. After all if I have to turn a handle I could keep control of the speed and what could possibly go wrong. 

On the day I went to collect it she asked me whether I wanted to take the vintage machine or whether I would like to go straight for an electric sewing machine.  I think she could see the horror on my face of all the what ifs especially the old god what if I break it face. Anyway she reassured me that she would spend an hour with me going through the rudiments of the machine and that I shouldn't worry as this particular machine had been given to her by someone no longer in need of it and she doesn't use it so it would be good for someone to have it up and running. So hence I got to meet little Melodie Singer.  

After my hour of going over the basics I was sent home with Melodie and the instruction manual.  Now I'm not normally good at reading instructions but as Melodie wasn't mine I did go through the manual like a good girl and I even got to see the original receipt of £169 from 1989 that is stapled in the front. By the end of the first afternoon I had even filled a bobbin, loaded the bobbin and threaded the needle and was ready to start sewing.

I can tell you, as I wouldn't dare show you, that in the beginning even sewing a straight line was a bit of a battle but eventually things started to improve. 

Since that time I have been playing around having ago at making little projects. The first of which was this little bag made out of an old sheet I even lined it too and it was the perfect size to keep Melodie's pedal and leads in so everywhere she goes in the future my little bag will go too.

You will remember that I wanted to make something for the lady who has loaned me her machine to say thank you and it was back in the beginning of March that I made my Let's Sew Cushion 

It was after I presented it to her that we got talking about learning new things and we arranged to meet up so that she could show me how to make a French Seam or as we call them French Sean's as predictive text kept changing the wording. 

This turned out to be an invaluable lesson as it wasn't long after this that Covid 19 really started to take a hold in Europe and we had started to get cases here in the UK and before we knew it we were on lock down with restrictions on travel put in place. It soon became evident that a lot of support was going to be needed for our NHS front line staff with shortages of scrubs and scrub bags to take their scrubs or uniforms home in so that they could put them straight into the washing machine meaning they didn't have to remove anything from the bag and could contain any chance of the virus being transferred to their homes.

It was at this point my kitchen turned into an episode of The Rag Trade 

Having gone through our old duvet covers I soon had my first batch of bags made, washed on the line ready for pressing and bagging to gift to my colleagues at work.  

Poor D has become a bit of a sewing widow as every opportunity and I am sat at this little machine and by Easter  I had reached forty bags. 

It was at this point I was a little worried that I was putting a little too much pressure on little Melodie Singer as she is quite an old lady, she is almost as old as my eldest son.  

Now I have been looking at machines for myself and there is so much choice out there these days with Janome and Brother etc.... but my mum and grandmother always had Singer machines. Now whether that was because there were wasn't too many other brands around in the sixties and seventies I don't know but I suppose I wanted to keep to a Singer because of them.  I had showed D many Singer sewing machines from basic machines to one that does everything but make the tea.  When I have talked to my sewing friends about it the one piece of advice they kept giving me was to buy the machine for the sewer you aspire to be not the sewer you are now.

It was whilst I was sewing away the afternoon on Easter Monday that D came into the kitchen to make us a cup of tea as I do tend to get a little engrossed and forget to have one.  He was asking all sorts of questions about a particular machine we had been looking at and at the end of which announced that for all my efforts in making the bags for my colleagues that he had gone ahead and ordered me a brand new machine.  I thought he was joking at first but no he wasn't and I promptly burst into tears. I'm not sure that was the reaction he was looking for. And look its arrived. He'd even taken note of the go for the machine for the sewer you aspire to be speech. She does make lots R2D2 noises when you switch her on but didn't think that was quite an appropriate name for her and she has to be a she doesn't she. I wonder if men that sew think of their machines as male or female or may be they don't think of them as anything other than a sewing machine. I had messaged my friend with a photo and said I would have to think of a really good name for her as I foresee that we were going to be great friends and having lots of fun together and straight away she came back with you better call her 'Pearl'  having had a busy day at work I was a bit slow and asked why Pearl to which she replied because 'Pearls a Singer'  brilliant I thought and so that is her name. 

She's got lots of fancy stitches for me to learn in the fullness of time. And as you can see I have a little light reading to do going through the manual. Although to be fare for every page their is three or four pages in other languages so if I take those out it will slim it down a bit. I am also one of those annoying people who like those little stickers that you can attach to a page so that you can go straight to it so before long it will be all colour coded. 

For now she has become a brilliant asset as she has a threader and an automatic cutter, so I won't spend an age trying to thread the needle or waste cotton when finishing off. 

Of course she's had to have her own little bag to keep her pedal and leads in for when she is tucked away or for when she goes travelling after lock down.  There are already sewing dates with my friends being planned,  so they can share their invaluable knowledge and hints, tips and know how. 

This was some of the leftover fabric that the lady who lent me Melodie gave me for bags.  Its called Autumn Leaves and it 100% cotton and those of my colleagues who have received one of these love the colours and I have to say I agree with them.  

and of course this one had to be lined and have French Sean's and of course I had to finish it off with its own sugar bag bottom to prove I have learnt these skills and I am putting them to good use.

And what of little Melodie I hear you ask. Well she's still here but she is having a well deserved rest and is now sitting on the bottom of the dresser until she can be returned.  I will miss her as she has been a good teacher in helping me learn and improve my technique.

I think I have waffled on enough for one morning I will get around to making a post that shows you the projects I have worked on with Melodie over the last two months.

Thanks for stopping by I hope you enjoyed your cup of tea and a biscuit as we approach the end of week 5 of Covid 19 lockdown. 

Stay Safe

Mx

Birthdays, scrub bags & Cheesecake

Hello you lovely lot. Welcome to my sewing room that also just so happens to double up as my kitchen. My lovely boys have been very patient with me taking over the kitchen in order make lots of scrubs bags. There seems to be bits of fabric everywhere today and housework whats that??  I do keep looking around seeing all the things that need attending too like the cobweb that seems to be dangling from the ceiling but you never see the little creature that created it.  I must confess I am not a lover of the eight legged creature and one rather large one did appear above the kitchen door the other evening whilst I was sewing away but D very kindly released it back into the wild saying obviously nobody told the wild life about the lock down.


Thank you for all your kind words regarding my making of scrub bags. The first batch of 25 have now been distributed to colleagues around the hospital. And even though they are all so busy looking after patients they are all coming to the call of promises of sorting through their cupboards to bring me their old no longer needed duvet covers in order for me to continue to make more for other colleagues around the hospital.

And if I run out of takers there is also For the love of scrubs  with local hubs For the love of scrubs - Nottingham and  For the love of scrubs - Lincolnshire who are looking for sewers of whatever ability to either make scrubs, headbands or scrubs bags.  

And of course the lovely John Scott of  John Scotts Sewing World is coordinating the receipt of scrubs bags, headbands and scrubs hats in conjunction with his friend Dulcie Scott (no relation) who is the coordinator of Helping dress medics who are making scrubs, but would love bags to put their scrubs in and any head bands or hats would be an added bonus. 

As a newbie to sewing it has certainly made me push myself this last week or two and I have to say that my sugar bag bottom or box bottoms depending which you prefer are all lined up and sit beautifully and my french seams are coming on a treat. Isn't this fabric gorgeous


  

This week was D's birthday, another year older not necessarily any the wiser as he still puts up with me. We don't go big on birthdays anymore which is just as well with the current situation.  We are fans of the program Porridge which was on our screens in the 1970's.  There is one episode aptly named 'A Night In' when Fletcher  (Ronnie Barker) tells Godber (Richard Beckinsale) the best way to cope with his time in Slade prison , is to see it as just a "quiet night in"  even after these years it still is one of our favourite episodes and it definitely sprung to mind on D's birthday when I asked him what he like to do his reply straight back was I think we'll stay at home and just have a quiet night in.  So until we are able to go out as a family again we had a nice meal at home just D, me and the teenager made three.  There was cake albeit just a Victoria sponge home made of course luckily I still had self raising flour but don't tell anyone. He did get to pick his favourite desert of baked cheesecake. Its very creamy and delicious and extremely calorific but if you can't have a treat on your birthday when can you. If you would like to have a go as a special treat either during or after lock down then this is how you do it. 

Ingredients 

Base

200g of digestive or ginger nut biscuits. Personally I prefer the ginger nuts they go gooey when it bakes in the oven.
100g butter 
2 tablespoons of caster sugar

Filling

500g full fat cream cheese
200g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
2 tablespoons of cornflour
300mls double cream or creme fraiche 
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice

• Butter a 20cm clip sided tin and base line with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 150C/Gas Mark 2
• Melt the butter in a pan.

• Crush the the biscuits into crumbs. Now I still have my mini processor when the teenager was small and this does the job brilliantly. Some of you may have a bigger version but if you have neither you can put the biscuits in a plastic bag and take out all your frustrations by hitting it with a rolling pin until the biscuits are crushed and then put your crushed biscuits into a small bowl.

• Add the butter and caster sugar and mix well. Tip the crushed biscuit mixture into your greased tin and press onto the base with the back of spoon until level. I then put mine in the fridge to settle whilst I make the filling. 

• For the filling ass the cream cheese and sugar to a bowl and beat together until smooth. 
• Add the eggs one a time and beat together between each addition
• Add the cornflour, lemon cream or creme fraiche, lemon zest and juice and mix together. If you can't get hold of a lemon but you have lemon juice leftover from pancake day that will work just as well. 
• Pour the mixture onto the base and bake in the oven on a baking sheet in the centre of the oven for approximately 50 minutes. then turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake inside to go cold. 

NB

Sometimes the cheesecake will crack along the top no idea why it does this. I've tried leaving the door shut, the door open and even taken it out altogether and still the odd time it will do it. Just the same as sometimes its a light creamy colour when cooked and other times it's more golden. Either way it still tastes delicious. 

If you have any raspberries you could serve with Raspberry Coulis or Caramel Sauce or just with extra cream,  or like me just on its own, which ever you go for I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. You can always do another lap around the garden to work off all those calories but it will have been worth it. 

Stay Safe

Mx

Calling all sewers your NHS needs you.

Good morning lovely blog land friends and how are you on this fine sunny morning.  I bet you're wondering why I am showing you a pile of washing on my kitchen table.  Well its not my ironing pile but it is a pile of duvet and pillow cases that have not been on a bed for at least five years and they are going to be turned into something much more worthwhile and in our current situation much needed. 

I was recently reading a post on John Scotts Sewing World face book page. His friend Dulcie has set up a campaign to make scrubs for NHS front line staff. I can't make a pair of scrubs my skills are not that advanced but the next bit of his post also caught my eye.  Not all hospitals have laundry facilities so the medical staff have to take their scrubs home to wash. At the moment they are given a plastic bag to take them home in, they then wash the scrubs and throw away the plastic bag (not very green and also full of germs) Dulcie and her team have come up with a solution. Draw string bags made from cotton so at their end of the shift the exhausted medics put the scrubs in the bag, go home and throw the scrubs and the bag into the washing machine.

So John Scott has put a call out to the sewers out there to please have a look through your stash and make some drawstring bags. All you need is half a metre of washable fabric, some cotton tape/ribbon and your sewing machine and the yearning to help our NHS. A simple draw string bag as big as you can make it out of the half metre of fabric , with a double sided draw string, ie 2 pieces of tape to be able to pull from both sides . The seams must be well finished off (overlocked, French seams or zig zagged then stitched to one side as they are going to be going through a hot wash every day) Dulcie does a boxed bottom (sugar bag bottom to some) on hers but this is totally optional.

So  I thought I would share this with you here on my little blog space so that if any of you fancy helping out then you can get sewing! there is no panic, no rush just as and when you can'

John Scott has agreed to coordinate the receipt of any bags made and they can be sent to him at

 John Scott’s Sewing World. PO BOX 6688. Stratford Upon Avon CV37 1TZ

♥♥♥

Now I am very new to sewing and don't have much of a stash or any real idea what are the best types of fabrics and for what use. But what I do have is a stash of old duvets that have been through the wash many times and lived to tell the tale and will therefore make fantastic draw string bags and I've managed to make 16 bags out of a king size duvet cover and pillow cases.

My bags are coming out measuring approximately 16 x 22 inches which is quite a miracle that they are coming out around the same size on each one as I am using a pillow case as my template for width but just a little shorter in height and just like my mother used to do I am cutting by eye so just goes to show that the apple didn't fall too far from the tree and her genes are definitely coming out at the moment. 

I have recently learnt French seams, or as my friend and I like to call them French Sean's as predictive text kept changing it when we were setting up a time to meet for her to teach me and she also taught me a boxed bottom or sugar bag bottom .  This of course was before we started living in an episode of Stepford Wive.

John Scott has made a how to video on his facebook page which you can find here  if you need any help. 

I wouldn't normally share a video or photograph of me on any social media but this was my first attempt at making a draw string bag that pulls together from both sides but I was rather chuffed with my first attempt and thought I would share it with you to show that if a novice like me can do it anyone can and its for such a great reason.

Now if like me you are already involved with a local hospital you may find that they would be grateful  to be the recipients of any bags you make and John Scott and Dulcie are more than happy for you to cut out the middle man so to speak and send them direct to your local hospital. My hospital has a local fb support page for its staff and there have already been posts popping up about these bags and the need for them. Now some are making them out of their stash fabrics Batman and Pepper Pig have been on offer this week but to be honest it doesn't have to be anything fancy.I have already had consultants and nurses at my own department asking about them so my first batch which are currently drying out on the line, will be going into work with me next week and all I have asked of them in return apart from staying safe is that if they have any old duvets lurking about in cupboards, doesn't matter whether they are Thomas the Tank Engine from when their son was three or something quite plain to something with the craziest pattern, if they are no longer needed then I can make use of them to make more bags which in turn means I can help more of our colleagues.

Ok think that's all from me for now. Take care, stay safe and if you can stay home.

Lots of love to you all 

Mx