Make(lounge) do and Mend...

I didn't think it at the time, but I was very fortunate to attend a school that taught us to cook and sew, but if you were also wanting to be an astro-physicist, that was fine too.  It was all girls, and yes - a convent!

I was, in the mid-80's, quite handy with a sewing machine, and I made a mean apple crumble (provided I didn'

t run for the bus with it afterwards) and as part of Textiles (or Needlework

 as it was then) I made a top and a suit.  Not bad for a 13 year old.  I also could speak 2 other languages at a basi

c level, write an essay about the Third Reich, and play hockey and netball as well!!

As with many skills you pick up in your teen years, the sewing kind of fell away.  Not fashionable, no need

, and no time.  I revisited cooking at University - or I would have starved...

When Pete signed his life away to become Mr and Mrs, we were fortunate to be given many John Lewis vouchers, and I ended up buying myself an Elna sewing machine.  It has basically gathered dust since 2003, and has had 2 outings.  1 bad attempt by me to make some curtains

, and Mum used it to sew our living room curtains.

Recently BBC London featured The Make Lounge in Islington, as there had been a rise in the "Make d

o and Mend" philosophy, linked with the Credit Crunch.  My attention was caught by the cushion they made, and made me think, "Hmmm..."

I scouted our local colleges for a sewing course to get reacquainted with my sewing machine, but there is barely anything... and recently I have found that around here it is almost like an underground movement!!  So I kept an eye on The Make Lounge's workshop, and got myself booked on a course for Wed 20th May, 6.30 pm.

Now that was a few days after pounding the highways and byways of London for the Moonwalk, so I hoped I could move by t

his point!  All was well, but the Victoria Line decided to go on strike.  This meant driving in, so I arrived eventually 10 mins late, with

 slightly raised blood pressure, and full of apologies.  Catherine and Lisa, our tutors for the evening, couldn't have been nicer!  Even better, Tea, Coffee, choccy biscuits and WINE was on offer!  Of which I didn't partake... damn tube strike..

Lisa went through the basics of a pattern, what we were going to do for our 3 hour session, which was make a basic cu

shion, out of 3 pieces of material, and a corsage to pin on top.

Once we chose our material from the 

amazing selection, we went through how to pin the pattern on, effective cutting techniques and setting up our machines.  

The 10 strong class set about carefully sewing a straight seam - some for the very first time, and others, like me, 

for the first time in quite a few years!!  After chugging through the first seam, I gained confidence, and Lisa and Catherine were on hand to offer advice.

One important rule Lisa emphasised was pressing the piece to ensure it was flat and the seams were as straight as possible.  This meant pressing the item several times, to ensure the best finish possible.

To create a corsage (flower) to attach to the completed cushion, we chose 5 strips of material that we liked.  You took them one at a time,  folded them over and cut out 2 petals on the piece.  Once unfolded, you had a line of petals joined together.  They were then drawn together and stiched to create a round shape of petals. 

You then piled the 5 separate ones on top of each other and sewed the whole piece together to create a flower.As time was getting on, Lisa showed us how to do this, and I packed mine away and completed it at home.

Finally we were given a cushion insert to put our cover around, and voila! A completed cushion!

I really enjoyed my evening there. The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed, and it didn't matter what your skill level was, you certainly left learning something, and a goody to take home!

Great idea for a place to go.  Check out their website on www.themakelounge.com

Moonwalk Complete!

I confess to writing this over 3 days since I finished the Moonwalk, and collapsed home into my bed! I wanted a couple of days to reflect on the experience, and not blog "Never Again!" straight afterwards, as I am sure were the thoughts of many of us who padded through London in our pink hats and corsetry during the early hours on Sunday morning!

The lovely Tina and Lizzy Needham picked me up with their Peter and we drove into London very excited, and alighted at Hyde Park. In the distance, a big Pink Tent loomed, with lots of other Moonwalkers in their White hats (Half-Moon) or Pink Hats (Full-Moon) queued (in very British, orderly fashion) to get through the entrance to Playtex city.

The wonderful Volunteers, who were ever present throughout the night, ushered us in, with big smiles and good luck wishes. Once in, we made our way to the food section, and collected a yummy pasta meal, which I knew would be vitally important later on in the night, especially for me. I was too nervous to eat last year, and only had a few mouthfuls, and later on I paid for it. So it was eaten, followed by the flapjack. The volunteers had also given us our space blankets and weather capes, and I was just wondering how on earth I was going to pack them into my already straining bum bag, when Tina came back from the stall with a present for myself and Lizzy - a lanyard and a WalktheWalk pin. The lanyard had a catch on the end, so the cape (and bizarrely) my sunglasses were put onto that, and my pin into my bag.

I had another friend participating the half-moon - Marissa, and met up for a quick chat and good luck hug. Then back to Tina and Lizzy, for the warm up and introduction to the evening by Nina Barough. I raced off to put my bag away and I was ready.

The power of Twitter

I had made contact through Twitter with a full-moon walker called Amanda (@MandyPandy32) who had been fundraising using Twitter. I had initially responded to a tweet (from Jonathan Ross - @wossy) saying I was doing the Moonwalk, and good luck. We kept in touch, and she had asked lots of advice, and we kept up to date on our training.

Once she learnt that I was walking the Full by myself, she asked me to join her and her friend Nicky, so I had company. The Full and Half Moon walks split at 9 miles, and as Tina, Lizzy and Marissa were also in a different group, I decided to walk the whole thing with Amanda, as I would have to face 17 miles on my own!!

Lizzy, Tina and myself wished each other luck, and I set off to find Amanda. The three of us got on straight away, and we headed to the start line. We crossed at 23.50 (sent off by Nina and her team) and headed out into the dark London streets.

Once thing to learn about the actual event, is that you don't walk as fast as your training walks, purely as there are thousands of people on the path with you! The Moonwalk stays to footpaths as far as possible, so overtaking slower people can be tricky. We settled into an easy rhythm, talking and contributing to Amanda's phlog - a phone blog which is run by ipadio. They were also geotagging our walk as we went. We averaged out about 18 mins per mile, and enjoyed the sights of London as we went. To see the phlog click here


The Fire Brigade lend us a loo... At about 10 miles we passed the London Fire Brigade on the Embankment, and Amanda pointed out that maybe they would let us use their amenities. It looked almost deserted as we approached, but we stuck our heads around to see about 6 other Moonwalkers' with the same idea! The firemen were very welcoming and showed lots of damsels in distress to the various loos around the station!! Thanks guys!  

Loo of death

After another stop in Battersea park for the loo (you do need to go a lot..) we found our next convenience in fashionable Chelsea... too far to the next organised, loos, so we queued (very British again..) but only had 2 x20p for 3 of us... Nicky and Amanda bravely squeezed in together and got out in time before the loo cleaned itself!

The three of us trundled on, and took pictures as we went. At 22 miles we made our last loo stop (again a very accommodating concierge at an apartment block) and we noticed that the "Powerwalking" technique had gone from most people, and everyone was walking with a slight waddle! (Can I point out that WalktheWalk did provide loos at different points, but there are never enough!) At this point I got a burning pain in my shin, then in my thigh. Muscle pull :-( Basically I gritted my teeth and got on with it - but boy it hurt!

Along the way at this point, many were redressing blisters by the side of the road, and there were a few tears being shed, mainly through pain or exhaustion. The amazing volunteers kept us going with encouragement throughout the night. We passed Big Ben for the 3rd and final time and headed on the home straight.


In St-James's park, Nicky's brother met us, and at the entrance to Hyde Park, there stood was Pete, Dad and my main reason for putting myself through this - my Mum. She wrapped me in a big hug, and I limped off having a little cry as I went. Pete shortcut through Hyde Park and photographed our big moment - getting to 26 miles.

Crossing the finishing line was fabulous, and there were more tears shed! We had been on the move for about 8 hours and on the course for about 9. We crossed the line at 8.45 am.

Eventually, Amanda, Nicky and myself hugged each other goodbye, and I set off to meet my family, to limp to the car with them! Home, hot bath, sleep... roast dinner (thanks Pete xxx).

Next day, I woke up, and I could MOVE! More than last year that was! So 3 days later, and some early nights I feel elated for the achievement, and in good nick.


Last year I walked by myself, plugged into my ipod, and although I was amazed I did it, walking with 2 others to chat with this year, made me realise that I was quite lonely last year, and it made it more mentally challenging. Thank you Amanda and Nicky, you were very lovely and good company xx

I spoke with Marissa the next day, and she really suffered blisters, but completed the Half-Moon in 4 hours, and Tina and Lizzy walked their part in 5 hours. I have to note here, Tina had shoulder surgery 2 months ago, and walked in a sling, so well done Tina!

So if I was to do it again: 1) Definitely invest in your trainers and socks - they have ensured I did not have too many blisters or aches and pains

2) Do the training - the big walks and at least one other training walk per week.

3) If you do it by yourself, have an ipod full of cheery tunes!!

4) Make sure you have energy bars - fruit and nut does the trick!

5) And as the compare said - "Tits n Teeth girls!" Chest out and keep smiling!!

Moonwalk is here!

Well today is the day! I haven't blogged for a bit, but since I last did, I completed a 16 mile training walk and a 22 miles training walk!

The 22 miles meant I was out on the road for about 6 and a half hours, with total walking time of about 6 hours 12 mins (rest was loo stops!)

I will say the 22 miles was a bit of a challenge mentally rather than physically. I had a new ipod (my birthday pressie from Pete) but it wasn't doing things it should do - or how I thought it should, so I was having to fiddle as I walked. The weather was also grey and overcast, and I had been very luck whilst training that the weather was good before.

However, getting across the doorstep at home was brilliant, and as usual my faithfully doggies met me with a big lick and paw and my bath was running :-)

Decorating the Bra

Now this has been a bit of a journey! Walk the Walk sent me a Wonderbra this year (oh please) and a Freya bra last year, which I didn't use and stored. I decided to dye both black and see which one I may use as I felt a bit self-conscious about the Wonderbra (those who know me well, will know why!!)

One thing that has changed about modern dyes, is that they don't dye man made fabrics. Cotton, linen and viscose or mixes of. So I ended up with a rust coloured Wonderbra, and a multi-coloured Freya bra (black cups, and the rest was interesting...). I then decided to dye the Freya again with a hand dye (having used machine before..)


So here was the bra after attempt one and the kit needed to dye it. So off I went, and dyed half the bath at the same time... And the damn thing came out no different.

I had to use plastic gloves whilst handling the dye, and accidentally put it on inside out when coming back to stir it...

So basically I ended up with a black hand. Not good as I had business meeing the next day!








I then got stuck in with a needle and thread a few evening this week and sewed fur, sequins, glass buttons, ribbons and glued beads on..

Work in progress...














And finally today - glued my final beads, and here it is!!











I have also been involved in twitter quite a bit and have met some people who are also doing the full walk - Tina and Lizzie Needham are doing the half moon, so I will go into London with them.

Wish me luck! I will blog tomorrow or Monday

Claire
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