Years ago I earned some very necessary housekeeping money by sewing all kinds if things, from zips into trousers (I don't do those any more, so don't ask) to fitted covers for sofas.
A well-known actress who lived near us in England had me make all the curtains and fitted bed-covers for her new London pad - she auditioned my skills on her sister's house first!
In more recent years I have made a silk mosquito net for a seven-foot-square bed in the Bahamas - purely from measurements taken by the owner, unfortunately, not on site like the London one.
In the past I made clothes for my children, altered things we found at jumble sales, and I still make the occasional summer dress for myself. Less handy friends bring me alterations and repairs, three years ago I made a Father Christmas outfit out of fur fabric (never again!) and the Singer I brought out from England is struggling.
But this job couldn't be done by machine. A local group had a new banner made last year in India, where it was a third of the price they had been quoted in England. It is an object of significance to them, and definitely a delight to the eye, but in one place the spelling was wrong.
Who better to put that right than a seamstress-turned-writer?
Have you spotted the difference yet?
