Monday 26 March 2012

Nice day for a white wedding...

Another set of our friends got married this weekend (a different Bride than the one who I made the Hen Party Rosettes for in an earlier post) and I wanted to make them something memorable for their wedding present.

I saw a set of 'tattoo' inspired embroidery pieces in an old issue of Mollie Makes and thought they would be perfect to be reworked into a set of wedding wall hangings!

For the centre image I used a 4" emboridery hoop and added the dates of the wedding to the scroll. This was my first attempt at using metallic thread and I did struggle to thread the needle with it as there was no way of combining the ends as with conventional thread. I think the overall effect it gives makes it well worth the effort, but not something I'll be using for 'everyday' sewing projects.

For the two name panels I used an 8" hoop and had to enlarge the template image to the correct size (thanks to my art training and the grid system this was pretty easy, although I had run out of tracing paper, and was forced to use baking paper as a last minute fix!). I then added the names of the Bride and Groom in the scrolls. I also flipped one of the images so the birds would be face to face.


To finish off the frames, I made a backing piece using thick cardboard covered in black cotton fabric. This meant I could hide the rough stitching on the back of the image, and tuck all of the loose ends inside. I cut the cardboard circles to the size of the inner hoop and pushed them into place. They were a very snug fit so I decided against using glue to hold them in place.

And here's the finished product! Hopefully they will signify the start of another long and happy marriage!





Sunday 18 March 2012

Cassette Tape Nostaligia

I have recently been having a bit of an overhaul of my folksy shop and trying to establish an identity for myself. My general approach to being creative has always been to do what I feel like doing at the time. I can happily jump from baking to sewing to knitting to cross-stich to drawing and have drawers of half finished projects to show for it. So my plan was to try to work in a more considered way and to actually create a collection of things with an underlying theme.

I had been thinking for a while about making a series of felt cassette tapes. There is something great about the cassette tape which I have to say I miss. As good as iPods are they are slightly soulless compared to analogue music playing devices. I remember happily swapping cassettes with people at college with no worry about whether you'd ever get it back. I used to paint the body of the tapes in nail varnish and stickers. And I miss the 'slowed down' thing that tapes used to do when the batteries were dying in your walkman. So the cassette theme seemed like a logical starting point (and links well to the record bowls I already sell)

I started by designing a make-up bag/pencil case pouch with a zip. I raided my stash of random felt, starting with light grey and adding the details in pale blue, dark grey, white and black (including letters for the A and B sides). I added a bright blue zip (by hand - still haven't mastered doing it on the machine) and a blue and white start patterned cotton for the lining.


Once I had designed the basic pattern, I decided to make a scaled down version to use as a brooch. I used the same basic colours but in a smaller version with a silver brooch back on the reverse. I like the cute diddy version a lot, it has a certain (wonky) charm!


All of the above can be found at the Rescued Rags shop.