Welcome, Damned. Lovely to see you again. Your presence warms my heart.

So, I was ever so hopeful that I could get off my bum and get this post published three weeks ago. I already knew how to start, though maybe that was part of the problem. I was going to say “Would you look at that. She has a new blog post just two weeks after the last one. Miracles will never cease.” Yeah, well, that never happened. Can’t say I’m all that surprised, though. Why are things so hard?

On the bright side, I bought a new sewing machine. A pretty good one, actually, for not much money. It’s a Singer Heavy Duty Mechanical and quite lovely. (Is “lovely” a proper description of a sewing machine? Don’t know, but I’m going with it.)

I actually can give credit for this picture, for a change. It’s from Michael’s website, which is where I bought it. It’s the same one that YouTuber Prickly Alpaca bought for herself a while ago and she quite likes it. Since she sews a variety of fabrics and thicknesses of fabric, and doesn’t seem to have any complaints, thought I’d give it a try. Quite happy with it, so far.

Can’t afford it, but I tell myself that I genuinely need it. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Anyway, started working on a new coat since I’ve had to put the Dali jacket away for a while. Have some black velvet and want to make a spider coat. Well, a coat with spider web decorations. Can’t make a coat out of actual spiders. No, that is definitely not in the realm of possibility. Nope, nope, nope.

So, don’t want to do buttons and will have hooks instead. With an embroidered spider web and a little spider where each of the four hooks will be. Have eight of the little spider charms, but haven’t figured out other places put them. Except, maybe one dangling down the back somehow. So far, only designed the webs and prepped the fabrics, but it’s a start. Going to interline the velvet with flannel to make it nice and toasty warm for winter.

Been working on the black linen shirt and think I made a decision about the lace. My sister found this absolutely wonderful crocheted doily on Pinterest and there’s someone on Etsy who sells the pattern. Just look at this wonderful design:

The skull looks kind of scary. Prefer that to the somewhat cutesy skulls I’ve seen elsewhere. It’s designed by the very talented Ann Wanamaker. You can check it out along with her other stuff on her Etsy shop, Creative Works by Annie.

Had originally thought to include black velvet ribbon with the lace, but not sure how that will work, now. But I will include several skeletons, altogether. Been working on a sample of the design in some size 10 crochet thread. So far, the pattern is good.

Have actually started sewing the shirt while pretty much following the instructions on Vincent Briggs YouTube channel. He made an eighteenth-century “Pirate Shirt” sewn on a machine and so far it’s working well. I will say, he’s quite a strange boy, but that’s what I like best about him.

Well, it seems as if I actually accomplished things recently. Hooray for me. I had hoped that writing these posts would push me to finish more. Guess that sort of happened, so not all bad.

Thank you, dear Damned ones, for coming. Always nice to have you here.