Le Prêt / The Loan

Je déplace les meubles pour faire de la place dans ma maison sweatshop.

Mon copain, Olivier, veut bien me prêter sa machine industrielle pour un temps indéfini parce qu'il va mettre à sa place une machine plus puissante. Je suis allée l'essayer hier et je suis revenue toute énervée par la possibilité de faire des choses que je ne peux pas faire avec ma Singer : du cuir? des jeans? Elle n'a pas bronché. Une multitude d'épaisseurs? pas de problème. 

Je vais de ce pas me pencher sur un nouveau modèle de sac, tout de suite. Au travail!

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I'm moving some furniture to make some space in my sweatshop house.

My friend, Olivier, is lending me this for an indefinite amount of time because he needs a sturdier machine. I tried it yesterday and I got in a right old state of agitation as I was thinking about projects that I couldn't previously do with my Singer : leather? jeans? She did not bat an eye. Thick layers? No bother.

I'll go think up a new bag, right now. To work!

Sewing Sails

I am not the only person sewing around here. 

This baby is Mr C's sewing machine at work. It is used for rigging this French boat, Sodebo. The main sail is over 230m² (over 755 sq. feet!) which is more than twice the size of our house. The set of sails is called a wardrobe, it's quaint.
When I work on a garment, Mr C gets a kick out of saying I sew in the realm of the infinitesimal. So yesterday, as my pattern pieces looked like origami on the table, I asked how precise his sails were and he said very prosaically, +/- 1 cm, which is less than a seam allowance.

Photo Christophe Launay

Anyhow, this is just an occasion to tell you that Mr C's boss, Thomas Coville, left on Saturday to attempt a single-handed circumnavigation record. It's a blood curling dangerous endeavour.  We'll be doing all kinds of cheering, wishing, hoping and invoking until the end of March.

One would think that 19 years of departures would brace me for the roller coaster ride coming, but nothing does, ever.