Seeing as everyone in my family love Lego my idea was to sew 24 bags that we can reuse year after year. 1. Cut out 24 rectangles in your favorite fabric (they don’t all have to be the same colour) at a size of between 12-16 inch x 5-7 inch (they don’t have to be the same size either). Either cut them with a zig-zag scissors or zig-zag them on your sewing machine all the way around. 2. Fold the short edges and sew them in to make a nice edge. Then fold the pieces on the middle inside out and sew down the sides. 3. When you are finished sewing them – turn them inside out – fill them with lego or anything else you want to put on your advent calendar – tie some ribbon or jute string around the top and put them on your advent calendar / string. So I fixed the Singer. Or in other words I took it all apart and cleaned it and gave it some proper sewing machine oil. Actually I took everything apart including the motor. Ups! So now I know how an old sewing machine motors looks inside. That was a little bit of a panic. However, it all turned out alright. I somehow managed to put it back together again. Fancy that, me the sewing machine mechanic! It even sounded ok and didn’t blow up or catch fire when I turned it on again. However, it wasn’t strong enough to actually sew. So I thought I had ruined the motor. I decided to take the machine to the nice guy at the sewing centre to have a look. He said the motor was ok it was just the belt that was tired and wonky. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any new ones he could sell me so he suggested I went home and dipped the belt in boiling water for a couple of seconds to shrink it a bit. It worked. I now have a fully functional Singer sewing machine. While cleaning it up I realised that the horrible red inside of the bottom case was rotten. I took it out and hubby fitted a new bottom (he’s a regular craftsman, my hubby). Then I painted it my favorite colour (teal) of which I of course had a tin standing around (don’t you always). It looks and smells much better now. Finally, I tested the machine this weekend sewing a roll-up pouch for hubby’s paint brushes (he’s also an artist – so talented this guy I married). It worked perfectly, but as my mother pointed out it can only sew straight stitches. However, she was wrong when she assumed that this meant that I couldn’t use it for anything. Before I was sewing straight stitches by hand so this is a great improvement. I bought the trunk at the wonderful Winchester car-boot sale. It was just calling out to me and I knew exactly where it could go and what it could be used for. The only problem with it was that it was that the paper inside, lovely as it was, was dirty and falling of. So I set about to add some new wall paper. The shelf of the trunk also had a very flimsy bottom which I ripped out. Hubby fashioned a new bottom out of ply-wood. It was hard work and took a whole Saturday. I think the finished result is wonderful though. I just used some standard wall paper from Laura Ashley (cheapest I could find because they had a sale on), a sachet of Wickes wall paper paste that you mix with water and a tube of super glue I had lying around (don’t you always). I used the super glue on the trunk around difficult bits, on nails and along the edge before putting the wall paper on. It was impressive to see how well the wall paper stuck to the wood of the trunk, but the super glue was useful on those difficult spots. It is now situated where I imagined is would go and I filled it with all my yarn (which is in spite of hubby’s protests not a lot). I use the shelf for the yarn I am working on and other sewing bits and pieces. As I wrote in a previous post I have a No. 2 Brownie. end As I good digital archaeologist I have already found some history on the singer. The serial number on the machine is F1569002, which means it is a model 99k produced in 1911. Well she can make some herself. I had actually begun to make some gloves myself with a very simple square pattern. Unfortunately, I had begun from the fingers working my way down so that I was left with 10 fingers without knowing what to do next. Funny enough someone in my kniting group was also crocheting gloves and she pointed me to the Hook Yarn and Needles page where I found some great patterns for just this. So I finished of my pink gloves with inspiration from the Smart Crocheted Gloves. They did turn out a bit funny because I began from the fingers down instead of the wrist up. As a final extra, I did wear these lovely gloves at my wedding. It was a wonderful day and I an sad to say that I only wore them for about 30 min during the ceremony. When we got to the exchanginf of rings I took them of, gave them to a bridesmaid and completely forgot all about them. However, the good thing is that they are very flexible and any friends or family who want to wear them for their own wedding can do so. I made these wrist warmers in a rush before christmas as a X-mas present for my best friend. I couldn’t find a pattern I liked so I had to make it up and as a result of that the first one I made is a bit loose while the other is nice and snug. I actually really like them myself and luckely I wrote down what I did so I can recreate them. Lately I have been going quite a lot of crochet at my local Stitch and Bitch (meeting at 18.00 at Borders in Southampton, UK). This has been a great oppertunity to get out there and get a bit done and at the same time have a nice chat and a cup of coffee. Specially for someone like me who spends most of her day in company with herself. I will try to post soon some of the projects I have been working on. Another place I like to go and get inspiration is arts and craft fairs. There has just been one on in Winchester:Contemporary Art, Craft & Design Fair 2008. Jewelery Textiles Ceramics Charlotte Storr from Culham, Abingdon made some really nice stoneware. I fell in love with her neutral colours and the way she incorporated wine branches as handles. Furniture/woodwork A colleague sent me the link for this site which made me sit and laugh out loud for half an hour. While I should have been working mind you.
Since I was a child I have had this fabulous advent calendar that my grandmother cross-stitched for me. When I was a child my parents would tie 24 presents to it and I would open one every day up till Christmas. When my two siblings and I got older we would put one of our 3 advent calendars up in the kitchen and divide the presents out (5 people divided by 24 days = 4-5 presents each). We would then each have to buy 4-5 small presents for the calendar and get to open a present from the calendar each 5th day. Now I do the same with my husband. We each buy 12 presents and get to open a present every second day. This worked really well the first couple of Christmases we were together. But now it’s limited how many new kitchen utensils and small gadgets we really need so I came up with a new idea. Actually, it’s an old idea that my parents did for me and my sister back in 87. You take a lego set (house, pirate ship, or what ever you fancy) and divide it out depending on the instructions – into 24 piles. Then you wrap it up into 24 parcels that you put on an advent calendar or if you don’t have one of those a piece of string will do. You can put labels on from 1-24.
I got an Ilford HP5 Plus film put in it and tried taking pictures with it this weekend. There where 8 photos on this 120mm medium format film and I used them all on portraits of hubby’s family.
As you can maybe see the camera still works. However, I took the portrait photos outside exposing the film for about 2 seconds each time. This did result in a certain amount of shaking and blurred photos.
I think in the future I will try and use the camera for landscape photos using the snapshot function to avoid blurred photos.
I have been wanting an antique singer for years now and while rummaging around at the car-boot sale I found one. The guy only wanted £3 for it so I thought bargain. Even if it doesn’t work I won’t have lost much.
Hubby has given it a good clean and I need to take it apart and give it some sewing machine oil. We checked out the electric cord and the machine seems to work. So I will just have to figure out if it needs any spare parts and then get them.
I can’t wait to give it a try.
I have been in love with the idea of having a couple of retro crochet gloves for a long time but all the gloves me and my friend ever looked at where way to small for our working class hands. So what can a girl do.
By now I had fallen in love with the Sunlight Gloves. They where sofisticated and elegant and I thought that if I could make them in the right yarn they would be perfect for my upcoming nuptuals. But it was so difficult to find the right yarn specially since I did not understand the yarn type and hook sizes in the pattern. But I had a go with a hok size 1mm and some natural cotton crochet yarn size 20 and I think the result it quite good. I will definetly be wearing them on my big day and hopefully they can become a family heirloom.
The pattern is fairly easy to follow. Where I thought it needed a bit more explaining was when it came to making the fingers but I guess there is a lot of trial and error in that trying to make it fit the individual. I think I redid the opening for the thumb 15 times before I was satisfied. Also with the first round of chains at the wrist I found that with my yarn and hook I had to make the chain a bit longer otherwise in scrunched up when I added the pattern.
This fair presented arts and crafts from around 90 members of Guilds of Craftsmen from across the south. The selection of crafts was truly magnificent.
Glass
I will begin with glass so my own mother doesn’t have to look to far. She has been taking classes in at Katbølgaard in Denmark in glass-art and has produced some amazing broaches.
tinklertastic is local to Winchester and had fused glass jewelery on display and I was very impressed with the way Sue Tinkler had chosen to present the jewelery through pictures of friends and family wearing it.
Katrina Margaret Beattie from Wingfield, Wiltshire had some really impressive blown glass.
Fantasia glass from Shedfield, Hampshire does both stained and fused glass and will be around fro the Winchester Christmas market. I was especially fascinated by some of their stained glass panels.
I am not sure that you will call what Claire Muir from Andover,Hampshire does Jewelery but it is certainly beautiful and very impressive. If you ever need to look like the perfect princess hers is the place to go. She explained to me how she machine embroiders onto soluble fabric and washes it to produce lace which is then used in flowers and tiaras.
Facets of Avalon from Glastonbury, Somerset is a mother and daughter team who specializes in silk prints and wire jewelery. I was extremely impressed with their wire jewelery which is made up of knitted wire.
Alexandra Simpson’s rings where just lovely. She has a couple of themes that she uses in her designs and one of them is this small flower. I fell in love with the yellow gold ring with the white gold flower on it.
Being into textiles myself I wasn’t very impressed with the textile designs at the fair.
However, this might be the time to talk about some very nice textiles that I saw at this very same place (Winchester Cathedral Close) but at a colder time (Christmas Market 2007).
Loominellie is a company by Ellie Goose who has her own studio in Winchester. She spins and weaves some really gorgeous designs some of which are inspired by old Scandinavian patterns.
The ceramics was probably the thing I was most impressed with. There were some truly beautiful things exhibited. Tam Frishberg from Oxford had a set of three matching jars (one bigger than the other) in a nice green with wooden lids.
Now I don’t know anything about making furniture but I sure was impressed at the range of stuff.
Andrew Hauge from Seaford, Sussex has some really nice shapes in his furniture which has Scandinavian modern influences.
Paul Spriggs from Cirencester seems to have a trademark ‘fold-under’ table which can double in size.
Whats next
I think that I will go an dhave a look at this Aldresford Collection on the 25th-26th of July. Especially Alison Ellen’s handknits and hand-dyed yarns seem interesting.
Then there is also the Stockbridge Contemporary Craft Fair from the 5th – 7th September. This sounds really nice and I wish I could go.
There is a lot of great and funny posts there – among others a review of the fantastic “show your nipples” tube top.
If you want a laugh – go have a look. I’m still giggling away!
Crafts
Author: roued
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