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

Making Mittens

I hate having cold hands!  One thing that always freezes my fingers to the point that I could cry is scarping the ice off my cars windows.. so I decided to felt an ice-scraper mitt; a thumbless mitten with the handle of the ice-scraper going through to the inside where you hold it and keep warm.  I didnt take process pics, but made 2 at once by using a double resist which I cut in half part way through felting.. giving me 2 scraper mitts

I cut a slit at the end & 'healed' the edge as I was felting.. this is where the scraper goes

 I decided to give these to my aunties for Christmas.. hope they liked them (I havent seen them yet)  They should be good for ice-scraping as they wont get wet.

Now I needed to make for myself.  Oraigionally I planned to make a thumbless mitt, but I have I've always fancied a pair felted mittens that I can wear out and about.. last time I tried it turned out like a felt boxing glove lol (I'd used way too many layers!).  Also I wanted the thumb to be positioned slightly to the front rather than at the side..  Gary solved this for me very simply, he pointed out that I can turn it slightly as Im working the felt so the thumb is where I want it.

covering the double resist with nice golden orange merino

I used 3 layers.. so it would be thick and warm, but still flexible

On the 2nd and 3rd layers I added blue for the hands
keeping the orange clear for the wrists

For surface decoration I used a pink and yellow silk cap that I dyed a while back
and some pretty variegated finger roving brought back from Wonderwool Wales

Wetted and rolled, just about to cut them apart

healing the edges

After working the left mitt look at how much it shrunk after it came off the resist

Finished front and back

Generally I am really happy with these.. I shall tweak the resist next time to make the finger area slightly narrower.  When I made these I didnt want them to restrict my fingers, but I think there is just a little too much room there.  I may wet them and work the fingers a bit more yet. 

Safe to say there will be more mitten making in the future :)

Time flies!

And once again its been ages since I blogged - I really must get back into the habit!

Before Christmas, I went with my friend Brenda into Birmingham to visit the German Market.. a huge Christmas market that is there each year for the month or so leading up to Christmas.  We had a lovely time and spotted lots of lovely things.. the best treats of course were the real handmade /artisan made stalls.  There was an Egyptian potter with exquisite wares, a stall with hand knit socks (that looked soooo warm and snuggly) and hand woven scarves in camel, mohair and yak, both of whom we had a good chat with.  A stall selling the work of several local Birmingham artists which was very nice to see, and the glassblowers from the Jinney Ring were there too (also local to me)  I hope that they all did well. 

There was also quite a bit of felt.. but that was a bit of a downer to be honest, from what I saw all of it looked to be cheaply brought imports being sold on still at too-low prices.  It makes me sad and irritated at the same time; sad when I think of how little the makers will of been paid for their hard work (must be pitifully little seeing what the end sellers are asking) which makes me irritated at exploitation, and then also irritated at how this practice devalues felt!  Not good!!

We also visited an exhibition at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery - Lost in Lace.  Quite an interesting take on 'lace', there were pieces there that I really am not too sure quite how they relate to or were inspired by lace.. but there were also some stunning pieces.  Anyone who finds themself in the vicinity its worth taking a look - especially as its free entry!  Very glad to say photography is allowed so here are a few pics I took..



My favourite.. I found this intriguing.
Entitled ' After the Dream'
These wedding dresses are really tall & behind an intricately woven spiders web created from string, which must of taken forever to create!
It reminds me of old, crackled photos..

 

Stunning HUGE chandalier created from 600 swarovski crystals..
I can't even imagine how difficult this installation was!

Beatiful Panel with walkthrough archway created in needlelace.
You can just see the 'flying carpet' behind it

This is the first thing we saw.. beautiful, peaceful and so graceful
These columns are suspended, and they just keep on going up and up!

 

This Christmas Eve...

I would like to wish you all

a Happy Christmas

and

Peaceful New Year

With lots of creative fun for all! :)

I would also like to thank you for stopping by my blog, to those who have commented on my posts a special thank you - it has been a pleasure hearing from you

Love to you all
Deborah xxx

Lots of felty photos..

I have been 'away' for so long that there are quite a few makes that I havent shared..  time to catch-up a little :)  As you will notice I fixated on a couple of colour combos.. you saw the black & white and purple & petrol big fringed scarves a while back - I loved these so much that I really HAD to make more in those colours..

This shawl/poncho has one of my new Buttonalia buttons :)   Black and grey merino with lots of silk; silk laps & throwsters waste, white flax (linen) fibre and boucle yarn

This plump little black & white beuaty is just right. 
I felted decorative holes which double up as button holes.

I hate modeling hats!

Pin brooch

LOVE these colours!  The mulberry silk looks lovely I think

Note to self.. pull jeans up before having photo taken from behind!

 And especially for you Heather :)  BOOTS

Turquoise blue and red.. in my head I think of these as SuperHero boots - they are the right colour I think!

Pumpkin boots

And I've got a couple of other makes tucked away until after Christmas..

TTFN xx

Finally a finished Dragon Bag :)

I have been a baaaad blogger lately! With the run-up to Christmas I haven’t had time to post or keep up with the blogs I follow.. Its time to catch-up, and the first thing that I want to do is show you the finished Dragon Bag :)

There are 2 integral pockets, just right for keeping track of little bits like a mobile phone and make-up. I put the mustard coloured fibre down as a guide for when I cut the pocket resists out.. I’m glad I did – its a nice splash of colour in a very dark interior!

I used leather inside the bag to strengthen the places where the handle cord passes through the felt, and for the fastner loop.

This took me a while to finish, as I mentioned last time I changed my mind about using the felt & leather button I had made (it really wasn’t very good) – luckily for me the lovely Sharry of Buttonalia is much better at making moons than I am :)  . She has created two big fat full moons for me.. along with quite a few other lovelies, these are the ones I haven’t used yet

I also changed my mind a couple of times about how the handle should be. Firstly the 2 cord ends were joined on top and hidden beneath a leather cuff – after a couple of days I took that apart, thinking to knot it leaving the 2 ends hanging down on one side, and to create a felt dragon to wrap around holding the cords together at the shoulder. When I actually knotted the handle in place I like it as it is.. I think the shoulder dragon would be TOO much.

I’ve used felt, leather and ceramic for this bag.. its nice using different materials, makes it very tactile. I’m very happy with how it turned out, and have plans for a few other bags in the same vein.

I have a few other things to share with you over the next couple of weeks.. some before and some after Christmas. For now I am off to try and figure out how to crochet a newborn baby cardigan. I have been searching and searching for a knit and a crochet pattern for a SIMPLE newborn cardi – round neck and 2 or 3 buttons to fasten.. can I find what I want? NO. So, Im going to try and work out my own crochet pattern today (I’m much more confident with crochet) and tomorrow I shall try my luck at the local library.. see if they have anything in their baby knit books.

xx

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 :)