St Paddy's Day!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

St Patrick died on this day in AD 461 according to Wikepedia. He was a Roman-Briton and Christian Missionary in Ireland and is now their patron saint. On the 17th March the Irish around the world celebrate by drinking lots of Guinness, and everyone else becomes Irish for the day to join in the celebrations!

Image from wikipedia

Thousands of people today will be busily slurping Guinness, Ireland's most famous stout, a rich, dark beer made from roasted malt or barley. Pubs throughout Britain will be full of green clad patrons, and green clad bar staff busily poring the perfect pint of Guinness, in  110 seconds, according to the company. My other half, Chris will be one of the many jostling for space to serve the masses in the Shakespeares, the Real Ale pub he manages in Sheffield. In Honor of the occasion (and because he didn't have a decent green top) we spent the afternoon trawling Charity shops for a green top, which we then stoutified!

Chris wanted a pint of stout for obvious reasons, and knowing I had black and cream fabric just waiting for an opportunity to leave my fabric bag, we soon set about making his dreams come true...

First of all, Chris carefully set about creating a pint template that we could use to cut the fabric. To ensure technicality and precision, he drew around a pint glass...

While I got busy cutting and hemming to ensure a straight edge, I set Chris to the task of designing the lettering. He chose the words 'It's all about the stout'. I made it a little more stitching friendly, and he finished off the main part of the pint.

The next step was planning it all out on the T-shirt. After a few designs we settled for this.

I then got busy stitching the words, not an easy task on stretchy material when you don't have much time...

Meanwhile, Chris got busy cutting out a delicious creamy frothy head for the pint, a must have for those up north who enjoy a good head on their beer (Southerners tend to have very small heads on their beer in comparison - Can you tell I enjoy a good pint of ale?). Soon we were ready for the final touch, stitching the pint onto the T-shirt. It would have been easier and quicker to glue it, but we didn't have enough time as this was about 1 hour before Chris had to go to work, so he got started on dinner while I got stitching. Again. Below is Chris modelling his St Patrick's day t-shirt.

Not bad for a quick make! The lettering isn't as neat as I'd like, smaller stitches would have been better, but we were restricted by time. I think the pint looks pretty awesome though, and we got the layout ok too. It's a good job that Chris is a bit daft, because it means he doesn't mind looking a bit daft too! Still, it's all done in the spirit of St Paddy's day, and no doubt his fellow staff at Shakespeares will find it entertaining. along with his customers. He's probably busy enjoying chatting and chuckling with them while he pours the perfect pint of Guinness, or naughty leprechaun, or Deception, or any of the 7 other ales Shakespeares has on draught. No doubt he'll be in his element!

Time for a Guinness now I think....

Happy St Patrick's Day!