An old love rekindled.

While I have been writing these posts on old projects, I remembered how much I love embroidery. It seems to have sparked a new desire to do more again.

So on came a new internet search while I was supposed to be writing my first assignment on Medusa. I am studying Myth in the Greek and Roman worlds, this year. I would like to share with you what I found.

Here is a site that has some lovely free patterns and a FAQ section.
http://embroidery.about.com/  it is heavy on advertising but definitely worth checking out.

http://www.royal-needlework.org.uk/  the Royal School of Needlework, lots of information. I would like to do a couple of their courses next year if  funds allow. In the meantime I stocked up on books from their on-line shop to learn some new techniques.

I have rotated that picture several times however it wanted to appear sideways each time. sorry.

http://www.embroiderersguild.com/
who have two magazines -
stitch and embroidery , which are both worth looking at.

For those of you who are interested the exhibition below is taking place at the ashmolean museum in Oxford.
On the Saturday 1 December there is a  big stitch event. I also hope to attend.

Threads of Silk and Gold: Ornamental Textiles From Meiji Japan Exhibition | 9 November 2012 – 27 January 2013 | Galleries 57, 59 & 60 | £6 /£4 Concessions Many of us are aware of the beauty of the traditional Japanese kimono: Threads of Silk and Gold introduces the less familiar but equally spectacular ornamental textiles that were made in Japan for the foreign market in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Intricate embroideries and tapestries, dyed silks and velvets entranced Western audiences with their sophisticated designs and brilliant craftsmanship. The exhibition highlights Meiji textiles from the newly-acquired collection of the Sannenzaka Museum in Kyoto, one of the finest and most comprehensive collections of its type in existence.


Wow so many events to do, we also have comi-con/expo (just found out Matt Smith, Doctor Who will be there) and hyperjapan that we want to attend.

How do you decide what to do when there are so many good things going on, On what to visit / do and what not to do. Perhaps we should play Diceman.

Sew Vala. x

Old Projects part 5

Another kit from the 1990's. Not something I would have bought myself, I remember it was a present, and I can not remember who from. If you, the giver, are reading this I am sorry I did not like it, but please read on. This is a printed canvas tapestry and it looked very blocky. I could not figure out how the blockyness (?) could create the smooth hair or the flowing dress fabric. But I was determined to give it a try.

Yeah, close up it is blocky. But I have come to realise this piece is best viewed from a distance. The original dress had some kind of swirly broach at the centre, this I did not like so I just carried on with the dress pattern.

Once it was finished, I thought a little more of it. It was ok.


   

And today when I went looking for it to photograph I have decided I love it.
So whoever you are who bought me this present Thank you very much. And I promise one day to frame it and display it lovingly in my home. That will not be for a while yet, it is quite large and will cost a pretty penny, but one day I will. In the mean time this fair lady is carefully wrapped up and hidden from daylight.

Sew Vala. x 

Old Projects part 4

This was my very first cross stitch kit started way back in 1990/91 when I was pregnant.
And yes it is still not finished.

And I doubt it ever will be finished.

You see I did not realise until after I had run out of thread, that the stranded cotton is meant to be split. So I just used all 6 strands through out. When I figured out why I did not have enough, no problem I thought just go buy some more after all you have the chart listing the make and colours needed.

I carried on regardless and it took some time before I realised the shading was different. Well of course dye lots, I know that now and I also know to read instructions a couple of times over.

So now my work lies in a box in the sewing room. Every now and again I 'find' it, remember it, and smile.
Although I do think it would have turned out rather good, if I had paid attention in the first place. These days I take much more time on things. Was it youth, impatience, loss of brain cells in pregnancy. More likely all three.

Next time I have something special to share.

Sew Vala. x  

Old projects part three

This time I have a tapestry to share

This I made many years ago but the kids seem to think it became somekind of oracle.

Grainy close up of the ginger and white cat.

Muffin can be seen in the lower part of the cat climbing frame.

And Charlie who we adopted at the same time as Muffin, from the same person.

A coincidence or not ?

Sew Vala. x

Old projects part two

Another of the pre-sewing machine projects,

This time a picture I made for my daughters room. She was a toddler in love with Strawberry Shortcake, due to a quiltcover bought at a charity shop. This daughter is now 21 and still asks what happened to her favourite quilt. I have no idea.

This is also hanging in the hall way, although the little girl looks out of place. As this is where I hang all my signed Sci-fi pictures and my signed drumskin of the chili peppers.
And yet I am still proud of her as she made my little girl so happy when I put the picture in her room.



Sew Vala. x

Old projects

While I work away on new projects and try to keep up on the studies, not much of a muti-tasker am I.

I thought I would like to share a few images of previously made projects.
I first started sewings back in the 90's and cross stitch was the order of the day.

In random order of posting dictated by finding and photograping the objects.

Done in black work embrodiary the Carew cross, in Wales.

This is now framed and hanging in the hallway.

More to follow later


Love Sew Vala x

The mock up - part two.

My friend was going to wear her dress to a Christening, as things usually go. The Christening turned out to be the day after her Son's wedding. I decided to dye the mock up to see if we could get her another dress.

And after dying it a Royal blue.

We were both happy how lucky we were in that the two duvet covers came out slightly different, creating this double shaded effect. However as we had not planed on dying the fabric earlier the cream thread I had used showed up really clearly and I could not let her use this dress. I would have been really embarrassed over it. So the make up will be taken apart at some time in the future to use as another mock up, because there is an awful lot of fabric there that can be re-used.

It is not much of a post on what I have done but I did want to share how the dress turned out and how two fabrics that look the same dye completely different colours even when dyed at the same time.

Next time I will be sharing some old projects that I have done while I begin my new study schedule.

Love to you all Sew Vala. x   

Make and mend 2012

I have decided to join in on another of NVL projects. Here is the objective,

• Make two crafts from scrap fabric, (hat, pot holders, table runner, etc.).
• Rework one garment.
• Make two wearable items not meant for day wear (i.e. : jim jams, robe, slip, etc.).
• Embellish one item (i.e. faggoting, pin tucking, embroidery, etc).
• Make one item (in addition or one of the items above) for someone else.

I am not sure what I am going to do yet but I do have a couple of ideas,

My daughter has wanted one of those hat/scarf things with animal ears. I have bought the fabric but never got around to making it. That was last winter.

Another wall handing, perhaps.

I have wanted to rework my Steampunk Princess dress into somethings else.

jammies and a new dressing gown patterns have been in my stash for a long time. Along with the fabric to make them.

embelish one item- that I will have to think about.

and an item for someone else, I have been asked to make a Hello Kitty inspired hoodie by my friends daughter.

wow it now sounds like a lot to do. I have always hated deadlines but the dress I made for another friend had a deadline can it kind of helped me to keep going.

Now that I am studying again this will help to keep my mind working over and to absorb what I have done and not just keep on at the books.

My first assignment is Medusa and her character.

Love Sew Vala. x 

The black and white dress.

And now we arrive at the dress

The bodice band is hand sewn on to the outside of the bodice.

By adding my little label at this point I was easly able to see the front from the back, as the curved neckline is only ever so slight and the bust darts are hidden under the bodice band..

The front waiting for the skirt to be attached.

The front of the completed dress.

Dress and bolero,

And a little finishing touch, some pretty lace on the linning.

She will be wearing a large fully white underskirt, so as not to have a different shade of white I have used a very delicate shade of blue.


I hope to get a picture of my friend wearing the dress. But yes she loved it. And I am awfully proud of what I can do. So I have decided I needed this push to get way out of my comfort zone to do things with careful acuracy (apart from spelling. of course)

Sew Vala x 

Oh and by the way the pattern was Vogue 2902

And so on to the mock up for the dress. made using a double and a king size quilt from a charity shop.

Both priced at £5.99 each. I took them apart ready to work on.

As my friend has a 2 size different I did not want to cut out the pattern. So I cut around the pieces for the bodice and photocopied them on my printer and taped them together.

First mock up bodice, the bust part fit but the waist did not. Second part of boice we got the waist to fit but it was a tad to big around the top part. On the third mock up I got the correct fitting. So making the skirt part was easy.

The mock up half hemmed.

I have learnt alot from this project.
Lining a dress.
Fitting issues.
Fitting a zip in the side of a dress that fits under the bodice band.
Lapped zip. (this was my third ever zip. the first was in a bag, went well. The second on a skirt, went horribly wrong.)
Attaching a skirt to a bodice. (my other dresses were all one piece, see here, here and here. )

Just I short post as I have started my next course. The dress is now finished I will post more later when I have the photographs sorted.

Happy weekend everyone, Sew Vala. x

The black and white bolero.

As my friend is between two sizes I did not cut the pattern out but rather traced it onto the calico. 

First I did a mock up of the bolero. It does not give drape and hangs akwardly but it gave a good idea of which size to use.

And it fitted really well, so there were no alterations needed for this pattern.

It is a very easy pattern I was quite suprised.

Here is the finshed bolero

Although it does not look good on Betsy, it does on a real person. And the back view inside view,

I have placed one of my little handbag labels inside, to give the outfit a handmade and not homemade feel to it. I feel the need to say I know this is a comercial pattern not to be made and sold. I have not made any money from this. I am making it for my friend. The label is there for her and me only.

I am so happy with how this went, that I will be making some for myself sometime in the future.

Next time I will share the mock up of the dress.

Sew Vala. x 

I have been asked....?

What do you do when, or more likely in my case if, a friend asks you to make them something.

I know many bloggers swear never to do this. But for me I jumped at the chance, even though it is for a very special event.

My friends' only child is getting married. Now I can almost here you screaming at your computer "No this is a very special day, and its the mother of the groom." But hear me out please.

She is on an extremely tight buget and has been searching for months to find a dress. Coming across a problem that most of us do with store clothes, one size on top another size below. She has seen everything that I have made so she is aware of my skill level. Is she mad, lovely, generous, forgiving, we will find out later and hopefully she is all of them.

Ok so what are the benefits for me out of this you may be wondering. Firstly I will be learning alot, pattern grading, fitting, lots and lots off new techniques. I rarely if ever, stray from the pattern, unless it is shortening a pattern for me. I think I needed to shorten my plain pattern dress by 18 inches and it was still below the knee lenght. And yes a mock will be made of everything to check how we are getting on. She was prepared for lots of fittings and prodding and poking. See I knew I needed a friend to practice all that on first.

Here are the patterns she chose

Burda 7387. The bolero jacket. My first time working with Burda patterns too.

And Vogue 2902. I must admit I was rather daunted when she picked this dress. I read the reviews on sew direct and wondered 'what have I got myself into'.

And how are we getting along, so far so good. I will leave the details for my next post when I will share the bolero and then later the dress.

Oh by the way she has chosen a lovely cotton black with white poka dots fabric. Soft but crisp, should drape really nicely.

So your first reflections,
who is the maddest her for asking me or
me for offering?

And what would you do? Have you ever fitted an outfit for someone and how did the first time go (pardon the expression, )?

Love to all Vala x  

   

I want to make one of those...

Last year we went to Twinwood Festival in Bedfordshire. It is a few days of pure nostelga. Twinwood is the airfield Glen Miller took off from on his last fight.

Anyway we could only go for one day however we had a most fantasic time. They have a great website www.twinwoodevents.com/  and are on facebook, if you wish to take a look.

While there we window shopped though the most fabulous vinatage stalls, for us seamstresses a lot of the stalls had boxes and boxes of vintage patterns however I can not say how complete the patterns were. I had to stay away unless I came away with a box load myself. And then it called to me a most beautiful and fantasic piece of work. In the most wonderful condiction was a black wool coat very similar to the Dior New Look style.

(source) 
 I tried it on and it fit purfectly, even on my tiny, short body. I enquired about the coats price and prompty wandered off saying "I will think about", which we all know is a polite way of saying "HOW MUCH?"  The above picture is the closest image I can find to show how beatuiful this coat was. So we wandered and I kept dreaming, S.H. and the girls all bought coats and in the end I decided this is why we have the invention of the credit card and it truely would be a shame not to put this great piece of plastic to work. Headed back to the stall wishing the coat would still be there and it was. I was about to purchase the coat when, oh no, they did not accept credit cards.

Still fate was to show me how good this was, as I am now still short but not as tiny. So all in all I am really glad I missed out on such an expensive item. For the past few weeks I have been thinking about that coat and could I find a pattern to make one. After all I did well on S.H. victorian/steampunk coat, which was made from a lovely soft wool fabric.

S.H. acting up for the camera.

And then I find it. I have found the pattern I have been looking for. Strangely enough my daugther had showed me these coats a few weeks ago, saying they made her think of me and I think that is what reminded of the large wrap around Dior style coat in the first place.

A few days ago In my emails I opened The Sew Weekly and saw this

And In reading the artical I saw Katwise had made a tutorial on how to make your own verson which can be found in her Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/katwise 

I have purchased the tutorial and search though a fantasic amount of colour and these are my two favourites

(both images curisty of Katwise )



How does this conect to the classic coat, I am not sure. But I love the swirl they both have, I for me I think this is the over all winner, fun, fun, fun. Do you adore the extra long hood as much as I do?

Love to all Vala x


Since writing this post I have finally seen a pattern for the coat I was orignally after designed by Gertie for Butterick, I am sure lots of you have as well. So now I want both coats.

Rip it up and start again!

Hello everyone,

In my last post I mentioned I had been knitting again. well I did but it was months ago.

I started on this pattern. An absolutely lovely twin set with delightful ribbing pattern around the neck with matching ribbing at the lower part of the cardigan.

Taken from this book. Which is filled with fantasic period inspired designs. Mine was such a bargain. The book can be found on Amazon here although it does have a different cover it is the same book.

Well I got so far on the back of the jumper before putting the knitting down, when I eventually came back to it, two things had happened.

Happy the puppy had made a tasty treat of my needle and chewed off the end. Luckly all the knitting was still on the needle. As for the other well I am now a bit bigger than I was when I had started this jumper and there is now no way it is going to fit me.
So decission time, do I pull it all off and start again. Nope, because by now I was a little bored with this pattern and the idea of making two items, I also know being the very slow knitter I am it would not be ready until next summer (hence my love of chunky knits).
I had bought lots of wool enought to make both parts of the twin set. Off I went on a pattern hunt and have decided life should be brought to this little beauty instead.

Sirdar 9522. What is really cute about this pattern, is that the flower is part of the button hole, How sweet is that.

I checked the wool amounts and I have plenty to make the long sleave version in the pink colour shown above. And enough to make the short sleave in the contrast colour I had chosen and can you believe I can not remember what colour that was. I think it was a paler pink to tone with the dark pink rather than contrast against it, but there is a 50/50 chance that I am very wrong.



I am not going to give myself a time limit on this. Because I have a waiting list of items to be made up for other people. Some are presents and two are comissions, (yeah me. two people have asked me to make for them, how cool is that!)  As long as I do not put more weight on, it should fit. It will be less forgiving the the tight fitted twinset.

It will be a very long time before there is an update on this piece but I wanted to share with you what has kept me away from my little blog for so long.

Has anyone else had a change of heart during a project, or even come to the conclusion that they are growing faster than the project they are working on (pregancy excluded, of course) ?

Love to you all Vala x

By the way I love my new size, I now actually have a figure known as curvy and it is great.