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Blog Update: A Resurrection

Greetings gentle readers! It has been too long since I've sat and chatted with you all. (All three of you, but that just makes it more intimate and cosy!)

What have I been up to, you may well ask? Not a whole lot, if I'm completely honest! Obviously, the costume churn-out lost steam because I am o-so-good at making lists and never actually finishing them. And then...Covid. 

Honestly, in the last 18 months, other than the occasional mend or sewing up of a button blouse (to forever prevent gape-age), I have sewed... wait for it... a couple of masks and a microscope cover.

Sorry. I lie. I did finally finish the trim on the Beige Bustle.

Beige Bustle Front (Instagram)

One thing I have been doing is knitting, gentle readers. Knitting! Loads! I have a project page over on Ravelry, but I've popped some picspam below so you can see what I've done. And can I just say, OMG socks! I love knitting socks. The heel part is oh, so clever. In fact, knitting is just so clever. You can make things from string!

L-R: Victorian garters, headband for Chill, cardi for moi, beanie for J, lots of socks for mum

I have also been trying to reduce the clutter in my sewing room. I suspect it was all that STUFF in my sewing room which made really not want to go in there, ever. Except to dump more stuff. Which made me want to go in there even less. Except to dump even more stuff... See where I'm going here? Pre-Covid (as in, January 2020), I decided to have a major clear out. (Sorry, no before and after pics.) I gave away some fabric and patterns to friends and then I decided I should probably have a go at selling the rest. I could have given it all to charity, but I actually wanted some return on my initial spend.

So Gillian's Workroom was born. People, gloriously wonderful people, have been buying items I have accumulated over the years for projects. If I'm perfectly honest, I would need four lifetimes in order to finish all of those projects so I needed a shot in the arm of realism. If I can't make it in the next three years, it's going into the store. There is still more to add from the initial clear out.

In fact, I am still clearing out stuff. Grand Master J and I are working on a new sewing table with integrated underbench storage and I want to be able to have if not all, then a goodly portion of my fabric stored in there. I want to leave room on my storage shelves for other things like hats and other accessories for my costumes, somewhere to store my jewellery making supplies and sewing notions and that staple of every seamstress, the spare sewing machine.

But now I may need room for yarn...


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