The Great British Sewing Bee... An inspiration

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The Great British Sewing Bee is back on our screens!!! YAY FOR CRAFTY TV!!!!

I love watching the sewers every week, running around. I can't imagine how they cope with that sort of pressure - time constrained sewing?! Sounds like hell to me... I always like to take a break, eat a biscuit etc..

Of course, I've chosen my favourites already.

1) Neil. As a military child, of course I have to side with an army man. He uses military terminology (the word 'gopping' when describing the pattern he made his trousers from in week 1) and he is clearly a very skilled sewer. I found him instantly likable

2) Deborah. I love the way she dresses, and her personality is just so much like someone I'd want to be friends with. I love her. While at the moment her pieces have been a bit middling (apart from that beautiful dress from week 1) I really look forward to seeing more from her.

While I doubt I'll ever be good enough to try my hand at anything like the Sewing Bee, to me, it serves one, primary function of inspiring me to take up to my sewing machine and to attempt to sew myself  something that I could feasibly wear.

Now, I'm no beginner sewer, I've been sewing for eleven years. However, I am much more skilled at more, what I would deem 'simple' projects e.g. cushions and quilts. I always seem to get halfway through a pattern and then stop.

But not this time. I am determined. While digging through my stash, I found three uncompleted garments: a shirt that needs basic finishing (which I abandoned because I didn't have any bias binding), one skirt that was left with the pieces darted and tacked but never sewn (I was contemplating how to attach a zip), and another skirt that is basically just a gathered piece of fabric at this time...

I'm going to finish them.

Now that I have all of this time on my hands, and a huge stash of fabric, I thin it's high time that I did some selfish sewing. I'm always making gifts for other people: a quilt for the sister's birthday, a cushion for Mother's Day.... And that's just sewing! Admittedly, I have made myself cushions before, but I so very rarely knit something for myself - my Ravenclaw Scarf was quite an anomaly!!!

So I'm on a mission. To pay myself a little bit more attention. This year is going to be the year I actually make things for myself (I make this statement, because I actually have the time to do it... a novelty to any crafter, I'm sure!)

How about you? What do you think about this season's Great British Sewing Bee? Are you a 'selfish crafter'? I'd love to know.

Love, Rachel.

Love Letter

I love holding your hand. Quite simply. The way you manage to slip your fingers into mine when I'm not looking. Whether we're sitting side by side, or we're walking/I'm dragging you towards who knows what. I love the way our hands fold together quite perfectly. I've held other hands, and it doesn't feel the same. Other hands make my knuckles hurt, they dig into my skin. But ours are perfect. Which, yes, is strange, given the damage you did to yours. But to me, that 'flaw' makes your hands all the more perfect. They are unique. They are yours. And I miss them. It's been a long time since I felt your hand in mine. I wonder if I'm remembering it correctly. I hope I am. Because I truly love just holding your hand.

Love, Rachel.

New Plans

January 2015 will be one of those months I will wish to forget, but probably never will.

Long time followers of this blog will have noticed that I've taken a 3 month hiatus from any sort of post at all. It is in fact longer than that, as my scrapbook posts were scheduled. I stopped blogging when I went off to university. There just wasn't time anymore. I dropped my writing too in favour of societies and my degree. For the first time I felt that I had somewhere where I belonged, and overall it was a fantastic first term.

But then I developed glandular fever on Boxing Day.

I was all geared up for my second term, I had so many plans: I was on a committee for one of societies, I was going to play my first match for my sport team. But by New Years, I was feeling rotten. I was running a fever and I was just getting more and more exhausted.

I tried to return, I tried to attend my lectures, but they sent me home. That was three weeks ago. January has just been one long sleep, it feels like. I spend my days lying either in bed or on the sofa, with very little energy. I've made it through all ten seasons of Friends. I've watched films. I've slept more than I have for years.

One small blessing is that I have been just about able to handle scrapbooking. That has kept me sane. As I slowly regain some normality I hope to be able to share these with you.

Because I won't be returning to university this year. I'm just too ill. All my lovely plans are no more. And I'm heartbroken.

So 2015 is going to be a strange year. I need to sit down, take stock, make up some new goals and ambitions. Perhaps I'll discover this lovely little slice of my life and start blogging again. Perhaps I'll push myself finally and get into filming youtube videos. Perhaps I'll get round to writing one of the many novel ideas that have floated in my head for years. Perhaps I'll finally finish one of my scrapbook projects!

I don't know yet.

But it's going to take some getting used to.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Love, Rachel.