non-essential learning- life skills

lesson one - when squashed by a sofa Brie remains very Brie-like, satsumas  are less resilient.
lesson two - flat teddy bears are great when removing or replacing doors.
lesson 3 - organised does not mean tidy.
lesson 4 - it doesn't matter how many things you bring downstairs in one go, there is always something you have to go straight back up to fetch.
lesson 5 - the people who  phone when you are busy or the phone is the other end of the house are the least important to you.
lesson 6 - hiding doesn't make the nasty things go away. Nor does shutting cupboards or doors, the mess is always waiting for you.
lesson 7 - always have someone to blame.


Couldn't put it off any longer.  The house was fine when the emphasis was on going out and then being comfortable when home. Now I  needed more work space, floor space for cutting out, and better lighting now the daylight is  thin and feeble. So all the livingroom stuff is now in the little dining room, and worktables etc are now in the front, larger room. My house isn't large so dismantling of furniture, juggling sofas, dining tables etc around and door removals to get it all down a narrow hallway,   had to happen.  Not much energy was left for sewing. (And yes, when stashing a sofa in the kitchen I did land it on a bag of groceries I'd forgotten all about) ( The Brie tasted fine, didn't try the mushed satsumas, probably helped to tenderize the beef)

the pet en l'air costume

The bulk is done, still some things to resolve, like just how comfortable should the spare armchair in the work room be, so in amongst the chaos I began making again.
 Something I have been considering for a long time is treating the costume more as a sculptural exercise than a sewing one. I am reconstructing the pet costume but in calico and glue. Why? Don't really know.





cast of the body - spot the high tech approach

 I had a little body on a stick from which I took a papier mache cast. This was then taped to a stand and a calico skirt  was dunked in a PVA mix and draped onto it. ( recommend not doing in a busy room - the glue gets into some surprising places).   Elastic bands held it up while drying which took 2 days, and then it needed recoating with a stronger glue solution  to increase the rigidity  At this point found the old hairdryer, taped it to a mannequin stand and  blasted the thing... Not very elegant.
Stage 2 was  adding a false stomacher - just a triangle, dunked and glued in place. Breeze.
Stage 3 is where we are now  The start of the pet. Some sewing had to happen -  the Watteau pleats were pinned into the back but the big base pleat needed to be held together underneath to create the back bodice. The underarm seam is over the hip pleats  like the original  but I haven't  made arm holes. This pet is now dunked in the glue and drying on the model. Once dry and set rigid the back neck will need trimming and casing and of course arms are needed. These I am planning to make separately with cuffs and/or flounces, dunk and set them before attaching as a complete prefab unit. Hours of fun!
The finished object should be a self supporting, fairly rigid structure of the jacket, skirt and possibly kerchief.
Really just to see if I can. The fabric is coarse calico so could take spraying or painting ......  umm..... and then what do I do with it? It will probably be 'answers on a postcard' time again.
And as for scissors - haven't seen ANY for days. I think I know where they should be......