Wednesday 16 June 2010

A Little Woman Who Can Run Up Curtains?

I joked with a friend on Sunday that if the Government cuts mean I get less work doing Supply Teaching and One-To-One Tutoring, I shall have to set up in business doing sewing jobs for friends – after all, they will not be able to afford new clothes and furnishings.

Since then, I have had one colleague ask me about altering a top – and then yesterday I received this wonderful postcard from a friend.

sew and save 

This is definitely going to get framed and displayed somewhere!Being able to “Make Do and Mend” is a vital skill which needs reclaiming, and passing on to our children.

make do2

I had such fun on Saturday turning old curtain fabric into an outfit for Blousey Brown – one of the female leads in the Bugsy Malone production.

[Thank you to Ellie, my young neighbour, who helped with the fitting]

And on Monday I was working on my quilts at Cornerstones – all recycled, vintage fabric.

 

DSCF0003

The dress is based on the same pattern as Tallulah’s – but knee length. And I found a cute fur collar in The Stash which really gave a neat finishing touch to the jacket. I‘ve a brown felt beret too.

All she needs now is her little suitcase.

But I’ve discovered that technology hasn’t made allowances for this sort of retro thriftiness. The ‘predictive text’ on my phone rendered the phrase “Sewing up curtains” as “Sexing up curtains” I can assure you, I do not do those sort of alterations!!

5 comments:

  1. Ha ha ha, to the sexing up of curtains. I am learning to mend and make do, I am learning to love sewing, but people look at me as though I have two heads when I say my hobby is sewing

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  2. I would say that if that dress used to be curtains then they're definitely sexed up!

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  3. You would be in such demand Ang!And just think, you could work from home, no need to go out to school!

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  4. When mom died recently my sis and I went through all of her clothing. My niece sews. The dresses were terribly dated, but because some of the cotton fabric was so pretty, my niece will re-purpose a lot for kids aprons and other projects! The rest were sent to the thrift store. I'm so proud of her and wish I could sew!!

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  5. Well, thanks for the appreciative remarks, everybody. You will be pleased to know that Lauren looked fabulous in the outfit when we had a fitting at lunchtime at school - and the children could not believe it was made from old curtains!

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