Early this year – before Covid and well before my enforced broken-wristed hiatus from handwork, I discovered that the cuff bands I’d embroidered for my blackwork “waist smock”[1] were too wide. I’d sewn one ruffle to its band, and the proportions were all wrong. So I unpicked the ruffle and put it somewhere safe.

I designed & embroidered a new, narrower, pair of cuff bands. It took a while. Then, in the classic “I put it somewhere safe” way, I couldn’t find the ruffle that I’d taken off the too-wide band, and I’ve been looking for it sporadically ever since.

Today, while cleaning out the outside compartment of my old brown handbag, I finally found it. Neatly folded in a snack-size Ziploc, nestled in among the crumpled tissues and random receipts.

Thinking back, I realize I’d been intending to get more of the edging cord, and had put it in the handbag so I’d have it with me the next time I went by Mokuba. Which, in those days, was usually at least once a week.

Not this time. Covid intervened, Mokuba closed for the duration, and by the time I’d finished the new cuff bands, the idea of casually dropping by a shop for a couple of meters of cord had drifted away in this year’s confusions.

When I found the errant ruffle, I was so delighted that I put today’s plans on hold, gathered it, pinned it, sewed it on to the new, narrow, band, ironed it and took a picture.

Tomorrow I’ll go to Mokuba and buy the cord, and finally be able to get on with finishing the waist smock.

Next day: it seems Covid is still with us. Mokuba is only open four days a week right now – Monday through Thursday. Today is Saturday, so cord acquisition is now scheduled for Monday 😊

[1] Ninya Mikhaila of Tudor Tailor fame kindly provided me with documentation of a “waist smock”, which sounds pretty much like partlet with attached sleeves. (the will of Joan Smyth, a widow from Essex in Emmison, F – ed (1998) Essex Wills: The Bishop of London’s Commissary Court 1587-1599, Chelmsford: Essex Record Office, item 1186)