I'll have the Victorian Tailor,  if it's still available. Thanks.

They were selling the blue/white chalk pencils, with the eraser brushes on the caps, as part of a different kit last year.

I bought some, and frankly they are rubbish. Dry, brittle and crumbly, they leave very faint marks, and even that falls off as soon as you move the fabric.

Can't speak for what the rest of that set is like, but if it's anywhere near the same quality as the pencils, then maybe best to give it a miss.

"You have a remarkable talent" said Mrs. M.

It's not like her to pay me random compliments, so I waited for whatever was coming next.

"A talent for turning your new clothes into old clothes very quickly"

OK, she did have a point. My non-sewing hobbies are mostly about mending old motorbikes and similar mucky, metal working activities.
I often can't be fussed changing clothes, or wearing overalls, so my gear does have a hard life.

"Can't you at least buy an apron?" She asked, not unreasonably.

Buy an apron?
Seriously...?
No, it's clearly time to drag out some more of the notorious "spanner roll" canvas, and fire up the sewing machine...

I have been sewing canvas with a Singer Heavy Duty 4423. It's probably twice the weight of good jeans denim, and the machine has no trouble going through two or three layers. It does seem a little fussy about stitch length and tension though. No trouble punching the needle through, but the thread (heavy duty stuff, on the limit of what will slip through the eye of the biggest Jeans needle I can find) will "birds nest" underneath if the settings aren't just right. I don't think it's a problem with the machine as it sews perfectly on lighter fabrics, just some issue with the feed dogs actually moving that much material evenly. Get it right, and it's fine, get it wrong and you're in a world of jammed needles and knotted up thread.

If I did more of this type of work, then perhaps a walking foot would be a good investment?

As  Mr Twingo says, the machine itself isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I like it and it does everything I can reasonably ask of a domestic machine, and probably quite a bit more.

Also, bear in mind that "canvas" can be anything from fairly thin fabric that any machine would handle, to heavy sailcloth that would need a massive industrial machine to work with.
Do you know what kind of work your neighbor is actually planning on doing?

I'm reluctant to suggest anything I have not tried myself, but a friend has a Toyota Super Jeans machine, which she says is "like a charging rhino, nothing stops it".  About a hundred quid cheaper than the Singer too. Might be worth a look?

As for leather, again it depends very much on the material.

Back in the days when I was making knives, I would wet-form the sheaths from 3mm (1/8") veg tanned hide.
Sewing through three layers of that stuff, again as Mr Twingo says, is best done by hand.
I'd punch each stitch-hole through with an awl, and saddle stitch with two needles, crossing through the holes. 
The only machines capable of handling that kind of work were the old-fashioned cobblers ones, and even the vintage machines were way out of my price range. 

Nowadays, for lighter, garment-weight split hide, or PU leather, the Singer can plough through with no drama at all.

You can get cooling pads which are sold for dogs but work pretty well for ladies of a certain age.  They have a gel in which cools down under pressure.  I had a fairly small one which I placed under the back of my neck

Ooh - I`ve found one that is actually intended for humans

https://www.amazon.co.uk/2X-KEPLIN-Cooling-Gel-Pillows/dp/B07TW8QCSS

My wife suffered from really bad night sweats when she was going through the menopause. She got something similar to and always said that it helped a lot.

I still have the shoes i got married in, 37 years ago.

And yes I still wear them.

It was last November that my son and his OH decided to move into a place of their own, leaving our attic bedroom, where they had been living, spare.

So the plan was, a quick coat of paint, a bed settee for visitors, and a little sewing corner for Mick to call his own.
Easy job, be done in no time.

Six months later it's almost finished.   

It may be small, minimal even, but it's mine...

Sewing_1 by Mick, on Flickr

Sewing_2 by Mick, on Flickr