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Ailbhe

@ailbhe.ossifrage.net
536 followers 233 following 9.1K posts

she/her environment, sewing, books, art #VisibleHealth

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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 10/09/2026
I mean, this is the river I've lived within 20 minutes' walk of (closer as the crow flies) for the last 28 years. But it has no feeling of "home" for me, it's just there, not being the sea. (tse1.mm.bing.net/th/id/OIP.7s...)
The Thames at the Prospect of Whitby pub in Wapping, b&w photo found onlineThe Thames from the end of Cow Lane in Reading, trees on the near bank, then the river, then boats moored on the opposite bank and trees beyond that.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 10/09/2026
Re-post with your home river - I truly have no river that feels like home, trying to think of one just gives me the Atlantic ocean, stretching away to America.
An almost empty beach on the Atlantic coast of Ireland
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 05/09/2026
" - You’re not apolitical, you’re unapologetically privileged." mastodon.ar.al/@aral/116244...
Screenshot from Mastodon, 11:41am on Mar 17, 2026: aral@mastodon.ar.al - You’re not apolitical, you’re unapologetically privileged.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 01/09/2026
I found more buttons. Sorting time!
Several small jars and pots of buttons of various sizes and colours
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 31/08/2026
I used to keep buttons in tiny jamjars on an A4 magnet board, but last week I put them in the baggies that come with COVID tests and taped them to an A2 bit of mounting board. So now it's easier to choose a button to match (ish) a broken one.
A background of coloured buttons in bags, laid out in stripes, and my hand holding a button up against the cream/beige ones to find a reasonable match.A close up of my hand with a grey/beige button held up against a ziploc bag with several buttons of the same size and a reasonable approximation of the same colour.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 25/08/2026
When I initially saw a "bear bell" recommendation I assumed one of these - but they're actually tiny little jingly things? I think I'll stay in these bearless islands.
A large brass bell with a wooden handle, being rung by someone gripping the handle in their fist. The diameter of the bell-mouth is larger than the diameter of the person's forearm.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 19/08/2026
I wanted to paperclip a charm to my Filofax for my sewing stuff, but I had no jump rings. BUT I had another paperclip, and some pliers.
A grubby surface on which are an orange-handled needlenose pliers, a broken paperclip, and a tiny charm of a sewing machine linked to a good paperclip by a little twist of the other paperclip.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 19/08/2026
Ooh. I have discovered a secret third thing. It's very frustrating because the least terrible way of doing it available to me is in Google Sheets, but it's going to work. This will fit a Filofax Mini, which is my favourite size.
Four pieces of hole-punched paper laid out on a sheet of A4. There are two wide ones and two narrow ones. The pieces laid out so that you can see they go together to make a month to view calendar for August/Lúnasa, and two note sheets. They have a red border and the unused calendar squares are pink.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 15/08/2026
Made an emergency cooling scarf because I had some soaked beads in a bucket but no prepped scarves handy, and a neighbour needed one.
Purple floral fabric in a tube, with a sausagey fat bit in the middle, next to a neoprene wrist brace and a cast iron sewing machine.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 11/08/2026
Ok then! It got up to 35C in the wheelchair space because the machinery behind this wall was Very Hot. Too hot for Rob to leave his hand on it.
The interior end wall of a train carriage showing a grille, a wheelchair sign, emergency hammer smash glass etc.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 10/08/2026
Prototype skirt guard for my wheelchair so I can wear my summer clothes AND leave my house.
A wheelchair with bleach cushions and a blue frame, and tied to the back of the footrests and the sides of the seat is a square of yellow gingham, so skirts can't fall back into the front wheels
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 10/08/2026
I must figure out how to pack a portable Aircon unit and bring it on the train next time. Meanwhile this is pointing at the bed
A wet towel
hanging in front of a fan
from the legs of an upside-down table 
balanced on the arms of an armchair
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 08/08/2026
A red rose crocheted out of glittery red yarn!
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 08/08/2026
#DWCon2026 I've been learning to crochet a rose! If this worked, the next bit should be easy.
A piece of crochet, essentially a long scalloped ribbon, in red sparkly yarn. There's also a green metallic crochet hook and a bookmark with the Discworld Convention 2026 logo.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 05/08/2026
Then I made three little pen pockets and added them to one end -- which meant sewing the end together, the cotton lining and the heat reflective polyester batting both at once. Then I made a little patch with the pen pockets on it, and sewed that over the seam at the end.
Both sides and one end of the bag, splayed out showing the seam in the middle of the end, and three pen pockets over it, with a red, an orange and a blue pen in.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 05/08/2026
Next I made a camera pocket (different colour because I didn't have a suitable piece of the blue) and a zip pocket. Looking for a zip was the most tiring part of that one.
The other side of the inside of the bag, showing a blue zipper on one flat pocket and a pale cream, much deeper pocket on the right.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 05/08/2026
Here's the laptop pocket, which was the first bit I got done.
A pale blue rectangle on a pale blue rectangle -- it's the inside of one side of the bag with a padded pocket taking up most of that face.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 30/07/2026
I was in a peculiar mood and the 16yo said "when I feel... I'm going to say kooky... I do some abstract painting." So I did.
An open notebook with a yellow box on the left and the right-hand page painted in blue and purple and green and grey, if you are a pattern- spotting kind of person it's a bit like a landscape, so there's also a thing a bit like a tree
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 27/07/2026
With alt text...
One of London's oldest markets has stood beneath a spectacular Victorian roof for more than 600 years - with painted ceilings and cobbled streets.

The market dates back to the 14 century, when it [END TEXT]
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 27/07/2026
www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2026/7/26…
A large indoor space, like a warehouse or a community hall, with rows of camp beds and foam mattress pads on the floor and hundreds and hundreds of refugees from the wildfires in France sitting or lying.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 22/07/2026
Oh hey I already have some tealish double gauze. I could make a tiered skirt.
Some greeny bluey fabric, which I have photographed on a piece of white card beside an orange scissors to attempt to fool the camera into thinking I didn't mean it to be grey. It's still pretty grey though.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 21/07/2026
My youngest child just showed me this, discovered via Pinterest, so completely unattributed etc. He said "I found this mildly amusing but I bet you think it's hilarious."
Spiderman at an open mike, saying "Being Spider-Man is pretty great, I can't lie. But if I could do it all over again I would *not* name myself after something so *gross* and *creepy*. Maybe something more adorable and less off-putting, y'know?

Like Spider-Puppy or something!"
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 19/07/2026
Phryne Fisher and Dot from Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 14/07/2026
This is the nightie I made - it's about 1.5m of linen, T-slit for the neck.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 07/07/2026
Pope Leo when young, with Blues Brothers sideburns, hat and sunglasses, and priest's white collar.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 18/06/2026
It worked!
Beige plastic Brother monogrammer attachment attached to black cast iron Singer 201K. You can see the blanking plate sellotaped over the feed dogs, under the needle, and in the foreground a white cotton hanky with a red cursive A embroidered on the hem.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 09/06/2026
I always think of Michael D's desk at these times - there are many photos of it but here's just one. extra.ie/wp-content/u...
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 08/06/2026
Sewed a beautiful seam, fastening three layers of insulation to the lining, taking the pins out as I went so as not to break them or the needle, and then discovered the bobbin had run out almost at the start. I cannot see what I'm doing at all in this bag.
A black Singer sewing machine with the nose dipping into a bag to see a bulky, inaccessible seam in the baseShot from inside the bag, showing the padded sides folded over to allow limited, cramped access to the horrible synthetic fabrics I'm trying to sew
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 08/06/2026
Oooh Meta/Facebook has an earlier one - June 2019 -
A comment on the Facebook page for Jeremy Vine On 5, dated 11 June 2019, by Darren Duffy, in which he refers to Jacob Rees Mogg as "this haunted Victorian pencil."
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 08/06/2026
I've started looking and a search found this reference to a pre-existing phrase, but no link to the origin - November 2018.
Screenshot from X/Twitter, dated 4:13pm Nov 17, 2018, from user @mrs_coyle "kath". She says:

I've just seen Jacob Rees Mogg described as a "haunted Victorian pencil"....
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 04/06/2026
I'm fixing an IKEA cool bag we got years ago -- at least a decade but I couldn't say whether it was closer to 15 or 20 years ago -- where the insulating liner had become terminally bunched up inside, making an uninsulated bag with some lumpy bits. #Mending #Sewing
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 19/05/2026
The smocking is working well enough that I'm going to rebind the neck so it doesn't weaken before I finish, and then extend the smocking downwards until I like the shape. I haven't managed alt text on these because I'm exhausted but I'll try to add it later.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 17/05/2026
#MeMadeMay2026 just remembered, today I wore my Morgan Donner Dungarees as illustrated in the post below. mastodon.art/@artbyailbhe/111002528…
Me sitting in a fairly dark room wearing dungarees in two shades of orange, and in the background you can see a chair with more sewing in orange and red and yellow draped over it, and beyond that a lot of clutter. Mantelpiece/bookshelf type clutter mostly.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 16/05/2026
So the last completed version of this dress was the orange one, and the yellow and lavender version was supposed to be the same but without the button front, and I messed up the pattern when I converted and didn't remove ENOUGH of the placket parts from the middle.
Two dresses showing their necklines; the right one is orange and the neckline is narrower with a point almost making a V, and the left one is yellow and the neckline has a broad U going on. Me in the yellow dress after I put a bit of smocking on the front to narrow it. It still needs more work but I'm not sure what exactly.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 13/05/2026
I've been really unwell but here's a different pattern of nightie; this one is two rectangles, one made into the yoke and sleeves, and one wrapped around to be the skirt. #MeMadeMay2026
Me in pale mint linen nightie with my arm stretched out away from the camera. Voluminous nightie. 

There's a T-shaped slit in the yoke rectangle, to be the front opening and the neck, and rectangles cut from the corners to make the armscye gussets and the binding for the neckline, so the yoke and sleeves are more T-shaped too. My outstretched arm in pale mint linen nightie, showing seam of armscye gusset and repair.
You can see one place where I cut too fat and had to sew the piece back on but I've decided it's a feature.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 07/05/2026
Is there anything to be done with the term "mollycoddle"?
Statue of Molly Malone in Dublin, photo taken years ago before her boobs were groped so much
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 05/05/2026
No new photos but here's Nunderwear Nighties 1 and 3 from the time I made them. I'm wearing 3 in bed today because I'm not well enough to get up. Linen rectangles are the way to go. #MeMadeMay2026 #MeMadeMay
Me standing arms outstretched in a crumpled linen nightie with elbow length sleeves, showing the rectangular nature of the garmentMe again arms outstretched, this time in a VOLUMINOUS linen nightie, with binding and gathering at the neck, very surplice. The nightie from the previous picture but I'm holding my arm bent at the elbow to show the vast dangling sleeve-end like a cavernous medieval linen kimono
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 04/05/2026
Garden
Pink roses against the background of their leafy green bush and the summer blue and white cloudy sky
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 03/05/2026
Today's #MeMadeMay2026 is another nightie, and the mended jeans again, but a better photo of them this time. #MeMadeMay
Me in the morning in my nightie; it's a rectangles based shift with a vertical slit instead of a, like, neckline. It's the first of the linen nighties I made in 2024 and I was an instant convert.My legs in jeans which used to be pale grey but are now too faded to even be that, but which have huge patches on the front of each thigh from knee to crotch, in dark blue denim with multicoloured stitching. Blanket stitch at the edges and just... big straight stitches in the middle, drawing a spiral on one side and a triangle on the other.

Also near the ankles there's some decorative machine stitching in rainbow thread if you zoom in.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 02/05/2026
I didn't really get up today -- though my wisdom tooth is much better and I'm actually able to taste this jar of Hipp Organic Apple And Pear Purée I'm eating -- so here's one of my linen nighties. I think this is the second one I made, in Sept/Oct 2024. #MeMadeMay2026 #MeMadeMay
I held the phone above my head so you can see I'm in a shapeless white linen garment, possibly a shift or a nightie or a costume from a school play. The neckline buckles forwards because my arms are raised and it has zero shaping.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 01/05/2026
Once again the blue top ( mastodon.art/@artbyailbhe/112384470… ) again with the Test Jeans ( mastodon.art/@artbyailbhe/114868069… ) now patched extremely visibly as an experiment. Turns out I liked that. #MeMadeMay #MeMadeMay2026
A selfie of me in my blue top with daisies on and clutter in the background; at the bottom of the frame you can see my jeans with huge embroidery-floss stitching spirals on my lap.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 01/05/2026
Once again the blue top, again with the Test Jeans, now patched extremely visibly as an experiment. Turns out I liked that. #MeMadeMay #MeMadeMay2026
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 01/05/2026
Every so often I show people the Junior Cert history textbooks we had in Ireland in the 90s. Here's the contents pages.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 30/04/2026
Mended a shirt which had a bunch of weird holes -- carpet beetles? -- and decided not to try darning linen shirts by hand again. Patching and machine darning was fine.
A piece of pale cream coloured linen with a little hole in it, and some thread beginning to be worked into the hole to darn it The same piece of fabric with the hole somewhat sloppily  woven over. The inside of the shirt with a few white patches basted in place with red threadThe outside of the shirt with the first of the patches underneath sewn neatly and then the holes machine-darned over.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 27/04/2026
They said Moving Statue and that was NOT what I expected from that description. I know what moving statues look like.
A collection of plastic holy water bottles in the shape of The Blessed Virgin Mary Mother Of God, mostly whitish plastic but some clear, and none of them the amazing glow in the dark version my Nana had.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 24/04/2026
Went to look her up. Well, yes. You appear to be very right. This is from www.imdb.com/name/nm04165...
Geraldine James in "Silo" from 2023 - an elderly woman with thick white-grey hair pulled back possibly into a bun, very definite, decisive chin and cheekbones, minimal wrinkling for someone who is in her seventies, and a Serious Look in her eyes.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 16/04/2026
It was really annoying but I did it.
A pink plastic zipper, the coil being sewn back onto its fabric tape with blue threadA closed pink zipper with a very few pieces of blue stitching showing
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 25/03/2026
Ok I finished another pair and found elastic for yet another today and took this photo before finishing the second pair. Non-woven cotton cut on the bias, straight stitches, only really stretch element is the actual elastic.
Two triangular pairs of underpants laid out for comparison against a green background. The upper pair has no elastic attached yet and is laid flat, with the elastic next to the waist and leg holes for length comparison. The lower pair has elastic on and is being gathered along each edge by it.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 22/03/2026
This is the contents pages from my non-optional junior cert history course books.
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Ailbhe @ailbhe.ossifrage.net · 16/03/2026
Níl siad ag teacht
Still from a 1970s TV advert for Guinness, showing a remote beach with men carrying a currach (small tarred-canvas canoe) upside down on their shoulders, captioned "bíonn tú sona sásta le Guinness" - "you are blissfully content with Guinness."
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