I’ve worked out there are twenty-five weeks left of this year so the plan is that I’ll post twenty-five weeks of Making.

I’m writing the Hatchards Christmas Catalogue this week – 207 different ways of saying ‘This book is good, buy it’. The problem is that the books are good and I keep getting too engrossed; the idea is that I skim them to get the feel rather than read the whole thing from cover to cover but that doesn’t work in practice. The upshot is that I’m doing very little making at the moment but I have made a wonderful discovery: cross-over aprons.

I’m quite messy so I tend to wear pinnies for gardening, cooking, painting etc. My friend Louy has lovely ones with cross-over straps at the back rather than a halter neck but I’ve never been able to find nice ones and an internet search of the labels in hers came to nothing. Then, last week, I went to Parsons Green Summer Fair: merry-go-round, smattering of farm animals, home-made cakes galore and a linen stall, with perfect pinnies. I was all set to buy at least two but Sarah, the voice of reason, said ‘one’ and then if I really liked it I could buy, or make, more.

It’s perfect; no bows to come undone and it hangs beautifully. Rather than making or buying more I altered the ones I already have. A very long, very hot wash and they are even almost clean.  As a late-comer to smart phones I haven’t mastered selfies and I think selfies of one’s back view are impossible anyway, but you get the general idea.

Jane