I’ve gone from yesterday’s hideous, mind-numbing traffic jams on the M27 and M3 to the ‘congested’ roads of the moor. This beautiful critter was one of half a dozen that we had to dodge as we drove home from a very rare expedition to the shops today. I know it’s not sharp but I like it nonetheless.

As a general rule, we don’t ‘do’ shopping, especially not on a Saturday and especially not in peak holiday season. However, I needed some black thread to use in my sewing machine and it’s temperamental and fussy so it won’t work with anything other than Gutermann. I don’t know why but there it is. I don't know of another dress fabric shop other than Trago (which doesn't stock Gutemann) nearer than Truro so we sent to Truro and found a lovely haven of a fabric shop with fantastic staff......really 'my sort of place'. I'd noticed it before but not been in there.

I’ve got two sewing machines an ancient – we reckon about 60 years old – Singer that’s a dream to use with marvellous engineering and ‘action’ but it’s got a rusty grip plate that pulls the fabric across the sewing action and it leaves rusty marks everywhere. DM has been polishing it up today and is going to tackle the thing with his Dremel but he doesn’t own a screwdriver of an appropriate size to get the plate off to access it so he’s got to buy one first. I am so excited at the possibility that my wonderful Singer may become useful again.

The machine that’s temperamental is the Riccar that I bought second-hand in about 1987 so I reckon that’s probably now 30 years old too but it’s much more modern than the Singer and it does embroidery and button holes and all sorts of fancy stuff, all of which is useless to me. I go backwards and forwards and with an occasional zig-zag if I’m feeling really virtuous enough to bother giving anything a fray-free edge!

I needed the thread to make the black-out curtains for the photography studio and I whizzed up one pair tonight, while singing along to Elvis P on the stereo, leaving the other pair cut out but not sewn.

I never bother to pin, tack or otherwise take any care when I’m making curtains – I just do it all to eye and hope that I don’t end up too far out. It’s always worked so far! Even the tape is just lying in a pile on the floor beside me and being fed onto the fabric as I go, being cut when I run out of fabric!

Sewing is, I believe, a skill we’re losing rapidly (not that I ever demonstrate my sewing skill – even though I know how to do it properly, I rarely do) – I believe that must be true when I see old Singers selling for a tenner on ebay – that suggests to me that very few people either see the value of these lovely old machines or actually see a need to use one.

Last year, I was feeling uneasy about DMs little leather straps!