Me and a sewing machine? This wasn’t an obvious match. Not a fairytale story where you know, right from the start, there will be a happy ending. The story began like this…

An unconventional love story 

Once upon a time…   Huumm are you sure?

Yes ok, let’s go with it!   So…

Once upon a time, a regular Gal named Miss Coco, was roaming through a thrift store when an unassuming wooden box with a handle, caught her eyes. Being of slightly curious nature, Miss Coco, grabbed the handle and lifted up what looked like a lid. Her eyes sparkled, as a beautiful sewing machine appeared! The shiny black paint was contrasting perfectly with the golden decor, which had elegantly faded with time. The wooden base was showing just enough traces of wear and tear, to know, for sure, that this machine, had already lived a plentiful life. Miss Coco could not hide her excitement and promptly unfolded the handle, in the hope to hear the distinct sound of the mechanical parts coming back to life.

You see, as a child, Miss Coco had spent a lot of time in the attic of her home, playing with a similar machine which was stored there and had mostly remained unused for years. She was therefore very familiar with the sound of such machines and the feelings that came when turning the handle. She was even familiar with the specific smell that came out of such machines: a mix of dust, old oil and maybe rust.

Yet, when she tried to turn the handle, nothing happened. Miss Coco’s heart sank a little. She persisted gently but firmly. A slight movement gave her hope. Another try left her in despair. Could it be broken or so rusted inside that it would never be used again? This was an all or nothing situation. With a last strong push on the handle, Miss Coco finally felt the handle moving as the wheel started to turn! The machine was being freed from its years of abandonment and was singing its happy clickety-clack again.

Like Kate Winslet in the Dressmaker, crossing Australia while caring her sewing machine as sole luggage, Miss Coco came out of the thrift store with her new pride possession. The scene was actually a lot less glamorous than in the movie, as the machine was much heavier than Miss Coco thought and she had trouble carrying it, not across Australia but across the muddy car park.

That first evening, Miss Coco and her new sewing machine had their first date. Just a simple ‘get to know each other’ type of date. Nothing presumptuous was made, but the relationship was promising never-the-less.

Such date was followed by several others, where you could feel the love growing slowly. With every new project, they got to know each other better. These 2 were getting accustomed and Miss Coco was gaining confidence. She soon would know exactly when to push, when to slow down, when to stop or when something had gone wrong.

Regrettably, after a few months, their idyll started to fade. Like with any other burgeoning relationship, there comes a time, when things need to move forward, to not come to an end. Mis Coco was probably not adventurous enough and she started to blame her sewing machine, for the things she could not do.

Thankfully, something was about to happen with would bring the spark back…

On one glorious day, Miss Coco received an invitation to a masked ball!

OK, OK, it wasn’t a ball, but a Birthday party. She received a Facebook notification and not a gilded invitation, like you might have expected. The party wasn’t masked but… the invitation did required invitees to wear a hat!

To honor her human partner British ancestors and his admiration for Sherlock Holmes, she decided to take on a new sewing project by sewing a deerstalker for him to wear at the party.

She browsed the internet for patterns and tutorials, printed them and chose the fabric promptly. Her motivation for such a project was palpable.

With the first bold cut into the fabric, her enthusiasm raised to new levels. Yet, it wasn’t until the first 2 pieces were stitched together that she could fell truly excited for such a challenge. The next pieces came together like they were meant for each others and with every new piece added, the deerstalker was becoming a reality.

It was late that evening when Miss Coco and her machine finished sewing the last piece and what a glorious evening of growing love and passion!

Miss Coco and her sewing machine are now like partners & old friends who know each others very well, and know each other needs.

which took, the still burgeoning relationship Miss Coco and her sewing machine had, to new levels.

The End!

Deerstalker sewing

Well, well, beside the love story, this is how I did. First I looked for the pattern for such deerstalker hat and found it here with a nice tutorial.

A lot of tutorials on how to make those include the recommendation of taking 2 baseball caps, putting them together and adding the ear flaps. I didn’t have baseball caps and I didn’t think the result would look that good anyway. I therefore took some fabric and my 1927 Singer sewing machine on this adventure!

Why did I use black thread? I don’t know!

The linked tutorial included the lining but I didn’t have anything suitable to do it, so I just used a nice ribbon.

And voila!

Wondering what I was wearing? 

Well I didn’t spend as much time on my own hat if you must know! A few rubans of various size, a bit of lace, some staples and a bit of glue and voila…

Having sewed a hat, I kind of feel like I can conquer the World with my sewing machine!

For now, I’m thinking of sewing my own travel hand bag or maybe the cloak to go with the hat. However, one day I may start a much fancier project, like a dress to attend a real ball like the ones held at Versailles!! 🤔🤗