Singing in the rain

I like rain. I'm used to it. After all, I'm from the Lake District originally. When it's too dry (as it usually is round here during the summer), I get twitchy. We had one summer a couple of years ago where it was so

I, Spy (part 2)

When you are dressing a steampunk spy, then naturally he has to have an authentic Victorian shirt. There was a further small consideration, in that Mr Wooster doesn't wear neckwear; this is entirely understandable, as spies have enemies, and naturally he doesn't want to make it

I, Spy (part 1)

The other day I briefly mentioned having made a Victorian shirt for a cosplay. Time to talk about that a little more, methinks. I am a very big fan of the webcomic Girl Genius, which is described as a "gaslamp fantasy", but if I tell you it'

This top is pants!

I mentioned in passing the other day that Stroppy Sibyl the Cranky Colostomy requires a pad held over her at all times, in case she blows. (Which, in fact, she has just done; I will spare you all the gruesome details, but suffice it to say the pad helped a

With an independent air

I don't dislike the big pattern companies. After all, one of my favourite patterns is a Burda. But, nonetheless, I find that most of the patterns I buy these days come from the independents, like the five pictured above. It took me a little while to work out

In chains of gold

I'm short-sighted, basically. With a small side order of astigmatism, but not enough to make a great deal of practical difference. I first noticed when I was about ten or eleven, and spent a long time trying to convince my mother to take me to the optician; but

In the pink

The demographic round here is a little odd. Not so long ago I was told that there were more under-1s here than over-55s; I don't know if that's still true, but we do have an awful lot of toddlers in this area, and our church reflects

Toile and trouble

This is d'Artagnan. If you're not a fan of baroque/early music, you almost certainly won't recognise him; if you are, you'll be doing a huge double take right now, and asking yourself "is that really...?" Yes. Yes, it is.

Feline groovy

Here's the poncho from that Burda pattern of which I showed you the top yesterday, made in a black deadstock chiffon with what they call a foil overlay. In effect it's a metallic gold surface print; it's so fine it doesn't really

Going for gold

While I do have a preference for independent sewing patterns, for reasons I'll probably go into at some point, that doesn't mean I never use the major brands. This one is Burda 6589 (and, yes, I made the poncho thing as well, but I want to

Absolute Bliss

You may already have noticed I like knitting cables. In fact, I don't knit anything other than cables (there is one person in the world for whom I would be prepared to knit Fair Isle... but only one). And I don't know how many times I&

Where did you get that hat?

Many years ago, when acrylic yarn was always pretty horrible but it was the only thing I could afford to knit with, I designed and knitted a V-necked slipover using the traditional Irish cable pattern "Homes of Donegal". Fast forward a few decades. I've put on