Wild Atlantic Way’s entry

What I made: Teacosy.

Made as a present for DH as he drinks lots of tea and now DS has started drinking black tea too, they get through a lot of tea. I also bought him a new bigger teapot that doesn’t drip too!!

How it went:

I cut up strips of cotton from my leftovers bag in mainly pinks and purples and did some very simple patchwork and finally quilted it for the back. Wrote TEA using leftover strips and appliquéd them onto the front piece of fabric and quilted that too.

Used a layer of wadding and InsulBright but it still seemed quite thin to me so I got an old foil windscreen cover that I don’t use and cut it up and added it to the inner lining. I thought it would help to insulate it better. It made a weird (pleasant?) crinkly noise when I sewed it so I went quite slowly. But it does the trick. DH says it definitely keeps the pot hot, so I guess it works ok.

@toileandtrouble  wishing you a speedy recovery. Gall stones are nasty so feel for you. 


Sewing: I’m making a tea cosy for DH and hopefully, I’ll get it finished at the week-end.

Apologies in advance but I’ve copied my post from the other thread as there seems to be two threads discussing this topic at the moment and I want to give my opinion.

………….

I feel very uncomfortable about limiting access to the Today chat threads to Subscribers only, for several reasons.

1. I particularly value reading contributions from non UK. based members as I’m interested in what’s happening in other parts of the world, whether sewing related or not. I think anything to do with Quilting and Patchwork for instance, would be very bland with the US contributions as they have an enormous wealth of expertise over there.

2.  I don’t think ANYONE should ever post anything online that is particularly sensitive because I think it’s gives the poster a false sense of security. Hackers can get into anything and regularly do so. Even if you delete stuff, it can be resurrected by IT experts.

3.  It’s actually quite a faff for overseas users to pay £10 in Sterling, inc. EU countries. Luckily, I still have a UK. bank account but PayPal won’t let me pay in Sterling because I’m based here in Ireland and they automatically set my account for euros so I get charged added fees when I use it to purchase from the UK. This site is overwhelmingly made up of UK. based members so I think allowing non U.K. members who have posted an agreed minimum number of posts free access, seems perfectly reasonable to me. Their contributions in terms of knowledge is easily worth £10.

To clarify, I’m still happy to pay my £10 subscription/(donation towards the maintenance) using my UK bank account and will continue to do so.

I feel very uncomfortable about limiting access to the Today chat threads to Subscribers only, for several reasons.

1. I particularly value reading contributions from non UK. based members as I’m interested in what’s happening in other parts of the world, whether sewing related or not. I think anything to do with Quilting and Patchwork for instance, would be very bland with the US contributions as they have an enormous wealth of expertise over there.

2.  I don’t think ANYONE should ever post anything online that is particularly sensitive because I think it’s gives the poster a false sense of security. Hackers can get into anything and regularly do so. Even if you delete stuff, it can be resurrected by IT experts.

3.  It’s actually quite a faff for overseas users to pay £10 in Sterling, inc. EU countries. Luckily, I still have a UK. bank account but PayPal won’t let me pay in Sterling because I’m based here in Ireland and they automatically set my account for euros so I get charged added fees when I use it to purchase from the UK. This site is overwhelmingly made up of UK. based members so I think allowing non U.K. members who have posted an agreed minimum number of posts free access, seems perfectly reasonable to me. Their contributions in terms of knowledge is easily worth £10.

To clarify, I’m still happy to pay my £10 subscription/(donation towards the maintenance) using my UK bank account and will continue to do so.

If you’re using the cheaper threads like the ones sold in Lidl, I’d definitely start with changing the thread to a named brand such as Gütermann for both your top and bobbin threads.

Some computerised machines are much fussier than the older basic electric machines.

My computerised Juki won’t work with cheaper threads, even Coates, and regularly gets in a tizz but my Brother machine isn’t that fussy.

Is it specifically a 99K that you’re after or just a nice old straight stitcher in good condition?

I bought a Japanese made Novum from my local charity shop for about €3. It just needed a good clean and I replaced the motor with a new one and put an led bulb in it. It sews beautifully and isn’t a collectors item, so I could strip it and repaint in a fancy colour, if I want to without upsetting the purists.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sewing-Machine-Master-Guide-Expert-ebook/dp/B00FEX075Q/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1642756110&sr=8-1

I bought the Kindle version of this book as it contains some very handy info. on older machines. Although, maybe I got it free with my Prime membership?

@grannysyb

A Sloper is a generic pattern based on your measurements without any seam allowances or style.
It's the building block of all patterns, helping you to not only sew clothes, but design your own perfectly fitting pattern or help you to adjust ready made patterns to fit you perfectly.

Similarly a ‘block’ is the same sort of idea but includes some ease. I’ve tried making a block using my own measurements for designing trouser patterns, as it’s a fairly simple shape.

The link below might help to explain it in more detail?
https://sewguide.com/how-to-make-sloper/