Mending and Adjustments

 Hello friends! I hope this new year is finding you safe and well. 

I haven't posted in a while because my illness(es) flared up over Christmas and I have had a hard time getting back to normal. I have not been doing much of craft-related interest except for mending and alterations, and working on the Perpetual Pile of Sleeves. 

As you would probably know by know, I loathe a sewing do-over, and that is exactly what mending (and associated activities) feels like, so it is very easy to put the chore off and do more exciting projects. So I have been working to whittle down the list of things waiting to be fixed or adjusted - with varying degrees of success. It does seem like a Magic Pudding type situation, but I am plodding along.

Adjusting a slip

(For those of you who are not familiar, The Magic Pudding is an Australian children's book about - you guessed it - a magic pudding that you cut a piece from and it magically restores itself. Apparently much like my sewing to-do pile.)

The characters from The Magic Pudding. (Image from: https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/magic-pudding-celebrating-100-years)

The Perpetual Pile of Sleeves is starting to look more manageable, as I have just kept at it; a little bit every day. 

Predictably, I have left all the eyelets til the end.

 

Bead Stringing and Flu Recovery

I haven't posted for a while because I have been suffering from a very bad case of the 'flu. I have been bedridden for a couple of weeks and even had to spend a night in hospital. It has been very debilitating, and for a lot of the time I didn't even have the energy or cognitive function to read! So I am back to the beginning of my A&S Century Challenge, and just starting to ease back into normal activities.

Naturally, there is a lot of sewing and SCA projects to be done. My Unfinished Object (UFO) pile is - as always- HUGE. I have several unfinished gowns hanging about from the last few years which I really would like to finish off. Masses of unfinished embroidery. Scribal work to complete. Officer paperwork. Plans, and plans, and plans. You all know how it is!

Yesterday I eased back into it by doing some simple beading. I went to a heraldic tournament this year which had a theme of Sun vs. Moon and the participants were given beads as tokens to hand out to people they felt were worthy of note in various areas. It was a fantastic event and I was really very chuffed with my beads and decided to string them onto tiger tail to make a little memento of a great event. Stringing them was a simple task - that seemed to take forever! It is going to take me a while to get back to normal, I think. I'm pleased with how the project turned out though.

Update

I haven't posted for a while because I haven't been well. After the pleurisy I developed costochondritis and now I have a chest infection, sinus infection, salivary gland infection and a cold! So I'm not really feeling like doing anything much. I am keeping up with the A&S Century Challenge buy doing my ten minutes minimum a day - mostly working on the huge pile of Unfinished sewing and embroidery objects (UFOs).

Last year a panel in my sewing area flooded quite badly and filled a stash cupboard with dirty water and I didn't realise straight away because it came through an access panel and through the back of the cupboard. Naturally it was the cupboard that had my long-hoarded ''special'' fabrics like silk in it. As you would know by now, my budget for fabric is low so I was absolutely devastated when this happened. I had a beautiful piece of figured silk velvet from Sartor that was a gift from friends that was ruined, and the whole event made me so despondent that it put me off dealing with the issue for a long time. The leak was fixed and fabrics washed, but I never really got things packed away the way they had previously been.

This has been something I have been trying to remedy lately. I can't do much at a time but I have been trying to sort everything out and tidy things up. I still have a pile of washed fabric to iron (a job I hate!) but at least things are looking a bit more tidy. My Sartor silk has lost it's pattern, but I can probably still use it for a pair of (much less dramatic looking sleeves.) Needless to say, I will probably procrastinate about tackling that ironing for quite some time to come!

While tidying and sorting, I found three very old unfinished chemises. They are made up in a Ren-Faire style pattern with fitted sleeves and no gussets and so not ideal (or historically accurate), but they need fairly minimal work to make them wearable. Given my deplorable lack of finished undergarments at the moment, I counted that find as a win. I also found some bits and bobs that I will need for upcoming projects, so I was very happy with that too. Maybe the old saying about hard work being it's own reward is true!

Enjoying the Struggle, I mean 'Journey'

I've been struggling lately with the amount of sewing and embroidery that I have to do before June. (A bout of gastro and a viral chest infection haven't helped either.) This week I am starting to - barely - see the light at the end of the tunnel. I saw this meme on Facebook and I thought it was a timely reminder that I should probably work on my attitude to sewing.

I really don't enjoy sewing, and I spend an awful amount of time doing it. So perhaps it is time to change my mindset?!

Trying to sew with a cold/flu is a bad idea

What a waste of time! I have a very heavy cold/flu at the moment, and today I tried to do some catch-up work on the UnFinished Object pile. Great plan, points for motivation, but the execution just didn't work out. Firstly, I tried some unpicking and ended up repeatedly putting the unpicker through the fabric. Next, I tried to sew a lining for a pillbox style Italian hat that I never wear because it is unlined. After two tries, it was a disaster, so I glued felt inside like a bit cheater. Well, that was a disaster too, so I ripped it all out and gave up on the crafting. Some days you just don't know when you're beat!