on saturday morning i took my fit for purpose backpack, a collection of brooches, and my 10 ton sewing machine to the make, thrift studio in cricklewood, north london. yes, i took my sewing machine, on a walk, on a train, and underground, to a beginners sewing class on the other side of town, with daisy (who you might remember from the bookbinding workshop), soumya and heather, who i'd never met before.
i'd done a fair bit of sewing as a kid on my mum's well-kept singer, and also took home ec. while at school, so have a pretty good grasp of the basics. what i didn't think i had, was a working machine. i've had my victoria machine for just over a year, and in that time, i've used it once. well, tried to use it once. when i tried, the foot fell off, the bobbin got stuck and my vintage fabric was chewed into nothingness. after that, i dare not try again until i knew what i was doing. hence lugging it all the way across the zones.
well, wouldn't you know it, i damn well forgot to bring the foot pedal, so it was rendered bloody useless anyway. thankfully, daisy had -- oh, about eight other machines in her studio, so i was able to use one of those to work on my little projects. i took a few oversized cushions with me that needed resizing to suit our new sofa, and daisy had prepared a little bus-pass holder project for us too. she had some adorable cath kidston offcuts that were the perfect size, so we each got cracking on those, and were pretty happy with the result! (even if some of the stitching is a little less-than-perfect... i think it adds character!)
with endless cups of tea, a lot of laughs and some salted caramel choc chip cookies, daisy's tutoring was once again a lot of fun. time flew by, and before we knew it, our "four and a bit hours" had turned into "it's almost 5 o'clock and it's kind of dark outside". as we were leaving daisy had to do a quick inventory of her studio after i'd joked one too many times about stealing all of the bits and pieces that i'm sure she doesn't even know are there. her studio is essentially an entirely-thrifted front room, brimming with bric-a-brac and vintage treasures, as well as a borderline hoarder's paradise; full of beautiful vintage furniture, odd tea cups + saucers and lovingly handmade art just begging to be taken home...
well, i'm hardly going to admit it here if anything did make it home with me, am i? i'm not silly...
oh, ps -- if you're interested in taking your own refresher class, or just seeing what other workshops daisy has on offer, please head over to her facebook page and give it a like!
