Shoshiplatypus

What’s On Your Workdesk this Wednesday?

Another really late post! Not many minutes till the end of the day…)

Chaos Left:

My normal mixed media and papercrafting desk has turned into an overspill desk for my sewing project…

and Chaos Right:

This is my normal sewing area, with the sewing machine across the corner.

I am happy to say that at long last I think I have got the hang of my new sewing machine. It’s not that new now, actually – I got it several years ago after my beloved Pfaff bit the dust after forty faithful years. It had been my 21st birthday present from my parents and it died because of the failure of one small part which was no longer available. The sewing machine repair engineer scoured the Internet for an old machine to cannibalise but without success.

I got my new Brother machine and spent the next several years being terrified of it! I didn’t use it often enough and every time I did use it, I had to get the book out… I am now using it with a lot more confidence and appreciate just what a good machine it really is.

Tudor gown

I am making good progress on this project. I am trying to do at least a small amount each day, because it is now less than a fortnight until the event for which I am making it – a Tudor banquet at Trerice in Cornwall, owned by the National Trust.

For full details of my progress, please see my posts prior to this one. Over the past few days, I have been working on the main sleeves, and after a lot of thought and a few false starts, have got them how I want them.

Note the seam along the upper surface of the sleeve, with the traditional slits to reveal the sleeves of the chemise underneath.

I stuffed some pink material into the sleeve to show the slits better.

My original plan was to make the sleeves from some dark red velvet fabric from an old cushion cover, but there wasn’t quite enough fabric for that. The plan now is to use it to trim the oversleeves.

Attaching the sleeves was a bit problematic because my original idea of attaching them with ties did not work. The only suitable ribbon I had was rather wide and the bows were far too prominent, and also they tended to slip. After having sewn them all on by hand, I had to unpick them, and I sewed the sleeve pieces together at the same point instead, and embellished the join with beads.

I have solved the anticipated problem of the sleeves pulling the shoulder straps of the bodice down from my shoulders. A simple, if somewhat crude solution!

Looped through the shoulder straps at the back of the bodice is a wrapped cord necklace! It works a treat, even if it looks awful. It will be covered by the veil of the French hood so I’m not worried about it. The main thing is that this problem is now solved, and it’s easy to put on and off which helps – my idea of pins turned out to be quite impossible.

Working on the oversleeves

I’ve gone from pillar to post with the oversleeves, and whether even to make any at all, and in the end have decided to make them, but smaller than on the original portraits, and easily put on and off. From being completely undecided as to what fabric to make them from, I am making them from the pink scarf which was part of the charity shop haul, and to trim them with the cushion cover fabric. They are being lined with more of the fabric from the  quilt. There was not enough of the pink satin on the back of the quilt, which I used to line the skirt, so I have cut some of the slightly different pink satin from the front.

Here you can see one of the oversleeve pieces with iron-on interfacing attached. The fabric on its own is incredibly soft and floppy and really difficult to work with, so it needed stabilising. You can also see the lining material.

This is how far I got with the oversleeves up until last night.

This afternoon I have been working on the bands to go round my arms just above the elbow. I made these from some more of the basic curtain fabric, stiffened with a little waistband buckram, and joined with a short length of elastic to make them easier to put on and off, and to make them more comfortable to wear. I am sewing the back edges of the oversleeve below the band. No photos yet.

The bands will be embellished with braid, and the front edges of the oversleeves will be trimmed with the velvet cushion fabric.

The final steps of this project will be to make the French hood and to add the embellishments – braids, pearl trim, etc. – and to do some jewellery mock-ups. I’ve already got some thoughts on these.

It is now less than two weeks until the event, so I’m going to have to pull out all the stops to get this finished in time. I hope by next Wednesday to have it completed so I can show it to you! Then, after the event, there should be some pictures of it being worn by yours truly.

Health update

I have got an appointment for next Wednesday at the Physio department at the hospital for my incontinence. It’s going to be a bit weird because it’s a group session, and then if they think it’s necessary, I’ll have a further one-to-one later.

On the previous day, the pants lady is coming back to see what needs to be altered on the new pants they sent, which don’t fit properly.

Setting my alarm clock for 10 p.m. seems to be working, and I am now remembering to take my headache pills on a regular basis! (That is, if I remember to bring the alarm clock downstairs in the evening! Perhaps I need another alarm clock to remind me to do that…)

Food

Recipe of the week

Leek and potato soup and sourdough starter flatbread

I have no idea where I got this leek and potato soup recipe from. I have had it for years, and I don’t think I’m breaking any copyright rules by giving the whole thing here, because it’s pretty basic and there must be hundreds of similar recipes.

Ingredients

2 large leeks (approx. 500 g), sliced

1 onion, peeled and chopped

(A little olive oil – I omit this)

2 veg stock pots

1 litre boiling water (I use home-made veg stock and omit veg stock pots)

1 large potato (approx. 250 g), peeled and chopped

100 g frozen peas

Directions

1. Fry leeks and onions (in oil if using, or dry sauté) until soft.

2. Add water and stock pots (or home-made veg stock) and bring to the boil.

3. Add potato and simmer for 10 mins.

4. Add peas, bring back to the boil and cook a further 3 mins.

5. Liquidise.

This soup freezes brilliantly, and is thick, creamy and delicious. A real winter warmer, and dead easy to make.

Sourdough starter flatbread

Sourdough starter is just flour and water mixed, and left to stand, and the natural yeasts in the flour and in the air do their magic and cause it to ferment. This is the basis of sourdough bread. You have to take some out on a daily basis, and then feed it with fresh flour and water (or less frequently if you keep it in the fridge which slows the fermentation) and after a few days, it starts to bubble and grow, and it smells deliciously yeasty. I always use strong wholemeal bread flour. Once you’ve got it going, as long as you feed it and look after it, it will last for many years! It seems a shame to waste what you take out when you feed it.  I have a number of recipes I can use it in, and the other day I came across an idea just to pour it into a large frying pan and make flatbread with it! I decided to give this a try, and first of all I fried some chopped spring onions, peppers and garlic and mixed them into the sourdough starter together with some dried herbs and seasoning, before tipping the lot back into my non-stick sauté pan, covering it and cooking it over a medium heat for about 40 minutes, turning it over a few times.

I tipped it out onto a board and cut it into quarters, and we had these with the soup. Deeeelicious!! This bread doesn’t rise much and is quite dense, but it’s fairly thin and flat, and you can just rip bits off and eat it. You can put in any odd bits and pieces of chopped vegetables and herbs or spices that you have handy, or just have it plain.

If you haven’t made any sourdough starter, I suppose you could just use bread flour (preferably wholemeal) and water mixed, with perhaps a bit of baking soda.