A Bluestocking Knits

Not yet, anyway.

This is one of my long-standing WIPs that I had put on my list for this so-called “Year of Finishing Things”. I bought the pattern for Sense & Sensibility’s “Edwardian Apron” in December 2017, had the digital pattern printed for me in May 2021, bought some faux-Edwardian fabric and cut it sometime between then and January of this year, when I sewed it together at last.

I didn’t really fancy making my own bias binding, and so I went the shortcut route and bought some — which I had to do online, because Joann’s elle est morte — which took a couple of weeks. Now, I know that Wright’s double-fold bias binding is slightly longer on one side, so that you can attach the shorter side on the front of the garment, fold it into place and pin, then machine-stitch along the very edge on the front and it will catch down the longer side at the same time. I attach it that way even though I usually tack it down by hand because I like the softer feel of it without the additional line of machine-stitching.

Well — and you might see where this is going already — I began stitching down the miles and miles of binding by hand, which for some reason on this piece is turning out to be exceptionally fiddly and slow, and got one arm opening done (over two evenings) and about a hand’s length along the very long bit that goes from the nearly-floor-length hem all of the way up the back and over one shoulder, down the scoop neck and up over the other shoulder and down, down, down to the hem — and I thought, “oh! I’ll never get this done at this rate” and decided to do it on the machine.

After the ten minutes or so that it took me to pin that long, long length, I started sewing happily — “I’ll finish it at last! at last!” — and turned over the first bit I’d stitched to admire it —

Not a single bit got sewed down. Not one single stitch.