Cheap Frills

Apparently, this is a ‘frilled shark’.  Blimey.

Go on, you  KNEW I wouldn’t be able to sideline this baby didn’t you?  Not a garment that is going to be assembled in a hurry of course, this is what I’ve been up to…

I assembled the princess-seamed upper section, tried it on and tweaked it in a tiny bit under my bum.  Then I assembled the lining to match, and needed to press it all…

Now, yesterday, when the missus was in manic Doris Day mode, cleaning the whole house ready for a visit from my parents, I tried to help [foolish error] by taking out the recycling.  We keep this in a large ‘paper’ sack which the dry cat food comes in, alongside my sewing area.  It was very full of Xmas recycling, and tipped to one side, knocking over the 3-fold screen I use to disguise the mess in there, and hang things on.

The screen capsized, and on the way down, knocked the iron off the ironing board.  Now being a clumsy oaf, I often knock the iron onto the carpeted floor, no harm, no foul.  THIS time it tipped and fell onto the corner of the treadle table, smashing the water reservoir to tiny smithereens in the process.

Jeez.  I walked away from it, muttering darkly.  After some swearing, I remembered that SOMEWHERE we have a spare iron, a crappy little lightweight thing that my ma won at bingo.  [She wins LOADS of crap at bingo, and passes it onto all and sundry.]

I couldn’t remember where it was, then had  a brainwave and found it in the wardrobe.  {Don’t ask]  This thing has never been used, and has travelled with us through at least two house moves.

I got it out, glanced through the destructions, filled the reservoir and plugged it in, returning to my stitching.

I soon became aware of a smell of hot plastic, and assumed it was just a new appliance warming up.  The smell got worse, and I realised that the ‘non stick’ sole plate was actually a piece of bloody plastic.  WHO PUTS PLASTIC ONTO AN IRON??

That took an hour of peeling, re heating, scraping, and cleaning.  I revived myself with some of my Xmas Armagnac and finished the job.

Nice- hand-picked zip and all.  For those of you who wince at my can’t-be-arsed approach to pattern matching:  get over it.  This will NEVER be worn without a top that covers this bit anyway!  AND there wasn’t enough yardage to bother.

Time was now ticking on, so I settled for sorting through the [long and complex] instructions and decided to tackle the odious fiddly job of narrow hemming the flouncy bits.  I did the easy bits first, and did quite well.

I have to tackle all those circular doughnut flounces next, but enough is enough, I’m not going to risk melting the damn things with a new iron!