About Me

I've always LOVED to sew. It's so good to find, in a world of many distractions, that there are women everywhere, especially young women, who love to sew too.

The start of my own sewing adventure reaches so far into the past it even predates the mini skirt! My first machine was a secondhand tabletop model with a hand-wind sewing mechanism. On this dinosaur I made my first outfit at age fourteen in 1960.

The outfit was a trendy jerkin and straight skirt in a large houndstooth patterned, cream and chocolate coloured woollen fabric. My mother had made all my clothes up to this point on her Singer treadle machine, which she treated with great reverence and threatened dire consequences if my brother or I touched the tension, or indeed any other part of the machine. That Singer sewed a more perfect straight stitch than any machine I've ever since encountered.

When I began to get picky about the styles Mum wanted to sew for me she solved the problem by suggesting I (jolly well) make my own clothes. As I was deemed too untrustworthy to be let loose on the Sacred Singer, Mum purchased the above mentioned machine and, in spite of that unpromising start, I fell in love with sewing.

At age sixteen I graduated to a new electric Singer with a foot-operated button, not a great design, nor a great machine in general but an improvement on the hand operated job. I sewed myself silly. The house was awash with dropped pins and cotton threads, fabric scraps and pattern pieces. When my long-suffering family tired of this chaos, my sewing activities (and associated mess) were banished to my bedroom.

I made an outfit for every occasion: skirts and dresses for work, outfits for weddings, outfits for boat race day, outfits for the beach, party dresses, ball gowns, summer shifts and winter suits. At age twenty-one in 1967 I the made the big one: my wedding dress.

I upgraded to a Husqvarna 2000 machine sometime in the 1970s and I'm pleased to report that it's still going strong. It's seen times of extreme activity—such as making children's fashions for sale in boutiques and sewing for myself and my own children—and times of inactivity during my years of work as a garden designer. Now I've joined the ranks of the happily retired (and at last have a designated sewing room) the Husqvarna is once again in regular use.

I hope you'll enjoy sharing my ongoing sewing adventure.