Last year I paid a little over £90 to have a burnt-out capacitor repaired on my 1970's Singer.  This chap:

http://www.sewingmachinebox.co.uk/

Been in the business since the 1970's and very knowledgeable.  Baldock is up the A1, the other side of the motorway from Letchworth, so not impossible if you're north of the Thames and fancy a trip or two to leafy Herts :-)

Love that biker jacket.  I have some fuchsia wool in the stash that would work a treat....

Still no joy with Firefox but now in Edge and it's working fine.  Very odd but manageable.

About keeping cards close to one's chest, I suspect the fear is that if the boss trained someone else fully in how to do the trade secret stuff, the trainee could be liable to poaching by a competitor.

@Bumblebuncher Yup - I do that on bodices that need to withstand some serious lacing!  For the eyelets on this costume - it has an adjustable waist at the back and detachable sleeves - I used DH's granny's tailor's awl to make the holes.  This is a lovely mother-of-pearl handled item with a not overly-sharp point that separates the threads without cutting them.  Granny, who died about 1995, was a Bond Street tailor but by the time I met her she was an old lady who had given up any sewing other than small repairs.

This is the costume I made for a friend who is going to the Czech republic in a couple of weeks for a 30 Years' War festival.  It was delivered at a re-enactment event at the weekend and here is the happy camper wearing it.

I did the cartridge pleats at waist and knee by hand.  I shouldn't have bothered.  The breeches are made of linen so the pleats just crushed down.  Next time I'll hand-gather them but the waistband is going to be attached using the machine!

@Ouryve - you are quite right.  There are references to the new series all over google but there's nothing about it in the EPG out to next Monday evening and nothing on iplayer.  Blue Lights finishes its run next Mon at 9pm - maybe that slot is where it's going to go.

I just couldn't.  I find the slap-dash way they are forced to work irritating.  Home sewing is a leisure pursuit to be pursued at one's own pace.  With me, if I'm on a short lead-time I don't get time to think things through and I invariably make a mess of something or another. 

In fact, I went out and *bought* a skirt a few days ago simply because all my skirts suitable for a funeral no longer fit, and I need one within ten days, four of which are holiday weekend away and I haven't any suitable fabric in the stash in any event.  The skirt wasn't overly expensive but it isn't lined either.  It will be the first time I've worn a non-re-enactment skirt since the last funeral I went to, over a decade ago!