A Quiet Week

Hello and thank you for stopping by to visit!

I am officially having a Quiet Week.  We had such a busy, but happy weekend at my friend's wedding in Hampshire, and an unfortunate reaction to a wasp sting at the beginning of the week, that I've raised the drawbridge for a couple of days and spent time on the sofa with Daisy Dog, and DH, (between his work jobs), and I am pleased to say I am feeling much better.

The wedding was fantastic!  Such a beautiful ceremony and the love on the couple's faces was evident.  I wore my dress and jacket and felt very comfortable and happy with it.

After a delicious afternoon tea near the church, we moved to the venue for the evening reception - Bombay Sapphire Gin  Distillery!  It was magical!  We had to sample a gin cocktail (or two) as it would have been rude not to... ;)

We made our way home the following day, stopping at The Vyne, a Tudor National Trust property in Hampshire.  It was so beautiful and had recently undergone extensive restoration.  It was looking very smart!

 The staircase was fabulous!

 As was the summerhouse.  I could imagine sitting here of an afternoon, knitting and 'taking tea'.

The grounds were just stunning and it was a glorious autumn day to enjoy them.

The water in the lake was so clear you could see leaves at the bottom as well as floating on the top.

Then, on Tuesday, I was stung on my finger by a wasp.  It was in the bathroom and I just didn't see it until it was too late.  I react quite badly to bites and stings but initially thought I had got away with it, having taken antihistamines immediately.  DH and I went for a trip on the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Steam Railway that morning, which was great fun, and I went to Cooper's Creative in the afternoon, and it was lovely to spend time with good friends, chatting, laughing, and working on our creative projects.

However, that evening I felt quite unwell and that lasted almost 48 hours.  I spent a lot of time sleeping, knitting (re-knitting!) knee high sock number three, and crocheting more lanterns for my Mystical Lanterns blanket, but today I wanted to play around with something new!  

I bought this cuddly white rabbit for my lovely Mother-in-Law, who is in her late 90s, and lives in a nursing home.  She loves tactile things to hold and this little rabbit is as soft as a kitten.  I am going to make some clothes for it, with pleasing textures, as her eyesight is failing her but she loves things that feel soft. 

I started this afternoon with a little scarf in a really soft cotton and wool yarn. It's a garter stitch and double moss stitch pattern, on eleven stitches, so it's working up quite fast.  I am going to make a little skirt for the rabbit next.  I have a small piece of Liberty Tana lawn in yellow, which should work well.

48 hours of cossetting have done me the world of good and I feel so much better.  Oh, and I also had an unexpected visit from a very dear friend this afternoon, which was just what I needed!  Life is good.

Donna x 

A mini tutorial for a simple fabric flower corsage

Hello!

I'm off to a wedding this weekend, and have made myself a dress and jacket. The dress is in Rose and Hubble cotton and the jacket is in a very lightweight wool, lined with the R&H, and interlined with sew-in interfacing to give it a little more body.  Both patterns are favourites, and if you look on the right hand sidebar of my blog you will see the exact same outfit, in lilac and plum.  You can't beat an old favourite!

The dress is a New Look pattern, 6824, and the jacket is New Look 6390.  

As well as dressmaking, I do like to play with fabric accessories, as that's half the fun of making your own clothes.  To add some interest to the jacket, and tie the whole outfit together, I made a little fabric flower corsage.  These are great fun to make, very quick and easy too!

To make one all you need are some scraps of fabric, a tiny circle of felt, a button with a shank, and a brooch back. You will also need some extra strong thread - 'button thread' - and a hand sewing needle.  The extra strong thread doesn't need to be a matching colour, so use whatever you have to hand.  Mine just happened to match!

1) Using a glass, or something similar, draw five circles onto your fabric and cut them out.  Mine are just under 3" in diameter, but you can vary this for whatever size flower you would like.

2) Thread  your needle with a long length of the strong thread.

3) Fold a circle into quarters, with the right side outside, and sew along the curved edge, stitching through all four layers.   You don't need to do teeny tiny stitches, as you will be pulling them up in a minute to gather each 'petal'.

4)  Continue folding and sewing until all five 'petals' are attached, as in the photo below:

5)  Pull firmly on the thread until the first and last petals meet and you have a flower shape.  (This is why you need to use extra strong thread, but if you don't have any, you could try normal thread doubled.)  Make sure your gap in the middle isn't too large, as you will need to cover this with the button.  Use a couple of stitches to join the first and last petal together.  Don't cut the thread yet.

6)  Centre the button over the centre and sew firmly to the flower.  Still don't cut the thread!

7)  Cut a small circle of felt.  I happened to have red felt for my red flower, but it doesn't matter if yours doesn't match as you really won't see it.  I used my small thread spool to draw around, but you could freehand cut it.  Just make sure it fits neatly behind your flower without showing between the petals.  

8)  Using an overcast stitch, sew the felt circle to the back of your flower.  Nope, don't cut that thread yet!

9)  Lastly, sew a brooch back to the centre of the felt.  You can now fasten off and cut the thread!!

10)  Turn your flower over and fluff out the petals to make a pleasing shape. 

There you have it!  A fabulously easy and fun way to add a little bit of colour and decoration to whatever you're wearing.

If you don't have a suitable button for the centre, you could cover a button with a scrap of contrasting fabric.  This is quite simple to do bu cutting a circle of fabric a bit larger than the diameter of the button, running a row of running stitches around the outside of the circle, placing the button in the middle and then drawing up the running stitches firmly until the fabric is taut and the button is covered smoothly, with no wrinkles on the front.  Then continue in the same way.  

This is what I did on the flower below, using a scrap of the jacket fabric for the centre of the flower.

I'd love to see your fabric flowers, and hear about your own favourite ways to make them.  They are such a great way to brighten up a jacket, coat, dress or top, in a completely unique and personal way.

Thanks for visiting; I appreciate your company.

Donna x 

'Mystical Lanterns' blanket using leftovers!

Hello!

There are times, in any knitting, crochet or sewing adventure when you just want to PLAY!  I am in one of those moments now.

Just before we went on holiday last week, I took out the pattern I had bought at Yarndale for Janie Crow's beautiful Mystical Lanterns blanket.  I had been sooo tempted to purchase the kit, but I knew I had a lot of 'odd balls' of yarn, left over from years' worth of projects, that I really should use up, so I just bought the pattern.  It would also help clear some space in my sewing room, so a double win!

I pulled out everything that was wool or wool blend, DK and in reasonably toning colours.  There was quite a bit of it!  

The motifs are called 'ogee' in shape (don't you just love that word??) and are very easy to memorise for relaxed crochet hours.

I am making the motifs fairly randomly, but not putting too many dark colours next to each other, or the red next to the purple (oh, no, no no, as that looked awful!)  

Here's what I have made so far!

I am doing the motifs in a production line way, by making a whole pile of centres, followed by a batch of second rounds, then the third round.  Once I have six motifs completed I darn the ends in. My friend, Lucy, Attic24, will be very proud of me for keeping up with darning the ends in as I go!

As I'm using leftovers from my stash, I am going to work the final round of each motif in cream, to help tie the colours all together better, and use Janie's 'join as you go' method in her pattern.  Again, because it's all oddments so far, I don't have equal amounts of each yarn, and seem to have used up a large proportion of the brighter and pastel colours already, leaving the colours below, which do seem a bit, well, brown.  Despite trying to make the blanket without purchasing any wool other than that for the edging, I am going to buy three or four balls in more cheerful colours to keep some colourful variety going!

I am absolutely loving this project, pulling out a new colour, the soothing rhythm of every round, and the joy of finishing each motif, and then deciding which is my 'new favourite'. Plus, it's a brilliant 'pick up' project for odd moments of time.  Thank you to Janie Crow for such a great pattern!

Now, is there time to do a couple of centres before I make dinner???  Hmmmm...  

Donna x