making things a 'hole' lot better!

Some years ago, when in a charity shop, I came across a modern punky interpretation of a woman's kilt in a dark grey, black and cream tartan. A heavy full skirted affair cut across the bias with a multi layered handkerchief hem.  

I loved her. She twirled and swirled and hung with a weighted and rebellious charm.

Then, for some reason she seemed to migrate to the back of the wardrobe. Quietly becoming invisible and then forgotten.  

One winter we had a terrible infestation of clothes moths and several items of clothing were rendered as holey as sieves. Some were given careful repairs, others thrown or repurposed and one or two mended very visibly with joy and defiance.

Couple of years later, now that I am at home and feeling feral and free (although my freedom slightly curtailed by truculent weather) I decided to continue with my 'operation de-clutter' and targeted my wardrobe. EVERYTHING was hauled out and piled on the bed, then the space was given a wipe down and refresh. 

Now I was ready to go through each item of clothing.

I was honest with myself - would I really wear that again? Does it still fit? Do I actually still like it? Did I like it in the first place? By the end I had a large pile for the charity shop, a small pile for the bin, a clean and surprisingly well arranged row of clothes ...... and my skirt ... which had inexplicably been missed when I did the clothes moth check.

My skirt seemed to have been feasted on by the clothes moth caterpillars and created a rather 'fetching' network of holes on one side. There was only one thing for it - reach for my embroidery thread and repair all the holes with love and defiance.

Randomly selecting a colour then enhancing each munch hole and adding little seed stitches around kept me busy for a couple of evenings (especially as I had to unpick several embellishments coz I stitched them inside out - duh)

15 holes later - I was done.  All my skirt needs now is a wash and a light press and she is good to go! 

I might just be wearing her again a lot more this year!

Have you been mending?
It is certainly a form of rebelling against fast fashion.

Did you also get 'mothed' a few years ago? - I remember the infestation even made the news!

Is it still raining where you are?

It is here and us three - Pan, Willow and I are heartly sick of it. We do all still go out but - enough now!

Not quite as planned

Today has been an odd day, one that any plans, simple or otherwise have taken a journey of their own and despite all good intentions - 'things' have happened.

An entire can of carpet glue exploding upstairs and spiralling furiously as it sprayed the stickiest 'web' everywhere until it expired

A water pipe being pierced by a nail by a previous unknown workman and on removing the nail some decades later - a present workman created an unwelcome water leak. He was horrified and very apologetic even though it was not him.

Decades old pipes, wires and a 1976 newspaper lying amidst so much filth and dust between the floorboards that it felt like an archaeological dig rather than a repair job

A lemon drizzle cake - usually the mildest and meekest of bakes - fought back and caused so many deviations that subsequently a lot more washing up was created.

All this before lunch............

And now, sitting on the floor, listening to the ice melt dripping, the neighbour drilling and the radio churning out over-cheerful yabba, I am mending Himself's hat. 

And it suddenly feels a whole lot better.

That's wot you said

I work with a bunch of folk who have certainly had life hurled at them and not necessarily in a nice way, yet they seem to surface through all that rubbish and blossom and grow whilst they work in the walled garden (puns fully intended). They are from all walks of society and bring with them their dialects and idiosyncrasies. 

Over the three years I have worked with the volunteers, some drop out fairly quickly, others stay for just the better weather whilst a few - a hardy few - land whatever the weather and what ever tasks I put to them with cheerful gusto. They are precious.

I have had to learn to be 'bilingual' and I say that slightly tongue in cheek as we all speak English but the variations and deviations within that language are far ranging ... very far....

I'll explain....

Lal (pronounced like the American 'ya'll') means little. Let me put that in context.

'Na then, I'll be a lal late on Friday, got t'dentist ta go to'

Then there is ... cockled up. This one had me confused for a while, so I would nod and listen to the full sentence and hope that helped (this method does not always produce what I need to know with some rather interesting results!)

'Me brovva-n-law was cockled up on t'sofa las' night,

he'd 'ad a bevvy or two and wuz not fitfer purpose' 

This one roughly translates as ... my brother in law fell asleep on the sofa last night because he'd had too much to drink and was not able to walk/drive/talk etc

This is one of my favourite - 

'I wuz gobble smacked' - I was utterly shocked!

Having said that, I have heard the term 'gob-smacked' (meaning the same) however the extra gobble really makes it for me!

There also several terms of endearment such as 'Cocker, Me-cock, Petal, Yas a Gud-un, Luvvy, and if you have been a bit of an idiot there is ... divvie, pillock, wazzock and slummock. And if you have made some one's day or made them laugh you are ... cracked or reet cracked. I like being one of those - cracked - I know I have made it if I have been called that.

Post Script - have I mentioned how much I love what I do and where I work? and yes, I am (attempting) to sew. That adventure warrants a post of it's own - that is if my sewing and I manage to get on.... watch this space.