Antique Shop Bargain!

Ridged rolling pin "for oats", perfect for felting!

Today we popped into Fanny’s Antiques (in a side road near TGI Friday’s, Reading), and picked up a couple of lovely things.

The first lovely thing I can’t show you, and I have to forget about immediately, because it’s going to be my Christmas present. Suffice it to say that it’s a small piece of furniture, and sewing is involved. I’ll show you in December, once I’ve remembered to be surprised by it!

The second lovely thing is the rolling pin pictured above. Labelled as being “for oats”, it’s going to be absolutely perfect for working with felt! Half the price of buying one from Wingham Wool Work, too.

It turns out I’ve also saved myself the grand sum of £9.50 by not buying a fulling block – I discovered that a grooved wooden soap dish does the same job! One felting gadget that I do want to buy though is a bulb spray. That will allow me to use water that’s hotter than my hands are able to tolerate through the plastic bottle I’m using at the moment. It should also hopefully be a bit more controlled.

Once we’ve moved house, there’s a convenient-looking work surface next to the sink in the new kitchen, so I’m hoping I can get the felting stuff out while the sewing machines and fabric are still packed away. I’m looking forward to seeing what I can do with my new rolling pin!

The right tools for the job.

Upholstery & Lampshade Needles

No, I haven’t been sewing upholstery or lampshades. But I did find myself in need of a curved sewing needle today, and I knew I had a packet somewhere. I hadn’t realised that they’d be older than I am! They’re in perfect condition, and they were just what I needed to sew through multiple layers of fabric that couldn’t be done by machine.

Pleats & Pins

I’m in the process of making a costume, which is going to be an extremely sumptuous ball gown. The starting point was my (first) wedding dress, which has been sitting in my loft for almost fifteen years. Thanks to an extremely generous seam allowance, I was able to let it out enough to make it fit again! I’m replacing the ivory skirt with a matching burgundy one, but  rather than dismantling the original dress I’m simply adding an extra layer of fabric. So this is five metres of satin, draped and pleated into place.

Clearly there was no way I could have even considered doing this kind of alteration using the sewing machine, but working by hand directly on the dressform (to maintain the shape of the draping as I worked) was rather awkward. Thankfully the curved needles were strong enough to push through all those layers as I sewed down the pleats, and the perfect tool for this kind of fiddly work.

Time permitting, I’m intending to make a matching hat. I have a feeling that these curved needles are going to come in handy again!