Thursday 19 November 2009

White plastic parcels all tied up with string

A package, from a favourite shop, so beautifully wrapped up. That's very exciting! What could be inside?

I'd better have a look...


Oooh! Could it possibly be a new sewing machine?


I have been dithering over whether to buy myself a new sewing machine for at least a year. I have been very attached to my old machine, which was a 21st birthday present and has served me very well for many years. But after a day frustratingly unpicking mangled seams alongside a zip and failing to get the old machine to sew through three layers of linen, I decided enough was enough. I got on the tube, went up to Oxford Street, and bought the machine I have been secretly coveting since I used it on a Make Lounge course last year.

And I love it. It does everything I want it to, and more. Even the air vent on the back is beautiful!



The first thing I have made with it is a small, fiddly bit of doll's clothing. A type of sewing which the old machine used to really struggle with. Fine lawn fabric and tiny seams? It used to end up in mangled fabric, ripped seams, much swearing and eventual hand sewing.

I've made a pinafore dress for this young lady:


This is Harriet. And she is one of two identical purple bears that O has loved since she was a baby. This is the oldest photo I have of O with one of them (like proper twins, only O can tell them apart). O is about 18 months old in this picture.


Harriet is getting really quite threadbare, and O is very worried that one day she will just disintegrate.



We talked about patching her, but that didn't seem quite right. She is threadbare mainly on her tummy, not on her paws, and tummies aren't easy to patch. I thought a little pinafore might be better. And a pinafore, being removable, wouldn't compromise the essential Harriet-ness of Harriet.

So with tiny scraps of fabric, thin seams and miniature bias tape, I used my new machine to make Harriet a pinafore. I shirred around the waist to make it look less sack-like and Harriet seems very pleased indeed with her new dress.

But now I can tell Harriet and her twin bear, Charlotte, apart. That seems all wrong. I think I am going to have to make a matching pinafore for Charlotte now as well. What do you think?

4 comments:

  1. Yes, more pinafores please!

    I do love a new sewing machine. I had one a couple of years back and it is just wonderful.

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  2. I hope you enjoy many happy hours with your Janome. I'm sure the sewing production line will be busier than ever!

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  3. oooh that's so exciting! my neighbour has just decided to buy that very machine, it was on demo at the knitting at stitching show today, but was cheaper at JL so thats where's she's ordering hers too. ENJOY xxxx

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  4. New sewing machine - almost too exciting to bear (excuse the bad pun)!

    And that is the best looking air vent I think I've ever seen.

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