To hoop or not to hoop ...

 Hi everyone 

It has been a busy time as students are on to their last bit of the year. 

However, I recently bought an embroidery hoop stand & what a useful thing it is. I usually just use a hoop on my lap or balanced against the table but when you are adding beads or some stitches, you really need two hands to do it. 

I saw someone using one on a facebook group & thought - mmmm that could be so useful. We are spoilt here in that most things can be ordered online without having to trudge around the scarce haberdashery shops to find such things. 

I decided on one that can accommodate a variety of hoop sizes & has a small holder for an image etc to work from. It is sturdy & the hoops can be rotated slightly to how you like to work. 

I had started a design based on a baobab tree using various stitches I had recently learnt at an online workshop. 

The open blanket stitch is very useful as it can be used to create shapes & cells of plants etc. 

I used a stacked running stitch for the tree shape - that is a new stitch that creates a very good pattern & works best in variegated threads. I used soft shades & it looks like the golden hour at sunset. 

I added beads, including some large grey type seeds that are often used in bead necklaces in South Africa. These were from a necklace bought with my parents.  I am quite pleased with it, completely intuitive stitching, without a pattern.  I do like to add some interesting beads but it is often a challenge to find the right thickness of thread & needles ... 

What are you working on at the moment? Please share & thank you for stopping by, 

Dee 🧵🪡

A small Beatrix Potter drawstring bag ....

HI all, 

I seem to be in sewing mode at the moment. I am more of a craft sewer than a clothes sewer, even though I made most of my daughters early clothes when we lived in the cold mountains of Lesotho & warm tracksuits were the most practical attire. The ones I made were trendy with frills,  fronts with poppers, collars & even dresses in gorgeous fabrics that I sourced in Johannesburg. I studied the trends in magazines, made my own patterns & then ran up these original items. 

Little granddaughter has some new teething toys & I thought they needed a little bag to keep them in for when she is out & about with her Mum. 

A friend gifted me a gorgeous piece of Beatrix Potter fabric that she had added the iron on batting too. It was a small piece but I immediately thought of a cute drawstring bag. 

The size was determined by the fabric & I added pink fabric to the top to make the drawstring. 

This was the youTube tutorial I followed for the main lined bag, I added a drawstring channel to the top before stitching the top together & turning it through the lining gap & sewing that lastly. 

There was just a tiny bit of fabric left so I made a matching ribbon toy with that, adding in crinky fabric & a hand made carry strap for it. 

I am rather pleased with the pair of them & I hope the little one will enjoy using them too. 

What are  you busy with at the moment? Tell all. 

Thank you for stopping by, 

Dee 💕🧵🪡

A little bit of Frida ...

I am rather partial to the colourful Frida Kahlo prints that are about now. I have several Frida cushions in the conservatory & a friend gifted a gorgeous length of fabric that covers my sewing drawers there. 

This past week, a friend made a beautiful Frida fabric bag as a gift when we visited. She is so talented with her sewing. 

She parted with the small, random leftover pieces, protesting 'they are just little bits' 

I decided to make a similar bag to the gifted one & drew inspiration from a little treasure pouch I made some time back. 

I assembled the pieces on a length of pink backing fabric - the Frida face piece was the longest so I used the other pieces to continue a pattern creatively as a length of fabric. 

It was surprisingly easy to find common bits, even if some were diagonally or upside down to do it. 

I pinned it all then used a matching blue thread to add free motion embroidery to join it all as a new fabric. 

I joined it in to a circle & did the same with a backing fabric in pink. The two were quite floppy so I cut a length of batting & sandwiched that between the two layers. 

I made a circular base by putting the top circles down & drawing around a small plate that was the right base size. I again sandwiched batting in the base, stitch it, turned it right way out.

I made a simple fabric channel to put a drawstring in, then assembled the top inside out with the inside fabric, the batting the channel & the outside pattern & stitched them along the top. 

Turned right side out (the bottom was not sewn at this point) then I hand stitched the circular base to the finished top piece, before adding a line of machine stitching. 

 A length of silk was threaded for the  drawstring, Frida's eyes had green embroidery, an earring sewn on & it is done. 

The process I used ... 

The fabrics matched together so well, you can hardly tell where they were joined together ... 

What a fun project & a matching bag is a bonus. 

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you are inspired to try something new. 

Dee 💕🧵🪡