So I am back in the car full time. For a great deal of this year-to-date I have had access to premises. I attended to the cat and defended said premises against the depredations of adult children, and this, for a total of nearly four months between January and July of 2023.
I really ought to have got more done. I have already recounted some of my systemic lack of facility with the WordPress. Add to that the insidious allure of the cable TV, and the first half of 2023 manifested no small quantity of vegetating. Which is not to say I got absolutely nothing done.
I hand sewed a new case for my car pillow.
It looks nothing extraordinary but I am very pleased with it. The print is a muted brown and beige, which blends inconspicuously with the vehicle upholstery. The previous case was faded and grubby and required me repeatedly to fold the long end into a tucked envelope.
This has an overlapping back flap requiring no such attention. The seams are all back-stitched and felled. There will be no raveling. And, so far, there is no sign of gaping, pulling, or any other sort of unseemliness. The sense of accomplishment gained from hand sewing a useful thing is substantial.
This article cannot be purchased from Bed Bath, nor Target neither.
It is almost exactly as I wanted it. I did fail in attention, and therefore measuring, resulting in an overlap of the back flap that is two inches narrower than I wanted it. The next case will be three inches shorter with a corrected back flap, and exactly what I need it to be, and another handsome article unavailable for purchase.
From the remnants, I am doing a small drawstring bag to keep a lovely big clanky jewelry jar necklace, that I have decided to keep, from scratching up its fellows in the trunk. It’s nearly done; only needs the two lines of stitching for the drawstring. Here I am challenged. I wanted to do a chain stitch, something moderately showy, after a fashion, and the chained side is adequate. The back side is decidedly, um, rustic looking.
The thing about hand sewing is that it’s not going to go real well right off the bat. You’re going to make messy seams before you will make clean ones. But I got inspired to take it up seriously, after some disappointing starts, when I stumbled upon some YouTube Ladies who are running fun channels on the subject. Has anybody watched any Bernadette Banner? The grief entailed in 1.6 million subscribers, I don’t even want to think about, and that may account for a little falling off in posting, but the archives are worth looking into. She will show you how to do a nice flat felled seam, and put you onto some fun purveyors of antique sewing stuff.
More inspiration is available from Morgan Donner. Both of them are very into historical costuming and faithful methods of reproducing same. All good stuff.
An Old Knitty Lady 