WIP Wednesday: Frantic Craft Fair Preparations

It’s WIP Wednesday again (or at least I think it is, I thought today was Thursday earlier but I’ve been corrected. This is what happens when you don’t work in an office and don’t lift your head up from making lavender bags for three days, the passage of time becomes confusing) – thanks Tami for hosting, and if you want to see more WIP posts (or link your own) then get on over to Tami’s blog and her Mr Linky widget.

Now, I bring you hot-off-the-press dispatches from the Craft Show Preparation Front Line. Because it is an Eco Shopper factory here, essentially. Eco Shoppers, they are coming out of my ears. There will hopefully be enough Eco Shoppers for the whole of Bakewell to carry one tucked in their handbags ready to whip out at a moment’s notice. No, I don’t need a carrier bag, thank you! they will be able to say, as one. I have my Useless Beauty Eco Shopper, made with a mix of new and retro fabrics! And I shall slot my purchased item into it carefully, like so, both saving the environment and impressing all around me with my quirky taste in fabric bags and my much-appreciated support of a one-woman business!

Honestly, the light in the sewing room is quite atrocious. It is all quite Dickensian although at least we have central heating and dinner. If I cook it

I like doing the handles best: fold, fold, centre fold, sew down one side, brrrrrrrrrrrr. Brrrrrrrrrrr. I find them strangely satisfying. It’s like popping bubble wrap, but more productive. I have run out of handles now, though, sadly, and must do ironing and pinning. I do not like ironing and pinning quite so much. There is not the same sense of mastery of heavy machinery.

African Wax Print. It got in there somehow. I've still got a lot left, you know. I might have to make provision for it in my Will

Here is a selection of Eco Shoppers, folded. I think what I might do before my next craft fair is buy a big batch of African Wax Print fabrics and make some more Eco Shoppers out of that. I think they would show off the big prints very well.

It is very possible we will have neither bags nor sufficient change at the craft fair. It is very possible that Milo the husky may eat a lavender bag at a surprising and inappropriate moment. It is very possible that all the price tickets will say the wrong things, if there are price tickets at all. But by God (swelling violins), there will be Eco Shoppers. And how can more be asked of any crafter?

If you look at the DVDs in the background you will see one called Russian Ark. Don't buy it. Just trust me on this one

And here is an experimental cushion cover which I think turned out quite well. It’s made from cotton jersey and upcycled tshirts, and you can see I am experimenting with exposed overlocking, which I think looks good. Me and that overlocker: it was a tense relationship to start with, but now we’re besties. That doesn’t happen very often, does it? That’s what makes our relationship so special. I haven’t got a tattoo or anything yet, though. I just want to make sure we love each other still a year from now.

That’s it for the moment – I shall go and sew a few handles on. Thanks to everyone who’s signed up for my card swap so far, I’m so pleased to have people taking part! Hearts, marshmallows and smooches to you all, and may your WIPS flourish. And if anyone else wants to give it a go, come, come on board the Card Swap Train. You’re more than welcome ;-).

In which I learn a new skill.

OK. So today I bit the bullet and I decided I would learn how to sew buttonholes. Because it is completely ridiculous not being able to sew buttonholes when actually I can sew quite well. As the author of one of the first books I bought on sewing (which I am not naming, pls note restraint), many many years ago, says, if you can’t sew buttonholes or zips you’re restricted to ‘making sack-like things’. Actually this is completely untrue and, I have to say, a bit rich coming from someone who has written a book where it is suggested that you may wish to sew 4 placemats together to make a jacket:

I think, actually, this book is the reason I didn’t learn to sew properly a long time ago: I think I felt subliminally that as soon as I reached a certain level of competence someone would come round and force me to make this:

or to customise my husband’s shirts in a winsome fashion. And I haven’t got a husband! In fact, this book’s probably why I didn’t learn to sew buttonholes earlier as well. Yes, it’s all the book’s fault! (Can I blame it for the serger incident? Hmm. Might have to think a bit harder about that one.)

Anyway, here they are:

These were my very first attempts and look, they look like buttonholes. So if there is anyone out there who is scared of buttonholes, you don’t have to be. You do have to be scared of sergers: you have to be really scared. You need iron nerves and the sewing competence of one of those women who sews couture Chanel in a Parisian atelier sustained only by the consciousness of her own superiority and the occasional croissant before you should be let near a serger. But buttonholes are fine. Nothing can go wrong. Trust me. And now I can make jackets! (But I’m sorry, I won’t be making them out of placemats. Call me conventional...)

Oh that Bad, Bad Serger

You remember the serger problem. (Who could forget?) Well, it happened again. It died on me (through no fault of mine this time, I might add). Needles bending, me banging my head against a wall quietly and whimpering. But it’s all fine. The shop swapped it for me, I have a new one now, and I’ll be able to talk about the whole experience one day without twitching. Anyway, now I’ve recovered from the serger trauma of the last few days (unless the bloody new one breaks – no! It couldn’t do, could it? No one could be that unlucky!) I'll be able to update tomorrow with things I’m working on, and pics. A couple of quite exciting things (exciting to me, at least) – a version of this skirt from Craftster, and, when my epic order from Soap Kitchen arrives (hmm. Must sell a few things on ebay) I shall be making soap. Soap! From scratch! With sodium hydroxide! That’s an acid, you know (or is it an alkali? I think it’s an alkali. I’ve ordered goggles. It’ll be fine.)

How I killed my serger stone dead and made myself miserable

This is the tragic story of my serger and how I killed it. I hope this can serve as a warning to others because it is too late for me and my serger (well it isn't too late entirely but it is all a bit depressing. You will see.) Well, I decided I wanted a serger about a month and a half ago because I wanted to be able to make tshirts. Also I wanted to be able to make the most marvellous skirt I saw on Craftster which seems to involve about a million patchwork pieces. Would you like to french seam a million patchwork pieces? No, well I wouldn't, either. So, I researched my serger and I considered buying one from these people: and then I read this forum thread: and I reconsidered. What, I thought, if I have any problems with my serger when I have got it? I don't want to be having to send it back to someone who calls customers Nazis. I have enough trouble in my day-to-day life without going looking for it on an active basis. So I bought my serger from a local shop. And I am very, very glad I did. Because I had had the serger barely a week before I ran into problems which were ENTIRELY OF MY OWN MAKING.

I am what you might call an active kind of learner: I do not understand things until I have done them, myself, with my own two hands. I don't read instruction books: I use them as a reference for after I have worked out what I am doing. I cannot learn by reading, or by watching someone else. I do not believe most people are like me, as otherwise no one would bother putting instructional videos for anything on YouTube. As far as I'm concerned, you might as well tell me to look at a video of a sneezing panda and then go and perform open heart surgery, that is how little visual learning means to me. Anyway I have managed very well thus far and this was my approach to the serger. Well, never mind the instruction book: what they should have done with the serger was sell it wrapped in a big bit of paper that said in words a foot high, THIS IS NOT A SEWING MACHINE! YOU CANNOT SEW OVER PINS WITH IT! Because that is the only thing you need to know. Did you know that? I didn't. I know it probably isn't ideal to sew over pins with a sewing machine, but the worst that ever happened to me was that my needle broke and hit me in the eye. And it glanced off my eyelid! So it was absolutely fine. So I naturally assumed you could do the same with a serger. This was mistake number 1. We will pause here for a calming photograph of Cambridge which I took earlier today. Isn't that pretty?

OK, so the difference with a serger is that blades are involved, and somehow this was what the pin buggered up. So it gave a kind of furious screech and stopped, sucking my bit of fabric I was practicing on into its innards. Well, when my sewing machine is difficult with me, I don't take any nonsense, I strip it down, I change needles, I swear, I rethread. So this is what I did. And I ran the serger again. And it made the most awful clanking noise you have ever heard. And the new needles I had put in bent (actually bent!), broke, and flew out. OK, I thought, I did not put those needles in properly, I will try again. And the same thing happened. At this point I began to feel a bit worried. Another calming break: this is Wisteria on Magdalene.

I tried again and actually things became worse. Oh my God, I thought, Oh my God. I have broken my serger. I put it it under the desk and I walked away and made tea, but there are some things tea can't cure and broken sergers is one of them. This is silly, I thought, I will have to deal with it. So I took my serger back to Sew Creative and spoke to the woman who had sold it to me. 'Hmm' I said. 'There are a few problems with my serger. It seems not to be entirely working. I thought perhaps you could press something and make it happier.' She fixed me with a look. 'And what led up to it not working?' she asked, carefully. 'Me!' I said, in an agony of remorse. 'Me! I sewed over a pin! And now my serger is dead! And I have killed it!'. Well, quelle surprise it turns out that this is not unparalleled. This has happened to sergers before. And so my serger was taken away 'it is probably not terminal' and is coming back on Thursday. And I am very excited. But, this is the rub, and we will pause for a very attractive photo of St John's which is my partner's Alma Mater although he is not grateful:

My serger is costing a fortune to repair. A fortune. I am not exaggerating. I could practically have bought another one (well, perhaps a second hand one.) So, if you go over a pin, this is a big deal. You will knacker your timing belt. Do not do it. Learn from my mistake. Then you will have a bonus £67+VAT which you can spend on the frivolous item of your choice (although if I remember it is financial reasoning like that which leads to destruction and ultimately death in Bleak House. And if we aren't getting our financial planning advice from Dickens, I don't know where we are getting it from.)