My achievement!

All my life I've felt very inept with sewing. I think it's because I was always the slowest in class in needlework - the teachers got so fed up they used to send my work home with me to finish. My Mum used to then help me to do it as I had no talent at all. She used to exclaim that she had to make her stitches deliberately uneven in order to match my efforts! Mum had actually wanted to be a dressmaker, but couldn't get training because of the war. She always loved making things though and most of my dresses/coats etc were made by her when I was little. The last dress she made for me was when I was 13, when she then decided that her skills were not good enough and took me to a professional dressmaker after that. However, I always felt a bit disappointed that I hadn't inherited her considerable skills with the needle.

When I got married, I managed to sew buttons on and do very minor repair jobs. Anything more complex would have to go to Mum! When Paul was young I did manage to make him one soft toy from a kit - a guinea pig! This is probably the only thing I've done since then - my little red reindeer. This time I didn't use a kit, but cut it all out myself from some felt that I'd bought years ago, copying an image from a Hobbycraft photo in their magazine. I then managed to remember how to do blanket stitch and put him together. I made a mistake and forgot to insert the antlers, so had to undo the head and do it again! I found some sequins in my sewing bag and used those for decoration as I didn't have any silver thread to sew snowflake decorations on (like in the photo). I realise he isn't perfect, but I'm still very pleased with this as a first attempt - next, a gingerbread man!