“So Small Necklace” from Sew Hip Magazine Issue 10

I love the textile necklace designed by Anna Hodgson, I really like that it isn’t symmetrical and I admire the restrained use of just the one colour of green linen against the dark blue of the felt. The textures look lovely together and the outline stitching in fushia pink is genius. I was itching to have an excuse to make one and I got it when I finally got around to replacing the zip in my lovely friend’s dress. I don’t usually do repairs, I will normally explain to people who ask that I’d rather stick pins in my eyes than do repairs, but I dare not say that to this particular friend …..who practices as a fully qualified *acupuncturist!!! Anyhow, what with one thing and another it took me a L…..O…..N….G time to do this simple task, so long I’m embarrassed to admit to it and definitely long enough to warrant a heartfelt apology…..and a nice necklace to help to say sorry.

However, unlike the esteemed Ms Hodgson, when it comes to fabric I have absolutely no restraint whatsoever – I spent a happy 15 minutes sorting through my extensive scrap basket to find some suitable snippets for the leaves and matching them up to the felt I had in. Each leaf is very small so you can use up some of the ridiculously tiny bits that have been saved just because.

I felt sort of destined to make this necklace – I had everything already in my stash to make it. Felt, Bondaweb and eyelets – left over from the “Flights of Fancy” project in issue 9, leather thong left over from a beading project, and buttons from the Scottish Highland biscuit tin full of buttons which I inherited from Great Aunt Freda’s stash. Aunty Betty and Aunty Freda were Mr Topstitched’s great aunts.

Originally from the North East where they worked in mills in the ‘30s, they moved to Yorkshire to “better themselves”, becoming respectively a nursery nurse and the manager of a cake shop. I could never get them to talk much about the mills, but they retained a great knowledge and love of textiles and made a lot of their own clothes, although this dwindled off as they got older and engaged in a love/hate relationship with the tension on their newfangled electric Bernina. I feel it a privilege to be the current custodian of the button tin with all of its buttony loveliness. There are all kinds of treasures in there, and it was my son’s second favourite way of learning to count (the first being learning subtraction using Smarties).

It didn’t take long to make, although I confess I couldn’t actually locate the Bondaweb, so I made do with the ordinary fusible interfacing I COULD find and a Pritt stick instead.

The next important question was what colour to do the all important topstitching? I have print fabrics in various shades of blue and the felt in lime green, the dress is navy corduroy. So, obviously I chose orange! Well, perhaps not so obvious. Long experience with sewing morsbags from recycled fabrics and donated and leftover threads has led to the growing realisation that thread in lime green or orange will make a pleasing contrast with most colours. The felt was already green, and I didn’t want it too matchy matchy so orange it was.

Almost didn’t want to hand it over, but in the end, both necklace and apology were well received.

It was such a satisfying project that of course I couldn’t stop at just one! So it being another friend’s birthday was all the excuse I needed to have another go. More rifling through the scrap basket, fusing, arranging and choosing of buttons produced a purple version.

For this one I used two layers of felt. A darker one to act as a foil for the jewel like colours of the cotton prints, and then a brighter felt behind it emphasises the colours still further. The second layer of felt also helps to give a bit of body to the piece. The felt I was using was quite thin synthetic stuff, the blue felt Anna used looks like it was a thicker natural felt.  I never normally need an excuse for adding more fabric and colour, but the extra layer of the synthetic felt I used did help it to stop feeling a little bit floppy.

I thought it best to cease and desist at that point, although I would gladly have continued to make more of these until I completely ran out of felt….mind you, it is Christmas coming up…….

*NB I don’t want to do a disservice to my friend, she most definitely does not EVER stick pins in eyes, she is very professional and effective and MOST careful and particular about her needles.

Felty Wonky Skull Bag Crochet Pattern

Wow – where did the time go? As it has been SO long since my last post I feel I should try extra hard to make it a good one…so how about a free crotchet pattern?

A few posts back I mentioned a stash of wool that I was giving to charities and good causes. I found the sheer amount of yarn overfaced some people and then others just didn’t know what they’d make using it. My response was to make up a simple sample to show what could be done with it and give away the pattern with the yarn to hopefully inspire the flashing of many hooks. 

Happily, this seemed to do the trick, I don’t have much wool left, but I do still have a crochet pattern for a bag so I thought I’d share it with you. As I was using 100% wool yarn I thought I’d have my first attempt at felting (probably should be called “fulling” if I’m being technical but I’m feeling strangely woolly today so “felting” is what I’m sticking with). On the whole I’m quite pleased with it, although I’m slightly worried that it is a wee bit addictive – I’m already looking around for other things I can knit/crochet only to then intentionally shrink!

  

FELTY WONKY SKULL BAG

CROCHET PATTERN

…because symmetry is so overrated don’t you think?

YOU WILL NEED

100g Dark double knitting yarn (approx)

100g Light double knitting yarn (approx)

4.5 mm crochet hook

2 buttons

Darning needle

If you want to felt the bag, choose yarn that has a high wool content and check the washing instructions on the label; if it says “cool wash” or “do not rub” then it probably will felt. If it is labelled “superwash” or “easy care” then it probably won’t.

 

 Click here to download a Word document containing the rest of the pattern:

 

Felty Wonky Skull Bag

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is what it looks like before it is felted – skull on the front, stripey on the back. This one shrank by about a third when it was felted but it isn’t a precise science and the amount of shrinkage will depend on a number of factors – the wool, the temperature you wash it at etc.

This bag is destined to be a Christmas present, although it might be more suitable for Halloween. If I get time before 25th December I might line it – it has a lovely thick felty feel to it but when I “tested” it by putting things inside it I did find that pointy things had a habit of sticking through, things like keys or pens. Maybe this means I didn’t “felt” it enough? Or maybe this is just what felted crochet is like? Perhaps I’d best experiment a bit more….(this is me just looking for excuses to shrink stuff – can you tell?)

 

  

  I’d love it if you decided to make one for yourself or as a gift, and I’d be delighted if you made some to raise money for a charity.  If you do, please credit me as the designer and don’t claim the design as your own, or sell it or the bags you make for personal gain.

If you have a go and get stuck just ask and I’ll try to help, or if you notice a problem with the pattern instructions then let me know and I’ll put it right as soon as I can.

I have socked!

I have actually made a sock, just the one. This post is by way of celebration of my newly socked status (even though I finished it a week or so ago and have been admiring it ever since).

This doesn’t look like my Mum’s standard of knitting; her knitting is so neat and even and I can see lots of faults with mine. But if I’m honest, I didn’t think I’d get this far so soon, I estimated I’d be trying to finish them at Christmas whilst drinking Bailey’s - which wouldn’t help the finished quality of the hose but I probably wouldn’t care so much.

I have a very  good friend who I KNOW would say, “Better finished than perfect” at this point. So I shall concentrate on other aspects of the sock.

It is warm and I love the pattern.

It fits my left foot better than my right somehow (I must have very odd feet)  so it shall be my left foot sock.

Perhaps the right sock will be better.

Mum has advised me NOT to try to match the pattern may by the yarn for the next sock, and I shall listen to her as usual….although I did get in a mess with some of her other advice. I’m sure she always used to maintain that it was best to find the end that lives in the middle of a new ball of wool rather than the outside end to start off with.  

To be fair, this has stood me in good stead with the albeit meagre amount of knitting I’ve done since leaving home, but a few months ago I was crocheting a simple bag using some cotton yarn in several colours.  All the colours were fine except the blue. These balls knotted up if you even looked at them. Of course this happened when I was out crocheting in public (I have trouble sitting still if I don’t occupy my hands at my son’s cricket matches), and drew a lot of comments from the other mum taxi drivers.  I’m content to tease out a little, crochet it up and then work at the knot a little more to free up another length. It usually sorts itself out like this but there is something about a knotted mess of wool that is fascinating to some people. I could tell two of them were positively itching to sort it out for me, it was really bugging them.

It didn’t stop there. I left the offending ball in the lounge while I settled people off to bed and got things ready for the next day, and came back to what can only be described as a Portugese Man O’War. Mr Topstitched had not been able to contain himself when confronted with the tempting tangle. The knotty bit was stationed in the middle of the room and there were several long streamers of knot free wool splaying out from it in various directions, for all the world like a large jelly fish. He sorted it in the end of course, but doesn’t seem interested in making any of the “controlled knots” otherwise known as crochet, ran a mile when I offered him a crochet hook (or perhaps he was confused by the menacing look on my face!). 

Since then I have been asked to help find new homes for nine sacks of assorted wool as someone needed to have a clearout. It was the leftovers from a wool shop owned by the person’s mum. It must have closed down a long time ago and the wool had been stored since then. It was a real trip down memory lane for me, the names on the labels alone took me back to when my mum seemed to knit every day to keep our family in jumpers and cardigans, and ponchos and dressing gowns (and when she wasn’t knitting she was sewing and crocheting).

There were balls of Paton’s Doublet, Totem and Bouclet, Robin’s Vogue and Gleneagle Tweed, another textured one called “Rimple” and reading some of the labels I noticed that they specifically advised starting from the OUTSIDE.

So now I’m confused, please put me out of my misery, are you an “innie” or an “outie” when it comes to starting off your wool? Is there even a right or wrong answer to this? Or does it depend on the wool and the way it is wound?  

Anyhows, I’m experimenting with what it says on the packet and I’m taking from the OUTSIDE for this crochet project I’m making with the wool I have left (the bulk of the stash has been distributed to local groups who knit for various charities and also organisations who do textile crafts with children).

(Quick aside – whilst discussing this wool on another forum I discovered I had unwittingly been a childhood niddy-noddy. I’m not sure how I feel about this but I don’t think it scarred me too deeply).

I’m making a crocheted blanket using the really clear instructions over at Attic24. I really love the colours she uses for her projects. Mine won’t look like that due to not as much crochet practice, using wool not cotton, and most of all because my colours are dictated by the “serendipity of the sack”. So far so good, I have 4 stripes (each stripe takes just under one of these “1oz” balls) and no gnarly knots, but we’ll see.

PS I really don’t know why I’m inspired to make a woollen blanket in the middle of our little heatwave – especially when I should be knitting the other sock.

Perhaps I’m just contrary.

Perhaps I’d better learn to hop.

Chilli Tears

People who wear contact lenses should NEVER prepare chilli peppers without wearing gloves.

NB This is more of  a public service announcement than a ploy for the sympathy vote but why do I always forget until afterwards?

(Sniffles off and hopes the Sweet potato and Spinach curry is worth it.)

Summertime Blues Jacket featured in Sew Hip #8

This is the original sketch I did for my latest published Sew Hip project.

The final version shows some slight variations in terms of fabric choice, and also how the patchwork was done, but it is still quite close.

The fabric is a jelly roll once again – can you detect a theme yet? – this time in glorious sea blues and greens, topstitched with orange.

It is a little extra work to use a jelly roll like this as you have to ”create” the fabric first. This does have advantages though - it gives loads of scope for making your own version entierly unique, and also for recycling fabric or using up small bits that aren’t enough to make a garment with on their own. It made me appreciate that while I’m a big fan of recycling for lots of reasons, it isn’t always a low cost option in terms of time. I guess this will be a factor in why sometimes recycled goods can seem expensive, and why as a rule it is more sustainable to choose to reduce and reuse if possible before considering recycling.

Ok so here it is, still in batik but in a different colourway for my son.

The hood here isn’t pieced because I didn’t have enough of the right colour strips in my jelly roll, but it used up a little of my gingham stash and saved a little piecing time too.  

The lining is a stretch terry towelling. The ribbing started its life as a tshirt of mine. It does mean that there are seams in the sides of the ribbing, but  I was having trouble locating the right colour and that tshirt had seen better days. It is a much happier being an ex-tshirt.

PS many sandcastles were made this day on the beach

Wrap Road Test

Mobius Wrap on Porthmeor Beach, St Ives

Well, more of a beach test I guess. Half term break saw a bunch of us camping in St Ives, Cornwall.  I don’t know how this happens but I’m generally last in the queue when it comes to sewing but I just managed to finish a Möbius wrap for myself before we left. In fact this is a lie, I finished the sewing bit before we left, but the fringe bit was clipped in Cornwall once we’d pitched the tent.

Mine is a bit longer than the pattern calls for – mostly because I just got carried away when I was cutting out the strips. I had to  cut them because I’d bought thin 1/4 yard pieces – a direct result of falling in love with a fabric collection that isn’t available as a jelly roll format. (The fabric is the Al Fresco collection by Michelle D’Amour, I bought it from  Patchwork Corner ).

I think I might remove some of the strips as it is a little too long for my preference, but it still came in very handy on the beach:-

• for covering up bits that were in danger of burning
• for protecting against the brisk ocean breeze that popped up every now and again
• for covering my modesty when trying to get changed from my swimsuit into my dry clothes (used in conjuction with a towel!)
• for protecting my Cornish pasty from the voracious herring gulls

And at the campsite:-

• for warming my shoulders as the sun went down while sharing a glass of wine or two with friends
• for those midnight trips to the shower block
• for holding a ball of wool in while knitting (it sits in the folded bit in the front very nicely) – you don’t want sand and bits of grass in your lovely new ball of yarn

I’m a frustratingly slow knitter but something about Cornwall always inspires me to buy wool. It is a peculiar weakness of mine when in St Ives.  It does mean I get to spend quality time in nice craft and knitting shops though, meeting some very lovely people (hello Norma and Heidi  at Kuiama Crafts in Fore St, St Ives and to Kay Bartlett and her bears in the House of Bartlett gallery just on St Ives harbour ). 

This time it was a very tempting little “Sock It To ‘Em” Starter kit containing everything you need make a pair of socks, including a ball of clever Opal 4 ply varigated yarn that makes patterns all on it’s own. I’ve not knitted socks before so I don’t know what possessed me really; I have started, honest, but I can’t promise to actually finish the socks any time before Christmas. Even though I’m a sock rookie I’m enjoying it, but a though occurs – any ideas how to get the patterns on the socks the same?  or shall I go “dangerous” and have intentionally odd looking ones?  

A batch of wraps has been popping up on the Sew Hip Flickr pool, I can’t tell you how much I love seeing what others have done with the design, and seeing the different ways of wearing it.

Almost makes up for being back behind the keyboard and not on the beach!

Adrienne’s Mobius Wrap

   

A friend of mine who has shared many sewing adventures and quilting epics over the years has made the Mobius wrap up in some beautiful batik fabrics.

The fabrics were from Hoffman’s  version of a Jelly Roll which they call a “Bali Pop”, this one is their “Mulberry” colourway. Adrienne opted for the ragged edge version, and I think she’s made a very fine job of it.

This is the first wrap I’ve seen completed by someone other than me, so it’s a bit special for me.

We don’t live very close so I don’t see her very often but Adrienne is a source of encouragement and inspiration to me. Just last weekend she completed the Playtex Moon Walk, not just a  stroll round a park, this was a 26 mile marathon walk and quite a challenge. Amazing. If Adrienne were here with me I’d give her a big hug, but the way she’s wearing the wrap it looks a bit like being hugged – it isn’t quite as good but it will have to do. 

Well done, and hope your feet recover soon. (At least sewing is a sitting down job!)

Chanel Jacket Workshop

As a bit of a treat I spent the day on Saturday at Bamber’s Sewing Machines in Eccles at Lorna Knight’s workshop on how to construct a jacket “Chanel Style”. Lorna was at pains to point out that the workshop was orginally developed by Terry Fox, and there were certainly some very comprehensive notes included, but Lorna herself really knows her stuff and is a very sympathetic tutor. As well as running her own sewing academy offering sewing workshops and courses, Lorna is a regular contributor to Sewing World Magazine, and is one of the experts over at Isew.co.uk (click on the link to see some articles she has written about techniques for making lingerie, another of Lorna’s areas of expertise). As if that weren’t enough, Lorna has written two books and has another in the pipeline.  We were in good hands.

All of the ladies on the workshop came away with a half jacket sample, purposely left unfinished so that we could remind ourselves of the techniques and take a peek at the construction again.  (Pictured is some hand stitching attaching a stay made from silk organza to the front edge of the jacket).

The fabrics we used to make the sample were top quality – silk  dupion and organza, and the main fabric was one of  the fancy weaves from Linton Tweeds, again in 100% silk. It behaves beautifully when you work with it – trouble is that now I’m completely spoilt for using anything else!

 I learned a lot both from Lorna and also from some very lively ladies on the course (thanks so much for the tip about silk sleeping bag liners ladies, there were many other topics of conversation it’s probably best not to mention on a polite blog! Suffice to say we had a good giggle).

A thoroughly enjoyable day – I’d recommend it to anyone who has basic skills and wants to further them, or if you’re like me – loving that Chanel style and just wanting to have an uninterrupted day of sewing goodness.

So when will you see my very own Chanel style jacket? Well, that is a very good question that I just can’t answer at the moment. The problem is indecision. First of all I can’t decide if I should go with the commercial pattern I already have or draft my own.

 It will be quicker to use the commercial pattern – even after making the alterations I know I’ll need to make it fit just so (after attending yet another invaluable course at Bamber’s – this time a Palmer Pletsch fitting workshop run by the inimitable Celia Banks). But I’m not sure about the princess seam style line. Due to the construction techniques Lorna so deftly showed us, Chanel jackets want a simple shape, although I do want a small amount of shaping at the front.  I think I might prefer the shaping to be in a seam that ends in the armscye rather than at the shoulder though…hmm I’ll have another think about that tomorrow.

Secondly I can’t decide about fabric. I do have this Linton Tweed that I got from the Sewing For Pleasure exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham in March. I really like it – trouble is it is really just a skirt length (Linton Tweed’s stand had a bit of a deal on them). I’ll have to do a bit of creative pattern layout to see if I can possibly squeeze a three quarter sleeve length jacket from it….otherwise I’ll have to save my pennies up to buy another length as I don’t think I’ll be able to match this.

 

Sounds like I’m making excuses for not starting this project doesn’t it?

 You’re right, I should just go for it. Well perhaps I’ll sleep on it tonight ……( I wouldn’t hold your breath for that jacket if I were you!)

Möbius Wrap featured in Sew Hip magazine #7

This is my latest design published in Sew Hip magazine. The pattern for the wrap can be found in Issue 7.  In fact, I’m thrilled to say, it even made the cover. A wonderful compliment! (And yes that’s me too on page 98 sewing the hem of my ClothKits skirt - at least you know which pages to avoid now!) .

The wrap is based on the idea of a Möbius Strip. The construct is used quite often for knitted scarves and wraps (usually unintentionally by me – I’m not the world’s most able knitter!) but not so commonly in woven fabric.  I liked the idea of constructing it this way because once all of the fabric strips are sewn together you really can’t tell where you began and finished. 

This is what it looks like in a different set of fabrics to the ones used for the sample garment in the magazine – this one was made from a “jelly roll” of “Charisma” fabric by Moda (for my sister ). Jelly rolls are strips cut from each fabric in a collection from a designer. I like the look but it can be too busy for some people to want to wear as a garment. Happily it  isn’t obligatory to use a jelly roll for making the wrap - you could choose fewer fabrics or a more limited colour scheme to calm it down a bit.

It can be made from fat quarters instead of a jelly roll if you prefer, or any strips of fabric. The first few commissions I’ve done for Sew Hip all revolve around the design challenge of making items from 2.5″ strips of fabric. All of the projects would lend themselves very easily to “wardrobe refashions” or fabric recycled from worn or unused textiles.

Here is the Obi Belt made from a pair of my son’s school trousers (we go though quite a few pairs of these as none of them have indestructable knees!). A percentage of them get made into shorts for the Summer – but sadly we just don’t get that much Summer so I “harvest” the trouser fabric for other projects.  The fabric for the ties was offcuts of hand dyed silk dupion leftover from a previous sewing project.

As usual, if you make a Mobius Wrap I’d really love to know how it turned out, you can share your pics of any projects you’ve made from the mag in the Sew Hip Flickr group .

Cherry Blossom Time

Not the biggest tree, not the bluest sky, not all of the blossoms are out yet – but there is still something about seeing the first cherry blossom that makes me feel very glad indeed.

As the nights are getting lighter it gets harder for small people to drop off to sleep. So it is also with great gladness that I’ve managed to track down a second hand copy of my very favourite story book from my childhood to share with my son at bedtime. It is a book of short stories called “All But A Few” by Joan Aiken. It is written in her quite straightforward and no nonsense style that doesn’t patronise the reader, whilst still being imaginative and fanciful. They are really magical stories to read on these early Spring evenings with the shoots and blossoms magically appearing where there were no signs of life before.

The copy I’ve got is in far from perfect condition. A previous owner has colourfully written their name on the inside cover….and “improved” some of the black and white illustrations. I would never have done this to a book when I was younger, but now it makes me smile because that reader obviously loved the stories too.

My son seems to be enjoying them, I hope they make him remember and smile when he is grown.