Most people learn a bit of sewing at school, not so for Number Two. So to remedy this, the pioneer couple went to Spotlight and decided that to learn sewing would require a machine and a project. A set of roman blinds would be the absolute business for the kitchen. Number Two fell in love with some fabric, some end of line fabric. Everyone always tells you to start with something simple, why do that when you can have a very small margin for error (like no more fabric in the country)? Makes things much more exciting.
So, after 10min of attempting to drive the sewing machine Number Two decides she has graduated from ‘how do I thread the needle’ to ‘show me the blinds’. To make her life more difficult she had of course fallen in love with some fabric with stripes, really obvious if you don’t get it right. Aside from some fun attaching the blinds to the wood block everything went reasonable smoothly, so of course the following day she decides she has graduated to bedroom drapes.
What better way to start a set of drapes than choosing a material with a pattern that forms horizontal and vertical stripes? Apparently the lessons learned with the roman blinds were short lived. In order to make sure our room stays nice and warm on those snowy evenings the drapes were thermal lined (makes life twice as fun). With a very high stud in the bedroom we needed 18m of fabric to make the drapes, the poor little sewing machine really had its work cut out. After a load of seams and arguments the curtains are up and looking quite successful – but Number Two wasn’t finished there.
Why just make curtains and blinds? What about making a suit? An evening spent on TradeMe turned up a delightful 70s suit pattern which Mystery DIY Man thought would look smashing at the races. A long trip to Spotlight found some truly amazing (and hideous) corduroy and orange lining fabric. When you decide to embark on one of these projects no one ever tells you how long you will spend cutting out patterns – it takes ages, don’t be fooled. Of course still failing to remember her earlier lessons Number Two picked some material with a pattern that needed matching. Progress was rapid until the hand sewing of the jacket lining (enthusiasm waned). Rather than getting everything finished, Number Two took a wee holiday (read 5 months) and has only just finished the last 6hour slog to finish the suit. As with all good first attempts the suit has a few interesting features: slightly funky pockets; odd sitting groin and a weirdly fitted zip. With suits ticked off the learn how to do it list the question is where to next?
