easily distracted by shiny things…
Posted in charity, charity shops, fabric, knickers!, museums, sewing, shopping, volunteering on Jan 21st, 2013
I had intended to spend this morning sewing, but the temperature in the Shed soon put paid to that. It took an hour and a half for the little heater to force its way into double figures. Brrr! I think this is perhaps the only disadvantage of working in a Shed in the garden – [...]
Remember when I bought this fantastic Ikea unit for the Shed, and tidied everything into neat little cubby holes? Today I had every intention of making a hat. I had everything I needed laid out on the sewing table. Instructions, fabric, buckram, wire, lining, curved sewing needles… but no pattern. I knew it was in [...]
This is a photo that I took in Portwrinkle, Cornwall, in June 2010. This is how a part of it looks printed onto silk crepe, by Spoonflower. Not as saturated as I would have liked, but given that the original image wasn’t quite at a high enough resolution for me to be able to mess [...]
Posted in dresses, fabric, inspiration, sewing, shopping on Sep 24th, 2012
This is Simplicity 1755, which I had every intention of beginning to sew this morning. I want to wear it to a wedding next month, and my extra hours at work are continuing, so I need to get a move on in any spare time that I do have. The illustration to the right shows [...]
Posted in dresses, fabric, sewing, shopping on Aug 14th, 2012
Here’s my latest order from my lovely organic cotton people. Three metres each of spotty and plain organic cotton and bamboo blend. Isn’t it lovely? It’s in the washing machine at the moment, and I’m expecting it to be super soft when it comes out. The almost-matching thread’s organic too, and I’m planning to buy [...]
I’ve been reading a lot of books and blogs about dyeing fabric with plants lately, and I wanted to do a little experiment. But chemical mordants seemed a bit complicated and scary, and I don’t yet have a dedicated saucepan just for dyeing, and I wanted to get started straight away. So, inspired by Tiina [...]
After years of buying only sample pieces from organiccotton.biz, I finally got around to ordering some yardage. The skirt above is a blend of organic cotton and bamboo, and it’s beautifully soft and drapey. I don’t believe most of the claims about bamboo fabric having practically magical anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. The plant material (which does [...]
I can’t claim that I made these, but they’re a good example of a simple modification. The only curtains we could find in the right colour for the kitchen had tab tops, and it wasn’t possible to get the curtain pole off the wall (without making a great deal of mess!) in order to slot [...]
Posted in crafty things, fabric on Dec 8th, 2011
Hello! I feel as though I’ve been away for ages. I’m so busy at the moment I’ve barely had time to breathe, never mind blog, but I made this yesterday and I thought it would be a nice little something to show. It’s a somewhat experimental piece of nuno felt, about the size of a sheet [...]
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. Thankfully, a few minutes with a nice hot iron can [...]