Cat's revenge

apricot you instantly took me back more than sixty years. I went to college when smocking was on the curriculum. We used a type of transfer which we ironed onto the fabric and then did the "drawing up" I could not see the point then and have never done it since. Actually I am not a needle woman in any sense, but kudos to you for doing it. It must be a dying art.

omg I so love cats.

what are you making apricot is it for a baby. One of my pussies takes vengeance too if she cannot get her own way.

If it is raining in the garden, my cat then runs to the front door, expecting to see sunshine there-sadly disappointed each time. She then retires to bed.

I was trying to work out why you had a white lawn!

Smocking is so beautiful and so satisfying to sew. It's a shame it's gone out of fashion, I made my DD several little dresses with smocked tops when she was a baby.

I think Oliver Sprout must be a secret swimmer! When it's raining he comes in far wetter than he ought to be, given the amount of rain and the number of places he can go to shelter.

He does love a good rub down with his towel, I do wonder if he does it on purpose!

I had a posh relative and had some of her handmedowns and a couple were smocked dresses of cotton lawn. Looking back they were delicious and must have cost a fortune when new.

Cats are always helpful, whether sitting on the keyboard when you are trying to work or helping pin out paper patterns on fabric, they are there for you. One of mine used to open the fridge door so that everyone could help themselves. (Sorted with a child-proof lock). His litter brother used to help me weeding by curling up to sleep on my back. I wore a thorn(claw)-proof jacket so I wasn't shredded when I moved along a bit to the next weedy bed.

My current dog is not cat-friendly so I no longer have inside cats. I do have two feral cats who live outside and do a fantastic job on unwanted wildlife. I do still have birds visit the bird table so they only seem to pay attention to the fourlegged variety.

I tried smocking once - it took me ages. It was on a pretty floral Viyella fabric for DD1. I had a treadle Singer sewing machine then which I used to make clothes, toys etc. I was really chuffed with myself as I only ever achieved an 'E' for sewing at school. Other girls were doing drawn threadwork and other fancy stuff in the final year at junior school. Not me!

Durhamjen I didn't pick up on that one at all but I can see how it happned.

Apricot, I'm full of admiration and I hope your cat's misdemeanour didn't ruin your good work. My mum did beautiful smocking on our dresses when we were little - 70 years ago! I don't suppose we appreciated the skill that went into it at the time and none of us inerited it. Our dresses for VE day were white Viyella with red and blue smocking.

I made a few angel top/pants sets with smocked yokes, for my girls when they were babies. I used non-iron pastel checked fabrics, so they were worn for every day and were worth the effort.

I once had a cat who wanted cuddling all the time, so I wore her on my front in a baby carrier while doing housework and sewing, but she would take the occasional swipe at my creations. She went missing one very cold winter. Not knowing her fate was very distressing .

I smocked cream wool Viyella nightdresses for my babies. It was very soothing to do in the last weeks of pregnancy. I also smocked their christening robe. I've still got that.

Oh shysal

Oh Shysal! I had a lovely wee cat who went out one day and never came home. It was awful not knowing what had happened to her.

My babies had Viyella nighties too and I've done quite a bit of smocking over the years.
What I'm making now is a rag doll and lots of clothes for her, horribly small and fiddley. I marked the smocking dots by hand because it's small and not worth buying the transfers.
George's dirty paw marks have come out of the fabric and I'd be friends with him again if he hadn't decided he doesn't like the Felix food I've bought 3 boxes of. He must have seen the receipt and known it was a cheaper variety than usual.

I`m having a similar problem with Mia, Apricot, I spend more time on my online Asda order deciding on her food than I do ours! She`ll gobble something down one week, and totally reject it the week after.

You didn't really think they try to trip us up by accident did you......hmmm??

Why do my cats only run in from the rain and climb into my lap with their muddy paws when I'm wearing cream trousers?

I had a black cat with an apparently waterproof coat. He didn't mind the rain and would come in and shake off the water like a dog. His undercoat was always completely dry.

We had a lovely daft longhaired cat who used to just put her head under the (parked) car when it was raining: used to come in with a huge fluffy head and little skinny drenched body. She never learned to put her whole self under cover.