Most people don't even know that they exist. They just blindly assume that clothes are made in large factories, or occasionally by enterprising grandmothers. And they're right of course, but the real sewing goes on when the workers clock off in the evening, and the lights dim.
The elves creep out from the nooks and crannies and settle down to the serious business of inserting a bound pocket, or the impossible task of fitting a sleeve cap in without getting any tucks. Fuelled only by what they can find in the tea room's biscuit tin, these elves create magical garments.
I've been making my own clothes for more years than I'd like to admit, but since having children, I'd had to rely more and more upon those helpful little elves. I'd like to take all the credit, I really would, but it wouldn't be fair. They deserve to have their story told.
Tonight I'm going to leave out a 1.5m of cream quilting fabric, and the same length of supersoft polyester wadding. I want to make a coat for my daughter, Ellie, who was two at christmas. I'm using the cream fabric for the outer material, and the patchwork style fabric for the lining and details like the collar.
Now I can claim credit for the pattern, which was painstakingly drawn out on a big roll of paper.(If you leave out pencil and paper for an elf, you just get left with a big mess.) As I was doing this during the day, the pattern was enhanced by wax crayons by Ellie, drooled on by my 6 month old baby, Nancy, and both cats, Max and Paddy, rolled on it at some point!
I decided to quilt the outside fabric rather than the lining as I want to put little welt pockets in the front and I want Ellie's hands to stay warm.
I've also left out this homemade chocolate muffin. I stocked up my baking cupboard recently, and have an obscene amount of sprinkles and chocolate chips, so you can expect to see some pretty overloaded cupcakes in the future. This cake looks understated, but contains both plain and chocolate chips!
Now I just have to wait...
