WOYWW

Good morning all!

Better late than never.
I was out all day yesterday, had a fuzzy head and came back with a real headache but better today.
These things are sent to try us!!

So, just a quick post to show and tell.

I managed to cut out leather flowers with our Cuttlebug and think I shall be able to use them for lots of different ideas so that's brilliant.

I have a  blank canvas or two which I am going to use for fabric collages on funday Monday.
Next to them you can see what I made this week using some wool rovings and my dumfing machine (embellisher). They are little primroses which I will free machine and cut up for Easter cards.

The round box had a lovely china mug in it and now I think I might up-cycle the box to store things in. Not sure how I will do that but I have seen some lovely ones as I have toured your WOYWW desks so I am sure I could give it a go.

Now I need to get some work done!
Have a good blog hop everyone and thanks for popping in and leaving such kind and thoughtful comments here.
Join in the WOYWW craft desk snoop with all of us over at Julia's Stamping Ground.
x Jo

PS - See post below for little frocks update - I think I have made 238  - Annie has made 101, so that's a grand total of 339 posted to Louise of Sew Scrumptious for the "Dress a girl around the world scheme."

WOYWW - Twiglet is good at sharing....

Hi folks - just a quick post today.
I have daughter M here for a few days and we are having a crafty/chill out session or two.
So we are sharing my work table.
M was busy yesterday making little dumflings with my embellishing machine.

Today she is making another doorway collage - this time its based on a door at Ludlow Castle and will be a wedding present for friends who get married there soon.
I will blog it later if it is finished in time.

I printed off her medieval door way on canvas. They look quite good and will be fine mounted on card I  think.

So we are sharing all our crafty bits and bobs - fabric/threads/beads etc.
It's great to have her company and we have a good chat and a giggle over all sorts of things.
It will do her good to absorb herself in craft work and I know she will go home refreshed.

When we were looking through photos for the collage we came across this one....

Now, I repeat........I am good at sharing .............but not that good!!!!!!!

Have a great day.
If you want to join in our blog hop then head on over to Julia's Stamping Ground where you will find lots more busy crafters willing to share there desks with you.

A little bit of dumfing and a look at our fabric stash.

Two pieces of "dumfed" fabric are waiting for my attention today. Firstly though, I had to pop down and help Wipso with some curtains. Easy job and I left her to sew them!




So here I am looking at these two pieces of fabric. My daughter spent time last week with me and we enjoyed a morning working together in my sewing room. The white piece has been dumfed with wool, silk, lace etc and beaded to make a cover for a wedding album. The little red piece is for a front cover on a journal. (Click on the pic to see them close up!)

I think I shall be finishing off these projects by making a fabric cover to form a basis for each one. Once they have been quality checked by said daughter - oh and Wipso - they will go into our blog shop!



I have taken a photo of the opposite side of my room so that you can see the neatly labelled storage boxes which I have inherited from my daughter. I expect she will want them in her craft room, once she gets it set up and running in her new home. Secretly, I am glad to have it, as it is all neatly sorted for me to dip into and she has some gorgeous bits and bobs for crafty projects in there. On the top of her boxes are journals and notebooks awaiting covers and dumflings.



My storage on the left is nowhere near as nice - just plastic storage containing fabric scraps and other sewing clutter!

Not much to show today. I shall enjoy popping over to check out Julia's blog and see what everyone else is up to.

Waste not want not - upcycled sweater creations!

I still have a stash of felted sweaters that need upcycling. They sit in a bag for life and occasionally call to me from the corner of my sewing room!

Today was one of those days.

So out came the pale turquoise, embroidered sweater by Jackpot.

I have already made a little lined bag using one of the sleeves.

Today I used a little of the other sleeve to make a phone cosy.

Wipso said her phone is not out of use long enough to need a cosy but some folk like to pop their phone/camera or ipod into a little pouch when carrying it round.







So with a bit of ingenuity, I made a little cosy using the cuff from the sleeve for a turn over top.



Its lined with bright pink cotton fabric and looks rather cute, I think.

Then, of course there was just enough left to make a little heart-shaped "dumfling".







Its now a little brooch, embellished with silk, wool and beads.








Now I was on a roll, so out came a scrap from the tweedy blue/grey sweater that I had used for another bag, now in the blog shop. I dumfed an oblong piece with silk and wool and then beaded it up.





How's that for upcycling?
I will probably pop them in the blog shop later - if Wipso will allow it!!!

Whats on my workdesk Wednesday.

Today I am mostly going to be Dumfing!

Wipso has explained it perfectly in her blog "A stitch in time" so pop over and see how she dumfs so beautifully!

If you need more info then check my older posts here

On my desk you will see my embellisher, my sewing machine and my stash of dumfing goodies. All sorts of fabrics, threads, yarns etc can be dumfed so I usually choose a colour scheme and a base fabric first and then just experiment.

In the front of the photo you will see my "here's one I made earlier" samples. Being an ex - infants teacher I always like to have an example to look at before starting. My class use to love the little practice pieces which I made prior to starting a new craft project (as you can imagine - we enjoyed all sorts of art and craft in our school!)

So my samples are just two experiments that I made before Christmas. The pink one was so successful that I made a larger version and framed it for my daughter's new bedroom and Santa put it in her sack.

The other sample was dumfed and then embellished with beads and embroidery. I make most of my little experiments into cards. Lots of friends had a little pack of them from Santa!

Today I am working on a piece of white felt using pinks/lilacs/purples - Wipso's favourite colours. We haven't had our usual "fun day Monday" this week so will have a lot of catching up to do when we get together. Its like my infant school "show and tell". She shows me all her wonderful creations and skillful alterations and repairs and then I show her whatever I have been experimenting with. Much laughter - oohs and aahs later we get round to more crafting. Its great therapy and I would recommend anyone who has a pal with similar interests getting together on a regular basis for "creative therapy ".

Well thats my second WOWW blog so I will pop over and see what Julia's desk holds for today - check it out if you want to join in.

New life for spare scarf

"Here she goes again!" I hear you shout.
Well, I am keeping up my "20 minutes of sewing a day" along with an increasing group on a popular blog - Marmaladerose
I thought it might be tricky to sew creatively every day, but so far I have not found it a problem. Maybe the snow, and keeping cosy in my little sewing room, has something to do with it.



Yesterday I surfed the net looking for ideas. Of course there are lots of fab blogs out there with folk making amazing stuff. I tend to get carried away, following link after link and delving into the most wonderful work by crafty folk all over the world!
So, when I chose my project for the afternoon, my head was full of all the lovely stuff I had been looking at.


I decided that I would upcycle a scarf and see if I could make a quick and easy bag with it.






Obviously I could have made just a plain bag but my embellishing machine was calling to me, so I was tempted to decorate the flap of the bag.
Past experience has taught me to do the tricky bits first, so I set to and embellished one end of my scarf.
The rest was simple.
I folded my scarf in half - right sides together - then
stitched down both sides and turned it right side out.


I folded the purse section up (roughly one third over the middle third leaving the flap as the last third) and pinned it ready to top stitch the seams through all thicknesses.












I had some toning fabric from which I cut a strap.
Just a little more embellishing with matching yarns teamed the strap to the bag flap.

I folded the strap in half lengthwise, right sides together, and stitched down the long side and across the one end. Then turned it rightside out and attached it to the sides of the bag.

Here is the result of my afternoon - more than 20 minutes I know - but who cares?

I suppose I could have added inside pockets, fasteners or other embellishments but for a first attempt at a scarf upcycle I was pleased with the result.

Now I shall be on the look out for scarves on my charity shop visits!

What is an embellishing machine?

Machine embellishing

Wipso has, as usual, beat me to it!! She has taken photos of her machine and explained how it works, so if you want a look then pop over to:

http://wipso-astitchintime.blogspot.com/

Our embellishers are Huskystar ER10 made by Husqvarna Viking. I have owned 3 different sewing machines made by Huskvarna and have found them to be robust and reliable so the Huskystar was my choice. There are several other similar machines.

The basic idea is that fabric/wool/threads etc can be felted to each other using the machine. That means they are fused together without using stitching. The 5 barbed needles simply pierce the top fabric and drag bits into the one below, thus making them fuse together. Its that easy.

Large pieces of work can be felted down really quickly and built up layer upon layer.

The machine is light and easy to carry - after all - its only a small motor and 5 needles - it doesn't have all the heavy stuff a sewing machine needs inside it!

Clover needle felting hand punch

I have a little hand needle felting punch that does the same thing but is much slower of course. Its fine for small pieces of flat felt work like the bits I use for card making. The little hand punch works in the same way, with 5 needles that felt fabrics together - just place them on a piece of foam or specially designed "brush" and push the punch up and down on top of the fabrics. So if you fancy needle felting but don't want to splash out on a machine - then this might be worth a try. Its good fun!

Playing with my embellishing machine.

Now that the ten blinds and 2 pairs of curtains are finished and sitting pretty in the new house, I have had time to play with my new embellishing machine. Wipso has set aside time on a Monday for play to take place and we both surrounded ourselves with wools, silk, satins and all sorts of other pretty bits and bobs.

Our new machines were de-frocked from their plastic covers and play began.

Wipso is making the most gorgeous little bags, so she spent her time felting flowers and threads of every hue onto the little felt bag fronts. If you want to find out more about those then pop over to her blog. She already has orders and sold one or two.

http://wipso-astitchintime.blogspot.com/

I dipped into one of her felting books for inspiration and came up with the idea for my little brooches.

Starting with felt or fabric for a base, I added frills and twists of silk, chiffon, wool, - well anything that fitted my colour scheme and looked right really. Then I painstakingly added beads and a badge back and voila ! Cute little brooches - all different - about 2 - 3 inches across.

I think I shall make a few more for Christmas - I may even sell a few if anyone is interested.

Wipso's friend thought they might cost about £15 in the right shop - well, I will settle for £7.50!

What do you think??