My new old thread box

As part of my job, I have to sometimes visit the hospital Bereavement Office. I was there a little while ago, filling out a form, when I noticed a beautiful, old, wooden box on the desk. Being curious, I asked who it belonged to and was told that it was the property of a deceased patient that had been unclaimed for a long time. The hospital policy is that an item has to be left for a certain amount of time (I think 3 years) to give family an opportunity to claim it but after that it gets sold or discarded.

Well, as I left the office, I said casually to one of the clerks that I really liked it and would be very interested in it if no-one claimed it. Lo and behold, I got a phone call later that same day from the office manager to say I could have it for a small donation! Apparently everyone in the office had been admiring it over the years but no-one had expressed an interest in it until I came along...

Merky trying to climb in

...And the best thing? The clerks suggested a donation of £10. A tenner!! What a bargain. That £10 will go into the charity trust fund of my department (Acute Medicine) to put towards equipment or training. I know it doesn't sound like a lot but every penny helps.

There are no markings or labels to suggest who it belonged to or when it was made. Inside there was a single, enamelled, lapel pin/badge with two hearts and a crown. I gather this was something given to blood donors once they'd donated a certain amount of blood to the Blood Transfusion Service, probably originating from the 1960s, but I can't be certain as there aren't any markings on it.

So, what have I done with it? It's the perfect size to store my threads!

I think lack of sun has given me delusions of grandeur

Oh my word, it seems like it's been ages since I've posted... It's not because I'm not doing anything, I've been busying around like a bumbler (honest!) but it's just too cold and dark to take photos to prove that I'm sewing!

It's effin' freezing!

I'm working on a dress at the moment which is in need of some tweaks (it's the "top secret" project I talked about in the last post so no more info I'm afraid...) which means photos will be a while yet. I've just finished another New Look 6843 skirt, this time in corduroy (yes, I'm in love with this fabric!). Photos to come soon, maybe even tomorrow if I can get my arse in gear. Oh, and I bought the best sewing invention ever - an invisible zip foot - it's AMAZEBALLS! The zip for the corduroy skirt went in like a dream and you can't even see it. It's like it's invisible or something...

Life saver

I'm just about to start on a top for work - New Look 6808. The fabric is soaking as I type. Wonder if I can get the whole thing sewed up tomorrow and then wear it to work with the cord skirt on Monday? Hmm, ambitious.

There's been a whole lot of discussion on ye olde sewing blogs (notably didyoumakethat and kraftykat) about lack of sewjo recently due to the horrid winter weather we've been having. Yep, it definitely has an effect hasn't it? I'm sewing less during the weekdays and more at weekends when it's lighter. Mr Sabs and I have started running in the evenings after work to perk ourselves up a bit and get rid of the winter blues - we've done 20k this week. It's working a treat, except for the fact that I'm falling asleep by 9pm on the sofa every night!

And last but not least, I've done something crazy. I've gone and bought a vintage 1950s dress pattern. It was 99p on ebay so I had to, right? I mean, it would be rude not to.

Except, and this is the crazy part, it's unprinted. UNPRINTED.

Oh. My. God.

What have I got myself into? I can barely follow modern, printed, let's-spoonfeed-sabs-cos-she's-a-bit-slow patterns so how on earth am I going to cope with this? Well, I just read a helpful post over at Lucky Lucille about non printed patterns so that will be my starting point. I may just have to make it up as I go along! Please wish me luck. And sanity.