Freemotion embroidery birdies

I went to Josie's Funky Needlework evening class. Just to make clear, this is an informal class, where you can get guidance or just enjoy the company and do your own thing. I had never, ever managed to do freemotion embroidery with my machine. I think I first bought a presser foot that was wrong and then just could not figure how to install the correct one.

The class then seemed a good thing to do as I could ask Josie for help. I managed to install the foot, but the stitching did not really go anywhere. After Josie had had a play with it and a few beard stroking moments, she had to admit that she did not know what on earth was going on. I was happy with that too. It just meant that it was not only me who could not do it. I don't know how I worked it out, but I did in the end and got to do my first "picture".

Now, if you start with this first time and you need to play around, what would you draw. A flower? A cloud? Something pretty basic, I guess. At this point something in my brain OBVIOUSLY short circuited and I decided too draw a bird. Not a simplified, folksy bird, but a birdy bird. See above. I was quite pleased as it was my first attempt. I made a couple more and am now in the process of using them for a project, which I will show later, when it is finished.

It was quite good fun, when I got going. I did draw the birdies with indelible pen first and then followed those lines as best as I could. I like the feeling of "line drawing" the freemotion sewing gives for the embroidery.

Messenger Bag

I needed a small, over the shoulder bag, which could hold my purse, phone, keys and folded fabric shopping bag. I had some oilcloth, traditional, real, oily, oilcloth and bag hardware, so I made this:

I had also visited a leather heaven in Newcastle, so I had scraps of leather to use. The result is not tidiest and there are several things I will do differently next time.

I will definitely put the zip on the top and not try to hide it. The idea was good, but to look neat it needs a magnetic close and that becomes too fiddly. I installed the plastic snap after I had used the bag for a while, but it doesn't have the gumption to keep it together.  I am talking about the main zip here, not the front pocket one you can see in the picture above.

I will also make sure that I have good quality zips to use. These were bought as a job lot, cheap and cheery ones. I think in hindsight one should never try to economize with zips.

I love the lining I used. I also made a divider for the main pocket in addition to a little pocket. The divider was waste of effort, it would have been better to add a flat outside pocket. The little pocket inside is good though.

Do you have a good purse/phone/keys bag? Which features make it good? I am always eager to refine the functionality of the bags I make and any input is helpful.

Laptop Bag

My sister-in-law asked for a colourful laptop bag for her birthday. I obliged and when Elf husband saw the result he commented that the bag indeed was so colorful and bright that it almost hurt his eyes! This gift did not go without mishap...I slightly underestimated the need of seam allowances, so it was too small for the laptop it was intended for. Oh the shame...

This was to be a bag where she just slipped her laptop into, when not in use, rather than for transporting it.

The pocket is for the charger.

Sorry about vomiting pictures...not awfully lot to say about this project otherwise.

Black and White

This year's twin niece birthday has just been. At too late point of the last month did I realise that the day was near and hurried to ask my sister-in-law to make enquires of what the young ladies might wish to have. R wanted to have two new cushion covers for her new black and white room to be. L wanted to have a nice cloth covered notebook. I had a bit of poppy fabric left from my previous poppy dress, which was fine, but otherwise I had to pop into Funky Needlework Studios to get some black and white stuff. This was no hassle, the owner Josie is extremely nice and one can browse to all of one's heart's content without feeling a nuisance.
R had mentioned that a bit of colour was ok, so I chose to lift the monochrome scheme with an orange zip. You can also see that the poppy cushion's back has a different fabric, a chance to change the looks on the bed!

L's diary is covered in the same fabrics

Inside I made a title page, taking a punt, as I had forgotten to ask what she intended too use the notebook for. (Luckily my guess was correct)

Ooh...that glue splot totally distracts me. it wasn't as visible in reality. I also added some nice coloured fineliners in the front pocket

And voilá, two pressies done. I am not going to entertain you how much blood, sweat and tears went into those  cushion covers, which in theory should have been a walk in a park...I got to a point where I had to admit that I need a new seam ripper tool, mine is SO blunt after this project.
Any interesting/blood thirsty/sweat inducing projects your way?
Today I just say: "Happy Unbirthday L&R!"

Poppy Dress

 

In the middle of the winter I take time to sew my summer clothes. Inspired? Tempting the spring this way? No, just of practical reasons. This is the time of the year when I can arrange to have time to sew. In the spring and summer I either have to take care of my allotment and yard or even when I don't have to, I want to be outside if the weather is good.

 I was wearing two of my tunic dresses with slightly shame faced manner last summer. Both of them are now deemed to become my gardening clothes -in the garden the visible patching of rips, faded fabric and stains don't matter. When they start to fall off my body or having holes too big to mend, I'll make them to rags for my kitchen.

This is my first dress for addressing the lack of garments for the summer. It is the trusted pattern I have used many times and it still works beautifully. I have made the dress with short sleeves before, but prefer it now in its smock incarnation. It means that I can change the undergarment of the dress changing also how it looks and can go a bit longer without washing it.

The fabric is  Marimekko "Poppy" and was given to me. I actually had it already for the last summer, but didn't get around to sew it.

Are you planning your summer  wardrobe as yet? (I am not, I just replace the things I know I have worn out).

Gardening Diary

I try to keep gardening diary, but fail often miserably. I do manage to write down the first spring sowings and have made a plan last autumn how I want to plant this year's garden. I do practice crop rotation, so it is important to make a note of the planting, because it is oh so easy to forget where the different plants were. Above is my diary in its new jacket. I ended with IKEA waterproof cloth, as I know that I will handle this book with dirty hands, which is in clear evidence in the picture below.

It looked like this to start with

One of those white jobs bought as a lot of five. I chose not to glue the cover this time, but made pocket ends.

I thought that the pocket outside could hold a pencil and a seed packet or such. Ehm...that seam looks awful! I just could not be bothered to do it again as it is purely decoration, the binding. Sometimes I just let be as is and that's ok as well.

I am not a real green thumbed gardener as I have not perused all the seed catalogues as yet...I will soon though and I will consult both my box of seeds and the notes of what I have planned to plant. I try to get something new to try for each year, although the newness might be just another variety of a vegetable or flower I am already familiar with. A certain new thing I want to grow this year is a cucamelon.

Do you have gardening plans as yet? Will you try something new?

Green things

 I had the luck to get some pretty fabrics from my very local quilting studio. The talented owner Josie runs classes and sells also fabrics. She is online as well here and is situated so close to my front door that I don't even need a jacket to go and visit. Luckily the studio is not open daily, it is tempting enough as it is. Josie had two day January sales and I went to see if there was anything I could see immediate use for. Actually I was after a dress fabric, but alas, did not find one. The fabric above came home and I am now thinking what I am going to make out of it.

Similar colours in this fabric, which I decided to use as a table cloth. I had a trial run, the cloth unhemmed, just to see how I liked it. I did like it and as it was a tad short, I made a border out of some hand dyed batik from Africa.  I even did the border in double , so no raw seams are visible and the cloth stays put a bit better with more weight around the edges.

Another green craft; a bookmark. Very simple, a leather thong with some big wooden beads. I have used it a lot and might just make another, as I always have more than one book on the go.

 Apart from sewing in green, I have been busy supporting the local Green Party. I might not agree on every policy the Greens have, but their ethics and most of the policies coincide with my personal ethics and wishes. I cannot see how the mankind will survive if we don't make quite many drastic changes on how we live on this planet. (And that is just looking at some pretty recent reports on fauna/flora/climate changes we have caused). The changes need to be both individual, local, national and international. I also like the fact that they don't campaign by rubbishing others, but by telling how they would like to do things.

You could see what policies/parties align with your thinking here. "Vote for policies, not for personalities" online questionnaire is a great tool to narrow down the party/parties you might want to have a closer look at preparing yourself for the voting in parliamentary elections in May. 

On the creative front my mind is awash with all sorts of projects and I might even make a note of them as I don't think that I manage to get them all done before the mad gardening season begins. At the moment it is very cold though and the wind has blown a hoolie both yesterday and today. In my sleepy state yesterday morning I thought that a jet was flying past us, until I realised that the noise continued be there and that I was listening to the waves crashing on the seafront, not far from our house!

Bags for rags and laundry

I have a slightly bigger project going on...it's a smallish house project and this is going to be part of it. I made some gifts for house before we moved. This is sort of continuation of that. I have a bag for our "kitchen laundry"; dishcloths and napkins. I have used a tote bag for the purpose, but now I wanted to have one, which would go with the others.

I use rags in the kitchen and I wanted to have a bag for them too. I found a really cool tea towel on a boot sale and didn't want to use it as such, as it is one of those lovely vintage linen ones, which are not made any more. It was made to commemorate the coronation of the Queen.

I wanted to embroider "rags" on it, as I know that otherwise the rags and the contents of the laundry bag will get mixed up. When I had done that, I could not stop, but had to add "to riches". The text on the tea towel makes it to "RAGS TO CORONATION RICHES". Not that I think that ER II was exactly poor before her coronation!

The back of the bag mentions the year.

Have you re-purposed vintage textiles you love to something else?

Victorian Sunday School Teacher Attire

 

Firstly, Happy New Year 2015! I hope it brings you joy and peace.

This is yet another dress made with the shirt dress pattern I wrote about here and here. This time I made it in a fabric not recommended at all in the pattern script. I also altered the pattern further, making it narrower over the shoulders and a bit roomier under the arms. The fabric is a wool mix with a pattern couched on it. It is very warm and nice to have on.

When I was about to wear this for the first time I realised that I didn't really find anything to wear under it in my wardrobe. The reason? I made a BIG MISTAKE buying this fabric. I think I need to give you a bit of background to this. I have been very good indeed making my wardrobe smaller and smaller, yet more functional and pleasing. I generally like everything in my wardrobe. I have a very manageable amount of clothes, which I can put together with each other, so that the sum of combinations is actually quite large. I think that most of the time my wardrobe would pass the project 333 rules. (Read more, if you are interested in getting a small, but functional wardrobe). Mostly I buy/sew new things, when the old ones die. And I really mean die. I love my rags so much that I use them until they have holes and start to be oddly discoloured, because the fabric has lost the dye.

Back to my mistake...I was taken in by the loveliness of this fabric and let the fact that it has a clear brown tint pass. I have nothing of brown in my wardrobe. It is based on hues of grey, white and occasional black. I have t-shirts, tights and even cardigans in splashes of colour to enliven the works, but nothing to go with brown. So I sewed a white peasant type of shirt to go under it.

I wanted the front very flat, so it is simple with no smocking, just a pleat to room the buttoning strip. It is a very lovely shirt to wear and I plan to make a smocked version of it as well.

I am rather proud of it as I managed to draft this pattern AND make the shirt in 7 hours!

 I have resolved to take this as a lesson. Luckily I don't hate or even dislike the dress. It simply doesn't have quite as many "wardrobe friends" as it should. When I was moaning about my daftness to elf Husband, he said that I could buy/sew things to go with it.  That is exactly what I don't want to do. Every piece of my wardrobe needs to work hard without increasing the need of buying new. Full stop.  Bas. Piste.

I do look a bit like a Victorian Sunday school teacher in this ensemble, but I don't mind, it is comfortable and I seem to get a lot of compliments for some odd reason. Maybe Victoriana is getting fashionable again?

Shirt dress aka hippie tent

This is the dress, which is quite like my dress for general usefulness, but made with the original pattern.

I found this shirt dress pattern on Merchant and Mills and simply could not resist. I seldom buy patterns, because I have a good selection of sewing magazines with patterns. I also favour certain type/model clothes and re-use the patterns over and over again. This pattern is going into that pile.

Unfortunately I was slightly wary of the sizing and did not bother making a toile as I should have. So I erred on the large side. My two other dresses I made smaller especially over the shoulders.

The fabric comes from the same place and is woven in India on a hand loom. It means that it has character and knots and all sorts and I LOVE IT! It is very light, summery weight, so I should actually pack it away from my mid-winter wardrobe. It is fine to  use in spring/autumn with long sleeved t-shirts and tights. Wearing it is a bit like running around in a nightdress from the comfort point of view.

The main picture has got that weird effect that sometimes happens with stripy patterns and camera, but you can see the true pattern and texture below. The fabric is called "Newsprint", should you be interested. The shop is delicious and I have to restrict my visits to their site, so I won't blow my sewing budget.

The hem, which has the shirty curve. In the other two dresses I straightened it and made side slits.

The smock detail and a good look at the texture of the fabric.

I could finger this fabric forever. It is just cotton, but so nice and light and it has that unmistakable "handmade" feel to it.

Do you have any places you find great fabrics from on the net? Leave a comment, so I can have a look,  I am always interested finding new places!

The Dress of General Usefulness

 I made this one in the beginning of September. It is made of medium heavy linen and is great. I like linen for its texture and the fact that it is environmentally better fabric than cotton. It does not require pesticides as it is fast to grow and also grows in colder climates.

The back has a yoke and gathered fabric, which gives room for movement in the dress.

I like the front "grandpa shirt" smock detail.

 
 The pattern comes from Merchant and Mills and is called the Shirtdress, but adjusted it a bit. The original has sleeves, so I had to make pattern pieces to see that the armholes were neat.

As you see I used another fabric, a lighter linen for this. It stops it becoming bulky and also I had only 1.5m of the heavy linen, which would not have been enough for adding these pieces.

I also re-shaped the hem to suit my purposes and added pockets.

I have actually made the dress according to the pattern before, but haven't shown it here.

The dress is great; it covers me, leaves plenty of room to move, is easy to wear with different tops under it and the fabric cost £12 from IKEA. At the moment my favourite combo is a yellow and white striped long sleeved t-shirt and mustard yellow tights.

The dress is named after a draw in my household. Yes, a draw. We have a draw called "The Draw of General Usefulness". It is a draw having bits and pieces of stuff, which are not used daily, but regularly enough so they need to be found easily and there is no other "logical" place to put them in. In my draw I have my hair dryer, 3D glasses for cinema, bright LED light for attic visits, DVD player for journeys etc.
This dress has a feeling of being really useful for many purposes and although I don't wear it EVERY day, it is in pretty heavy use. I have also lately made a version with a wool mix fabric. I'll take pictures of it as soon as the light and timetable allow and show it to you.

Have you made or bought clothes, which you seem to use "all the time"?

A beam of light from the crack of the door

...and she tiptoes into the dusty room, where the blinds have been shut for so long time. The room is familiar, but unused and dusty. It is time to open the blinds, throw the window open and let light and air into the room and begin cleaning.

That is how coming back here feels. I often think of writing, then am too tired,  too busy and also too ambitious. The pictures are bad, don't know if I have anything interesting to say, there are so many better/funnier/prettier blogs on the net...But being all those things is not why I write. I write to remind myself of times which otherwise would be buried in the stream of days, which makes months, years. I write to show my family and friends who are scattered all over the globe what I am up to. If non-family members, friends I have never met, also read, it's a bonus. I need not to live up to an imaginary editor's expectations. This is my diary. So be it, possibly umpteenth time that I resolve to blog a little and often.

While I haven't been writing I have been busy. There is a virtual stack of photos waiting to be shown. I am sure some of them will make it here. At the moment I have time, the winter cold has forced me into resting, despite the things I want to start, finish, get on with, ready for Christmas...

A quote from Dalai Lama has made its way to my life several times this year. It was one of the things starting this year and it is certainly there in the end as well. It was read to me in a "work" context, just as I needed it very badly. You see, I often feel guilty about having my lovely life. I grew up in the culture that told me that one had to expect the life to be hard and the work to be a burden. My work is great, I enjoy it and it aligns with my ethics. It does not earn my living though. I am dependant on my husband's income for that. And there we go again: I was brought up with a thought that one needed to be independent, have their own income, it would be silly and dangerous to trust anyone that much as let them be the breadwinner. It has taken me years and years to accept that the partnership can have equality in other ways than this. I don't mean that the ways were unfamiliar to me, but to feel that they truly are as important and that is what makes the partnership. And as you might guess, I still need reminding. Not in mental level, but emotional.

The quote, which is so important for me, is this one: 

"The planet does not need more 'successful people'. The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds. It needs people to live well in their places. It needs people with moral courage willing to join the struggle to make the world habitable and humane and these qualities have little to do with success as our culture is the set." -Dalai Lama

I need to hang it on the wall to be reminded, I think.

I have been on a cushion cover kick this year. This is how these things work; I make a present to a family member. They like it and then the next one asks if they could have their version as well. I then continue producing the same type of gift to everyone who either wishes to have one or could be thought to wish one.

This is the pair I made for my MIL.

 One of the nieces got "feminist" cushions:

 

The left one has an (incorrect) Virginia Woolf quote saying:
 

 
Although the quote is incorrect, the sentiment in my mind is right on many levels.

The right one has a little funny snippet on it's "washing instructions" label. I typed it with an old-fashioned typewriter and it says:
 

If it is too hard to read it says:
"balls are weal and sensitive. If you wanna get tough, grow a vagina. Those things take a pounding.

The backs of the cushions looked like this:

She liked them a lot.

Now my head is still ponding, but my tummy is empty, so I better make a plea for some food...or at least have a snack. See you soon!

Paper Carrier

 

This bag is a birthday present. I got the measurements for a bag needed to hold the old newspapers between a sofa and a wall in a small home office until they are ferried to the recycling bins. We had talked about the colours; black and white going well with the same colour curtains.

The handles needed to be relatively short to allow for carrying in the hand. I used an old IKEA canvas fabric and lined the bag with black sheet fabric in order it to not to look dirty after the first lot of papers had taken the residence.

Unfortunately I didn't have enough of the lining fabric for the bottom of the bag, so it was made of the outer fabric. Pretty, but no necessarily practical. So I sewed an additional plastic coated bottom, which can easily be wiped down.

The giftee was of opinion that the bag night be too nice for its purpose. What? Of course one should have nice recycling facilities, that makes it easier to recycle!