Spiced Apple Fabric Hearts

I’ve finally started using some of the lovely Joel Dewberry fabric strips I bought a few months ago. I’m using the pink and green complementary pieces first to make some hanging heart decorations.

I’m filling them with polyester fibre filling to make them soft along with a couple of spoonfuls of apple spiced aroma beads to give them a lovely christmassy scent. It smells really lovely around my workspace!

This summer I bought an old Imperial typewriter from a car boot sale for £5.  I’ve been using it to type ‘Spiced Apple’ onto pieces of calico to sew to the front of the hearts, just to make them a bit different – I quite like the effect.  I’m hoping to have a selection available for my next craft fair this weekend at Thatcham Catholic Hall – better get my skates on

Fabric House Christmas Decorations

I have quite a few craft fairs coming up over the next couple of months so I’ve been trying to get a few Christmas items made. I went to a Doughty fabric sale recently and bought some lovely cream coloured cotton with simple red Scandinavian style Xmas shapes and some pretty green flowery print cotton. I came home with a few other choices too – a very dangerous place to spend a fortune if fabric’s your thing!

I’d spotted some lovely hanging house decorations in one of my sewing books and fancied making up my own house pattern using the book method as a guide to putting them together. I used my newly purchased fabric plus a collection of other Christmas patterns from my stash. I’m quite pleased with them – just wish I had a lovely fireplace to hang a few from!

Pieces cut and being decorated with doors, windows, trees, buttons & …

Sparkly stuff!

All strung and sewn together ready for stuffing

All stuffed and closed ready for hanging

I’m hoping there might be the odd bright sky moment over the weekend so I can get some pics taken to put a few in my OddSox shop as well as my craft fairs.

Next task is to sew some orange felt carrot noses onto my latest batch of sock snowmen…

Have a good weekend all.

Sewing Box Treasure

We took a drive over to Hungerford at the weekend and popped into the Antiques & Collectibles Arcade for a browse around. It’s a really interesting old beamed building, with over 100 traders worth of walk-in units and cabinets all housed in one place. So much fascinating treasure to look through, books, furniture, jewellery, crockery, ornaments, watches. As you get older there are more and more items you recognise from childhood and of course wish you’d held onto them!

We didn’t go with the intention of buying anything but I couldn’t resist this vintage retro tiered sewing box – not because it’s a beautiful item, I actually think it’s a bit ugly – but because it was full of sewing treasures…

One top drawer holds a range of Sylko threads in blues & greens – the majority are on those lovely old wooden bobbins. The tier underneath contains almost 50 reels of Gutterman thread – the thick topstitch stuff – and a few reels of Coats Drima thread…

On the other side, the drawer is full of light, dark, pinks and oranges – again mostly wooden Sylko bobbins. Underneath there are all manner of needle types and sizes, tailors chalk, a Dean tape measure, press studs, safety pins…

…and in the bottom tier a mixture of all kinds of old mending things. Hooks & Eyes, boil proof elastic, wundaweb, nylon threads for mending stockings, darning wool and plenty more.

There was also this very dirty but rather sweet little hand embroidered needle case. It looks as though it could have been made by a youngster and perhaps given as a gift. I think I’ll have to risk giving it a wash and hope it doesn’t disintegrate!

There was also this very dirty but rather sweet little hand embroidered needle case. It looks as though it could have been made by a youngster and perhaps given as a gift. I think I’ll have to risk giving it a wash and hope it doesn’t disintegrate!

Fabulous Fabric Fish & Baskets

I’m doing a bit of multi-tasking this afternoon. My computer desk and sewing machine table sit next to each other so I’m alternating between listing some new fabric fish in my OddSox Folksy shop, and sewing together some fabric baskets with freemotion birds on the front.

The fish are made from a collection of really lovely fabrics. The 100% cotton fabric came as a ‘jelly roll’ (I think that’s what it’s called anyway) – which is about 40 strips of complementary patterns and colours 44″ long x 2.5″ wide from the  ‘Howard Marcus for Moda’ range. I think they are often used for quilt making but I don’t have the patience to make such a large item so fish it is!

Just got the blue ones left to list now…

This is my first batch of fabric baskets, they just need to have the ‘turning inside out hole’ sewn shut by hand. These will be coming along to my craft fairs which start next month.

After the fish listing I’ll be putting more new sock creatures and amigurumi cuties into the shop over the next couple of days – please do pop by and have a look.

Thank you and have a good weekend

Mouse Poll – Update

UPDATE – Wednesday 14th March 19:42

Hello again and thank you to everyone who helped me out with the mouse poll at the end of this post.

Most people seemed to think that I should try both magnets and brooches – although individual votes suggested magnets were more popular. I have a craft fair on Saturday so I think I’ll try magnets with the ones I’ve prepared so far.

There were some suggestions to make bookmarks. I’ve been investigating sourcing those giant paperclip bookmarks that have a metal pad to affix the decoration to but I’m having real trouble finding a UK supplier – if anyone knows one I’d love to hear. Blooming Felt do them but at £4.50 each I think I’d be looking for a different solution! There are quite a few overseas Etsy sellers who have them so I might have to go for that option. I liked your idea Baye, of having an extra long tail with a cute bow at the end!

I really liked the idea of using them as applique items to fabric notebook covers. I’ve started making purses and fabric baskets with applique bits on so I might try some with mice too.

As promised I’ve done one of those Random Number Generator thingy’s to pick a name from those of you who commented and the winner is…

I will message you Aunty Joan so you can send me your address and I’ll pop the little brown mouse magnet on my noticeboard pic in the post for you. Thank you.

ORIGINAL POST….

Hello This week I’ve been making some freemotion embroidered mice to the same design as my doorstop ‘Door-mice’. They’re about 2.5″ in height and hold a little string tail to emulate the Door-mice who hold their cord tails.

Could you help me with a quick poll. I can’t decide whether to make them into magnets for fridge/notice boards, or should I make them into brooches? Or maybe a few of each. I’d welcome any other ideas you think might work too if you wouldn’t mind leaving me a quick comment. Here are a few pics…

Little mice with a Door-Mouse

Mice for finishing

Finished Mice

Mouse as a brooch

Mouse as a magnet

Thank you for your time and help…

If you have a personal preference – please say in the comments and I’ll pick a name out of a hat by midweek (14th March) and send someone their choice

The Sock Gardeners get freemotion portraits!

After practicing my freemotion sewing recently by making a freemotion sewing portrait purse of Alan Pitchfork (the foolish sock gardener) – his two pals felt a little bit jealous and wanted their own potraits!

So not to be mean, I had a go. Here are the chaps with their purses…

Percy Grower is quite pleased with his – he thinks he looks rather dashing with his flowery headband!

Bob Flowerpot on the other hand is very hard to please. He thinks he looks too fat and rather like a frog! (Actually, I think he’s right!)

And silly Alan Pitchfork likes everything, so he’s very happy with the way he looks. He’s especially pleased that he’s got two purses and the others only have one!

I might have to re-think the shape of Bob and have another go. And then maybe I’ll try some other freemotion sewing sock creature portrait purses. Sock monkey heads would probably be fun. Any suggestions from the creatures I have in my shop?

Freemotion Embroidery Fun

I’ve been spending some time recently trying out a bit more freemotion machine embroidery, it’s very absorbing. I’ve found that the double-sided iron on interface really helps alot – it means that you don’t have to contend with the fabric layers slipping. I’m quite enjoying practicing my machine writing too. I bought a book a little while ago that has lots of useful tips on applique and freemotion embroidery along with some really lovely projects too – definitely worth investing in a copy if you’re just starting out with this kind of sewing. It’s called Scandinavian Stitches by Kajsa Wikman.

So here’s a small selection of what I’ve been doing…

I thought I’d try a little fabric portrait of my favourite sock gardener, Alan Pitchfork. Here he is with his very own ‘Alan’ purse!

This is a padded mat about 7″ square to use for standing hot things on, this is for my sister so I hope she doesn’t look at this before I send it to her! I tried a bit of freemotion writing on this one…

And then a few mini fabric baskets with teacups, apples & pears and cakes…

I think I might make some of the padded mats for myself – maybe in coaster sizes – I could do with replacing my current ones, and these were very easy to make – I used the method from the Scandinavian Stitches book. The fabrics for the images were from a mixed pack of 5″ squares from Stitch Me Lane on Folksy – she has lots of gorgeous stuff to choose from.

I’d love to see what freemotion embroidery projects others have been working on so feel free to leave blog links. Thanks for looking.

Free motion sewn badges, beards & hats!

Since my last blog post about experimenting with free motion sewing I managed to find a ‘domestic sewing machine free hand screw on darning foot’ on eBay (very good value for just under £6 including postage) that fits my machine – good, it was really making me cringe, the thought of getting punctured and bloody fingers. It would be like wounding yourself and getting stitches all at the same time without anaesthetic – ouch & yuk!

Anyway, here are my latest free motion efforts. I’ve been trying to work at a smaller size so that I could utilise my badge machine to make fabric badges. A few I quite like and others are definitely still in the ‘experimental’ zone!

It was this one that made me laugh – I was going for a grumpy bearded man…

…and discovered that upsidedown he looked like a gurning old git wearing a chewed fruit pastille hat!

It’s good fun trying to draw with a sewing machine, the results are never quite what you expect!

If anyone has any free motion sewing tips or blogs they can recommend I’d love to check them out so please do leave comments.

Thanks for looking and have a good weekend all.

Experimenting with Free Motion Sewing

I’ve been wanting to have a go at free motion sewing for ages now, and I finally got around to it recently. I had to improvise with my sewing machine a bit as I don’t have the correct foot for free motion, it involved lowering the feed dogs and working without a foot – a bit scary when your fingers start getting close to the needle! The results are a bit shaky but I think that’s part of the charm of it really – it’s not supposed to be perfect!

It certainly had me absorbed for quite some time trying out different coloured threads, fabrics, paper, shapes and lettering. After I’d done a few I turned a couple of them into little lavender hangers – I’m using the bird one as a pincushion…

And then I decided to make some of these fabric baskets and apply a bird to each one. They’re now sitting on the shelf above my sewing machine stuffed with all kinds of crafty things – threads, buttons, ribbons and felt.

You can probably tell I quite enjoyed making the little birds! I’ll definitely be making more of these baskets, they’re so useful. Now I’m comfortable with the pattern I’m hoping it should be easy enough to adapt it to different sizes.

The pattern for the baskets is from a lovely book called Zakka Sewing (25 Japanese projects for the household) by Therese Laskey & Chika Mori.

I’m experimenting with free motion sewing at a smaller size now and using my badge machine to make fabric badges rather than the usual paper ones. I’ll do another blog with some of the results another day

‘THE COUNTRY WIFE’ textile mural

Whilst visiting The Old Chapel Textile Centre at New Greenham Park this week we were treated to a viewing of a spectacular piece of textile work called ‘The Country Wife’.

We were shown around by a charming lady who told us the story behind the work and how it came to be here. She allowed us to take some photographs to share with you.  Here are the pics with story to follow…

‘The Country Wife’ was designed by acclaimed textile artist Constance Howard in 1951 for the Festival of Britain. It’s 5m wide x 4.5m high and depicts the activities of women in rural communities during this era.

This stunning 3D fabric picture requires cleaning and conservation and is open to the public while the work is in progress.

The National Needlework Archive is a registered charity who work closely with communities, museums, guilds and universities to promote textiles, textile eduation and research.

They need help to conserve this beautiful piece of history – if anyone is interested in this project you can contact the organisation here to find out what you might be able to do:

The Old Chapel Textile Centre

Main Street, Greenham Park, Newbury, Berkshire, RG19 6HW.

Tel: 01635 38740

www.nationalneedleworkarchive.org.uk

email: info@nationalneedleworkarchive.org.uk

It really is a stunning piece of 3d work, so many amazingly tiny details… if you get a chance do go and see it – it costs £2.50 to get a personal viewing which goes towards the restoration fund – and you can also get a cuppa whilst you’re there!

Please help to publicise this project by hitting the share button below. Thank you