Why is it that babies always want to ‘eat’ everything? That includes the handles and securing straps on shopping trolleys – yuck. As it’s never too soon to start a young lady shopping I decided to look for a shopping cart ‘nest’ like I’d seen being used whilst we were in California a couple of months ago.

I searched the ‘net but only found them for sale in the US, but I did find the pattern available in this country. It’s a McCalls pattern which has very few pieces but is rather confusing – and I am not an inexperienced sewist by any means! Still, I figured it out eventually and could make another one much quicker if necessary. The biggest issue with it is that I think it’s designed for US shopping carts (everything’s bigger in the States!!)

It’s certainly nicer than just sitting on the hard plastic – she’s still not big enough to sit properly without some kind of ‘support’ – and Millie seems happier with this than when she’s laying back in those tiny baby seats you get on the supermarket carts. Nice thing about it is that it folds into a built in tote bag so is neatly contained when not in use.

Further details with each photo:

Pillow

A dear friend of mine asked me to make one of these pillows to hang on the door of her new niece’s nursery. Cerys was born quite prematurely but is, happily, home with her parents and doing great. I, on the other hand, have not been doing great! Been so busy that this project has been put aside for far too long and I am feeling very guilty about that – I hope that finally having it in her own two hands will make her forgive me .

I haven’t done any sewing or embroidering for what seems like forever! Almost forgotten how to thread the machine! The first picture shows the satin fabric in its true colour, I’m afraid the subsequent ones are a little washed-out.

Anyhow, it’s all pretty obvious how I made it – satin for the front; sulky embroidery threads in the most part for the design; pretty patterned cotton on the reverse and my wonderful ruffling-foot for the fluffy bit!

Hmm, that reminds me of an apron I made several years ago for a WI competition: I was sitting with the judge at the County Agricultural Show and not letting her know that the apron she was examining was mine (you’re not allowed to let the judge feel pressured in any way to mark higher than she might have!) and she stated that the ruffle around the edge must have been purchased like that as it was far too neat to have been made! Only after judging was all over (and my apron had won first prize!) did I explain about the fabulous ruffling foot on my Husqvarna Designer 1 machine. The fabric was a poly/cotton blend which, when ironed, held the ruffles beautifully.

Shhhh.....

Reverse

Ruffles

3-hour-shawl

I saw this idea in Threads Magazine (Issue 119, June/July 2005) a few years ago – it was shown on the cover in much the same colours as I have used here. I was attending a family wedding and had worn the same dress a year earlier at another wedding (that time with a pink shawl and a big hat!) and thought I could alter the appearance by changing the accessories. It was only my sisters at both weddings so it didn’t matter that I was wearing the same thing (he he).

Pinks and Purples

I’ll post a photo of that wedding also – my niece married her soldier in Cambridge  – so you can see the difference (not much I know, but I like the dress!). Actually, the pink shawl in the first photo is lovely too, I bought it in Scotland and it’s silk and packs away to nothing but…… it catches on everything! My handbag had a few little diamantés on it and the shawl stuck to those constantly and caused numerous snags. With the breezy conditions it got caught on every passing button too – what a pain!

Katie's Wedding

Louisa's wedding

Construction

It really can take only 3 hours to make this shawl – assuming you’ve got a PhD in mathematics! I read and re-read, folded and re-folded but still couldn’t get the hang of how to fold the fabric to cut it into bias strips. Once I’d involved my husband in the process, it was easy!

The strips are cut on the bias, as I mentioned, and then overlocked (serged) together whilst stretching the fabric slightly. This gives that lovely wavy edge you can see.

Qverlocked seams

Close up

What to do with the ends?

After I’d stitched a lot of lengths of fabric together I noticed it was getting very long at one side – maybe I should have been staggering the start points? I’m not sure. Anyhow, I did start to pay more attention then and the final shawl ended up with one long point on one side and a forked bit on the other! I wasn’t sure what to do about this but after playing around with it I found it looked nice (and stayed in place) if I knotted the ‘forked’ end and threaded the ‘point’ through it. What is it they say? Necessity is the mother of invention!

Uneven ends

Knotted

Gallery

These other photos show the shawl in different views and differing light – it changes colours depending on the surroundings!

So many people asked me at that wedding where I got this from and I would jokingly reply “Oh this, I made it!” and would be always met with – “no really, where did you get it?”. I could have sold it a dozen times over. I guess I could go into production but then, it wouldn’t be unique and also, I would probably hate it by the time I’d finished!

BTW, my sisters and I are very close in age, Jacqui is the eldest, then Gillian, then Susan and then me, Mum had the four of us under 5 years of age at one time!

Me, Gill, Sue, Jacqui

In the sunshine

Jo & Jacqui

It's a long shawl!

Jo & Sue

See the colour now?

Getting dusk

What a lovely day

We had such fun that day, the wedding was in the Lake District and for once, the weather was perfect! We sat outside until after midnight just talking and laughing together – the shawl (actually, I’ve just found out that Threads call it a scarf, not a shawl!) was actually just the correct warmth!

Inside again!

Sisters

Our 'better halves'!!

Competition entry

Blues & Greens

I have mentioned in other posts about the WI competitions I have entered in the past. One year, an entry called for “A fabric item using shades of green, blue plus one other colour of your choice” so I made another of these shawls.

The strange thing was, I was in the marquee during judging (although you mustn’t tell a judge that any item is yours so that it’s all fair) and I saw all the other entries for this category being taken to the table for judging and all the time my shawl was lying on said table. It hadn’t been judged and therefore hadn’t been taken back to the show tables! It stayed there until the end for some reason, I was getting worried that the judge may have decided it wasn’t ‘according to schedule’.

Well, finally it was looked at by the craft judge who then called over a couple of other judges to have a discussion about it – can you imagine how hard it is to stay away from a conversation going on about something you’ve made?

It got first prize after all that – the judge said she’d known that it was the winner from the very start but the issue was……she couldn’t give it 20/20 as she wanted to! (I think it got 19.5). After spreading it out on the table she found a length of the seam – about 1.5″ long – which the overlocker had not caught so, quite rightly, it couldn’t get full marks as it had a hole in it! I swear I’d gone over every seam checking for this!

Anyway, she loved it and, when I admitted (after judging was over) that it was mine, she apologised for finding the hole. I had my pink one in the car with me and she loved that one too!

As you can see, I used organza in a couple of shades of green, a couple of blue and then a hairy purple for the ‘one other colour’ and I finished the ends of every seam with some beadwork. It’s not as long as my pink version, nor as wide, but I do like it a lot. Haven’t had chance to wear it anywhere yet though…maybe for my anniversary next month.

Hand beaded ends

Close up

Beads close up

Can you see the colours?

Addendum

I’ve been asked about the yardage for the scarf – the following was taken from a discussion about it some time ago, hope it helps:

The scarf takes 2 3/4 yards of 45″ fabric—that produces a parallelogram that is about 64″ long.

A three color scarf — 4 x 3″ wide strips of each color requires 1 3/4 of each, a total of 5 1/4 yards!  The reason: when you fold up one side of the fabric and cut it at the true bias, you lose 45″ across the length of fabric and you need 12″ of length to get 4 x 3″ pieces—so you need a total of 57″ ( i.e. 45 + 12) or 1.6 yards.

That’s why, in the original article, the writers dyed the organza strips rather than using almost twice as much yardage.

If you can find 55 inch fabric, you can make a scarf/shawl that is 78″ long–you will need about 3 yards. If you used 3 colors, you would need 1.85 yards of each color.

Courtesy of : Marijo Rymer, Professional Association of Custom Clothiers

Oriental Box

Another entry for that agricultural show I mentioned (Christmas Angel) was for a fabric box. I have a wonderful embroidery machine and so decided to utilise that. The fabric I chose was a gorgeous, purpley brocade onto which I embroidered several different oriental designs. It’s quite subtle but very effective. You can see a couple of close-ups showing some of the designs – there are a couple of different fans around the sides and the foliage is quite evocative of the Far East. I stitched the bird for both the top and the bottom of the box and hand-stitched the side panels together to form the hexagon. The bottom was stitched to all sides and some lovely brown beads glued on to give it ‘feet’.

The lining was a real chore! I lost count of the number of times I gathered the silk and then tacked it in place – decided it wasn’t neat enough so took it out and started again! The W.I. are very picky and I knew it needed to be perfect.

The lid is lined in the same silk and hinged just at one side with a couple of large beads to show where to lift it – it doesn’t need to fasten. The gold braid around the edges was hand-stitched (recognise it from the Christmas Angel?) and I twisted some embroidery floss to make the ‘stay’.

It won first prize!

Base & Beads

Fan

Fan & Foliage

Floss Stay

Lid

Base

Beads

Silk Lining

Leafy Box

Leafy Box

Another year, another box. This one is my own design again, I drew out the shape of the panel and then embroidered different leaves onto the cream fabric. I kept the card tempates behind the embroidered panels to give it ‘body’ and then lined each one with that lovely paisley fabric. They were stitched together with several strands of embroidery floss in a large stitch which needed to look just as tidy on the inside as the outside! The same floss was used to make the tassel. This ‘box’ is an octagon and each panel is different from the next and, as you can see, the inside has a ring of leaves stitched in there just to make it more special.

I’m ashamed to say that I can’t quite remember what this one won – it did place!

Inside base

Stitching

Another side

Inside

Close-up

Christmas Angel

For the Women’s Institute section of our local agricultural show, we had to make a Christmas Decoration one year. I had recently done a stumpwork class so thought I’d incorporate that into this angel. She hasn’t got the prettiest face in the world but she’s all mine so I’ve got to love her!

I designed her myself and just played around with a variety of embroidery stitches, used some flat gold braid for her hair which I frayed at the front so that it looks like mine does when I’ve been out on my bike! There are sequins on her sleeves, long bugle beads for her halo and small seed beads stitched into every other square on her dress. More beads, heart-shaped and leaf-shaped were stitched (all by hand!) around the hem of her dress and the whole thing was backed in red felt and outlined with gold cord.

I’ve got to admit that she lives in my china cupboard – I can’t bear to put her in a box after Christmas.

Centre panel

Braid hair

Sweet Face?

Back view

Hair-do needed

Wing detail

Angel

Bedspread

If you can see the carpet at all on these photos then please ignore it! We did some major re-working in our house, added a corridor through the end of our bedroom, moved an en-suite loo into what was the old corridor, etc., etc, so the carpet was a real patchwork for a while until we finished all the building. We’ve now got a lovely heather grey carpet all through the upstairs which goes with just about anything.

Anyhow, I saw this Rennie Mackintosh style wallpaper and fell for it – well, I would with my surname wouldn’t I (actually, I don’t think it says anywhere that that is my surname!, well, now you know)? I realise wallpaper borders aren’t really fashionable anymore but I liked this one and the large expanse of wall needed something to break it up. The artwork in the photos below show the first set of canvasses I worked on, there are two other sets on this site which I’ve done since (Bathroom and Art Nouveau).

The canvasses were gessoed first and then the squiggles were done with pva glue sprinkled with powder and heat embossed (not my idea, I read it on the Internet!) before wide stripes of pink and gold acrylic paints were added.

Top Left

Top Right

I cut one each of the four patterns from the wallpaper and triple embossed them, they cracked when I mounted them onto the layers of wallpaper and card but I believe we call that ‘cracked glass’ and not a mistake!

The puzzle pieces were coloured with inks, stamped  with a Mackintosh stamp in red and then triple embossed. A couple of them had gold ‘bits’ stuck into them whilst still wet. I used alcohol inks on dominoes, wrapped them with wire and added a ladybird and a cat bead and a couple of crystal hearts.

The shrink plastic bits hanging from them are the same Mackintosh stamp I used on the puzzle pieces.

Bottom Left

Bottom Right

Now, as well as a paper crafter I am a bit of a sewist and an embroiderer, I used to do a lot of needlepoint and cross-stitch but love my embroidery machine and do a lot of things with that. I scanned-in the images off the wallpaper and then digitised them (converted them to stitches), made them applique designs mainly except for the leaves which have an embroidered fill pattern. I stitched them out once or twice (……or ten times!) to make sure they worked and then made blocks on a neutral textured fabric and with various applique fabrics.

Rose #2

First Rose Piece

I found a beautiful, heavy, burgundy coloured fabric at Abakhan (it’s not far from me) and made the bedspread out of it then played around with the layout of the blocks for ages!

These were then all stitched on with a decorative stitch – very heavy work but the machine I have (Husqvarna Designer1) is able to stitch in various directions so it will go around a square without having to turn the whole piece of material – a big help when working with a lot of fabric like this. Our bed is a superking size so it is a lot of material.

Just leaves

3rd Rose

Unfortunately, I can’t keep it in place whilst sleeping – it’s far too heavy and I can’t turn over with it on top of me – and it’s too hot as well!

Oh, I cut a bit of the dusky pink wallpaper to go on top of our bedside units, under the glass, just to draw it all together, and covered the headboards in the same fabric as the bedspread. The chaise longue at the bottom of the bed was given to me years ago by one of my sisters and I re-covered it. You can see a couple of the needlepoint pillows I made sitting on it too. The window that you can see through the double doors is no longer there, we had a wall built there and a doorway into a guest bedroom with an en-suite shower room. The whole place looks a lot nicer now and I’ve got to admit to not missing builders at all!

Wall arrangement

Bedroom view

Bedroom view

Embroidered bag

Maybe this should be under embroidery rather than sewing? Oh well, it’s a bit of both I guess.

One of the mailing lists I subscribe to had a digitising competition a few years ago and this was my entry – didn’t win anything this time but had a lot of fun doing it.

Digitising, by the way, is the term used when converting an image – bitmap, jpeg. etc. into stitches. It’s a complicated process which takes a lot of learning and differs with each sewing machine’s software. I have a Husqvarna Designer1 and the software for that and, although I haven’t done any for quite a while, I find quite easy to use to make my own designs. Years of practise! I actually do quite a lot of my own digitising for clothing my husband and I wear on our motorbike. We have a Honda GoldWing and I’ve stitched many a motorbike onto polo shirts for us.

So, back to the bag. I saw a Lulu Guiness bag in a sunday supplement and it was gorgeous and really, really expensive but I thought I could perhaps use the idea. I sketched the outline, divided it like a fan and then added various stitches into each panel. It is stitched onto black velvet dress fabric which had raised gold motifs on it, and on one side it’s done in variegated pink thread, on the other it’s beige. I made a hanging loop to go around my wrist and lined it with a pretty fabric. I do use it quite a lot as it’s light and yet quite roomy.

Inside of bag

Beige side

Sweatshirt

I get to wear this jacket for about 1 month a year! It does get a lot of comments from strangers, always nice ones, thankfully.

It is made from a plain sweatshirt, christmas fabric was ironed onto the front centre using fusible interfacing and then I followed the pattern roughly up the centre cutting it open. A lot of satin stitching later, round all the edges and it was finished. Of course, it doesn’t fasten at all but it does look cute!

The back has an embroidered lily, not really Christmassy but in the right colours, see photo. Details of the embroidery can be found in the Embroidery section of this blog.

In the background you can just see a Noel Wallhanging – I made this years ago when I lived in Southern California from a kit I purchased there. It’s full of sequins which reflect the xmas tree lights and looks lovely. Every year I think I’ll put it somewhere else (I do try not to be too predictable) but it really needs the lights winking off it to look good.

Close up of lily