Monday 7th June - NOT 'the sewing bee'

 I promised you a post - or did I threaten you with one?

Last week I decided it was 'now or never' to make up the material that I had bought back in 2019 (or maybe 2018?). I bought the red flowery material because I couldn't make up my mind how to make up the blue embroidered material - this makes perfect sense to me, and to anyone who knows me.

The problem with the blue material was that I couldn't work out which side I liked better; the right side, darker, with thicker embroidery, or paler, with thinner embroidery. 

One solution was to sew the seams in such a way that it would be reversible... so I bought the red fabric to try this out.

And then NOTHING happened; every so often I would get it all out, look at the pattern pieces, and put it all away again. 

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.... On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.

And that time had not yet come... until last week...

So I decided to 'game' it, and play 'The Sewing Bee'.

Tuesday afternoon - I was so over-confident I included a clock in the photograph

Ready to start cutting out

Several hours later

And later still

After we got the tension sorted out (that was a pretty tense hour)

It took two days in the end, not two hours... interruptions ranged from 

a welcome telephone call from a friend which probably saved the project from being thrown out of the window as I think it was about then that I discovered that I had snipped a hole in the fabric by accident, and also made a bit of an error when cutting out the sleeves - however both problems proved to be 'bodgeable' after a 'time-out' to regain my sanity.

a problem with the sewing machine - I persevered for half an hour keeping a firm rein on gathering frustration, before calling in the heavy brigade. He diagnosed the problem and the solution - a lump of fluff was keeping the tension spring for the upper bobbin thread open (you wanted to know this, didn't you)

a visit to the dentist the following morning

Ta-Dah!   (with thanks to The Son who alerted me to the existence of a timer function on my phone a few weeks ago) 

And then, guess what - I did it all over again the next day!

Without making any of the same mistakes! That is to say I made different ones. For some reason the back piece turned out to be an inch too narrow - but that was bodgeable and doesn't show from the front. This also took two days to make, mostly because arranging the pieces on the embroidery required thought and fettling.   

Note; in the interests of sanity, expediency, and just Getting It Done, neither top is reversible. That's a joy saved for the future! 

If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly:

Quotes are always better 'out of context'...