Month: October 2011

What a Difference an Iron Makes…

Blue organic cotton dress - before

Without wishing to put anyone off the idea of buying my organic cotton fabric, this is what it looks like when it comes out of the washing machine. In these days of synthetic fibres and “easy-iron” fabrics, this might come as a bit of a shock.

Blue organic cotton dress - after

Thankfully, a few minutes with a nice hot iron can work wonders!

I know that plenty of people will be looking at this and thinking “why bother?”, especially when synthetic blends and surface coatings can reduce or even eliminate the need for ironing altogether. From a personal point of view, I’d much rather wear a natural fibre such as cotton than a synthetic one, even if it does require a little more effort on my part. Let’s just not talk about the little mountain of crumpled shirts sitting in the bottom of my wardrobe, waiting for me to get around to doing the ironing…

Cole Museum: Corvid Skulls

Cole Museum: Corvid Skulls

Four corvid skulls, waiting to be put away in a little box.

The skulls had been part of a temporary exhibition to illustrate the functionality of differing beak shapes in various species of bird.

It was an absolute joy to get out the boxes of bird skulls again, and to have another little look through them as I was putting away the exhibited pieces. Something as simple as seeing the skull of a heron next to the skull of a wren, so fragile that it’s kept in a sealed glass tube, was just magical.

Simplicity 2172

Simplicity 2172

I know you’ve seen this one before, but I just wanted to show you Simplicity 2172 in its completed state.

After the Wild Boy’s Ball I removed the feather collar, and added the sleeves. I decided to leave off the shoulder flanges and the ruffly bits because they’re not to my taste and I wanted to keep the style very simple.

I’m hoping it will be a nice versatile evening coat. For all the glamorous events I get invited to in my imagination, obviously. It’s probably a bit over the top for wearing to choir practice.

Peckham Rye

Peckham Rye

I seem to be developing quite a collection of bow ties now. I’ve made a purple & green shot silk one, a skull & crossbones one, a sewing print one, and one with silver bees. I also have a readymade burgundy and black one with a matching cummerbund, that I used to wear for orchestra concerts.

I bought this glorious spotty one from Peckham Rye on Newburgh Street. It’s woven silk, hand tied, with an adjustable grosgrain band at the back so that you don’t have to untie it every time. I love the pointed ends and the hand finish – right down to the packaging, the quality’s just gorgeous.

Sadly I’ve only actually worn two of my bow ties, and both were with outfits that could be considered to be costumes. Well, and the orchestra one. I used to wear black tie to blend in with the men when I was the only female brass player.

All of my smart shirts are patterned, and as most of the ties are also patterned I don’t feel confident about wearing them together. I suppose the answer is either to buy some plain shirts, or to make some more plain silk ties…

Cole Museum: More Treasures

You might have noticed that there are a lot of photos from the Cole Museum turning up lately. I’m posting them now in a bunch because I wasn’t sure whether or not to talk about them on what was supposed to be a blog about sewing and other crafty pursuits.

But, I’m volunteering at the museum once a week, and each week I take my camera along and try to take a few snaps of whatever I’m working on. A couple of weeks ago we went into the store room of the larger specimens in the spirit collection, and here are a few of the highlights.

You can see all of my photos from the museum over on Flickr, if you’d like to. I’ve only posted small ones here in case people were squeamish. It turns out that skeletons seem to be mostly acceptable, but Things in Jars can make people feel a bit peculiar.

If you’d rather I didn’t post any pictures of Things In Jars at all, please let me know, and I can put them somewhere else – or at least make sure that the pictures are small, or behind a link so that you don’t have to look at them straight away.

I don’t want to put anybody off their dinner, but I’m finding looking at all these specimens absolutely fascinating, and I’d love to be able to share them.

Silver and Labradorite Ring

Silver and Labradorite ring

Well, it will be once I’ve soldered the bezel to the ring and set the stone!

Last August I did a short silver jewellery course as part of a week of courses at my local high school. They also run silver jewellery classes during term-time, but they’re so popular that they’re always over-subscribed. I asked to be kept on the waiting list, but I was rather taken by surprise when an email arrived letting me know that a place was available!

These are the results of two evenings’ work. In the first session I made the ring, which I’m really pleased with. Much better than my first two, although I can see from this larger-than-life photo that it’s not quite flat. In the second session I made the bezel for the stone, which still needs a little filing and polishing before it’s finished. Once that’s done I can solder it to the ring, and set the stone into place.

We were advised to go for a larger stone rather than a smaller one, so I went for a lovely 18x13mm labradorite cabochon from Kernowcraft. I thought the rose cut matched nicely with the hammered ring. Everything needs a thorough clean and polish, but I hope it’ll be lovely when it’s finished.

I’ve also bought a little pile of rose quartz cabochons in different sizes (hoorah for gift vouchers!), thinking that I’d like to use the classes to practice making different types of settings for the stones. But I bought a couple of smart shirts recently, and now I’m thinking that I might like to make some cufflinks. I can feel some experiments with textures coming on, I think.

Cole Museum: Rat Skeletons

Rats: with and without milk

Another treasure from the cupboards of the Cole Museum – this time in the form of a pair of rat skeletons, and an accompanying photo of the rats themselves.

There was also a hand-painted sign:

These rats were brothers. This little rat [on top] had fresh milk. This little rat [below] had none. The only difference in their diet was that Specimen “A” received a supplement of milk. Note that milk produces stronger and better developed bones.

And for the unbelievers amongst you – yes, that is me you can see reflected in the glass of the display cases. And yes, I am wearing a lab coat. You may form an orderly queue from which to mock me – right behind my high school science teachers. If I’d realised when I was a kid that biology was interesting, I’d have started doing this kind of thing a long time ago!

Black Fleece Hoody

Black fleece hoody

I’ve been saving my pennies for ages, and last week my copy of the Cochenille Garment Designer software arrived. I haven’t said too much about it yet because I’m still on the steep part of the learning curve. This means that anything I might have wanted to say was probably unprintable anyway.

The first pattern I drafted and printed out was a simple dress… which would have been lovely if it hadn’t turned out to be at least six inches too big! I hadn’t checked the design ease in the pattern, and it was rather more generous than I’d expected. Oops.

Black fleece hoody

This little fleece hoody is my second attempt, and I’m really pleased with it! Isn’t it adorable? I particularly like the slim bell sleeves and the edge-to-edge fastening at the front. It’s trimmed with bias binding because they’s my current obsession. I think it makes for a lovely neat edge, and it would be great in a contrasting colour too.

Unfortunately I went a little bit too far the other way with the design ease on this one, and it’s come out a little bit too small for me. I’ve popped it into my Big Cartel store, alongside the organic fabrics, so if you’re a size 34-36″ chest it might be just right for you.

This pattern’s definitely a keeper though, unlike my first attempt. And now I’ve made one pattern that’s much too big, and a second one that’s much too small… it stands to reason that the third pattern I make should be just right!

Bitten by an Elephant.

Ouch.

That mark on my middle finger? That’s a bruise.

A couple of weeks ago (yes, I am very behind with the blog!) I was helping out at the Cole Museum again. We’ve sorted out most of the smaller specimens, but a few of the larger ones needed moving, so we moved them. The last thing we had to do was move the jawbone of an elephant into the Bone Cupboard. After playing an extended game of Tetris with an assortment of large animal skulls (“if I move this antelope over here, we can probably squeeze that horse into this gap…”) we finally had a space large enough for the elephant.

We lifted the jawbone off the trolley, making sure to mind our backs. Elephant bones are heavy. We put it down carefully on the floor, making sure not to bash it into the wall, or into the shelf above. And when we came to let go, I realised that my finger was trapped.

My finger wasn’t broken – just a bit squished. The bruise came up extremely quickly and was gone again by the next day. Very strange indeed.

I suspect I failed my Large Object Handling Skills Mission right there. Not to mention health & safety.
But at least I didn’t damage the elephant bone…

Stripy Boots

Stripy Boots

Ta-daa!

This pair isn’t wearable outside, mostly because I made an error in the construction (I am clumsy, and accidentally snipped a little hole in the outer fabric), so I sewed felt slipper-soles onto the bottom. Annoyingly, this took longer than it would have done to glue the rubber soles on, but it meant that I could try them on and walk about in them for a bit, at least inside the house.

There are some little adjustments I want to make to the pattern, but this is fundamentally it.

I’m waiting for drawings-of-feet from a couple of willing prototype testers, so I’ll be able to show you some different versions of these as I make them. I’m looking forward to the peacock-coloured silk pair that have been requested!