January.. the month of many birthdays!

The birthday run down for January; dads is the 9th, sons the 15th, nephew 19th, mother-in-law 24th, husband 30th & brother-in-law 31st.. its a busy month.  And of course I have been making gifts.. not for everybody.. but I crocheted a couple of hats for my mum-in-law and felted slippers for my dad..



Its my lovely husbands 40th birthday.. I didn't really know what to give or make for him.. but I thought long and hard and came up with a couple of ideas.  This is the more sensible pressie I've made :D 

Whenever I get into my hubbys car after work, I have to move an armful of paperwork off the passenger seat first. Soooo I decided to make him a nice felted wallet / folder to keep it all nice and tidy.  I didnt want it to be boring, or silly either (can't have him embarrased if his boss needs a lift now can I?!) 

SO, I decided to make it nice and bright, and decorated with our handprints..

Decided on 3 nice colours that went well with the base batts & made prefelts

Stupidly I was suprised at our handprints..
wasn't it just last year that the kids hands were half the size of mine?
Which is which?

 As all of our hands are pretty much adult sized now I decided to felt them in so that they shrunk down with the felt - I think they would of dominated it too much otherwise.

Some of my favourite slubby red yarn wound around the hands. 
All wetted out & ready to go

Felted nice and hard to withstand wear and tear

Look how tiny my handprint is now .. its like a 8 year olds! lol

Trimmed the 2 long edges and machine stitched (twice) up each side

Secret messages freemotion machine embroidered on the inside cuff..

where nobody else will see them.

Finished with a vintage button from a button tin Gary gave to me..
the colour is perfect for picking up the duckegg handprints

 I made the buttonhole on my sewing machine.

Finished.. hope he likes it

I have also made a very silly present too.. but I think I shall save that for next time :)

TTFN x

Button Moon

Following on from my last post (Dragon Bag)..  I wanted a button closure but didn't want it to look out of place.  Didn't really take long for a button moon to pop into my head - only problem: I didn't HAVE a button anything like a moon!  So I decided to have a pop a making my own..

Inspiration came from 2 of my blogger friends this time:

Nicola at Clasheen blogged about some gorgeous little brooches she was doing as a mini workshop.. I think these are so cool, she had so cleverly used tiny resists to create texture.. I could picture a moon with tiny craters. 

A while ago Heather blogged about a gorgeous felt & leather button that she had made.. I loved this button.  I decided to have a play and try making my own version... as a full moon.  I certainly ENJOYED myself making them.. and will make other buttons in the future.  As far as my bag goes though THANK GOODNESS for Sharri of Buttonalia; she is making me some moony buttons as I write this :)  I  am so excited to see what she comes up with - and I know its going to be a lot better than my moons lol.

I laid out a piece of 'textural' felt with loads of different silky bits; fabric, hankies, fibres, caps.  Mostly white but with some deep gold (naturally dyed) which is actually UNDER the silk hankies on this pic.. you can just make out a glow

I chickened out at the last minute from doing the tiny resists.. not sure why.  I felted it really hard.  When it was dry I cut circles and using the darning foot on my machine, freemotioned some 'craters' - they all look like grinning halloween skulls to me ...
.

Button backs - from the left:
* felt back with floss loop - this is the inner piece of felt
* leather back glued on
* leather back sewn on (just machine stitched around the edge through both felt layers plus the leather
* leather back sewn on first to the back felt layer in radiating circles to make it flatter then around the edge through all 3 layers

Pleased with how the loop turned out. 
I cut a hole in the leather disk and threaded the loop through before attaching it.

Glued on - not very happy with this one

Zig-zag stitched through all 3 layers just around the edge. 
This was ok.. but I wondered if attaching it more securely to the back layer of felt would make it stiffer.

bit creepy..

  

Stitching the leather & felt at intervals did make it feel STURDIER

 

mmm





Glad I played around with this though.. even if I'mnot planning to use them :)  it was interesting and different.  I would do things differently again next time (apart from using interesting and colourful felt.. HAND embroidery and maybe some beads.. I shall try handstitching the leather back on to see how that looks.

Next post will be the finished bag (I hope).. I VERY nearly finished it a few days ago.. then decided to change the way I was doing the handle. 

xoxo

Dragon Bag

After my post on Tuesday.. and having caught up with the blogs I read - and finding inspiration there :)  I got down to experimenting, and playing with my new fibres (all merino in lovely deep wintery colours.. blue/black, blue/purple, deep red, juniper green, rich mustardy gold).

I have a range of Celtic inspired bags in my mind.. they have been there for a while, but I finally started sketching a couple of weeks ago.  Actually visiting Glastonbury got me moving with them..  Well one of the bags is a Dragon Bag, what I couldnt decide with this one is what SHAPE the bag should be.

Reading Heathers blog on Tuesday.. in particular the Green Bag posts it clicked into place.  SO, very much inspired by Heathers beautiful bag, I set to work.  It was a dark, miserable day and I had the light on all day while I was working.. I did take photos and am really pleased that they are OK to post. 

Resists for integral pockets. You can't see it, but the first thing I did was lay whisps of mustard coloured fibre where the pockets would be, so I now where to cut the resists out when its felted.

Mixed colours on the back.  I had a couple of layers of solid blue/black beneeth the colours.. I like the way it mutes the colours and brings them together.

Wetted the fibres on the front before putting the dragon on.  I had cut the body and wing shapes from acid green silk chiffon and laid this down first, then whisps of green merino, finished with pistachio green tussah silk fibre.

Removing the pocket resists part way through

Felted.  You can sort of see the resist behind it.. its shrunk by 1/3
 - which is what I expected as it was laid out pretty thickly

Next day I started pinning and sewing decorative ridges to emphasis the shape of the bag

I used my darning foot to freemotion around the dragon.
I had debated whether to machine or hand stitch around him.. went with the machine because I like the extra dimension it gives felt.  Didn't turn out quite the effect I wanted though..

So I am hand stitching OVER the machine stitching.. the felt is still pulled in by the machine stitch, the hand stitching is hopefully adding a little more definition.

I haven't finished the bag yet, so I'm breaking it down into 3 posts.. next time I'll show you the button I made today :)

Fun felting

In between days at work and other mundane essentials (like shopping & housework) plus making the most of the sunshine with the dogs over in the fields :o) Ive done some really fun felting projects!

A few days ago I read a post on Daily Felt, Inger was asking if any feltmakers wanted to make & send starfish to a group supporting children with cancer. The group are having their 5th annual funday & want to give each child a starfish. Its a really touching post, and immediately I wanted to make a starfish & send it to help bring a little happiness.

More organised than usual :o) I took photos step-by-step...

I started out by covering the star shaped resist with lovely lime green Icelandic wool; I wrapped around fine strips of batt until it was completely enclosed... I did 2 layers of Icelandic (the 2 layers perpendicular was interesting! :o)

Then I covered it with 3 layers of my favourite cobalt blue merino top.

For decoration one side was liberally sprinkled with sari silk fibre, and on the other side I layed out a design using a homespun boucle plied with a metalic thread. I crocheted a `wagon wheel` on a big hook to go in the centre.

Turns out the handle on our new French doors are perfect for drying this sort of thing on!

It made a really strong, sturdy felt... the sari silk twinkles & shimmers and on the other side theres just an occasional glint of metalic thread sparkling. I`ve stuffed it with clean / soft fleece from a local flock of free range organic sheep... Its very cuddly & tactile & measures just over 10".

I also made another hat! This is from Lizzie Houghtons Felting Fashion book (great book!) A little pillbox hat, as a sneak preview heres the top before felting...

Well, thats it for now... Have a good weekend x

As promised...

This is my new bag, that I finished making yesterday!

I was inspired by the lovely bags that Heather at Wool Love Functional Fibre Art made & blogged about a couple of months ago... at around the same time I felted a big flat piece, trying out my goodies from the Reenactors Market. I decided at the time that it was going to become a bag... but Ive only just gotten around to actually putting it together!

First of all I had to find just the right leather belt for the handles... a few weeks scouring local charity shops got that sorted, its a nice well worn brown leather one - about 1 3/4" wide; I cut it with a stanley knife down the length to make 2 handles. I didnt cut all the way to either end though, which made it easier to sew on (with my leather needle in my sewing machine).

And then there was the lining. Eventually I found a lovely piece of fabric while mooching through my moms stash; its from one of my nans dresses - not sure exactly how old it is, but I think its safe to say its vintage :o)

It has a nice zippy compartment & strong magnetic snap fastner

Today, Im dyeing a silk lap, impatiently checking whether the silk I dyed earlier this weeks dry yet...no! And photographing & preparing supply listings.

Have a good weekend folks - whatever you are doing... Im working at a pirate event on Sunday :o)

x

So easily distracted...

My purple bag is totally unmade... I got distracted, again. My dear friend Clare gave me a much needed kick up the backside the other day (not literally of course :o)! Ive been planning to make some household items for some time... but kept getting distracted (no suprise there). I had the pleasure of working with Clare at Oak House on Tuesday...and after a gentle nudge Wednesday I started making coasters! Id brought a little more Norwegian wool & some Gotland grey to try; seemed like the perfect project for giving them both a whirl.

6 layers of Norwegian...pile of fluff was about 4 or 5" thick

I have to say I really enjoyed working with both fibres & am planning to do loads more projects with them (shall have to buy more first though). Ive made 4 sets of 4 so far - 2 Gotland Grey with my Polwarth handspun blanket stiched around the edges & 2 Norwegian sets; 1set of 4 grey & white with light grey shetland stitching, 1 set of 2 grey & white & 2 grey with white merino stitching.

And Friday was spent making my first ever oven glove - oh the excitement :o) I wasnt sure that I had the shape of the resist right or the size so my first one is just plain white...7 layers, lovely & thick. Its drying out still at the moment.

Looks like a boxing glove :o)

Im actually really pleased with it... but oh my goodness, I hadnt realised what a fiddle it would be felting a thumb in seamlessly. Hopefully the next one will be easier now I know what Im doing :o) (or am I totally deluding myself & thumbs are always tricky?) More planned for next week so I shall soon know... & I MUST make a teacosy - mine is a disgrace at the moment & really needs replacing with a nice felted one.

Oh the banana experiment was very interesting... shall post more about that soon. Im planning to add a new section in my shops... Fancy Felters Embelishments, and this shall be in it... more soon.

The next fibre on my `really must try` list is Icelandic... I cant wait to try it.

xoxo

Monday Felt Fun!

Ooo Monday was a play day! The kids were back at school & the day stretched out before me... so after a brisk walk round the fields with the dogs (in gorgeous sunshine) I started rooting through my stash! 2 weeks without felting had left me feeling twitchy & I had newish goodies as yet untried. I decided to do a sampler like piece of flat felt... using lots of lovely colours & embellishment.

Do you remember the lovely naturally dyed silk cap & handspun mulberry silk thread that I brought a few weeks ago? From Debbie at Mulberry Dyer (who shall be at Wonderwool Wales at the weekend for anybody who is going)

Well this is the first time that Ive used either of them... the cap is the light green - I love the texture of it, I only used about 2/3 of 1 layer from the silk cap and got a lovely thick lushious effect. The gold thread stands out really well too. I dropped a few bright gold nepps near to the silk thread too, but I dont think Ive got them on the photo.

I used a couple of sari silk ribbons too

This side is my favourite its all hot pinky purple, blue violet & more purple - yum. The other side is dark purple & peacock blue with torn chiffon ribbons & thinly sliced felt beads... I love the richness of the colours & it was interesting trying out the sliced beads, and of course chiffon felts in well :o)

I think this piece is probably going to become a bag (suprised?)

Tried to post this yesterday but the internet connection was DREADFULL - I gave up in the end. This morning has been a run around chasing my tail type morning... tracking down parcels that the posty tried to deliver yesterday wehile I was at work... delivering Rachaels water bottle to school cos she had forgotten it (memory like her mothers Im afraid :o) and back to the Hairdresser - my hair is now in a nice neat long bob :o) and Im a happy bunny again.

This afternoon Im playing with banana silk :o) let you know how I get on

xx

Freshly dyed tunic

Hey this is pretty good for me... yesterday I promised to post photos of the dyed tunic fabric - and here it is :o)

I dyed it with Red Lac. The felt is merino, with tussah silk fibre, BFL curly locks and a very bumpy yarn that my daughter Rachael spun last summer (10 years old). The idea being that all the different fibres would take up the dye differently and it would give a variegated effect. It certainly did that! I think I might of taken it off the stove & rinsed it a little too quickly; the lovely deep mulled wine coloured dye had gone clear, and the felt was now that colour... but when I rinsed it loads of colour came out. Its very mottled and variegated - which is the look I wanted. It goes from quite a dark rich red to a nice pinky red. Some of the locks are very vivid & the silk looks gorgeous. Its quite hard to get a good representation of the colour.

The colours show best on this photo

The spiral is on the back. For the front I laid out the left half bringing the fibres about 10cm past the mid line, put a piece of bubblewrap over the whole left side and then laid out the right, again extending the fibre 10cm past the midline, this gave me the front opening. Ive cut along the top of that opening & extended it a little each way for the neck hole.

All pinned together

It fits pretty well sitting just on the hip. Tomorow Im going to felt a hood, dye it to match & sew it on :o)

This is a pretty big learning curve for me; its my first tunic (Ive got allsorts of plans for jackets, coats, skirts etc :o) and Im certainly a novice when it comes to dyeing. Next time I will make the felt longer; it shrunk some more while I was dyeing it. I should of guessed really, I did boil & stew it for about 2 hours with the mordanting & dyeing!

Having a tailors dummy or being double jointed would be useful too! Its not so easy trying to pin & fit something on your own body!