New Year, New Heirlooms…

I have a recurring dream.  The details vary, but I’m desperately trying to arrive somewhere for an appointment.  Try as I might, I can’t make any progress.  Sometimes I’ve parked my car and can’t find it again.  I’ve had this dream so often that I looked it up in a dreamer’s dictionary.  Apparently it’s very common in midlife.  It symbolises an awareness that time is running out, and a sense of urgency to achieve something before it’s too late.  Yes, indeed, I can identify with that interpretation.

In the run-up to Christmas I experienced a real-time variation on this dream: assembling my Christmas stockings.

Yes, I know, I started them in July!  And you’d think that was allowing enough time to complete them…

But, no.  Apparently not.

It was the making up that threw me.  As you perhaps realise by now (ahem!) I don’t always enjoy this stage of my needlework projects.  I have very high standards.  A millimeter out here or there doesn’t bother me (well, not too much) but glaring errors and shoddy work are more than I can live with.  It would, for ever, be all I could see when I looked at the finished project.

I’m sorry, but I’m a Virgo.  And there’s an end to it.

So – there I was with four beautifully executed front panels for four Christmas stockings.  All I had to do was cut backs to match, making sure the weave of the fabric was perfectly straight (horizontally and vertically) so that I could embroider a dedication patch in the centre of the ‘leg’ of each one.  Then I had to sew together the front and back of each one, capturing between them a twisted cord which was attached for ease of use (ha ha!) to a tape of the same colour.  Then, with my stocking formed, I had to fold over and hem down the upper edge, and attach more of the cord around the top.  I did all of this using just one piece of cord per stocking, measuring around two metres.  Next, I took more of the same colour cord, but this time not attached to the tape, and I used this to form a loop for hanging.  Are you still with me…?

I kid you not.  This – for four stockings – took in excess of twenty-five hours!

There were many reasons for this.  The attention to detail, yes.  But also I kept doing it wrong!  I was unhappy with the placing of a line of text on one of the dedication panels, and had to do it again.  I embroidered another of the dedications on the wrong side of the fabric, so that the toe was pointing the opposite way on the back from the front.   Obviously, that had to be unpicked – I mean, seriously, this has nothing to do with being a Virgo!  And that cord mounted on tape? – well it was nothing short of a nightmare to work with.  In fact, after spending five hours assembling one of my stockings I took it all out the next morning and did it again.  Nancy Sinatra’s boots may have been made for walking, but these stockings are apparently intended only for one step forward, two steps back.

By Christmas Eve I knew I wasn’t going to finish them in time.  I decided to get all four stockings up to the stage described above, leaving the linings for completion at a more leisurely pace in the days after Christmas.

Throughout the afternoon I kept dipping into the Norad Santa Tracker to watch Father Christmas as he made his way around the world delivering presents.   It was twenty minutes past midnight when I finally heaved a huge sigh of relief after attaching the hanging loop to the fourth stocking.  Just as I did so, I checked Santa’s progress.  He was flying over the English Channel, heading straight for us.  Phew!  Just in time!  I set the four stockings under the tree and went to bed!

The photos in this post show two completed stockings – one for my elder son, the other for me.  Below, you can see the lining and the cords of mine.  Each one is lined with 100% cotton to match the coloured cord selected to complement each design.  A heavy curtain lining is placed between the inner and outer layers.  The linings of the remaining two still need a little tweaking before I’m happy with them.  I’ll show them to you in my next post.

So now, all that remains for me to do in this first post of 2012 is to wish you all a good year.  To be honest, 2011 was not the best for me, and the Christmas period followed suit with the unexpected passing away of a member of my extended family on Christmas Day.  Apologies to everyone that I should have visited but haven’t.  I will try to get back to it all within the next few days.

Wishing you all

A Very Happy New Year!

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