The sewing machine: a girls best friend

So went the song of many years ago: 'The sewing machine, the sewing machine: a girls best friend' I left school aged 15 and spent a short time working in a dressmaking factory making high quality clothes for children and on payday we trainees would burst into a couple of rousing choruses of this song.

The quality demanded proved too high for my skills so I left before I was sacked. I mean, I did Latin instead of needlework and domestic science in my last year at school, for gods sake!

Over the years though I've had lots of fun with my sewing machine. Making many pairs of my 'half-hour trousers' so called because it takes me exactly 30 minutes from cutting out to wearing (no pockets or darts and an elasticated waist); making gifts - my famous peg bags!; repairing clothes and - most fun of all - making banners. The first banner I made myself was back in the late 1980s for Bradford Circus Workshop and the most recent one is this, which will be taken on demonstrations against the Bedroom Tax. Our next demo in Norwich is on the 13th April at the Haymarket.

Okay, it's nothing like the magnificent Trade Union banners that wealso see on demonstrations but the message is clear.

It cost me nothing to make as everything you see here was sourced from scraps of fabric, an old sheet and some poles left over from a windbreak that got ripped by a high wind. The reason why the wording is minimal is because I ran out of black and red fabric and felt!

It can be held by one or two people, planted in the ground, propped against a wall and - when I have found some white shoelaces - will have some ties attached to each corner so that it can be hung, with the poles detached.

Two of the Unions (Unite - the one that I belong to - and Unison) have today put out a call for a general strike. It will be interesting to see how plans for this pan out. It may take some time but I have a feeling that it will happen.