Bell's Palsy Survival Guide

This page will detail all the practical stuff that's got me through the days (and nights) over the few months that I've had Bell's Palsy. I hope you find it useful!

Look after your eyes
First off, if and when you go to the doctor* they are likely to give you some eye drops. I believe carbomer eye drops are used as they're more of a gel than regular eye drops, so they keep your eyes moist for longer. I have used both single- and multi-use/tube packages of eye drops, and I personally found the multi-use ones more comfortable, while the single-use ones seemed to irritate my eyes. Don't be afraid to ask for another type of eye drop if yours don't agree with you.

Tape your eyes shut at night
I've used both microporous and surgical tape on my eyes; microporous tape feels a lot like masking tape, while surgical tape is more plastic-y. You can buy varying widths of microporous tape in Boots, but the clear, perforated surgical tape will rip neatly to whatever width you like. Whichever one you use...

• TAKE SOME OF THE TACK OFF THE TAPE by sticking it to the back of your hand and peeling it off a few times. Pulling your eyelashes out in the morning, or at any other time, is really not fun.
• These days I use every bit of functional muscle in my cheek to squeeze my eye closed as far as it will go, then I use a finger to close the inner part that still doesn't work. In the other hand I take a (de-tacked) wide piece of microporous tape, and place this over my eye. Early on, I used to use a few thin strips of tape and criss cross them over the eye - this was a bit of a faff, but more successful than my attempts to get everything in place at once when I had less movement.
• With both my eyes closed I fold a cotton wool pad in half and quickly tape it in place to apply some pressure to the upper eyelid. I find this to be a really comfortable way of keeping my eye closed, as the sensation of just the tape pulling on the skin can be a bit unpleasant.
• Finally, I put on an eye mask. This applies a tiny bit of extra pressure, which is nice, but is mainly useful to cover the tape and to stop it sticking to the pillow.

Fake specs
If you are not already a wearer of glasses then you may find, as I did, that it's really painful to walk outside because that blinking thing, that you used to be SO good at, just isn't happening any more. My local optician was unable to supply me any glasses without a prescription, £50 and a long wait, whereas Claire's accessories sell these bad boys over the counter for £5. Funky, no? In all seriousness, I feel a bit silly in them, but they've made my life a lot easier over the last few months. They do come without flowers on, if you like that sort of thing.

Drinking straws
I'm a coffee addict, and it was distressing to find more of it running down my chin than my throat. I did not take up people on their offers of "sippy cups", and instead opted to carry around my own personal supply of drinking straws at all times.

I hope this has provided one or two ideas if you're struggling with the practicalities of BP; this is the post I'd have liked to read in January.

If you'd like someone to talk to about the face situation, let me know. Otherwise, I wish you a speedy recovery!

* You really should go to the doctor when half your face is paralysed, even if you're worried, as I was, about being a time-waster.

ALL THE FABRIC

The Knitting and Stitching Show
The biggest sewing-related news we need to catch up on is that I visited the Spring Knitting and Stitching Show at London Olympia. I had a lovely time, and actually managed to be fairly restrained with my purchases!

Cottons from Montreux and Simply Fabrics

I'm not sure how long you need to have been sewing before you can start talking about habits or traditions, but the two fabrics above sum up what happens when I let myself buy whatever I fancy, without really engaging my brain - I am drawn to busy, floral prints, and I suppose I have it in my head that I'm more suited to muted colours. They were pretty cheap, but as soon as I got home they stopped looking like adorable summer top materials and started looking like old-fashioned duvet covers. The second one in particular is just set in my mind as being a pillowcase, so as yet I have no idea what I'm doing with either of them. I came back and bought the blue one after spotting it in the morning, though, so I would have regretted leaving it behind. Any ideas, folks???

      

From left to right these are from Sew Over It (not on their online store - 

I paid £12 for 1m of this but it's here for £9.50), and Sewbox

The next two are equally busy, but more practical, if that's a word you can use for crepe de chine. The first was from Sew Over It, and as I was paying Lisa I noticed she was wearing a top she'd made from it, and looked lovely in it, which was reassuring! The second is my long awaited first piece of Liberty fabric - this is the lightest needlecord, and I'm planning a skirt with it, but I need to do a toile first.

While I was there I went along to Gabby from Gabberdashery's first ever meet up, which was really lovely. We sat and knitted and ate Gabby's brownies, and I recognised so many vloggers but didn't have a clue what to say to all of them, since I knew who they were, which made me feel a bit creepy! So, belated hellos to Pigeon Wishes and Kittenish Behaviour: *waves*

My final purchase was some embroidery thread, which I hadn't intended on buying, but they looked lovely and seemed like really good value. Unfortunately sewing with it was another matter altogether, and I was really disappointed when I found the thread splitting and knotting worse than anything I've ever used before. Thankfully I didn't spend too much on it, and I've been doing just find with some old threads in my stash, mixed up with some 40p ones from lovely So 'n' sews. I've been using this embroidery cheatsheet from Mollie Makes website to learn stitches and I'd recommend it if you're looking for a place to start. I wrote out this little sheet to practise, as I haven't tried embroidery since I was about 8 and my mum taught me a french knot. I'd like to add some details to my Anna dress (yet another post on its way) once I'm a bit better at it.


Finally, I carried it all home in this excellent, free, cat toy!

I was a little bit disappointed not to find the fabrics that I was really looking for, in particular I really wanted to see some Atelier Brunette French Terry, because it's just the sort of price where I wouldn't feel comfortable buying it without seeing it. I also didn't manage to see any double gauze, either, but all things in good time.

While we're here, I have a few other fabrics that I haven't posted, so let's continue! First up is a red floral fabric that I'm going to call a crepe de chine from Steve Bane in Dorchester. This was a remnant hung up all on its own that I'm going to make into a blouse, once I find the right pattern. In the middle is a lovely jersey from Fabric Land that I ordered online for £3.99/m, and the one on the right is a cotton that also came from Fabric Land, but I bought it in store about a month ago. I've already made garments from the last two - which I promise I'll post about eventually - but still have quite a bit of each left.

 

Finally to my local fabric shop So 'n' sew's. The first one I want to call a ponte roma, but honestly I'm unsure of the composition - it's a pretty stable jersey and I think it was just under £12/m. It has very faint stripes, though I'm not sure I'd call it a marl either. I've already made a skirt from this but it's honestly so simple and plain that I'm not sure it deserves a post, even if I did wear it to the Knitting and Stitching Show!

The second is a gorgeous turquoise batik that also came from So 'n' sew's. I planned a blouse with it back when I had even less understanding of drape than I do now, but at the moment it's living as a skirt in my imagination. I have enough to make either a sleeveless top and short skirt (probably not to be worn together!), or a maxi, and I can't quite decide. I do like maxi skirts, but rarely wear them, and I guess I need to figure out whether this is just because I don't have a beautiful handmade turquoise one yet... Hmm!

Last up I can best describe as a compromise fabric, when I almost splashed out £22/m on a cotton lawn and went for this £12/m one instead. Naturally I now do not have a single clue what do do with it. I definitely want to make some camisoles (again I'm waiting to find the right pattern), so maybe this would be good for one of them. I think I bought 2 or 2.5m, so maybe I could get some sort of kimono, or summery cover up out of it too? Both are projects I'd like to try and draft myself, so by the time I've toiled they might just be ready for me to wear this summer.

Still on the hunt for...
I'm really feeling the need to invest in some decent, plain jersey material now, but my local shop doesn't have what I'm looking for (or at least it's too well hidden - it is a bit of an Aladdin's Cave!). I'm considering some lovely marls from Guthrie & Ghani, if only they had some slightly darker shades. The mauve and green ones below are pretty lush. I'd like to make a raglan top made up of a patterned and a plain fabric, but I've yet to find the perfect pairing. Likewise a stripy Coco top with a turquoise yoke - every time I come close to buying online I start to have crippling doubts and decide to save it for later.

Smokey green and mauve marl jerseys from Guthrie & Ghani

I have so many breton tops already, but they're mostly RTW, and I tend to wear the same 2 over and over again, so it is probably time for a clear out. I'd love some pink and white striped jersey, but I'm not sure if it's incredibly fussy of me to say that all the nice ones I've seen so far have much wider stripes than I would like? The best ones I've seen have high cotton content and are quite pricey, so I feel like it's reasonable to wait it out until I find something I really like. Then again, if I can't find "nice stripes" at the knitting and stitching show, then I may be waiting for something that doesn't exist...

Anyway, I'm also on the lookout for some heavier weight material for shorts and skirts over the summer. I'd like a heavy-ish navy cotton that will last as well as my Weird Fish shorts have (I've lived in them pretty much every weekend between April and October for a couple of years now!). I'd like to make a short-ish skirt from it, and my thinking is that I'll be able to switch out the shorts for the skirt and look a little bit smarter without changing the whole ensemble. One day I'll post a picture of me in said ensemble, and you can all tell me if that's an appropriate word for my summer look - I suspect it is a somewhat grandiose term for "shorts and t-shirt".

We've covered fabrics that I have, and fabrics that I need for projects, but have barely touched on all the fabrics that I'm lusting after, but can't justify without a project in mind. That list could go on some while, so I may have to compile a Pinterest board instead and lead you all over there instead.

If you have any suggestions of patterns or fabrics then do let me know - they would be very much appreciated!

xx

TL;DR (None of the sewing, all of the moaning)

Health matters have not improved a great deal, but I have returned to work and it is eating up the vast majority of my energy. I am on the mend, but it is a really slow process. I have only just noticed that it's been a full month since I actually published, which doesn't feel right as I've written at least five.

This has happened because I set myself a goal of taking some good photos to go along with all my posts, but this has become a reason not to post things, rather than the useful motivation to get my camera out that I hoped it would be. The truth is that while I enjoy writing, and I love making things, photography comes more naturally to me when I'm outside exploring, or with a cat, rather than in a poorly-lit room trying to make my handmade things look good laid out lain on a cheap laminate floor (which makes everything look heartbreakingly awful), because I just don't want to be in photos right now.

Please accept this picture of my cat looking faintly suspicious, in
the absence of sewing-related photos. 

In short, while I really want to make my posts look good - I know it's a lot nicer to read posts with pretty pictures than without - I'm going to give myself a break. If you decide to read along then accept my apologies and believe me that I am working on prettying up my corner of the Internet exactly as much as I can.

I promise the next post will be a lot more sewing heavy :)

My Anna Toile

I bought the By Hand London Anna pattern quite a while ago, after falling in love with so many versions that I'd seen on Pinterest. I think I've been putting off making it because I knew I should really do a toile first, and because I haven't really seen the perfect fabric for it. As I'm off to the Knitting and Stitching show next week, I figured I may as well have a shot at the toile before the trip, because if I can't find the right fabric there, then I never will.

I'm still ill at the moment, so just the toile-making took over a week. The PDF construction was predictably tedious, though no easier or harder than it was with any other patterns that I've tried. When it came to cutting out the fabric I had no end of fun with my Pilot Frixion pens, which make marking notches, pleats and darts an absolute dream, but I fell at the last hurdle, and I was just too tired to finish the cutting in one go.

Finally, on Sunday, I got round to constructing the bodice - please excuse the picture quality. To be honest it's a good job it wasn't too bright, as the fabric I'm using for toiles at the moment is from some £2.50 charity shop duvet covers, and it's not exactly opaque.

I was really pleased with the fit of the bodice - in that photo it's held together with safety pins at the back and on my right, so I could try it on easily, and I haven't finished the armholes or neckline. I really like the pleats at the front. The sleeves are quite generous on me as I have quite narrow shoulders, but I'm happy with this as I don't really like showing my upper arms. The neckline is simple and fairly straight - just how I like it!

Once I'd got past that first bit of construction, it was easy enough to make up the skirt and add it on. I thought the skirt would be a bit of a faff to put together as it's made up of 7 parts, but actually it's just a load of straight lines, and it's easy peasy if you have your pieces properly labelled. 

This time the back is done up with safety pins. 

I am super happy with the fit of this dress. I consulted the measurements before I started and I was closest to the 12, so I made that and sort of expected it to be a little large, but I think it's pretty perfect - I guess I have finally started to fatten up a bit after a few months off the bike, with 24/7 access to Nutella...

Anyway. the pattern's gorgeous, and I think it'll sew up quite quickly. The neckline and armholes are both finished quite early on in the pattern instructions which looks like it'll be easier than methods I've used in the past. Now that I know how lovely it is, I might make it from some of my stash fabric, because I don't want to wait until next week!

Reasons to be grateful #1: This Man

This post is the first in what I aim to make a series about the things in my life that I'm most grateful for. It's been inspired mainly by podcasts that I've listened to, including Tiffany Pratt's Creative Mornings talk. I've also seen some journal type products that have been designed to encourage people to write down what they're grateful for each morning, but recently I've hit a bit of a stumbling block with list-writing, and I think something more long form will suit me better.

Without further ado, the "thing" for which I am most grateful is this lovely man: he goes by the names Poppet, Rugged Outdoorsman, and occasionally Steve.

We met on the Internet in 2013; we both had the same attitude in that we weren't interested in exchanging hundreds of emails - in terms of dating IRL, I think the Internet's only really useful for getting another human to the same time and place as you. We'd both been in situations where the person we met face-to-face didn't feel like the person we'd thought we knew, so we arranged to go for a coffee after work a few days later.

My first thought when I saw him was that he was out of my league. He was alert, open, and a good listener. We took our coffees to the beach, and walked along the prom, and I wondered if he was just being kind when he offered to take me climbing some time. Then he asked if I wanted to go for dinner, and I started to think that he might actually like me. By the end of that week, we'd gone for that climb, and I'd met most of his family at a barbecue - they are also a lovely bunch of people who have been nothing but kind and welcoming to me since that day, yet another thing I am thankful for.

I think if I had to use one word to describe Steve it'd be Open. He's honest and if he has a problem he'll tell me about it very quickly. He listens to me in the best way, and he understands me and my moods and my struggles more easily and plainly than anyone I've ever known. He's often said that I'm academically intelligent while he's practical, but his biggest strength as far as I'm concerned is emotional intelligence. He doesn't always know what to do about it, but he's usually really clear on what he's feeling and why, and can articulate it almost instantly.

Above all, he's completely supportive, He'll never say no to helping me with things that make me happy, like fixing or cleaning my bike, driving me to the airport, and more ridiculous things like covering me in parcel tape to make a mannequin, and more tedious things like proof-reading a blog post.

Anyway, we don't celebrate Valentine's Day. We're both pretty anti-"stuff", where "stuff" is mass-produced cards, and anything else destined to end up in the bin. Instead, we'll go for a nice meal with friends this weekend, and then we'll snuggle up with my crochet and his mountain biking videos and our cats, and be grateful for our little life, and excited about adventures still to come.

I hope you enjoyed this post! What are you grateful for today?

xx

My Bettine / Frankentine Kimono wrap hack

I've written about my first Bettine attempt already. I hadn't been convinced that the bodice and neckline would suit me, and I was right, but I loved so many details about the dress (tulip skirt, kimono sleeves and deep pockets are some of my favourite things) that I couldn't let it go.

I LOVE wearing wrap tops, but before I started sewing I usually found them a bit lower cut than I'd like - so I usually ended up with a safety pin in the middle of the bust, or wearing a vest underneath, and then I gave up. No excuses now, though.

With that and the kimono sleeves in mind, I thought I'd stick with a theme and go for a super high wrap neck. Inspired by My recent make from Rosie Martin's book, and fresh from a trip to the charity shop where I'd bought some duvet covers for making toiles, I traced the Bettine top onto the fabric, with the edge centred (not on the fold), then I flipped it over and traced around it again. For my version I measured 16cm from the waistline, then drew a straight line between the this point and the corner of the front neckline. As my duvet fabric was already doubled over, I cut around the shape and ended up with two mirror images. I then cut the back of the bettine bodice out once, pinned everything together, sewed, and tried it on. The fit seemed pretty good, though the duvet fabric was relatively stiff.

I did the same on my new fabric. Sadly I didn't have enough of the pink '80s viscose left, but that's probably just as well since my pal Nikki somehow chose the same fabric for her Bettine dress (this blew my mind). Mine will become a skirt once I've unpicked the top.

Here's the fabric I went for second time round. It's a cotton lawn and was <£5/m from Abakhan, but it's now sold out! This was my first time ordering from them, and it arrived really quickly.

To construct the dress I first sewed the shoulders and then applied bias binding the whole way round the neckline, from the waist to the neck and back down to the other side of the waist. It was probably a little bit easier than the original Bettine, just because I've had quite a bit of practise with binding now, and I think I found the facing on the original pattern a little fiddly at the time.

The rest of the construction went well, though I was getting a little nervy towards the end of the hem, as I knew my bobbin was running low. In the picture below, that little piece of thread is all that was left on the bobbin when I'd finished! I'd used the same reel of thread for my spot pocket skirt, so this isn't as bad as it looks!

Anyway, if you've read any of my other posts then you can probably guess where this is going, and you'd be totally right... It's unlikely that I'm going to wear this an awful lot. Sigh.

 

I think the fabric's totally fine, and it'd probably look awesome on a fitted dress, but it's still maybe not quite drapey enough for the loose-fitting top. It also didn't occur to me at any point before I'd tried this version on that the neckline and sleeve combination bears more resemblance to hopsital scrubs than a kimono; I think the shape's fine on the toile because of the contrast between the skirt and bodice, but on this I just don't think it works at all. It looks marginally better with the little black belt I wore it with, but I think it really needs some exposed binding around the neckline, or some other detail. I don't really know what to do with it, so it'll live with my unfinished projects until I have a brainwave...

Moving on, I'm currently working on a Coco dress, a Rosa shirt, and an Anna dress, and hope to have at least one of them finished in time for a post next week.

If anyone has any tips on choosing fabrics then please let me know - I do an awful lot of thinking and reading before I buy anything, but feel like I'm still getting really basic things wrong. I hope all your makes are going better than mine!

xx

In the library

Recently I've rediscovered my local library. I was an avid reader when I was young; though I can't remember a thing about them now, I believe I once read 4 "Babysitters club" books in a day. I was, and still am, an awkward and shy person, and books were my greatest escape. Most of the books I've read are memorable to me because of a particular moment or feeling. I remember relating to the novelty for Mary of simply being outdoors in the Secret Garden, and I remember thinking Judy Blume was describing a belly button in a book that, in retrospect, I probably read a little too early...

This is a picture of my cat, because I don't have any photos of books.
She's also much prettier than books <3

Reading fiction consumed a huge part of my childhood, and it was only when I started studying English Literature at 18 that I fell out of love with reading. I lasted less than three months on the course before dropping out. The volume of books to be read and the restrictions placed on what books should be read, and the intimidation I felt in having my own interpretations scrutinised by others sapped all my joy out of it for a very long time. Over the years I've gone through phases of reading incessantly, the best of times buried night after night in the Count of Monte Cristo and the worst reading identikit "thrillers" that didn't deliver. Mostly these phases have ended with me - literally, in one case - throwing an infuriating read against the wall. I should say now that I'm not naming names because however much anger I harbour over the nonsensical denouement; writing is hard, and I know I couldn't do any better, so apologies to anyone who wanted to read a takedown.

I made a vow to myself not so long ago never to re-read another of my "favourite" books. I don't know how much this applies to anyone else, but each time I did so I found less to like. It would be naive not to understand that my taste has changed over the past 20 years, but I want to preserve the original memories and feelings that I have for a book more than I want to remember the details of the stories or the characters, however much I loved them at the time.

So onwards to pages new. I mostly read eBooks these days, though with so much time on my hands I have recently started to visit my local library. Somewhat unsurprisingly, things have moved on since I last used a library; I now have a PIN and an online account, and I can apparently return my books to any library in Dorset. Requesting books can take a while - I've currently been waiting a week for a book to be delivered from who-knows-where, but I'm so absurdly grateful for the continuing existence of libraries, and so scared that they'll one day disappear, that I love the slowness, all the more so for the librarian's description of the delivery service as "random", when I suspect it is anything but.

Anyway, here are the two novels that I've read so far in 2017 (clicking the links will take you to Amazon - I might get some pennies if you decide to buy them)

The Secret Life of Bees first has been on my digital bookshelf for probably a year now, and I'm not sure why I put off reading it for so long when it'd been so highly recommended; it was predictably excellent.

Hidden Bodies was a book that I wasn't aware of until I listened to Emma Gannon interviewing the author on her excellent podcast CTRL ALT Delete. I devoured You, the first book in this series, a year or two ago, and had actually been keeping an eye out for other works by Kepnes, but this one had passed me by. Like everyone, I imagine, I was a bit worried to discover that Hidden Bodies was a sequel and would revisit the same character, Joe, but these worries were totally misplaced. The book takes Joe out of New York and away from his old haunts, and although he is the same character, the circumstances and relationships around him present new challenges and surprises, and the whole book just feels fresh and alive and keeps you guessing right until the very end.

I've also picked up some crafty books, as I was finding it hard to use online crochet instructions without access to a printer. My top tip for anyone wanting to find simple descriptions of stitches is Basic Crochet Stitches: 250 Stitches to Crochet (Harmony Guides) by Erika Knight. This was one of not-that-many crochet books in Weymouth library, but it's awesome, with clear pictures and descriptions of 250 different crochet stitches - exactly what I was looking for, and more than I imagine I'll ever need.

Next on my reading list is Ctrl, Alt; Delete: How I Grew Up Online, which is the book that launched Emma Gannon's podcast of the same name (or is it the other way around?).

I hope to be back with a post on some of my makes over the weekend, but it might be more of a summary of wips rather than completed makes.

I'd love to hear your book recommendations, so do let me know what you're reading!

Nicky xx