January 2024 /3

Welcome to you all. A week of dry and warmer weather down here in Cornwall, has been so welcome. Frogspawn has appeared in our pond; I do hope it survives, as I am sure we are not through with very cold weather quite yet! It is great to see little clumps of snowdrops appearing, as well as crocus with their gorgeous bursts of bright yellow.

I have been totally unable to access WordPress on my laptop over the last week. This is the site I use to write my blog. When I log in, it just tells me I have no account! Very unhelpful, and so frustrating! I have spent far too many hours trying to find the reason, in vain sadly, so this is a short post to give me an opportunity to try writing a post on my Samsung tablet!

I am thoroughly enjoying stitching my scarf and will show more as it progresses. Today I have made freezer paper templates for the doll, and am considering making the entire doll’s body in Patchwork. It will possibly drive me insane, so I will just have to wait and see.

The photograph above shows the individual body sections I have deconstructed. From the left is the leg, and the small oval shape is the base of the foot. Next is the arm, and the slim shape to the right of the arm is half of the back of the trunk.

The section with the 3D image at the top, which I have left intact as a guide for when I get to stitching this stage, is the front half of the head, sewn to the side template of the head. The two templates below it are the two templates involved, and the front of the body is lying at the foot of the section.

I have made a stitchline using black thread, all around each fabric piece, stitching on top of the machine holes left after deconstruction. The seam allowance was tiny and frayed very easily as I was working on the doll. I can only surmise that I trimmed the seams far too close to the machine stitchline, before I stuffed it all those years ago! The black stitch line is my guide to the finished size of each template.

I have actually made my templates out of freezer paper. I laid the fabric shapes onto my light box, placed the freezer paper on top of the selection of shapes then traced on top of the black stitched line. I added the name of the shape, drew the straight grain, and how many copies of each shape required for the doll. Then I cut out each freezer paper shape, on the drawn line. I will make card ones from these, and will then have two options available for use.

I found this little bargain in the week, A Luna Lapin book, with all the patterns for the outfits included. I bought it on spec thinking it could be a fantastic find re ideas of size for clothing my doll. It turns out that Luna and her friends are the same height as my doll. What a great off chance buy! I was quite prepared to measure, and make little patterns, but this will be a huge saving in time!

Until next time, “Happy Stitching”!

Di

January 2024 /2

Welcome to this second Stitching News of January! We are virtually three quarters of the way through this month, already, and I have just about got my energy back and have a yearning to sew and be creative again for the first time since before the New Year. On the plus side though, I have had lots of time to think and plan.

In a box with some of my dyed fabrics I found a basic scarf this week that I had played with, about 10 years ago. I remember buying some plain white Liberty Lawn fabric for dyeing, some of which I had torn into strips 8″ wide. I had machine stitched two different coloured strips together down their length. Along one of the long edges I had inserted a flat, narrow, folded silk detail, but I had left it at that.

This is about as far as my memory goes. One of the strips is blue, and the other is apricot or orange, according to which section of the strip you are looking at! They were both hand dyed with a single colour, but scrunched up to create texture along the length. At the time, I do remember that I had not liked the pair I had sewn together, which is why it probably ended up in the dyed fabric box!

Having resurrected it I decided to place some more fabrics onto both sides two or three days ago, leaving them in place so that I could add, take away, for a while. This exercise instantly changed my mind about it! It had clearly needed more colour and texture to lift it.

I experimented with several colours; prints and plains before settling on four fabrics which I thought would work on either side of the scarf.

I hot washed the scarf, and all the fabrics, then ironed them while damp. The tension along one of the long sides of the scarf was a little tight prior to washing, but while ironing, I was able to ease the tension out.

I was feeling much more in tune with the project now, and beginning to smile!

The blue patterned fabric was the real game changer. It has a range of interesting marks in its geometric patterns, with overlays and subtle changes of scale. I saw it when browsing in an African market while on holiday many years ago. As you can see from the folded back selvedge, in the second photo, it is a batik, and was expertly done on a very nice quality cotton fabric. I have a metre of it, know I will be using it again before long! I love it.

I tacked my raw edge applique pieces in position, on both sides, and have now started stitching, with hand dyed threads. I intend to stitch over the whole surface, sometimes across the width, and at other times down sections of part of the length! Both of which you can see in progress in the top photo!

Another project I have on the go now is to make a doll! I made several in the mid eighties! One of the doll bodies I made was never clothed, and I have had it stored in a drawer since then. I caught sight of it very recently and instantly felt the desire to clothe her. (I have decided that this one will be a girl.)

As you can see she is tall; 18 ” to be precise! I placed a Parker biro beside her for scale! As I examined the body and limbs I could see there was shaping, (as in the fingers and hands,) and could also see that the head consisted of four pieces. So presumed I had made her from a pattern. I looked through all my patterns but there was no doll. So I decided to deconstruct her and actually make proper templates so that I have them for any future dolls I might make! If I merely dressed her, I would lose that opportunity! Perhaps I had been loaned the pattern at the time! I just cannot remember!

I knew I wanted to be organised, and beside me I had a piece of lovely Christmas paper which could not be recycled due to  packaging tape right across it.  So instead I cut it into four strips which I could wrap around the different parts of the doll after dismantling them. I learned a lot during this process, for instance the foot had a sole, which really helps to keep the shape! I also became more aware of how to assemble the doll, which may not have been so apparent, had I not taken her apart!

As you can see from this photo I labelled the paper cuffs before placing the different deconstructed fabric shapes into them; arm and leg above, and body and head below!

I have ironed all the pieces now, and they are ready to help me prepare the templates. More about this next time!

I also have some small patchwork pieces on the go. Now that it is obviously going to be warmer in my sewing room, I shall be more tempted to spend some time up there!

Until next time, Happy Sewing! Di

January 2024/ 1

A very Happy New Year to you all. May it be peaceful and healthy. Last year my husband repotted a Eucalyptus tree into a deeper pot for me. He planted a ring of daffodils, near the base, before putting the Eucalyptus in; then a ring of polyanthus around the top of the pot. The bulbs are shooting through now and looking very healthy and the polyanthus, gathered as tiny plants, survived their transplant which was from in between old paving slabs around the garden! These are not in flower yet, they were miniscule when he put them in, but we have a myriad of them absolutely everywhere, and we have some out in flower, all year round! During late February, march they are amazingly gorgeous! The ground is absolutely waterlogged, as most people’s gardens will be. It looks so drab, in places and in desperate need of attention, but hopefully that opportunity will arise, as we roll through the month!

I am in the throes of a wicked throat infection and incessant cough. It seems to be totally unrelenting, and very unpleasant. Not a good start to the year! “Lots about!” is what I hear. I just wish I had some enthusiasm for stitching, but it just is not there at the moment! I feel drained and exhausted!

A New Year always offers fresh starts and opportunities. More often than not, we have to make the make the opportunities and be proactive! For me a completely different approach in my work has been bubbling away for many months! I have no intention of making anything complicated at all. To be interesting and catch the eye, it doesn’t have to be complicated! I intend to be quite simple, and very straightforward. The interest will come from the colour, and texture. I am thinking clothing.

But first, in order to complete my granddaughter’s scrap quilt, I made a label. I neatened the scrap of fabric first, with a turned and stitched edge, before embroidering simple flower heads around the writing. I then hemmed it invisibly to the back of the quilt.

To stop the label “ballooning” I matched the machine quilted lines on the quilt by hand stitching through to the wadding, thus echoing those lines.

I am delighted to say that she had a wonderful response to the quilt.

As I was taking down our Christmas cards I read them all again, at leisure. Thank you very much indeed for the lovely messages in them, and your enthusiasm for the continuing newsletter. It makes it so well worth writing. With a new project in mind I was also viewing the cards for those which had a colour palette that caught my eye straight away. This was nothing to do with the composition and design of the card, not to say that I didn’t appreciate that, at all. I was looking at the groups of colours that spoke to me straight away. Those go into a different saved pile, to the beautiful hand made cards, and cards with great imagery and inspirational ideas. There is such a wealth of inspiration at our finger tips from cards.

“Clothing” encompasses a myriad of possibilities. I am traditionally very conservative in what I wear! But I do like the idea of making one or two items that are a “little bit different, for me”! They certainly wont be extravagant, or bold, and will definitely involve my roots of patchwork and stitching! I use the word “stitching” rather than quilting, as I will only use two layers, rather than three, in whatever I choose to make. I used to make all my own clothes, but those days are long gone! I am rusty, but nevertheless, interested.

Several years ago I made a scarf (shown to the left), and I need to do something very simple again, to start with, while other ideas begin to develop. I love the vibrancy and interest in this scarf, which is a one off, of course. That is half of the enjoyment of wearing it!

I am going to make myself another scarf; machine pieced and hand “quilted”. There will be no wadding just a front and a reverse side, but it will be hand stitched through both layers. As you know I love hand dyeing threads and fabrics, and hand stitching, so I shall be combining both within the item. I also really want to enjoy the process so shan’t be in a hurry.

I have been gathering ideas, and a small collection of vintage fabrics, over the last year or so, some of which had already been embellished, with embroidery and lace. I also have some old lace that I may well dye, too.                       

It is always exciting starting on a new venture, especially if I am actually making something for me, for a change! This scarf will be blue, narrower and longer than the red one. (Just writing down my thoughts has given me another!! I shall have to make a bag, to go with the scarf! It will have to be recycled Denim, as I have a good stash to work from!) Scarf first, though!

I intend it to be just two layers again, as that is more drapable, and I shall use my dyed threads, and stitch through both layers! The red scarf was a great success, and spoken about often. At the moment I have not decided how I might embellish with stitch, but that will become clearer to me when the piecing has been finished!

I shall of course, also have small hand stitched work on the go at all times because I just cannot sit without having a needle and thread in my hands. This will be for small accessories, or cards! There is something so soothing, meditative, and gentle going on with hand stitching. It is easy, portable and for me, very enjoyable. My head clears of any irritating distractions and my thoughts roam freely around creating fresh ideas”! It is the doing that inspires the thoughts.

Until next time, keep away from those bugs, and Happy Stitching!

Di