Oh Lovely Linda, you keep my body and mind relaxed!
One of my many gifts to myself is to have a monthly full body massage. I believe that it has helped me to keep well over the years. Driving, a stressful job and using a keyboard all day meant that I was usually tense and my muscles tight and sometimes horribly knotted. Having a massage relieves the tensions and relaxes the muscles but is also a very nice way to while away and hour or so, thinking of nothing in particular.
When we moved to our current house in 2005, I needed to find a new masseuse. Linda came to the rescue. I discovered her through a local magazine and have been going to her ever since.
Along the way we became good friends – we’ve listened to each others moans and groans and laughed and talked a lot too. We have a rule that we can talk up to the point she is massaging my face and then it’s just the soothing music in the background.
Linda has joined the ranks of the over 60’s now so I wanted to give her a special birthday gift. She kindly took me for a spa day and afternoon tea treat for my 60th and I wanted to give her something special for hers. I asked her if she would like me to make her a handmade piece of clothing. She could, of course, choose the fabric and the pattern and I would make it up.
We trawled through my pattern box to find a pattern that Linda liked. She chose a dress pattern I had used before but wanted a few changes. She wanted the shape altered from an A line to a straight sided shift dress.
So off we went to Milton Keynes to choose the fabric, have lunch and have a nice day together.
After lots of discussion and looking, Linda chose some lovely teal print, cotton fabric. Unfortunately, the John Lewis at Milton Keynes didn’t have enough to make the dress, but store gave me details of the stores which had more fabric. I contacted Reading and they sent me what I needed, freepost!
As I was making changes to the pattern, I thought it best to make a toile first for a practice run. I used some cream curtain fabric, from my fabric stash, for this. After a few changes we were happy with the fit and I so I cut out the dress in the lovely fabric. Once it was cut out I quickly made the dress up and waited for Linda to return from holiday. It fitted in all the right places, but just needed the sides taken in a little more, the pockets attached and the hem taken up.
I was very happy with the finished article.
I think she likes it too!
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