galadhir

So, yesterday I started on Casey Johnstone's Couch to Barbell program, in the hopes that weightlifting would prove beneficial to my fibromyalgia and back pain.

It seemed like not very much exercise. 14 minutes worth with mandatory rest periods between each set. Stage One follow-along video

But today I am wiped out. Absolutely flattened. Admittedly I did go to belly dancing while my legs were still like jelly, but I don't think belly dancing is the culprit.

I'm telling myself that the fact that my legs are so sore must mean that it is in fact doing something, and I could definitely do with stronger legs, so onward! I'm on a mandatory rest day today, but she hardly needed to tell me, I'm not fit to do anything today even if I wanted to.

Yesterday I also made over a £10 second hand denim jacket on the model of some gorgeous £60 ones I saw at a festival. Shout out to my local haberdashery for carrying some interesting fabrics for £9 per half metre. I'm pleased with this:

I could only do that because yesterday it was cool enough to go in the conservatory where the sewing machine is. Today is not, so I'm not sure what I can achieve today. Maybe some writing?

So, our church is always freezing and is extra so at the moment with the heating broken. (It's an ancient stone building from the 13th century and is way too big for the size of the congregation, and even in the dead of winter, it's colder in there than it is out of doors.)

The congregation dress for the Arctic, but the choir have to wear surplusses and albs and put up with it for the glory of God.

They see me sitting in my pew with my white fur hand muff, my hands clasped inside and so toasty warm that they are glowing, and they make a beeline for me after the service to tell me "That looks warm!"

So I decide that clearly what's needed is for me to buy some red material (to match their robes) and make muffs for the whole choir.

I come home and order a metre of heavy cotton (for the outside) a metre of red teddy fleece (for the inside) and a metre of thermal batting (to be hidden in the middle and give the muff that nice, round, plump look.)

Years ago DH had already been through the "That looks warm!" "I'll make you one," process, and I had made him an extra manly muff with army green fleece inside and camouflage fabric on the outside. But I had no idea how to do it properly, and I had just folded in the ends and seamed them visibly like some sort of amateur. (It kept him warm. He didn't care.)

But this time feels more public and I want to do it properly. So while I wait for the material to arrive, I find a website that gives me instructions on measurements and where to sew first and how to turn it out:

How To Make A Muff For Ladies And Girls

and I decide to make a practice one to see how it turns out.

As per the instructions, I grab some material from my stash left over from other projects and measure out a 17" by 13" rectangle from outer, inner and filling layers and sew them together in the order the website says.

What emerges is a very long, thin sausage. I can get my hands in it, but I have quite small hands, and it's hard to get them far enough in to touch each other. (Which they need to do if they are to share body heat like two MCs caught in a snowstorm.)

That's weird I think. Well, clearly it doesn't need to be 17" long, and it could do to be more than 13" around. Maybe I'll try it at 15" by 15".

So I delve back into the stash and make another one. Which is also too long and thin.

This is weird, I think again, it's almost like 17" by 13" is right, but you need to make the top the 13" and turn it out through the sides.

So I try doing that, and my third attempt results in a muff which is absolutely fine (and no visible seams!)

As you can see, the outer material of this is left over from my tartan dungarees, and the inner material is left over from the lining of DH's banyan.

On further consideration and like a flash of lightning, I finally realize that the original instructions had made a mistake in telling you to sew along the longer side first. You sew the short sides of the inner material and batting together (inner facing up). Then you place the outer material face down onto the pile and sew everything together along the long edges.

Then you turn it inside out and sew the inner/batting to itself, the outer to itself, leaving a hole you turn everything out of. Then you hand sew the hole closed.

The 17" by 13" dimensions were right the whole time. The instructions just told you to start sewing on the wrong edge.

So now my stash is much reduced, and I am ready to do the choir's ones as soon as the red fleece arrives.

Disaster! Cut out the coat. Cut out the (fur) lining of the coat. Stitched the coat together, double stitching to prevent fraying. Tried the coat on. Too small.

It makes a fetching outer garment for the spring/autumn, if I fasten it at the very top of my throat, but it does not do up across the chest and there is no room in the arms for a fur lining. I might have to hem it and use it as it is, to avoid wasting the fabric.

This is what I get for using an untried pattern instead of measuring it myself!

I wanted the coat for the Mill Road Winter Fair. At which I'll be playing music for Coton Morris. And the fair is on the 2nd of December, so there's no time to order more material and do it properly.

If I can't get it done by then, I'll have to go in my normal winter coat, which is vivid pink - and Coton's colours are black and white. It will cause something of a stir if I turn up like a flamingo among crows.

OTOH, the coat fits quite nicely across the shoulders and back. It's only the chest and sleeves that it was unprepared for. It's possible that if make up the fur material on its own and insert two full length panels in the front, that will do the job. It may look a bit weird but at this point I'll take a coat that fits over one that looks good.

Crossing my fingers and starting again. Watch this space :)

DH expressed bafflement as to how I could continue to work outside in the conservatory, with snow on the ground while either sewing or signpainting. It's the only place we've got a big enough table to do these things, but it's completely unheated, whereas he tends to feel cold while sitting upstairs in the spare bedroom/office.

I said my secret was the banyan (18th Century house coat) I had made for myself many years ago when I found myself cold in the house. Then I said I would make him one too. ( Read more... )

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which looks very gentle and possibly like something I might be able to keep up with even if it takes me more than the requisite month.

Speaking of snowflakes, it has been below freezing here for the past four days, and I have been contending with the fact that I have no pairs of winter trousers that do not require a tight belt to keep them up.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but this summer I discovered that I had a sliding hernia (where there's a hole in your diaphragm and sometimes your stomach gets pushed up to bulge through the hole, stomach acid and all.) One of the big culprits in this is being tightly cinched in around the waist. So I changed into wearing dresses and promptly forgot about the winter.

Winter arrives, I dig out my winter trousers and wear them for a while, only to find that I'm suffering from heartburn/fatigue and pain in the chest. It finally dawns on me last week that this is the result of going back to being strangled around the waist. So I dig out my one pair of dungarees, and then it gets really cold.

What to do? It's nearly Christmas and if I order another pair on line they might not arrive for a fortnight. Plus they're £60 a pair! And they're not even that warm.

Time to bring out the sewing machine! I cycled to the local fabric shop and examined their selection. Brushed cotton looked warm but almost certainly wouldn't be. I couldn't afford wool, and it would be scratchy anyway. The fleece was all primary colours, camouflage pattern or ladybird print.

Hm, it was time to adhere to the spirit of "When I am old, I will wear purple," and throw social convention out of the window. So I bought the ladybird print fleece and made myself an emergency pair of warm dungarees.



They came in very handy when my family and I went out to do the Wimpole Christmas Lights trail last night. With ski boots and a ski coat, I was perfectly warm and my legs were toasty out in the snow for three hours.

We had pizza and hot chocolate from a food van, then did half the walk, past the tree halos and fire garden. In the middle there were braziers set up and marshmallows for sale for toasting - I had a chocolate one :) Then through the lazers and the fields of shining white roses to the end of the trail, where there was a helter-skelter and a carousel.

It was a really lovely evening. The ladybird print dungarees received a mixed reception. One lady told me what a good idea it was to have come in my pajamas, but a chance-met friend was like "Ooh, I love your dungarees, where did you get them?" And I will take my friends' opinions over strangers any day :)