100% progress

The knitting of the jacket is going okay but the slow movement of a mass of black wool isn't really fun to take pictures of. Instead I'd like you to meet my new sewing machine, Dolly.

I bought her from a shop on Imperial Arcade, my new favorite Huddersfield street, and have been gushing and working on simple sewing projects ever since.

One of the first things I did was sew some lace round a dress. Not just any dress. The dress started, at least twenty years ago, as a dress my Nan bought. She bought two. The second unaltered one has become The Black Dress of my wardrobe. And I have lots of black dresses - Slutyer ones, shorter ones, gothyer ones – but that one is The Black Dress. The dress I wore last valentines day. The Dress.

I like it, okay?

Nan didn't like it so much. She sewed up the split and turned the hem up. Possibly on the very machine that I played under when I was a kid. I made up characters for her bobbins and massive spools of thread (stuff likely got cheep from nearby factories) and had them interact and gave them complex social structures.

I got the dresses and I have intended to decorate the smaller dress for years. I gave it a bit of lace and I'll probably embroider or appliqué something on the front.

But until I decided on that I needed some skirts. The first I made was a red houndstooth a-line skirt. Pattern courtesy of Yeah I made it myself.

Then I found some funky fabric on an Asian fabric stall on the market. £10 for a suit so I have a purple, a sheer black with... those flowerey things, and a purple with sparkles. I popped the sheer black on top of the purple and made 'A Fairly Gathered Drawstring Shirt' from the same book.

After visiting the Maritime Museum I ended up with a wonderful shirt that said “100% Cotton” I'm from Heywood, it was on sale, we were made for each other. Only I had to resize it, punk it up ('ties to die for' from Generation T), and goff it up by embroidering a little skull on it. Then I noticed my heart shirt was looking a little small. So I pulled off the collar and cuffs and put in some ruffles. And girly bows.

Yesterday we went to the Musbury factory shop and my Dad, very kindly, bought me some fabric he hated. Would the red/black/white one be too much as a dress? And if that isn't enough I'm also in the process of Mod Podging some news print onto old ballet flats.