Advice from Singer

Thursday's are my busy day, I have French lessons and I always leave it until Thursday morning to do my work. Every week I think I'll get it out the way on Monday or Tuesday and yet here comes Thursday again. I understand why the kid's put off their homework until the last minute lol...

I'm sure most of you have seen this advice from the Singer Sewing machine manual,it's been doing the rounds on the internet for years.

On reading it, yes it's a laugh but for me I have to say alot of it (not all) rings true. I don't think of myself as old fashioned yet I suppose I am, I wanted to give my kids the best start in life and for me that means being at home, family values are important to me and we are truly very fortunate that hubby's job allows that.  I'm not saying I won't go back to work at some point tho :)

• I have to be in the mood to sew, I don't like being pressurised, I'm one of those people that loves to be organised, loves to know what I've got to do for when and would much rather be 3 weeks early for a swap deadline than 1 or 2 days before. You never know what life is going to throw at you and derail, I have had lots of times when I thought thank god I got that done early. I rarely sew in the evenings, I've not got a full time job and can sew in the day. If I was working, I expect weekend sewing would be more important to me but at the moment it tends to be family time and nagging kids to tidy their rooms.
• I also CANNOT ever sew when I haven't tidied up the major muddles, hoovered downstairs(with 4 cats, 2 big dogs, kids and hubby this is non negotiable), mopped the floors, cleaned the kitchen, washing out and usually the dinner prepared or at least know what I'm going to cook.  I think perhaps one or two occasions I might have forgotten the dinner bit but the rest never.  The way I see it,why should I enjoy my hobby when I haven't done my *job* isn't my family lucky lol....
• Well the make yourself as attractive bit is completely untrue, I don't sew in PJ's but always in normal clothes, leggings if I'm having a sewing day and threads stuck to me all over and quite often pins in my top or pinned to my trousers.  The teacher's at school must take one look at me and pity my kids.
• What is french chalk ??? 
• Hair in order, powder on and lippy eeek.... if this was my mum I'd say yes but my hair is very rarely in order although I do put lippy on for school run, by the time I get sewing I mostly look pretty scruffy
• My husband works from home and so see's me looking at my scruffy best, luckily he doesn't mind at all but visitors must often get a shock and the postman is used to me going out to get the post with stray threads and quite often a piece of fabric in my hand.

I'm going to dig through my manual's and see if I've got a copy, I have two singer's

This 221 Featherweight I bought quite recently, I love how quiet it is and is great for taking to classes 

I also have a treadle, it's a french one and has the most amazing decals, It sews really well but I have difficulty co-ordinating the treadle but at least I could sew if we had a power cut eh.

Post by Pippa - Week #11:   Pippa is a wife, mum and social media addict. She's a Brit living in rural France who likes to make quilts and bags. You can read her blog at www.pippaspatch.com and follow her on instagram @pippaspatch