Shoshiplatypus

I must apologise for not visiting people last week, and for not replying to the lovely comments I received, but I’m going all out on trying to finish the Tudor gown in time for Saturday.

What’s On Your Workdesk this Wednesday?

The usual chaos, with some new additions!

On my desk you can see my brand new Tonic Glass Media Mat which arrived in the post yesterday. Also, a Distress Sprayer and some Distress microglaze which arrived at the same time.

Ever since these came out, I have wanted one of these mats. My poor old craft mat had got into a really sorry state, and I love all the features on this new glass mat. I am not keen on cutting on glass because I think it blunts the knife more quickly, and I shall continue to cut on a self-healing mat which lives on the pull-out unit to the side of the main desk. If you haven’t seen these new glass mats designed by Tim Holtz, there are lots of videos online about them, and what you can do with them.

I have lots of paper projects brewing for the near future and this mat will be ready for use when the time comes! Another bonus is that my hubby is giving it to me for Christmas. Something I really need to get on top of once the Tudor gown project is out of the way, is another card factory. My stash of cards is now very low indeed and mostly made up of cards I wouldn’t want to send anyway because there are things wrong with them!! It will be fun to get back to my desk again once all the sewing debris has gone.

I also need to have a huuuuge clear-out and tidy up, because the room is in utter chaos with heaps of stuff everywhere.

Tudor Gown

Things are really hotting up on this front now, with only a few days to go before the Tudor banquet down in Cornwall. On Monday I was getting a bit panicky, wondering how I was going to finish it in time, but over the past couple of days I’ve put in a lot of work and the end is in sight. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen extra work involved with the sleeves (please see my previous post about this), I have not managed to complete the whole project in time for today’s WOYWW blog post but I do have further progress to share.

The sleeves and the oversleeves

This picture shows one sleeve right way out and the other inside out, to show the cuffs and puffs.

The oversleeves

Here is the bodice with the main sleeves.

Yesterday I made huge progress on the French hood. I haven’t blogged about that yet, but here it is – I have yet to make the black veil to attach to the back.

There will be plenty more photos of this. I am mega-pleased with how it has turned out, and how well it sits on my head, with the aid of the wire hair band to act as a base.

I have also started adding some braid onto the bodice. I’ve had great fun rootling around in my stash, finding things that will work! I am also very pleased with how the pearl trim goes on – no problems there – I had visions of this being rather difficult.

Food

No recipe this week – I’ve been too busy sewing! Also, my hubby has been out a huge amount this past week (on Monday he had two Christmas dinners!!) so I’ve just been catering for myself much of the time, and not spending precious hours in the kitchen which have to be spent on the Tudor gown project.

The only thing to report on the kitchen front is that my wonderful Froothie Optimum high speed blender has developed a fault. This is a major disaster because it is in constant use! I’m in contact with the company in the hope that it can be repaired. I need to find the paperwork so I can tell them when I bought it, but it was back in 2015 so it will be out of warranty now. I really don’t want to have to buy a new one because this is a pretty expensive piece of kit. In the meantime I am using the bullet blender which is an accessory for my Veggie Bullet machine. This works pretty well, but everything takes much longer because the goblet is so small that you have to process things in batches. It’s also not as powerful, and you cannot use it for sustained periods because there is a danger of overheating.

Health Update

This afternoon I have got my bladder appointment at the hospital – the group session. Depending on how things go later, if I have time, I may edit this post and give an update on that. The GP phoned me on Friday when I was out, and I phoned the surgery on Monday, and he is going to phone me sometime this morning before I have to go out. He had left a message wondering if there was any feedback from my appointment last week, but all I can report so far is that the appointment has been set up. Nice of him to phone and find out how things were.

Pants

The lovely lady from the support pants company came to see me again yesterday and she’s added a few notes to my form, and taken the new pair of pants away with her. She has made a special note that this is an urgent job and she wants me to have the first pair by next week. If they are OK, all I have to do is phone her and let her know and she will set the wheels in motion. Again she was so apologetic about what had happened. She said that another customer had asked for lace and they hadn’t put it on. She is busy on the road all day, visiting customers, and has all the interface with us, and it must be as frustrating for her as it is to us when the folk in the workroom don’t follow the instructions! It’s not as if they were very complicated or very long – simple instructions, with alterations marked on a standard drawing of pants front and back. It really couldn’t be easier.

Once they get them right, they are brilliant. They are also beautifully made and finished, and they really do a good job at support, and most of the time I am not really aware of my hernia. It is also really lovely having the fitting lady coming to the house – a bit of real old-fashioned individual service which is soooo rare these days! I certainly can’t fault the company in this regard – it is second to none.

The fitting lady got a view of my Tudor gown today! She really liked what I have done so far. She was also thrilled to see the kitties again, and took a photo of them snuggled up together on the chair, oblivious to the wind and rain outside!