I definitely lented my festina today and have decided that this is to be my current theme because it definitely works. I hastened slowly throughout the day and managed to achieve a surprisingly great deal of sewing. The shirt is now finished – the picture on the right is the variation on the cuff because fabric was short and I had to use the cuff to lengthen the sleeve and so as not to make it too tight around I put the button on the placket. It fits very comfortably and on the whole I am quite pleased with the finished result here.
As can be seen, good progress was made and I even managed to stop sewing at 1.30p.m. to grab a quick sandwich and then keep a pre-arranged appointment with my four youngest grandchildren to take them on our monthly trip out for a cream tea. First we spend an hour or so in the library and then we trot off to the local Antique Centre for a good old forage and a cream tea. They get to choose and surprisingly they still love the formula and as each one gets to the age to come they first get initiated into the library at round about 2-3yrs old [its the primary school teacher in me]  and then off to ‘The White Lion’. So far they haven’t got bored with the routine and luckily the offerings change enough for them to see something of interest and the tea and cakes always please. In fact they would probably like it to be a weekly outing, but I am a firm believer that things stay special if they are not indulged too often, or it becomes the norm.
It can be hair-raising to take a two and a half year old around an antique centre, but nothing compared to a ten year old’s fascination for a very large carved Jade Chinese junk priced at £18,000. He edges ever nearer to it perched in splendour on top of a Georgian fire mantle, ‘just to see the detail’. Like me he is a very tactile soul, and loves to touch and feel and he knows that one way to know jade from imitation is that it is always very cold. I have visions of it smashed to smithereens on the floor and being asked to cough up, so now he is banned from stepping a foot inside the room ~ but I can understand how he feels, it is very beautiful and unusual ….and very big….and very expensive.
lifeaworkinprogress 
Quite pleased with the result? Unless you are hiding something, you should be incredibly pleased with the result!
What a lovely afternoon you describe. Sounds like my cup of tea.
Thankyou Lucie, so quick off the draw~ well…as a good Northerner like yourself, modesty rules, although fair to say I am *quite* pleased because at the beginning I did not have high hopes ~ not enough fabric and it was stretchy – I think it was made for mens’ underwear, which is the reason I bought it in the first place, but then changed my mind – my DH is *so *hard to please in that department. I am on to a shirt/blouse roll at the moment – I hope it doesn’t fizzle out in the middle of something.
I always used to hold my breath when I took my children into antique shops. But what a great outing for them. So much for them to learn about a world so different from what they are accustomed to. It is hard not to touch when you are tactile isn’t it? I am like that with fabric, always touching. Your shirt looks fantastic. 🙂
That’s certainly true ~but we have 5 senses after all and touch/feel is one and we learn more by touching than by seeing I think, but at £18,000 I have to draw the line I’m afraid, even I didn’t touch this time.