Mother's Day Gift

I saw my parents this weekend (we had afternoon tea, visited the fashion museum and had a lovely time!).  And as it was Mother's Day I made my mum a gift!

 The photo's don't do justice to the orangeness of this brown, but oh well!  As you can see, it's one of my knitting bags.

It has both it's pockets on the outside and a satin bias binding. The lining is a very bright orange cotton print with little white flowers all over it.

Mum is very pleased with it and so I count it a success!

Sewing Roll

Oops, sorry about Monday's lack of post, I have been bitten by the spring cleaning bug and most of my efforts have been in that area!

However, a few weeks ago I ran up a present for my friend Katy for her birthday!  I made her one of my sewing rolls. 

The outside is in her favourite colours and all lacy and pretty, with the very last of my special ceramic buttons on it.

 I've loved using these buttons so much and I can't wait to get more!

The inside is monkeys!  And useful pockets and pouches and felt for putting needles in and a ribbon to tie bobbins and safety pins (and anything else she might need) to.

The pegs are to wind small amounts of thread around, so that she can take the colours she needs with her easily.

I used one of my pretty hem stitches throughout the inside and some small pearly white buttons finished everything neatly.

Next week I'll show you my Mother's Day gift :)

WIP Update

Too busy for a proper blog post, I've been bitten by the need to bead!

Orc Bling!

Super quick post today, just to show off some of our pygmy orc props we made for the game yesterday!

These are bracelets, made of tubes of fabric, with velcro stitched on (random side note, I had a bad experience with stick on velcro - never again!).

The gems and sequins are glue gunned on, as we were in a tearing hurry (yesterday's game had a lot of prep work).

Hopefully I'll have a new skirt to show on Thursday, as the doublet is still languishing, awaiting completion (needs a fitting).

Pay It Forward

Pay it forward went round facebook a while ago and as I enjoy participating, I gave it ago.  I had 2 responses and here's what I made them!

This is a knitting needle roll, made to my own design in purple satin dupion (with the matt side showing) and lined with a white quilting weight cotton.  It's trimmed with white satin bias binding and a purple ribbon tie.

It has gone to it's new home in London and seems to have been well received!

The next gift hasn't travelled nearly as far! 

This is a tiny knitted pouch.  The pattern is from the book '30 minute knits' but I have to confess it took me a lot longer than 30 minutes!  I am a very slow knitter it would seem.

 The embroidery on the front is a free handed Queen Anne's Lace and I trimmed it with a snippet of gold ribbon that matched the embroidery.

As this blog might show, I really do enjoy giving homemade gifts!

A Birthday Bag

Yesterday was the lovely Amydextrous' birthday so how better to celebrate than to present her with a special bag made in the same style as the ones I made at Christmas that she admired?

It's made to my usual design and in purple satin dupion.  The trims are a mix I've picked up here and there and I believe the button was rescued from my mothers button box a long time ago!

The inside is lined in white satin-y brocade-y fabric and has a zipped inside pocket.

Other than that there's not a lot to say!  I think it turned out to be really pretty and I'm glad she likes it!

WIP's

Normally I don't post works in progress on here, but as I have been working more in the garden than on the sewing machine I currently don't have anything finished to show!

So instead I'm going to list my various half finished projects I want to get finished off this year.  First up we have my newest wip!

This is my first attempt at a knitted garment for me.  OK, it's something of a cheat because it's a shrug, so shaping and what not are not involved.  That said, the knitting is challenging me enough that I don't feel bad about it!  I'm aiming to have it done before September so I can wear it to some of the (many) weddings I have been invited to.

Next up is my stash busting chunky crochet granny square blanket.  Not in the least elegant this is designed to get ready of all my cheap acrylic yarn and be a cosy camping blanket.  Hit a small snag when I ran out of yarn before I was done crocheting so now it's being worked on as I buy one ball of yarn at a time, finish that completely and consider if I want it bigger.

 Moving on to fabric endeavours, we have my beading project.  This is basically to remind myself why I do not add beading as decoration to clothing!  It's fiddly, time consuming, expensive in terms of beads and currently stalled due to a lack of needle threader, because I am a numpty who forgot to buy one in town when I was there last...

I do think it's pretty though and I have plans to hang it on the wall when I'm done, as a visible reminder about beading!

Last and not least some embroidery.  This is a cotton lawn shawl with the start of a white work embroidery pattern on it.  Has been stalled for a while, partly due to physically not being up to the job last year and partly due to having come to the conclusion I prefer embroidering in colour.

As with the beading though, I think this will be stunning when done, so I need to settle in, probably in front of the TV at some point and really get my stitch on!

Anyhow, that's what's physically in the to do pile.  Next week I have a birthday present to show and maybe a doublet as well!

New Hair Clip

Just a quick post as my Internet has decided to play up.

Here's my new hair clip, lovingly constructed out of an old hair clip, some fake ivy and sparkly stickers.  All attached by a glue gun!