Winter brings its own challenges to sewing.  It’s nice not to be perspiring, but unfortunately I am at that time in winter where my hands are like sandpaper.  It doesn’t help that sailing (my other “S” hobby) means salt water and blisters.  There is a risk of snagging the floats of the satin on my horrible crocodile skin.

This morning I used olive oil and sugar to abrade the worst of the loose and flaking skin.  Now I am applying hand cream every time i wash my hands.  I’ll wear gloves when I leave the building to avoid drying them out even more.

The Natio stuff i use is nice.  It’s lavender and rosemary, made in Australia, smells yum and soaks in nicely.  It also works well to smooth out the skin.  I discovered it on a trip to Mildura in 1994 so have been using it a while.  They haven’t discontinued it yet.  I will cry if they do.  It doesn’t leave your hands greasy, so there’s less worry about leaving sticky marks on the fabric.

My fingernails aren’t much better than my hands, but much easier to fix.  I have chopped them all off and filed them into submission.

Nothing worse than managing to damage the fabric just by touching it.   The side benefit is that looking after my sewing will make my hands look less scruffy.  Not that anyone ever looks at my hands.  It’s not like i’m a hand model.  Not with these stumpy fingers 🙂

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