I'm never going on The Great British Sewing Bee!

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Many years ago, it must be about 15 years I think, I had taken my partner along to my favourite fabric warehouse, which is always full of amazing things. It’s really hard to get away from there without getting sucked in to buying something, and sure enough he was tempted and bought some fabric with a pattern of elephants on it, with the intention of making himself something to wear. Well he never did of course. The years went by and the fabric remained in my trunk with lots of other bits and pieces, all waiting for a suitable use or re-use. Then a couple of weeks ago I came across it while looking for something else, and I had the idea of actually making it into something and giving it to him for his birthday. After all he is a total nightmare to buy gifts for so this seemed like a really good idea! I went to our local sewing shop and bought a simple shirt pattern, thinking a summery shirt would be a nice surprise and of course a better gift in spring than at Christmas! But the next fortnight turned out to be rather busy. Then when I did actually get around to starting I couldn’t work out exactly what size to make. Of course I could have just asked, but that would spoil the surprise. I looked in his wardrobe – he only has a couple of casual shirts, one of those was labelled ‘M’ and the other ‘XL’. His work shirts were a 15 and a half inch collar size – what on Earth does that mean in terms of chest measurement?? When I finally worked it out I found that the pattern I had bought was too small and I should have got the bigger one. So off I went on my bicycle back to the shop and explained and they very kindly swapped it for me even though I had lost the receipt. Back home again I cut out the pattern pieces, ironed the fabric and pinned the pieces on and cut them out… of course the fabric wasn’t just simple cotton but instead some sort of rather flimsy stuff that kept slipping about and stretching in odd ways. Once I had the pieces all cut out I realised that the pattern on the breast pocket was totally out of synch with the rest of the shirt, so I had to cut out another and make sure the lines matched up properly. Then I pinned the first pieces together and at last I started sewing – but then my sewing machine (which is 40 years old and has been giving me some trouble off and on) started causing difficulties again. One seam would go OK, then the next the tension would be all wrong leaving huge loops on one side of the fabric. I spent ages adjusting the top and bottom tension and testing it out on spare bits of fabric, only for it to be fine for a while and then all wrong all over again – then of course I ran out of thread! At the end of the first day I was only ¾ of the way through. There is no way I would ever cope with something like ‘The Great British Sewing Bee’ – far, far too stressful! Day two was more of the same, but at last, after much tinkering, the machine seemed to be back on an even keel and I was able to finish the machining and then just hand stitch the last few bits and sew on the buttons (confusingly, the pattern called for four buttons but included five button holes…) The end result seems rather on the large side, even though it corresponds to the correct size according to his usual shirts. But at least he was happy with his surprise. I hope he gets at least some wear out of it. All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2023.