The original Singer sewer and on your tenterhooks

We owe a lot of gratitude to our friends in nature. Watching carefully over time, we have learned many skills. You may have heard the lullaby, “Rock a bye baby on the tree top. When the wind blows the cradle will rock.“. You’d be surprised to learn that it comes not from a human mother singing to her babies, but actually from watching a bird nesting her new chicks. The common tailorbird (Orthotomus sutorius) is a songbird found across tropical Asia. Popular for its nest made of leaves “sewn” together and immortalized by Rudyard Kipling in his Jungle Book and in Disney’s Cinderalla when songbirds were sewing up the evening ballgown., it is a common resident in urban gardens. I watched a video, recently, of a bird caught on film sewing leaves together to make a hammock in which she lays her eggs, they hatch and grow in this small space.. The quality of the seams speak volumes in their ability to support the relative weight. Do you think that’s where the Singer machines got their name? I’m sure you can think of other creatures in nature from whom we could learn lessons, spiders weave webs and silkworms spin. Let me know at abis_den@hotmail.com for a mention in the next issue. You must have heard, the Great British Sewing Bee is on its way. The application date has passed and a lot of people have been on tenterhooks, wondering if they’ve made the cut. Someone made me smile when she misunderstood the phrase and said ‘tenderhooks’ instead.  Interestingly, to be on tenterhooks comes from the use of a frame on which you dry wool, keeping it stretched, tightly held in place to prevent shrinkage. Early as the 14th century, after a cloth was woven and washed, it was dried across these frames. Despite having improved techniques with time, we still find modern tenters in polyester factories where we apply a lot of treatment to synthetic fabrics that may shrink in process of it’s manufacture. So the stress, tightness and tension you might feel is similar to that of a cloth stretched out on a tenter, held in place by the hooks, therefore, to be on tenterhooks. Finally, its now June, therefore time to start planning for Christmas. Really? Yes really. Fabric shops have already started to introduce 2018’s Christmas fabrics and you have to be quick, last year some had sold out by September! Before then, however, here are a few very popular events you might want to consider. 18-19 July – The London Textile Fair, London (huge!) 9-12 August – Festival of Quilts, Birmingham 14-16 August – Handmade Fair, Hampton Curt Palace 31 August-2 September -Handmade & Homegrown, Kent 6-8 September – Creative Craft Show, Manchester 22-25th November – Knitting and Stitching Show, Harrogate Otherwise, join me on Abi’s Sewing Den and my blog Abi Sews. I have been adding lots of great little projects and if you need any sewing help or machine assistance, don’t hesitate to get in touch! https://www.facebook.com/AbisSewingDen/ https://abisews.wordpress.com/author/abisews/ @Abis_Den Have a great summer, see you soon. Abi x