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Another day, and another machine going through the Michele TLC program.

This time it’s a Husqvarna Sew Easy 350 I’ve gifted to a dear, dear friend of mine and it was making a bit of a noise, but not anymore.

After cleaning, oiling and greasing she’s purring like a puddy tat and sewing beautifully.

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Stuffing a large bear is a LOT of work; please be patient until I stitch you all together.

Tools of the bear trade – spanner’s, awls and pokey thingies to help with the stuffing. This is an extra special bear to commemorate a lovely friends mom.  All the fabrics are from a loved ones wardrobe and used to create a special memory bear for them to cherish.

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The soaps I made in March are all packaged up and ready to be used.

A lavender colour soap that is a hot process recipe I made up to be a little like Savon de Marseille and a cold process Goat milk soap.

Wrapped in waxed paper rather than plastic and we can reuse the wrapping afterwards as well.

Soap making is such an amazing bit of kitchen science.  The hot process soap was a not very pleasant browny yellow colour and I want it to be green so I added some blue colouring thinking this would help make a nicer colour green.  Nope, it didn’t seem to do anything at all so I simply left it.  After a few weeks I noticed that it had started to change colour…mmmm, interesting!  So I turned them all over and left them a little longer.  Anyway, by the time it came to package them it was a glorious lavender colour 🙂  I adore this and am not sure if I will ever be able to recreate it.

The recipe I made also turned out to be a real winner with everyone that has used it.  This Savon is definitely going to become a regular make.

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This months ‘Handmade’ in @postcodecoffeehouse involves some very cute fabric I picked up at @aldiuk.

Good price for a nice product for small projects. Just making up a few samples of our project before I get super busy pattern testing again today.

If anyone lives in or near the Wigan area, I run Handmade to teach community to sew.  It is every 3rd Saturday of the month from 9am to 12.30pm at The Edge, Riveredge, Wigan, WN3 5AB.  Lovely coffeehouse on site for fabulous coffee, cakes and food too.  No matter what your skill level we can help or just have a good time socialising and getting to know other people who love to make and learn.

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You know in my last post I said we had weird neighbours….well, now we have a pair of ladies legs on our staircase 🤣😱.

Should I be concerned? Nope; they belong to the lovely @mrsnel_ …now I can happily make her jodhpurs while she is 200 miles away – hooray for a duck tape dummy 😁.

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Follow my new Instagram account at Michelesdestash.

A couple of pictures with explanations but please just ask if I haven’t explained it well enough.

All proceeds to fund an amazing charity and also my Grade II listed property restoration. Thank you all for following and sharing.

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I was testing for @freesewing_org.  Bonkers amounts of fabric needed for a very tall hubby.

It took hours and hours to cut the pattern, then the fabric and it felt like it took all day to iron on that amount of interfacing. All this for a toile 😱 hence the use of only iron on interfacing rather than canvas and pad stitching.

I LOVE having a tall and wide husband – except when it comes to the quantity of fabric required for his clothing. 😍

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A new acquisition – a Bernina 707 minimatic undergoing some maintenance before the Handmade workshop in Postcode Coffee House in Wigan on Saturday.

I adore vintage machines that are purely mechanical for our classes because there is not much that can go wrong with them, they are true workhorses and incredibly reliable.  These are amazing machines and wonderful to teach new sewers on.

I need a few more of these for my community sewing group, so if you know anyone with an old Bernina they no longer need please get in touch with me.

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I heard a rumour that the big yellow ball in the sky may be making a very rare UK bank holiday appearance! 😱 so in honour of this possibility and to give encouragement, I’ve decided that I need a pair of yellow checked pants 😁

This material has been in my stash for a year and I adore it. It was going to be for the children, but I’m making myself some @rebeccajpage #pippapants as well.  This is a super quick and easy make, and seriously the most comfortable pair of trousers I own.

Quick enough to zip together super fast before heading off to @abakhanfabrics where I bought it.

There is enough left over to make another few pairs for the children too.

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Having spent many happy hours putting together PDF patterns, I can absolutely say that you should NOT use glue.

I’ve used glue – your usual pritt-stick in a tube for a few patterns because it seemed easier at the time. However, in the long run it didn’t pay off because the next time I came to use the pattern half the sheets had come apart and more came apart as I was using them.

On the other hand, the tape always stays well stuck. I’ve used the opaque tape and the normal cello tape and washi-style paper tape, and none have been a problem. Therefore the verdict is TAPE, every time.

Today’s taping project is stuck using a few ‘borrowed’ rolls of tape from the children’s craft stash 😁