Stitching

It’s never too late to learn a new thing.

I drove down to Brighton to snatch a moment with Lou. She’s sick as a dog and still working, and she dragged me along for the ride.

“Are you ready for arts and crafts?”

She needed a proof of concept for making some deformed buttocks and bellies. I like to say “yes” to things.

This is a circular needle. We were stitching wadding together with them in contours. We measured it out, then cut an old tea box as a template. I learnt how to hold it and cut two at once without it slipping. With Lou’s top quality scissors. She’s precious about them. I got bollocked when I didn’t swap scissors for cutting the tea packet. “We should do a Shakespeare workshop next,” I growled at one point. But I made a kinda buttock type thing. It looks badly stitched but it holds together. Contours like on an ordnance survey map.

I’m glad I can still thread a needle by eye. My grandma used to get me to do it all the time. That generation were all making their own repairs, it skipped a generation or two but it’s back now with all the younguns. Lou takes patterns off things she loves and then bangs them out. I can barely sew on a button. Never too late to start something new. I’ll be on the sewing machines before you know it.

Now it’s an early bed and rest. We ate heartily and early – feed a cold they say. I arrived armed with painkillers, hankies and chocolates. We should both be asleep by 10. Long week next week.