I did another seam treatment with irregular herringbone stiches in a gold perlé thread.
Then I started thinking about a button. I’ve got some orange plastic ones in various sizes but, when I went to get the jar, I spotted these wooden butterfly ones.
Before laying them on the pocket, I thought this orange and yellow one looked perfect, but it got lost in the colours around it.
I thought that the red one was too bright, but it did pick up the rust tones in the eyelets.
I had a quick look on YouTube to remind me how to do a bound buttonhole, last done at school more than 50 years ago. I just marked it in water soluble pen and, too impatient to tack it all, machine stitched with a small stitch round the box….
……. and cut through both layers, down the middle and diagonally into the corners, ……
…… turned it through and pressed it, ……
……. made the “lips” and machined in the ditch (not meant to machine stitch it). It should be done invisibly on the wrong side.
I then did another one to go on the back, stitched the lining to the pocket, and realised that I’d not left an opening to turn it through. I trimmed the corners and managed to turn it through the buttonhole opening…..
……. only to realise I’d attached the second buttonhole on the back of the first one and not to the pocket lining! I’d used a small machine stitch again and need to unpick it, or use a big press stud on the back and just stitch the button on the front. At least I hadn’t attached the pocket to the jacket, but I’ve run out of patience with it for today!
Yesterday at Seata we had an in-house talk and workshop by Ruth on the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework. It is little known, and several members had Googled it and found very little; few books are to be found on the subject, and a few have a chapter on it. Ruth had done a stirling job of bringing it all together for us to look, at and had samples in the style of Deerfield work.
It is similiar to crewel work in some ways but rarely done in wool, as they apparently have more of a problem with wool-eating moths in America. It was often worked on linen, with linen thread, and if I’d realised that I would have taken the linen threads that I bought years ago and have never used (yet).
I arrived a little late, and didn’t take notes as I usually do, but the talk was fascinating with lots of information about designs and stitches. Several we know by different names: “Spike” stitch is blanket / buttonhole stitch. Fabric and threads were hard to come by and expensive, so many stitches were ones that are only / mainly on the front of the work – rarely satin stitch, it uses too much thread. A similiar dense appearance was achieved with New England Laid Stitch, also known as Roman or Roumanian stitch.
The designs are often floral or natural, sometimes birds but rarely animals or insects.
It was often worked in blues, as they could get lots of shades using indigo, but other soft colours obtained from natural dyes were also used.
Ruth suggested we use 3 or 4 shades of blue. These were the only turquoise threads I had with me, and I thought they looked better than blue on the neutral background colour that I chose. White or pink were the alternatives.
We had no excuse not to get started, as Ruth had drawn in water-soluble pen two motifs on each napkin for us all. That alone must have taken her ages.
I started with “Spike” stitch on the flowers in perlé. Some of the stitches are easier to work with single strand threads, like the New England Laid Stitch. I’d just started with the very fine rayon for the centres, when Ruth came round again and recommended to some one else that they use the same number of strands for the whole piece. No, I have to go off piste somehow! And I wasn’t pulling it out. I like different textures in my work.
The other perlé was much finer too. I was surprised how well herringbone worked on the irregularly shaped leaves.
I just about finished the leaves by the end of the day, and want to use a different colour for the stems, which I think will be a heavier weight. I’ve not looked yet. I think that I’ll use the same threads but different stitches for the other motif.
Thank you, Ruth, for how much preparation work you put in, and giving us all such a lovely stitchy day, and something else to read up about.
At Seata today we stitched mandalas, geometric designs put into a circular format. Instead of us all working on our own, they were to be collaborative pieces, a little bit from everybody on each table of eight. We all started with a piece of plain (or plainish) fabric, stretched in a 6″ hoop. Most used cream or white, but I chose the brown swirly print above.
We all did a central motif of some sort, knowing we had 20 minutes before passing to the next person. I did four long stitches into the centre, and continued to divide each section until I’d gone all the way round a couple of times. Then I did smaller stitches between each spoke, and finished with a cluster of French knots. I’d tried to make it so that it was even when the 20 minutes were up, and decided I would stick with known stitches….. it wasn’t the day for doing anything too complicated!
A little star was passed on to me, and I started couching down a slubby thread from each point……
……using a different colour between each one.
The time increased by 5 minutes every two rounds. The next one arrived like this……
…….. and I added yellow lazy daisy stitches.
To the next one…….
……. I added blanket stitch.
I forgot to photograph the one below when I got it. I used a shiny rayon thread to do herringbone.
Then it was time for a lovely shared lunch, and each place had a little tube of handcream, all different. I picked Lily of the Valley, which took me right back to my mum doing Avon when I was little. Thank you, handcream fairy!
There were only five (four after lunch) taking part on our table, and three of of us opted to continue passing them on rather than working on our own. I had the lazy daisy one back, and blanket stitched using the rayon again into the chain stitches of the previous row……..
…….ending up like this.
Last was the blue star one, and I added straight stitches in a grey perlé following the round before.
This is how mine came back. We had a few more minutes to stitch, so I whipped the chain stitch and the outer running stitch in the same mucky pink colour.
At the end of the day here are some of those that had been done.
A few have thread attached, where a row hadn’t been finished when it was time to pass it on. Some tables had drawn circles as guidelines, which I think in hindsight would have made things easier.
It was fun to respond to what was in front of you, with no time to change your mind, no procrastinating or deliberating, just choose your stitch and thread, thread your needle and stitch away!
It was a great idea, Alex, with very helpful and clear instructions; thank you. Just a shame you couldn’t be there.
I’ve made some progress on my hussif / housewife sewing kit this week, although it’s really much too big to be classed as a hussif. I’ve done some more hand stitching on the outside / cover to make it slightly less bulky: parallel running stich, feather stitch and herringbone so far.
I decided a zipped pocket would be a good idea, big enough to hold a small hoop and threads. The fabric is quite firm, but two layers would mean that it would be sturdier, and that there would be no loose ends or fraying seams inside. I wanted the zip to open from the top downwards, and thought it would be easier to put things in and out if the zip was well to one side and, being right handed, it would be better if it was on the right. The zip (from my stash) was a perfect colour, but not long enough to make the pocket full length, to hide the raw edges, hence the stripey binding at the top. It was a new way for me of sandwiching the zip between two layers of fabric (RS together), then folding back and top-stitching. It was certainly easier and there was no problem of it being visible in this. I also found more stripey fabric to make another “page”.
Talking through my ideas with a few friends confirmed some of my thoughts. The extra page would be better with some pelmet vilene sandwiched in the middle. Was it going to be rolled or flat?
Definitely flat. I’d thought another pocket would be useful, to put in a small cutting mat or a sketchbook (or both), also some flaps at the top to stop things falling out, which was something Alex had found annoying on one that she’d had.
Which pockets to go on which side?
Also how to fasten the pockets? Velcro on the larger pocket in the middle on the right hand side, the small pale green one is fairly tight, probably for fabric markers, pen and pencil; the little leafy one is a bit looser. The big pocket has elastic at the top to hold the cutting mat / sketchbook firmly.
To the outer edge above the zipped pocket, I’ve attached double some very old round cord elastic from Woolworth’s (49p). I want to fill some metal bobbins that are not the right size for my sewing machine with a variety of colours (white, grey, black, navy, cream, beige, green, brown and red), and stitch on a button to loop the elastic round.
I’ve also covered a piece of wider elastic to hold things in place: ruler, rotary cutter, tape measure, etc.
To stop things falling out I’ve made flaps, double sided and top stitched round the edge to go along the top of each page. I was going to “bag it out”, but have decided it will be better to bind the raw edges, less bulky, and that will also make it slightly larger.
It’s nearly there on the inside, just a scissor holder, pin cushion and needle holder.
It’s certainly made a change to use the sewing machine more.
DVD’s to use either in the process or the finished piece.
It was my turn to set the Grasby challenge this month. I wanted something different that could be interpreted / tackled in lots of different ways. On giving previous work some thought I remembered using clear plastic DVD’s at the start of my colour spinner experimentation when I was at college.
Colour spinner 24 inch diameter
This was a possibility, I had enough, they came on the top of the blank DVD’s that Colin uses to copy things from the Humax that he wants to keep. On having a search in his room the only ones I could find were either clear ones with stickers on that wouldn’t peel off easily and left a horrible sticky area, and one broke as I was trying to get the sticker off, or black ones that felt a bit less brittle and slightly more flexible.
The black ones were duly packaged up with the brief to use the DVD either in the process somehow or in the finished piece, and posted out to the group. I thought this gave them all plenty of scope.
I then had to decide what to do with my own. Possibilities were using it to felt around, a 3D vessel; as a stencil to draw round; sticking things on it to print with; as a base for something, pin cushion or vessel, perhaps; as a backing mount for a circular piece…..
I also wondered about breaking it and using the pieces as templates for crazy patchwork, to make a design by drawing round the pieces or to do a piece based on the Japanese kintsugi idea of repairing pottery visibly with gold.
When I found out that one had arrived broken, I offered to send another but the recipient said it was OK and she’d work with what she’d got, so I decided I’d go with the kintsugi idea. It turned out that they had all arrived broken!
I decided to use the burgundy background fabric from the reversible stained glass quilt I finished in 2010. It was patterned but not a noticeable repeat and I wanted to use the same fabric for both pieces, and join them back together with gold thread.
Broken DVD with burgundy fabric
I cut round both broken pieces of DVD leaving about 1cm of seam allowance all the way round. I did a strong anchor point at the beginning, then did little running stitches to be able to gather the excess on the semi-circle.
Gathered around the DVDNeat edge
Both pieces were laced on the back, and joined together on the back.
Laced on the back
I then used the fine gold thread to make visible stitches on the front, but they didn’t show up enough.
Joined with gold down the break
What would make a visible, but subtle stitch to join them together? I then remembered the herring bone my nanna used to do hems on the dressing making I did as a teenager. I didn’t enjoy doing the hem, so would make a dress during the week, get nanna to pin the hem up for me, and then finish it off for me. I don’t think I have ever done herring bone before, but really enjoyed it.
Herring bone to make ‘repair’. Kintsugi
The back is anything but subtle, a gold lame that frays horrible, but has a lovely, shining finish. So a bigger seam allowance to gather up over another DVD, then laced before joining with ladder stitch to the front.
Gold lame for the backGathered with running stitches
A cord was made of the two thick threads, which was stitched around the join of the back and front, leaving a tassel at the bottom and a loop to hang it from at the top.
Threads for stitching and cording.The frontThe back
The other work for Grasby lockdown challenge #4 can be seen on the Grasby Embroiderers Facebook page. Great response, as usual all very different. Thanks to everyone.
debbidipity 