Category: scarves and cowls

Fitting in some sewing

Cherry sash belt

It’s not going to be all Me-Made May all the time around here – I’ll post a round-up every few days. In the meantime, I’ve been doing a bit of sewing from my extensive stash of increasingly small pieces of fabric.

Four sash belts

These are a series of sash belts, very simple ones that you can just tie around your waist. They’re all one-offs, and you can find them in the Etsy shop.

I have more belts planned for the future, as soon as my order of d-rings and rivets arrive. With the help of some organic cotton and some hand-made felt, hopefully something interesting will emerge.

Four Headscarves

These are headscarves, designed principally for the 1950s Night that’s coming up at work in a couple of weeks. Again, in the Etsy shop. I need to go back to the fabric shop for a small piece to make one of these to match my own dress. I’m not totally convinced that this kind of headscarf will suit me, but if it doesn’t look right in my hair I can always tie it rakishly around my neck.

Zipped Pouches

And finally… a huge pile of zipped pouches! These have been sitting on my shelves staring at me since Christmas, so I can finally stop feeling guilty about not having sewn them yet! These are all multiples – eight of the Eiffel Tower print, three dancing skeletons (so cute!), eight skulls & roses with a plain red lining, and two with black & red stripes inside. All, you’ve guessed it, in the Etsy shop.

In fact, while I’m throwing Etsy links at you, you might like a little something in return! If you’ve never shopped on Etsy before, you can get £5 off your first purchase by following this link. You don’t have to spend it straight away, you can claim it as credit to use whenever you like. It doesn’t need to be in my shop either, the link should work throughout Etsy. (In the spirit of full disclosure, I should probably mention that if two people use the link to make a purchase, I get a £10 credit to spend myself.)

Also in the spirit of full disclosure, I should probably say that I don’t know how many more of these zipped pouches I’ll be sewing. There’s no doubt that they’ve been popular, but I don’t really like the production line method of working that’s necessary to sew them up quickly, and now that my stash is depleting… well. I’ll have to think about it. I want to concentrate much more on organic fabrics and haberdashery, but organic cotton zips are much more expensive than nylon ones, which pushes up the price of a little pouch by a significant amount. We’ll have to see.

These are the last that I have planned for a while though, so if you want one I’d go for it sooner rather than later!

Modern technology and a call to action.

Honey and Ollie "One Word" bracelet

I’m still getting to grips with all my modern technology. I seem to have settled into the iPad quite easily, although it’s useless for writing a blog post – the keyboard takes up so much of the screen that I can’t see what I’m doing. Otherwise though, it’s been amazingly easy to use, and I’m losing every waking minute to adding things to Pinterest. (Follow me! It’s dangerously addictive.)

Paul’s also upgraded his phone, which means I’ve inherited his old one. I’ve spent a chunk of this afternoon switching over to the iPhone 4, which is lovely, but it looks different from my old one (thanks to a software update), which is discombobulating me more than it ought to. Anyway, while I was setting the photo above for my lock screen, I was reminded that I haven’t actually shown you my new bracelet!

Honey and Ollie "One Word" bracelet

I ordered it from Honey and Ollie at the beginning of the year, and it arrived (all the way from California) on the 12th of February – much sooner than I was expecting it to travel all that way.  It arrived accompanied by a little crow holding a star (perfect!), who is now pasted into my journal.

Honey and Ollie "One Word" bracelet

This is the back – and the lovely box it arrived in. The back is so pretty that sometimes I flip the bracelet over and wear this side as the front. The silk ribbon just ties around my wrist.

Honey and Ollie "One Word" bracelet

Like this!

It’s a One Word bracelet (pendants also available), and this was my chosen word for the year.  I figured that putting it on my phone as well as on my wrist would give me a little kick every time I start procrastinating instead of working. Perfectionism and procrastination are my two biggest enemies (alongside getting distracted far too easily), and I have a tendency not to even start doing something unless I think I can do it right first time. This is my handy reminder to JUST DO SOMETHING, even if it’s something very small, and not very perfect.

Speaking of Not Very Perfect… today I was attempting to make a very simple cowl to go into the Etsy shop – just two rectangles sewn together. What I have actually made is a fully lined moebius strip, and I haven’t got the faintest idea how I managed it! Couldn’t have done it if I’d tried. I’ve unpicked the cowl three times, and I still can’t get it to turn right-sides-out. Definitely a sign that I wasn’t really well enough to approach the sewing machine today!

More Making

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At long last, a new cloche hat for the shop! I’ve been waiting for the lovely guipure lace to arrive, and also for a full day off work when I didn’t feel too ill to to anything. (Back to the dentist today for a face full of iodine. Yuck.) This one’s now up in the Etsy shop, at a bargain price because it’s not quite as perfect as I’d like. It was the first hat that I blocked, and my trimming of the edges wasn’t perfectly straight, which has resulted in a slightly uneven hem on the inside of the brim. It’s not at all noticeable when you’re wearing the hat, so this is a great opportunity to grab it for a silly price. The custom listing is also available, if you fancy a different colour.

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This cowl was a bit of an experiment, and it’s one that I’m quite pleased with! You can wear it with the buttons at the front or the back, to keep any stray draughts away from either your neck or your throat. (This one’s in the Etsy shop too.) I’m pleased with the lovely yellow vintage buttons, but rather than snap fasteners I think I might work hand-stitched buttonholes in the future.

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Unfortunately, it’s proved rather difficult to take photos of a large draped neckerchief on a mannequin that doesn’t have any shoulders! I don’t think the pictures do it justice, so I’m going to need to find another way. I’d love a torso mannequin, like this slightly abstract one from Morplan, but that’s definitely out of my budget until I’ve sold a lot more hats! (Any hats. Selling any hats would be nice.)

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and get an early night. It’s half term this week, which means I’ve got an extremely busy day ahead of me at work tomorrow!

Cowls and snoods

Gold silk feather & fan snood

According to my definition (I don’t know whether it’s the same as anybody else’s), a cowl and a snood are both a tube of fabric that sits around your neck. The difference between them is that a cowl stays there, whereas a snood is long enough that it can be pulled up and over the top of your head. The snood above is one that I knitted for a Christmas present, and I have to admit I was quite sad to give it away. Thankfully there’s enough yarn left over (Fyberspates Scrumptious Laceweight) that I might one day get around to knitting another one for myself.

Grey & black snood

This one I made today, from a remnant of soft cotton/viscose blend jersey, and half an old t-shirt of Paul’s. It needs to be a smidge longer, so that it can cover the head without creating a chilly gap at the back of the neck, but its size was determined by the materials available. Next time I’ll start with yardage, and make it a little bit longer. I quite fancy a fleecy version of this as well, as long as it doesn’t bunch up too much under the chin.

Black & floral cowl

The main endeavour of the day has been drafting a pattern and making up a few cowls, which are now listed in the Etsy shop. I’ve been wondering for ages what on earth I could make from the remnants of jersey fabrics in the stash, and sitting with a very cold neck at work the other day prompted these cosy little neck warmers! They just pull on over the head, and you can either drape them in an artistic and casual fashion, or fold them down neatly like a turtleneck. The floral one is the same on both sides, and the spotty & stripy one is reversible. I’ve listed two of those on Etsy, though I’m extremely tempted to keep one for myself. (I’m keeping the stripy snood though, so perhaps two grey neck-warming things is a bit much.)

Grey & black spotty & stripy cowl

One of the things I really need to improve this year is the photos for my Etsy listings. Despite my endless wittering on Facebook, the vast majority of the visitors to my little shop are coming from within Etsy itself, so I need to upgrade my listings to attract as many views as I can. I like the white face with the white wig – I think it gives a context to the photos whilst keeping the emphasis firmly on the product. However, I am aware that the polystyrene lady looks a little… well… cheap. Sadly, having spent all my money on hat blocks, I can’t afford to upgrade her for a classier model any time soon, so I’ve been thinking about how I could get rid of the polystyrene texture. Papier maché, perhaps, with a layer of white paint over the top? I also need to improve my listing photos generally. They look fine on my Mac at home, but on any other computer they seem very grey and dull, which isn’t quite the look I want to go for! Perhaps a little re-calibration is in order.

I’m aware that everything I’ve posted here lately has been “Look, I made a thing!”. This must be especially dull if you’re already following The Eternal Magpie page on Facebook, as I tend to post all my Things over there as I go along. There is other stuff rumbling along in the background (I broke a tooth, my job is changing, the new house keeps throwing challenges our way, my health is still a mess), I’m just not quite sure what to say about it all just yet. I have a few days off work at the end of this week and the beginning of next, so I’m hoping to take some time to have a bit of a think. (Probably enforced by dental anaesthetic, yuck.) I’m really enjoying all of the Things I’m making at the moment though, and I hope you are too.