Serious Tools for Serious Sewing

…I had a normal office job. But it was a job in a back room, where the public didn’t see us, and I quickly discovered that if I wore something weird to work, NOBODY STOPPED ME.

Foolishly, my employers concentrated on productivity, so without restraint, my clothing soon went a bit mad. But nothing bad happened! In fact, it made the days a little less dull. And it kept me at work on my sewing machine: using skills that began to fade since my grandmother’s day, when she made every garment she wore.

Decades later, I found myself unexpectedly sewing again: hired to repair an auction lot of costumes from the Royal Opera House in London. Originally made by expert stitchers, the restoration of their ancient rotted laces and leathers with replacement trims was a challenge.

Sometimes I was forced to try them on, just to make sure all the closures worked, you understand. And once, for some reason, I just wasn’t able to take off a costume before arriving at the pub.

All needleworkers have points. My point is that to do REAL sewing, you need REAL tools. Because regular pincushions are rubbish, I designed what I needed for myself: a giant, extra-heavy, non-skid, tweedy-wooly hedgehog PinPig©, as Scottish looking as MacBeth himself.