Bags, packages and baggages

August 4, 2013 DW8 Comments

Hello! How are you? Hope you’re ok and not too hot. If you’re not in the UK, it’s actually sunny here at the moment and it’s not really something we’re used to – or mentally equipped to deal with (!). Rain is forecast though, and so I’m sure normal service will be resumed shortly.

I made a bag, as you can see. I kept looking at the tatting plonked on top of that red fabric shoved in a box and I decided I should do something with it.

I started with just the border, then decided I actually really did need a drawstring bag to keep some stuff in, so took the plunge and made the whole front piece – to match the size of a drawstring carrier bag I was using from Gap. Then I thought I should have some fun and I patchworked a section for the back too, and quilted them.

It’s so cosy with the quilting I wish I could get *in* it. I must admit, I really did enjoy making this. It was something I wanted, with fabrics I liked – and as I was making it up as I went along it was really low stress. I usually enjoy all the crafts I do (otherwise, why do them?) but often I’m learning something or testing something out. With this, I just made it for the hell of it and planned it as I went along. As a final touch I added interfacing to the fabric at the top to make it a bit stronger, and the cord is reused from an old in-flight bag, from Virgin airlines. I think I could do with an even bigger bag now, and so I’ll make another one when I get a chance. It was nice to be able to use that tatting too, I’ve had it for ages now and this feels like a good use for it.

I must admit, I was a bit fed up when I wrote the previous post. I think I needed a holiday, which is lucky, as I’ve just had one 🙂 One of my closest friends happens to double up as one of my most distant friends, and lives just outside Venice. I flew over last Saturday, and got back on Friday. We had a lovely time, chatting, watching a STACK of TV, eating ice cream, deconstructing our lives, finding no answers and drinking spritz. We also went to the Venice Biennale and saw some art. Well, a lot of art actually. And Venice itself is of course, beautiful. If you think it’s hot in the UK, boy is it hot there.

It was also my birthday on Friday, and I arrived home to a brilliant and thoughtful package of crafty stuff from another good friend – this one a bit closer. Umm, I have an admission to make. I really like cranes and huge building sites. There’s something about them that just looks so alien – I think they’re fascinating. Often I walk through the city (of London) on the way home from work and snap some of the buildings-in-progress. The one above ‘The Cheese Grater‘ being a particular favourite. Why am I telling you this?

Because my friend bought me this fabric, which I think is hilarious! It really made me smile. I’m not sure yet what I’ll use it for, but something good! She also bought me some really lovely striped squares from deckchairstripes.com, a great looking book on bag making, some notecards featuring sloths (another favourite) and THIS:

A beautiful bag she’s made (with seams far straighter than mine 😉 ) and a stitch counter, like the one I was admiring way back in March! I opened this part of the present thinking how nice it was that we’d made eachother bags, and nearly fell off my seat to find this inside. I’m really very lucky – not just for the gift, but to have a friend that would go so far as to notice I’d even liked this in the first place and to track it down. I still can’t believe it.

And finally, the Little Blue Monkey went off to his new home the other week, complete with a nice red hat, and giant pom-pom, and was very well received. All is right with the world.

Not quite straight to the point

June 16, 2013 DW16 Comments

Hello! It’s been a funny few weeks here. I’ve been preparing for a work trip to Sweden, which has been eating up both time and headspace, and so lots of crafty things have been sitting about waiting. Bits of tatting to house, things to finish off – AND a new sewing machine.

A friend and I kind of both talked each other in to buying our first electric machines. To be honest, she bought hers first, and then we found they were reduced to £35 (if you’re not from the UK, that’s insanely cheap) and so I bought one too. What kind of machine do you get for £35? A bright purple one! Hilarious. That said, we did a bit of research first, and the word on the street is that it’s made by Janome, who seem to know what they’re doing. Also it’s guaranteed for a year, so you can’t really say fairer than that. It’s tiny, really light, a lot like a toy, but has 10 stitches and seems to be doing the job quite well. Can I make it go in a straight line? Well… maybe three times out of ten, but I’m hopeful 🙂 If you know someone who wants to have a go with a sewing machine, I would recommend it.

Remember all those attempts at tatting with beads? I thought I should try and do something with them. I also have last year’s lavender to use up – although it still smells as strong as ever. So I made these lavender bags. Some are neater than others it has to be said.

I’ve tried out some new linen and cotton blend fabric, and it looks rather smart in grey. Of course now I’ve finished them all I’ve found that I had the perfect coloured cotton for it hidden upstairs, but it’s not too bad. I hand finished this one – still trying to work out the best plan for that.

The one on the right has a new-style foldover back — and idea I pinched off aforementioned friend. I added a strip of coloured fabric just for the hell of it – it’s really wonky, but I like the general idea! There’s a little removable cotton bag inside, so it’s like a cushion & cushion cover. I like it actually. It’s possible I might one day end up with a lavender bag that isn’t wonky, at which point I wont feel so bad about giving them to people.

I found this piece of tatting knocking about too, which think I’ll make into another tester bag. See if I can get my lines right! (It’s not sewn on in that shot.)

Aside from that, I have also been working on my general tatted sketches. Actually now I’ve gone to the other extreme. Before I was worried that I wouldn’t make any finished ‘things’, I liked the idea of getting stuff done. Now I’m kind of worried I’ll never get anything finished again…I’m quite enjoying myself.

I’ll sort through this lot and show you some work in progress next time. Hope you’re all doing ok out there. I’ve missed you.

Going nowhere fast…

April 7, 2013 DW15 Comments

I don’t know what’s going on at the moment, but it’s taking me forever to get anything done! These poor monkeys have been waiting so patiently to be finished, I feel a little bit guilty. The joy of making two monkeys at once kind of hit a snag when I realised I had to make EIGHT LIMBS. E I G H T. And then sew them on. Every time I get to the sewing arms, legs and heads on I remember what it is I *don’t* like about amigurumi. That said, it is nice when they’re whole.

Look at them! They’re a really nice size actually. They fit comfortably in your hand, and feel oddly delicate, but firm. The fabric this cotton crochets into is pretty sturdy, but there’s something about the size of these fellas makes you feel a bit protective towards them.

One has a scarf, the other has a scarf-in-progess. The scarf in progress is a simple 2×2 rib. I do love the fact that I can knit them scarves now (Thank you, Mum!) It always felt like a bit of a cruel blow that you spend so much time making them and then you’re still not done – you have to crochet them a scarf as well. (Monkeys always need a little accessory. It’s a very unloved monkey that gets sent into the world without one).

Umm, yeah. This is a little family, it seems. The littlest one is here to stay, the orangey one does fit rather well on the bookshelf, although is considering leaving home, and the two green ones will be going somewhere, when I’ve decided where. I started making the green ones some drawstring trousers, but there was a hiccup with the sewing machine, so I need to do a little maintenance work first. These are all cotton, where as the yellow one I made recently was wool. Gawd. I said a long time ago that this blog should probably change its name to ‘Occasional Monkey’, perhaps I was right.

Anyway. Yesterday I went to the Creative stitches and Hobbycrafts show at ExCel, in London, because I was lucky enough to be given a free ticket. (Thank you, Mum!) My friend and I had fun – but it was nowhere near as good as the Alexandra Palace show, which I still think is the best of those kind of events. The stalls were all okay (not widly exciting) but I did enjoy the Royal Schools of Needlework display, which had examples of students’ sketches and works in progress. (My friend Jane took a lovely photo of the blackwork). I keep a sketchbook / notebook for work, but I’m starting to think I should work out a way to make one for fabric / thready things…

Then I’d have somewhere to put the odd things like this which end up stuffed in various boxes around the house. This was me trying to work out a smaller version of a vintage pattern, and then switching to something else entirely (above).

And this is me being an idiot and mis-reading a pattern. What do people *do* with things like this? Do any of you do scrapbooking, or have kids that would like less-than-perfect things to collage with? I dunno. Let me know. Anyway, I digress.

As well as the Royal School of Needlework display, there were some lovely quilts on show. I loved the rich colours on this one, which is actually evenly lit, but has a natural gradient in the fabrics, making it look like its moving from shadows to sunshine:

There was also a display of smocks and smocking, which I think was from a collection owned by the WI. They were absolutely beautiful, my favourites being all one colour, natural linen. It was hard to get a photo as the weren’t well lit, but this is the kind of thing:

Smocking is actually on my list of things to try. (It’s a long list, mind you). Oh – would you look at that, a nice tutorial! It was the work of this lady, who made me realise just how beautiful this kind of thing could be. Actually, looking at it now makes me want to chuck everything I’m working on out of the window, take a week off and learn how to do this *right now*.

We left the show, had lunch and then headed back to Somerset House for the the Walpole Crafted: Makers of the Exceptional 2013 show. (I say ‘headed back’ as we were only there a few weeks ago). This was a nice afternoon mooch – in the same space as the previous show we’d seen. Again there was some thought provoking work on display. I did love the colours on this Fair Isle Knitting, by Mati Ventrillon:

There’s so much stuff to try, isn’t there. Gah! As always, so much to do and so little time.

There was one other thing that was a feature of yesterday – and today. Sunshine! We had some sunshine. Yesterday finished off with a lovely long walk in the sun, through central London and Green Park, and today a lovely walk in the country side – I spotted primroses, daffodils and even a few lambs. I thought I should make note of it here – at least then if we don’t get any more for a while I can look back and remember how nice it was.

Actually, despite the worrying title of this post, I’ve had a lovely weekend. I hope you have too.

Stitching in the sunshine

February 9, 2013July 2, 2013 DW32 Comments

Ok, I take it back about yellow. At the end of my last post I said that if you buy yellow thread you’re hardly ever likely to use it. This post disproves all that I guess. Also, I really love that golden sunshine yellow, purely because it reminds me of sunny days, so lord knows what I was thinking. Sorry about that.

I had a little adventure last weekend. A friend and I rented a cottage for a couple of days. I arrived with a sewing machine, cutting board, various yarns, half a monkey’s head and wine. She arrived with weaving, fabric, different yarns – and scones and clotted cream. To be frank, I’m not sure its possible to arrive armed with anything better! We had a lovely weekend where she conquered (I think) her fear of sewing machines, and I made myself do some embroidery – and finish the monkey. This is our little front room – and on the sofa you’ll spot a blanket beautifully crocheted by my friend’s mum, which came along for the ride. (I can see where my friend gets her super-neat and even stitches from.)

I decided to fill the middle of the wreath (pattern link) I’d tatted with french knots. The joy of a cottage in the country complete with wi-fi means a quick look on You Tube and you’re off in no time. Then I kind of carried on – and actually I think, got carried away. I added the pink on a whim – the skeins of yellow and pink looked so good (and clashy) next to each other that I thought it would be alright. I think it’s a bit too much in reality, perhaps sticking with the yellow and blue alone would’ve been better? I dunno.

It’s all pretty messy, but I quite like the mix of embroidery and tatting, so I’ll try it again I think. This is the size 50 tatting thread. I think it works well for this kind of thing. I usually tat with size 80, but I think that could be too small. We’ll soon find out as I’m halfway through another version of this wreath.

This was the other option incidentally. I crocheted this rose ages ago, I think with DMC Perlé thread and found it in a jar! Good colour match, but I thought it really was Time To Tackle Embroidery. (That said, it looks rather tasteful by comparison. Oh well.)

The monkey in question arrived as a head and left as a fully formed monkey. It was him that took most of the time, to be honest – it’s amazing how long thy really take VS how long you *think* they take. I couldn’t get his mouth right AT ALL. This is probably the 4th or 5th mouth. In the end I used some linen thread, which was a bit random, but I’d tried embroidery thread and wool and both of them looked awful. Now he’s done, I think he’s quite sweet:

He looks kind of hopeful I think. I’ve said it before, and will no doubt say it again, but the placement of the mouth and eyes is everything when it comes to toys. Get that right and I swear it’s half the battle. And that’s a knitted scarf! The first ever scarf I’ve knitted for one of my toys. This monkey is a gift for my friend’s daughter who is one year old this week. She’s the one I crocheted a blanket for a year ago. I mentioned that it might be an idea for him to sit on the shelf for a bit, as I’m not sure how he’ll take to being chewed, but we’ll see 🙂

Right. Better get on with the weekend. Enjoy yours!

Another wreath!

December 19, 2012December 20, 2012 DW10 Comments

Less speedy than the last one! This is a lavender bag, tatted as a thank you to Katy for the thread she gave me. I had a bit of a panic about what to tat actually. I need to look for new patterns! As I usually tat on the train though, it’s not always possible. I like to do things I have memorised already (much less of a faff) – also, I wanted to tat something I knew would look nice. I do like the colour of this thread. It’s really close to the colour of the linen, and I think it looks good with the beads.

Katy also gave me some white thread, if you recall, so on the reverse are the flowers I tatted with the two colours together.

The threads are actually different sizes – which on freeform stuff like this is fine, but I spotted it when another Mary Konior pattern I was tatting started looking a bit tight. I adjusted numbers of stitches though, so all good.

I tried extra hard with the sewing on this one – it’s always a bit nerve-wracking making things as gifts. I think it turned out ok though. Also, Katy has been decluttering her house this year, and I felt a bit bad about sending more clutter as she’s done so well, but I thought… well, it’s useful and will tuck in a drawer and make things smell nice 😉

Thanks again Katy. (Aren’t bloggers nice?)

Found: crafting mojo

September 22, 2012September 22, 2012 DW13 Comments

If there were Olympic medals for ‘having a bit of a think’ I would surely get one. I got a Kindle Touch for my birthday at the beginning of August, and I’ve been having a bit of a think about making a case ever since. You know what? I just finished it about 10 minutes ago! That’s it up there.

I really ummed and ahhed about what fabric to use. I actually thought this patterned Amy Butler fabric was too nice for this – and then I realised I was being an idiot. I bought the plain and patterned fabric together, on a whim, from an offcuts basket. They’re lovely, of course, but there is no über project – is there? If we spend our lives waiting for the perfect project to use this fabric or that button, we’ll be waiting forever. I’m not saying ‘waste fabric’ but… I don’t know. There’s no perfect project, buy stuff you love and enjoy using it.

So anyway, now *that’s* out of my system – the Amy butler fabric is a pocket! It’s to put the cable in. If you do a bit of a google for Kindle tutorials you’ll see this a lot. I like it. To be honest, there are loads of tutorials out there, so I used half a Kindle tutorial and half this iPad cover tutorial (which is really good). I considered more complicated options (this tutorial looks brilliant) but frankly, I feel like a lost my crafting mojo a bit and I just wanted to make something super uncomplicated. I didn’t measure anything – which lucky for me worked out ok – and nothing was straight! But y’know. No one died.

I’ll let you into a secret though. The Amy Butler fabric, the co-ordinating solid brown… It’s all very tasteful. And then I thought maybe it’s a bit TOO tasteful? So the lining inside is that slightly lurid green with multicoloured flowers! It doesn’t match at all and I love it. The button came free with an Etsy order ages ago and was a suspiciously good match too.

Last time I went home, my mum gave me this. It’s a little plastic case with a load of different threads in – she said she picked it up somewhere as it was quite cheap and thought it could be useful. As I was about to embark on this epic journey, I realised I didn’t have any brown thread. I cannot believe what a perfect match was inside this box! It might not be the kind of thread you make an heirloom gift from – but if you’re prone to making small projects on a whim (even if it is a well pondered whim) then this is perfect. It’s just a small amount of each colour to tide you over. And it includes needles. Amazing. What a brilliant thing to have knocking about.

So there you have it, a new Kindle case. It’s a bit wonky, obviously – but I couldn’t be happier.

Tatted train-doodles make it home

July 23, 2012 DW2 Comments

It’s amazing what a difference a camera can make. Mr Occasional Crafter took the above photo on his camera, as for some reason mine just wasn’t really cutting it. It’s far too blue, but I decided not to correct it, because I love it! It makes my tatting look amazing, I think.

Back to harsh reality now, and the photos I took. Sorry!

I’ve continued to ‘doodle’ with my tatting recently, which I’ve rather enjoyed. While one part of me worries that I’m not tatting with a purpose, the other part is quite enjoying wingin’ it. I’ve been tatting daisy chains again – or rather daisies, and then joining some as I go to create more solid shapes. The plus side of this is that it really shows how useful split rings are – without them I’d’ve needed to cut and tie a few times, the minus side is that I could really do with actually planning it a bit to make a more fluid or useful shape.

I’ve been using a lovely silver grey DMC thread (size 80), which tats up beautifully. It seems to have really good stitch definition for some reason – almost more than other colours – and I’ve loved using it. This weekend I decided I’d stitch it onto… *something* and then decide what to do with it. For once, I decided against linen – maybe the tones were too similar, I’m not sure, but it really didn’t look that good. I almost went with black, but at the last minute switched to grey. That old grey sheet I saved from the charity shop is really earning its keep!

I pinned it out before stitching it, as you can see. Then I unpinned it as I stitched and completely changed the arrangement bit by bit. It seems appropriate. Tatted as a doodle and stitched as one too.

Sorry – the photos really are all over the place in terms of colour, but at least you can see the layout here – and the beads. I sewed the lighter beads on first (they’re actually a silvery grey), and then at the last minute, after realising I had some, I sewed the black beads on for some contrast. I wasn’t sure about them initially, but actually I think they work quite well.

I’m not sure yet what I’ll do with it… maybe a panel for another drawstring bag? It’s a bit big for a lavender bag. Actually, maybe I could use it as a panel on a fabric basket? I’ll have a think. All suggestions gratefully received!

Either way, I really enjoyed making it. Also, it does look rather nice. So nice in fact, I’m quite surprised I actually made it. (I’m not showing you the back though).

In the pink

July 1, 2012July 7, 2012 DW9 Comments

I’ve had a very nice afternoon, but by the time you read this, it will’ve been a week ago. I’ve been making a present for my mum, and I know she reads my blog sometimes, and so I wont post this until the gift is given!

This is not quite what I was intending to make – I was going to use the daisy chain to decorate this, but it wasn’t working that well. After some consideration I decided to decorate the bag with a different piece of tatting, and add some beads which would co-ordinate with the top section of fabric.

I love the beads and the fabric actually – they’re a nice muted sage green. I sewed the beads on as I stitched the tatting to the fabric, which worked quite well. Biggest problem was finding a needle small enough to go through the beads – I keep buying needles and can only assume that the Borrowers get to them before I do, as I can never find them!

I really like the piece of tatting on here – I was unsure about it before, but I think it looks perfect on a bag like this, embellished with beads. (I’m tempted to make another one now! It was from this pattern, and looks rather different here.)

And there’s the pink! I used a pink lining for the inside, which just peeps out at the top. I’m really pleased with it, as I think it just adds something a wee bit extra – I love how muted the rest of it is, with pink to add some contrast.

I had to hand stitch around the top as the bag was too small for machine sewing. It’s not perfect, but I did my best. I hope she likes it.

Monkey (and other) business

June 24, 2012June 24, 2012 DW4 Comments

I meant to post something here last week, but by the time I got around to getting started it was too dark to take any photos.

Another mixed bag this week – odds and ends of things. Above is my current train tatting – still on the daisies, but this time pink. I just loaded up the shuttles with what looked like a sensible about of thread, and will carry on until it runs out. It’s lovely to tat like this – there’s a few onion rings in there as leaves (not shown above), and a few standard daisies as well. It’s just a bit of meandering about, no set pattern, which is quite nice for a change. I was thinking about getting some gauze, the kind people makes scarves from, and tatting an edging for it… I thought it could be a good ongoing project, perhaps?

In stark contrast, here’s a new drawstring bag I made! For christmas I received an extremely generous gift – a voucher for the Make Lounge. I spent a long time thinking about the type of class I’d like to take, and in the end, decided on screen printing. I wanted something that would be fun, but that I could possibly do at home. (I thought long and hard about sewing, but classes are all taught on an electric machine, and it felt weird being unfaithful to my Singer!) Then of course, I needed to think of something to print, so drew a monkey, and some elephants:

Now, the thing with this type of screen printing is that you have to cut it by hand — and we didn’t have time to do repeat patterns, and so I adapted the characters a little on the night. (I prefer the planned monkey, but went a bit nuts and cut it differently by accident!)

Unlike everyone else, I took some calico with me, and screen printed a couple of extra prints. I wasn’t too sure – I’m still not too sure – what to do with them, but once you’ve got the screen working, seems a bit nuts not to make the most of it. I pre-washed the calico, and flippin’ eck, it’s not easy to iron, is it? Yes, I DID iron it while it was still damp, but to no avail. Amusingly, I saw that Patch had the same issues last week.

They gave as a little bag to screenprint, which you can see on the left. It’s really cute – child sized. I also have a tea towel with a monkey on each end.

It was a great evening – amazing how fast you can relax and forget about work and all your troubles when you have something fun to do! I’m not sure if I will screen print at home – does require space, and creates a lot of mess, but it did get me thinking about lino printing, which I’ve not done since college, and used to love. I know you can do that with a roller for the ink and the back of a spoon for a press, so we shall see…

And finally, I thought I’d use up a few scraps, and try a log cabin lavender bag. As you can see, this ended up rectangular rather than square as I decided it was getting too big. The patch with the ‘7685’ on it is the selvedge of the dotted fabric, which I quite like. It’s an odd little thing, but quite cute in real life. Now it lives in the monkey bag with the other scraps and makes them smell nice.

Hope you’re all having good weekends!

Odds n’ ends

June 10, 2012June 10, 2012 DW14 Comments

Hello! I’ve had a few days off, weekends away, and various house guests, which is why I’ve been a bit quiet recently. I have been tatting a tiny bit, although not as much as I’d like – mainly as I can’t always get a seat on the train, which is where I usually tat. Spare evenings are still taken up with The Knitted Scarf, which is coming along nicely. (Although not without a fair bit of unpicking, whilst trying to watch Alien in the dark. Unpicking knitting is quite frustrating, isn’t it? Not so with crochet.)

Above is the trusty Stormtrooper, engaged in a bit of a scrap with some train end-of-shuttle doodles. I do like these daisy chains…

These are size 80 thread… I’ve not really decided what to do with them yet.

They’re not that big. Perhaps the right size for a bracelet or a necklace, but a bit delicate. I’ll stitch them on to something, I think. Not sure what yet, but it would be nice to use them for something.

This little piggy is currently in transit. He lived on the shelf for a little while, and then decided it was time to head out. I love making things for people – but I just can’t make them to order! Ages ago, after a lot of not-so-subtle hints, I made my friend and elephant. Her mum and I were with her when she opened it, and her mum really seemed to love it. I always meant to make her one too, and then time wore on and I forgot. As I was wondering what should become of the pig, it dawned on me that maybe she would like it, so off he popped in the post. Hopefully she’ll get it next week. It’s always a bit tricky as they’re not *that* sturdy, so they’re not really toys for very little kids. They’re shelf dwellers really, but they do like to be loved. I hope she likes him.

In other news, I went to Yorkshire for a few days which was lovely. I had a brilliant time (seaside, countryside, cream teas and brilliant company!). We went to Nunnington Hall, and spotted this lovely crewel work:

There were three panels, all quite large and they were beautifully done. They had chunky stitching and felt quite free-form, although they were carefully planned out with lighter stitches before they were filled in. I loved the feel of them though (visual – I didn’t touch them!) As I’ve said before, I’m not a needle worker, but I would potentially make an exception for something like this… Like I need another hobby!

Occasional Crafter

Crafting, occasionally.

Category: Needlework