Tag: Frome Steampunk Extravaganza

Meet Mrs Magpie

Mrs Magpie

I can’t believe it’s taken me since May to get around to showing you this, but please say hello to Mrs Magpie!

As you know, she’s one half of Mr & Mrs Magpie’s Inexplicable Emporium – a Victorian-inspired but thoroughly anachronistic curiosity shop. She only makes a public appearance roughly once a year, so she likes to dress up for the occasion.

I made the costume, with the exception of the sonic screwdriver (made by Paul), and the birdcage necklace, which I bought from Atelier Fabry-Pérot. It’s part of a set of laser-cut decorations, but Mrs Magpie, being a lover of enormous shiny things, thought it would make a fantastically extravagant pendant.

I’m sure I’ve been going on a bit about all the changes that have been happening this year. My health’s gone out the window, my hours and role at work have changed, and now we’re in the middle of moving house. I’m also changing the things I make, and am trying to focus at the moment on the materials and the creation and the process, rather than the selling of an end product. I find it helps me to imagine who might buy or wear or use the things I make, and Mrs Magpie is most definitely in charge of all things bright and flambpyant and shiny! I think she might need a friend, who’s more interested in the soft and natural and comfy.

Mr & Mrs Magpie’s Marvellous Mittens

Floral and lace gloves

Ta-daa! A glove that actually fits onto my disembodied hand! I spent most of Saturday making the left glove, which involved a lot of fiddly seams, unpicking things, wonky elastic, and a certain amount of swearing. Once I’d got the left glove worked out though, the right one came out lovely! So this first pair will be mine, to wear and to display on the very shiny hand.

Three more pairs in the making

Once I was happy with the first pair, I cut out all the pieces for another three. (Pairs, not gloves.) I have plenty of this pretty floral jersey left over, but I’ve used up all of the lace edging, so future pairs will have a different trim. By the end of Saturday afternoon I’d managed to sew up six little thumbs, with the rest set aside for today.

Marvellous Mittens

And here they are, finished and packaged – three more pairs of fingerless gloves ready for the Frome Steampunk Extravaganza!

I have plans for some slightly more “masculine” (by which I simply mean “less frilly”) fingerless gloves to go alongside these. I have some gorgeous organic cotton pointelle fabrics in brown and purple, which should go perfectly with cuffs made from the remnants of the organic cotton stripes I used for the bow ties. I’m going to make a start on those tomorrow, so watch this space…