Remember when I said the dog raincoat wasn't the next thing I'd make.....

..... well I was wrong!

This is made from leftover aqua fleece (lining) and fluro red ripstop (only 6 metres left). I adapted a costume pattern and I'd say I'm about 95% right. I measured the dog and he did a fitting (I can't believe I said that) and I just needed to put the velcro on. So in the last two weeks either the coat shrunk (no) or the dog has put on weight. In all fairness, the dog had his food changed a couple of weeks ago and has suffered ever since. He's been having epileptic fits and my Mum and sister (who's dog it is) have been very distressed about it. They changed the food back after a bit of Google veterinarian advice (and the real vet at a cost of nearly $500) and he's doing well now. Forecast is heavy rain on Thursday and Friday so I thought I'd better get it finished. I have to put an extension on the front strap to fit around his belly and then he'll be all ready. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it.

What a drag the final stitches were literally. The velcro had sticky backing which I thought was great to fix it to the fabric and it wouldn't slide around or need pins. It was fine for until the last 10 cm I'd need to sew. The needle gummed up from the sticky backing and the thread would stick on it and then break. Eventually I left it and went to do it by hand... I'm glad I didn't push it as I have that extension to do no. So frustrating... it took over 15 minutes to try and sew that last 10 cm.

Onto other things... remember when I made this tunic for my Mum? (It was ages ago)

Well Mum finally wore it today and I got a photo! She was quite pleased with it. I want to make some of those tops for me this autumn/winter. That's a great pattern and very quick and easy.

Also I found this new to me blog and it had this tip for sewing thick fabrics or many layered fabrics.
http://www.stitch-n-smile.com/how-to-thursday-the-guide-to-sewing-feet-the-standard-presser-foot/
A new to me tip which I tried this afternoon and although it didn't work spectacularly, I would try it again. Let me know if you knew this or if you try it and how it worked for you.

**Note to Alice ... it was me that donated that pink embroidered fabric. (I don't have instagram) I could not work out what to do with it, but love your use of it as a feature fabric. I also donated the bedazzler thing......

Paris, river cruise 2022 - photo bomb!

(this post has been in my drafts since July 2022 due to life circumstances. I'm just going to write just a little and then just show some photos) My friend worked on a Superyacht for many years and through this connection was offered a friends and family deal on a river cruise in Europe. It was a deal too good to miss even though it wouldn't have been a first choice for me for a holiday. She had done this trip before but during the winter taking in the Christmas markets. We were going in June 2022. We decided to have 5 nights in Paris (where I'd been 5 times before) and 2 nights in Amsterdam where my friend lived for 2 years in her youth. We flew into Frankfurt... not because we wanted to but because these were the only flights we could get but we worked with it. Remember great deal! So ok, a short (5hr), fast ride on the ICE/TGV trains got us to Paris eventually (one was late which missed the connection to the earlier TGV but there was one a bit after). We knew that w

YFASMA - Fabric shopping in Athens

I promised this post in March! Fabrics from Euro1 per metre! I didn't buy anything in this shop but there was some lovely fabrics. I did buy the green and pink one above on the right. A satin finish rayon. It is lovely. There was a lot of lovely fabrics in this shop. It wasn't cheap Euro 8 p.m. but I didn't have a lot of room in my bag and I wanted something I would really love. I also didn't buy anything in Paris this time. I did buy the fabric for a table cloth just across the way from this shop. I also bought some orange/white weave linen fabric for Euro 4 p.m. at another shop, which I think I'll make some summer trousers with. As I was going to the airport, I saw this dress on the platform and I really liked it. Very easy to do too, I went to the Benaki Museum while in Athens. There is actually 2 locations. In this one I saw lots of Greek and Cypriot cultural crafts. This was a bridal bed in Crete. There was lots of clothing, embroidery and gold jewellery.

The saddest dress, then a few more.

Well hello. It's been a while. It was 8 months from the last post to the previous one to that and it's a bit longer this time. The last day I wrote was 10 Jul 2021. On 12 July my son and I were finally seeing Tim Minchin after booking it before we went to Europe at the end of 2019. It was going to be April 2020, but changed a few times and although it was a school night (year 12 for Alex) we went for dinner and sat in the show. My Mum had gone to hospital that morning and my sister was still at the hospital with her. Just after interval I got a message on my phone, "get to the hospital now". So we raced out and to the hospital where. although it was a lockdown and no visitors allowed, all 10 of us were allowed to see Mum as she was end of life. I won't go into the whole thing but Mum didn't die that night, but because of lockdown, we were not allowed to go and see her until a week and a half later when we were allowed just to discuss palliative care. By the n

Sew Darn Tired

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