Top 5 of 2016

Every year, Gillian of Crafting a Rainbow hosts a Top 5 of 2016 round-up, whereby members of the online sewing community share their top 5 hits, misses, highlights, reflections and goals. I haven’t been blogging long enough to do a full post on each category, so today I’ll share one from each.

“I’m not saying you’re ‘MAD'”, and other lies doctors tell me – on somatic symptom disorder

Content warning: contains GIFs, discussion of abuse and gaslighting

If you’ve been following along with this blog so far, you will know that my already poor health has taken a sharp turn for the worse. The decline is so sudden, dramatic and long-lasting, that I have started to consider that there may be some underlying medical condition affecting my health other than ME/CFS. As it had been some years since a full medical review, I decided to try a few different GPs in town for new ideas.

Butterick 6528 – Are Pineapples Still Hot Right Now?

A year or so ago, a pineapple craze swept the Instagram sewing community. The tag, #pineapplesaresohotrightnow, accompanied creations made in a pineapple print fabric. Being typically late to the party,* I have only just made a similar pineapple print dress.

99% of the photos I took are of me staring in this direction, to avoid the hot northerly blowing dust in my face. Country Road leather loafers, from op shop, hat from KMart.

Good news, everyone!

The Griffith University National Centre For Neuroimmunology and Emerging Diseases (NCNED) has announced they have been granted funding for a diagnostic test for ME/CFS. Their ground breaking research on the biomarkers of this disease has already laid the foundations for this test, and all they required was funding. I have high hopes that diagnostic test will be swiftly developed, and go a long way towards validating the experiences of ME/CFS sufferers.

You can read their press release here, and catch up on their research on their Publications page.

A Series of Unfortunate Events – Burda 7136 & Style Arc Misty Jeans

You know those projects, which for some reason or another, just don’t go quite right. The fabric acts up, the pattern isn’t quite what you’d hoped, or your machine is on the fritz. Both creations I’m sharing today are just a bit…unfortunate.

Leather loafers, Country Road, from the op shop.

New post on The Mighty

I had another piece published on The Mighty today: a Christmas wishlist for a chronically ill person. It’s slightly different to what I wished for as a child, writing letters to Santa!

You can read What I Wish For Most This Christmas as Someone With Severe Myalgic Encephalomyelitis on The Mighty.

 

A glimpse into the past – Women’s Budget Magazines, 1913

One of the advantages of having a father who is an antiquarian bookbinder and bookseller is that I get to see a lot of really cool old books. (The other advantages mainly revolve around having ample opportunity to make Black Books references.)

The Un-Wedding Dress – Burda 03/2016 #106

I love checking out Burdastyle.com* for their latest pattern releases, and early this year a dress from their wedding collection caught my eye: Short A-Line Dress 03/2016 #106. As lovely a wedding dress it made, I felt it would also work as a casual, 60s-inspired shift. So I dug out some vintage sheets from my collection and got to work.