I think you know I did a LOT of travel between February and
April – phew, thank goodness that’s over for a bit. Don’t get me wrong – I do love the travel,
but I also love spending time at home, quietly doing things that are important
to me...
Mum’s been ill again.
Well, not really ill I guess – as she kept saying, she felt fine. Except her heart, which normally beats at
around 45 bpm, decided it needed to again beat at about 190 bpm. She spent about a week in the Mater Hospital
before her doctor decided it’s time for a pacemaker. In her situation, a pacemaker keeps her heart
going at a faster rate so that they can give her drugs that will ensure her
heart rate is kept lower... sounds odd, but it’s working so far. Most people don’t need the pacemaker with her
condition because they have a normal heart rate. Hers is so low to start with it caused
issues!
Mum was quite calm about the pacemaker... I wasn’t.
I don’t think my brother was either.
Graham was okay... It turned into
a very long day. She was going to
surgery at 9.30 am. Then 10.00 am. Then 12.00 pm. Then 1.30 pm... She left at 6.30 pm, and then we had a visit
from a nurse in her room at 8.30 pm and she was still waiting to go into the
theatre. We went home. I rang when I got home at about 11.00 pm or
so and she had not long come back from theatre.
All was good.
Did you know – a pacemaker is fitted under a local
anaesthetic? How good is medical science
nowdays??? They gave her a good dose of
valium and a local, and she doesn’t remember much other than them sticking some
dots on her chest. I can tell you – I breathed
a sigh of relief. She now has a small 2
inch long scar near her collarbone – and that’s it. Amazing!
My hair is now back to falling out in great quantities. It’d only just stopped falling out from her
heart episode last Easter when it first happened and the associated stress that
went along with it. Bloody good thing I
have plenty of it to start with!!! I
think I might need to put some more enzymes down the drains – they’ll be
clogged up beyond all recognition otherwise!
Last weekend I went away with a gorgeous group of ladies
from my Craft Group in Pomona. We went
back to Cathy House in Tin Can Bay. It
was such a wonderful weekend – I can’t begin to tell you how nice it was to
spend the whole weekend being indulgent and doing craft and sewing. I went with not a lot planned, but some
material, some half baked plans, and my crochet. I actually got a LOT done.
I came away from the weekend feeling like I’d really
relaxed. I guess that’s what happens
when you spend the weekend sewing, chatting, and not doing housework, cleaning,
cooking or anything else! I spent it
with the most wonderful group of ladies – we had a lot of laughs, fun and
shared that “woman time”...
I made a few things (after not having much of a plan...)
· 3 x pin cushion/scrap & cotton bags (two of which are Christmas gifts – how organised!!)
· 1 x sewing machine cover
· Sewed all of the ends into my crochet blanket for the new baby entering Nicki’s life...
I then had 4 more squares to do for the blanket, sew them on
and weave in the ends and that was that.
(I’ve now done them but more on that another day)
I have been asked by some lovely ladies that I know from
Simple Savings and also from a wonderfully supportive Facebook Group to share
with them the pattern making and sewing up of the sewing machine cover. I’m not much of a sewer yet, but once I was
shown how to do this, it was really easy.
I just kept measuring and fiddling with a large piece of paper, and then
measuring it against my sewing machine...
This is how I did it:
Get a large sheet of newspaper, or other paper. It needs to be large enough to go over the
top of your sewing machine. I used a
piece about the size of a sheet of the Australian Financial Review as I have a
fairly small sewing machine. If it’s not
big enough, sticky tape the sheets together.
To cut the pattern, we’re going to work with your sewing
machine, so have it out on the table next to you or near you. First of all, we’re going to do the front and
back of the machine. We’ll worry about
the sides later.
Place one side of the newspaper on the table at the front of
the machine and lay the rest of the newspaper over the top of the machine. Mark on the back side where the paper hits
the table. I folded my newspaper edges
up with the centre seam of the newspaper sitting over the machine, if that
makes sense.
I folded the edges of my newspaper up so that I could make
sure that I got it right before I chopped off the excess paper. I also tried to get it close to correct size
at this point, and then when I was cutting out I just added extra then for the
seam allowance.
Measure your paper against the sides of the machine,
bending/folding the paper as best you can so that you wind up with an outline
of the shape of your machine. Cut the
edges off.
Now the handle. Feel
under the paper for your handle, and draw a shape so that your handle can come
up through the hole that you’ll cut in the top of the cover. That’s if you WANT to be able to leave your
cover on your machine if you’re taking it somewhere. You may choose not to have a handle hole –
it’s up to you. Cut out the handle hole
if you are making one.
You should now have a piece of paper that fits over the
front and back of your machine and has a hole in it for your handle (if you’re
going this way). Make sure at this point
you’re happy with your template. It
should fit over but not be too big.
Next is the sides of the machine. Grab another piece of paper, and do exactly
the same as you have for the front/back piece to make the sides. Be careful to mark which way is which (ie
front/back and which side is which) if your machine has a different shape about
it on the front to the back. I did a kind
of U shape for mine, but the front was more on a slope than the back which was
almost straight up and down. Cut our
your paper.
Now stand back as best you can with your paper on your
machine and have a good look about it.
Remember, once it’s all sewn up you won’t see minute little details, so
if you choose to do a U shape over your machine, and your machine is a little
different in shape, it’ll all be ok.
You should now have some papers that look like:
Next you need to cut out.
I cut out two sides and one front and one back. Even though the pattern is in one piece, I
still cut a front and a back as I had material that needed to be a certain way
up. Also I didn’t have enough of my
fancy material (I only had a fat quarter) so I joined up my fabric with a plain
bit in the middle and plain sides.
While you’re cutting, you’ll also need some Pellon cut to
all the same sizes as your front/back and sides. This machine cover is the Pellon on the
bottom against the machine, and the fabric on the outside and bias binding
around the handle hole and the bottom.
DON’T FORGET TO ADD YOUR SEAM ALLOWANCE BEFORE YOU CUT
ANYTHING!!!!!
Next I put the sides on the cover. I fitted them in so that they were even at
the bottom (I hadn’t managed to cut them the same length as the front/back –
mine were slightly longer!!!). I trimmed
them up once I’d sewn them on and had it straight so that the base was the
same.
Finally, I put the bias binding on the bottom of the machine
cover, and there you have it – one Machine cover!!!
I found it very important to iron everything as I was
going. It made it a lot easier to sew
things up when it was all nice and flat.
I have seen others put a flap over the top of their handle –
for now, I’m going to leave my cover like it is. I’ll let you know if I change it!!!
I used black bias binding around the handle, and red around the bottom. The photo above here you are looking at the front of my machine - the handle sits quite a ways back.
