Sewing

Moodboard Smood Bored


I've just completed a repeat pattern class over at Skillshare and one of the assignments was to create a moodboard.  So I did, and well while I did put some effort into the board using some of my original sketches and bunch of photos I had taken of vintage goodies from my studio...


For some reason when I just take the elements and lay them out onto my table... well they are more exciting.


I don't know about you but my grandmother's sewing basket contained all sorts of wonderful goodies, not just mending or traditional quilting.


Her sewing basket contained a mass of antique lace, sequins, beads, buttons, reclaimed strips of fabrics that were wound into large balls, impossibly tiny scissors that looked like birds, and so much more!

Yeah, my original mood board while well intentioned is just plain boring!

Off to Grandma's House Sewing Basket Collection


My grandmother Baxter taught me how to sew, by hand at the age of 7ish, by the time I was nine she had taught me how to sew using a sewing machine and my dad procured, from a local dump, my very first treadle sewing machine.  This collection is reminiscent of both my grandmothers, and my paternal great grandmother, all of whom stitched in various forms from quilting to embroidery, crochet and knitting, and all of them knew how to make clothing without a pattern.

Studio Delimma


Delimma:  How to keep Oliver out of my sewing area when I'm not using that space???  The chair with the pile of stuff is the current gate for my sewing studio, it's butted up against my spinning wheel which is butted up against a Singer sewing machine cabinet.  This all to keep a curious puppy safe.  A baby gate won't work in this situation since there is nothing to really attach it too. so am looking for creative ideas.

The Studio Waits!


I have mono at the present, so my studio sits idle waiting, waiting for me to come paint, dye, and stitch!  All simply because I'm just too tired to do anything, but the diagnosis sure does explain a lot.


John moved the plastic drawer units into my studio two weeks ago, it's so nice to have all of my vintage yummies within arms distance now.


Vintage pink trim, there's a few things left in the office that need to be moved into the studio otherwise it's all in there now and it's a matter of just getting busy producing some new work.


I love black and white zippers, somewhere in one of those plastic drawers there's a black and white houndstooth zipper that's just wanting to be stitched onto a beautiful surface!


Redid the studio last night, we moved my sewing table to the west side of the studio space where there was better lighting especially during the daytime, the east side of the studio has a cave like feeling.


Lots of lovely natural light!

Some natural dyed WIP's on my sewing table.



'Cause Cute Matters!

I bought this at Clare's, at the mall, today.  It's a new coin purse for me and is rather largish, it has a place to hold my license, etc. so it could in fact be used as a mini purse :-)  I liked a LOT of the floral fabric bags, scarves, and headbands they had there but decided that I could make my own and for way less than what they were wanting... which was something like 75% less than what Younkers was asking for almost identical items.

Anyway, I'm off to check my fabric and pattern stashes as I have some skirts and new bags planned for my spring/summer wardrobe!

Brooch No. 1

Above: front of brooch painted silk dupioni, wool batting Below: painted silk dupioni


And it may well be my last one at that! I've been seeing all of these lovely hand made brooches from assorted scrap fabrics and thought I'd make one for myself, well... Lets just say I need a new bobbin race for my Janome 6500 now! The bobbin thread got tangled somehow with the tension arm on the bobbin race and is now broken! Luckily I had another bobbin race on hand to finish the top stitching but it's my spare for bobbin stitching with chunky threads. I'm hoping the bobbin race can be repaired as these parts are not exactly cheap these days.

Stitch Problems



Well this is supposed to be a heart pattern - stitch No. 72 on my Janome 6500 and the hearts are not closing, also the machine is making a rather hard jerking motion when creating this pattern. Ideas on what may be the problem? Here are three pics starting with the bottom pic and ending with the top pic seems that towards the end the hearts were starting to look more like hearts.