tiny happy

rain and birds

 

 

It's raining a lot here today so I'm catching up with jobs at home. Thanks for your kind comments re. the Echino fabric and the concert in my last post. If you're looking to buy Echino in NZ, there are helpful links in the comment section here. The concert was amazing! It was great to see Wilco (and the opening act) 'in real life' and be in the big city again. And, their set included this song from Mermaid Avenue which is one of my favourites.

Today I've been looking through my old copy of The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden. It began life as her collected writings and drawings organised under the title of Nature Notes for 1906. It's divided into months with beautiful illustrations of birds, plants, wildflowers, etc. I never realised before that she drowned in the Thames, collecting chestnut buds that were a little out of her reach.

The section of autumn months in her book inspired me to get out my watercolour paints, and i made these little bird notecards to send to friends. And a little embroidered robin pin too.

Have a happy weekend.

echino

 

 

My Mum went to Wellington recently, and brought me back some gorgeous new linen by Japanese design company Echino. I love these new prints, (and their previous styles, too) and couldn't resist making a winter bag with some of it. This will be useful for carrying around all my daily stuff, and is pretty simple in design, to show off the great fabric. I paired it with a vintage brown wool for extra sturdiness on the base of the bag, and recycled leather handles. There was a long piece of linen left so I made a matching case for my sunglasses and lip balm and other stuff that I always lose in my bag. Very handy.

I also made another bag-purse set from a different Echino print that is part of my shop update today. And now, I have to get organised because Tom and I are off to Wellington tonight to attend the Wilco concert. Yes, pretty excited about that.

PS have you seen the Echino ceramic designs? Beautiful.

a long-eared rabbit

 

 

This is a new design I've been working on lately- the long-eared rabbit. It's one of those things I was thinking about for a long time before he materialised. Maybe from back when I did this embroidery last year. In any case, I knew I wanted to make an old-fashioned bunny with extra-long ears. I was watching my nieces with their soft toys last week, and noticed that their favourite ones to carry around with them were the softest and squishiest- as if they were just half-stuffed.

Inspired by them (and this book of course) I decided to use blue velveteen for the body and a brushed flannel cotton for the inside of the ears. And the face is just simply embroidered on in cream thread. But I do think he needs a scarf for winter, as it's getting colder and darker here by the day, so that's my next project.

old + new

I made this new top over the weekend, with the idea of having a loose, drapey garment to wear over plain dresses and long-sleeve merino tops in winter. At least, that's my excuse, but really I wanted to see if I could make something to wear from something very new (the black drapey chiffon-ish fabric) together with something very old (the antique crochet piece). The crochet was sent to me by a kind blog reader, Megan. She said it had been made by her old Italian neighbour (I think). It's the finest, lightest piece I've seen. For this top, I loved the idea of those drapey dropped sleeves and the back hemline which is lower than the front.

To make the top itself, I used a vintage Simplicity pattern from 1978, #8571. The pattern is actually for a dress with a kind of drawstring thing around the waist and long batwing sleeves. Classic.

Speaking of clothes, have you seen the MakeShift project? It features garments made by the author, Natalie. She will endeavour to wear only her own handmade items for one year. She evens makes shoes! I found the blog via the lovely all buttoned up (who is also making lots of clothes at the moment.)

red and grey

 

 

When I was staying out at my parents' place last week, I found Mum's copy of this book- Simple Knits for Cherished Babies by Erika Knight. I remembered those golden months when I was pregnant for the first time, and knitted every single pattern in that book for Arlo, in cream merino, I think. (Yes, I had a fair bit of time on my hands.) I chose my favourite pattern from that book, the 'garter stitch wrap top' and knitted it up last week in soft grey merino yarn for my friend's new baby. I also bought Lola a little stripy red and cream top to go underneath it. I like red and grey together- hope she does too.

You can see many more interpretations of this pattern here on Ravelry.

Have a great weekend- see you on Monday.

someone else's photos

I found these pictures in a second-hand shop in town, intending to use the chunky glass frame for a print I bought on Etsy. But when I'd cleaned the glass at home, I realised how cool the original photos inside were. They're individual photographs of alpine plants, carefully positioned on a piece of black paper inside the frame. They are really faded with golden-tones and printed '1982' on the back of each photo. So they're going back in the frame (or maybe individual frames?) to be admired for longer.

I'm thinking of getting an old Polaroid camera so I can create prints like these- or maybe I will just collect old photos taken by other people. (Might be easier and less expensive.)

before decay

 

 

 

Some pink anemones I picked on the weekend are nearly ready for the compost heap, but first I captured them with my camera and then my needle and thread. The linen version was made up into a make-up case. Or a case for anything really- I have one that I keep my art supplies in. It's part of my shop update today.

Those anemones really are quite gorgeous, aren't they? I'll be sad when I stop seeing them on my walks around town.

bird miniatures

 

I've made a few avian-inspired things this week: brooches with embroidered birds and a feather locket. The brooches/pins were made by working tiny applique stitches onto layers of wool felt. The embroidered linen was kindly sent to me by Beryl, and was originally used as table linen, but the fabric was very worn and discoloured so I felt okay about cutting into it and rescuing the sweet embroideries.

The children found the discarded bird's nest on a walk the other day and we've placed it in our garden. I love the way that moss and leaf matter as well as random bits of litter are woven tightly together. The base of the nest has feathers and what looks like lint from a dryer. Those birds are amazing textile artists.

pinks

 

Feeling light today. The cafe work has finished for me and I'm feeling grateful to have time and motivation for my creative work. The school holidays have also finished, and the children were happy to go back to school. Got lots of washing, shopping and small jobs done in preparation. And there's a windy but golden day outside.

I was given the old straw sewing box by a friend who was sorting out some of her childhood things. It's huge and perfect for embroidery threads. A few months ago, I was given a bag of vintage embroidery silk by a kind blog reader- it used to belong to her grandmother who was an amazing embroiderer. So over the weekend I carefully wound some of the silks onto pieces of recycled card. I started with the pinks. I hope i can do them justice.

fair-isle

 

This is a new winter cardigan I sewed for Keira from an adult-size fairisle sweater which was beautifully made but had completely worn-out elbows. I found it at a flea market and saw that it was made from pure Shetland wool, so of course I had to get it to recycle. To make the neckband, I made a kind of bias strip from a leftover piece of soft wool fabric (that was, incidentally, from another recycled garment) and handsewed it on. It makes the cardigan a bit more appealing for the small girl to wear as the Shetland wool can be a little scratchy on the skin. And I was pleased to find a use for those sweet wooden buttons I'd been saving for something. It's still too warm to wear thick wool here yet, but I'm sure winter's not too far away.

I often get emails asking about recycling wool garments into clothes for children. In particular, questions about finishing the seams. I do have an overlocker (serger) and use that on the interior seams so they last longer. But I've also used the zig-zag stitch on my machine with good results, and also left them unfinished (this is fine for many types of wool, especially if the fabric is slightly felted already.) For more recycled wool inspiration, I've found this flickr group, and this great blog.

Wishing you a happy weekend.