Now... will this be the push I need?

Oh the lovely people on Craftsforum have put up their Summer Show competition here

So now I have the perfect excuse for getting off my laptop and onto the machine. I want to enter at least two of the classes:
Sing me a song
Out of the blue
Over the rainbow
Garden of delight
New from old

But maybe not the under 11 class, they may not believe me :D

New from old seems the obvious choice for me. Maybe a skirt from a shirt, a bag from a blouse, oh the list is endless.

So why am I still here? Cos this is what I do, I prevaricate rather than fabricate!

So much has happened... so little got done

So, promises, promises. Same old story, all talk and no sewing! Not a single post this year. That is just inexcusable, so I won't even try.

But I have been busy. I got a promotion, so that went really well!

And I carried on losing weight, I am now working on my third stone. But now none of my clothes fit me and I don't want to buy any more. What to do? Well, I have been scanning Pinterest, reading a lot of blogs and thinking. I'm off for summer so I have a new plan to get new clothes as cheaply as possible. I'll try refashioning them!

Yeah, right Stef!

I know. But I am all ready to go. I have some very large clothes that I don't mind wrecking. Others could be used as patterns, with some adjustment as they are also too big.

So, starting on Thursday, my new promise is to wind up my camera and make a new thing every week. Pictures, progress and tales of woe will follow!

Let's get 2013 started properly

I know, it has been a bad end to my excited start for 2012. Still I have learned a lot:

Crafting: well that's such a dangerous world and I have no idea what my brilliant USP make will be. But the research has been amazingly good fun and I have met so many lovely people on Craft Forum I have joined in 2 secret makes, Easter Bunny and the current Secret Santa - I can barely stand the wait to see what I got! Stupidly I forgot to photograph what I sent out, ah well!

What I have definitely decided is that I will be recycling and upcycling regardless of what I end up making.

Sewing: well I still can't. I know I need a craft light as my eyes are just so badly focussed close up that I need all the help I can get. the Sewing Forum has been a great giggle, though I have read far more than I have posted. Who knew so many people made tutu's?

Again I have made a decision and I have bought a couple of books to help, already reviewed I think. I have one more to go, but will review it once I have used it. My decision is again to recycle all material and clothing and to trace existing clothing for patterns as much as possible. I have a few cheap tops that I intend to sew a skirt onto, like this (I wish).

So how do I make 2013 a much more productive year? I mean I have a promotion to contend with, an OH who needs TLC and I am still lacking in gumption and not particularly brimming with energy. Whatever I do I will also need to continue losing weight and get some exercise in - but that's another blog!

An art teacher friend has supplied me with a big black sketchpad for my journaling, fabric ideas one way round, non fabric the other (I have all of that jewellery stuff too, remember?). So I will be keeping a proper journal of my ideas. Hopefully that will be fun! I can use it alongside my e-notebook OneNote, that is where I keep all online ideas, links and pictures, as well as my Pinterest obsession.

Wotcha gonna do, Stef?
Immediately I have 3 ideas that will let me practice different sewing skills:

• Bags from old things: Tops, shirts, jackets and pillowcases I bought over the year can all be made up into bags of different sizes and shapes. Hopefully I will come up with 2 or 3 simple enough patterns that I can size and use for almost anything I fall across when out scavenging. I think if I can turn the piles of stuff into piles of things I will feel better. Though I do have to admit that the piles of  'potential' are really exciting in themselves.
• Hat, scarf and glove sets: I still love these. I have a few different shapes for the hats and enough old jumpers to really get to grips with different finishes. I am looking forward to that. I also have some jumpers that won't shrink in the wash. I will see what I can make out of them.
• Brooches: scraps of material  with free motion machine embroidery. Well, I couldn't not do any jewellery at all, could I? It is where I started all those years ago! I have so much broken jewellery, buttons and bits that I think I could keep myself occupied for a few months on this alone. But it is the free motion embroidery I am most interested in.

 

 I will make more than I read, think, plan or wish!

I am so very, very sorry

I have been so very, very busy and tired. I know I expected it but I didn't think that the beginning of term would be such a complete stop to all things non work related! I have got to get over that!


I have been seduced by an old passion, weaving. I found some great looking looms, from a proper weaving heddle loom to peg looms, dolly bobbins, weaving sticks and lucets. I have asked he who is currently not at work to make me the last 4 and threatened him with my wanting one of the heddles.

I have so much material that could be woven and I don't anticipate using wool very often.

When I was a kid I had a little plastic heddle loom and I loved it, I have no idea where it went, but it was very narrow, about 2 inches perhaps. I have always wanted to do something more arty and thought I'd start at the bottom of weaving and work my way up! Easy, especially when you can't knit or crochet to save your life!

So if Mike doesn't make at least the sticks for me, I shall do it myself and get started over the holidays!

Rigid Heddle

Peg Loom

Lucets - they make cord!

2 in 2 days

So this morning I have folded and stacked and tucked away lots of interesting stuff. It is all under the bed or on top of the chest of drawers.... lurking!

Don't worry, nothing was injured or thrown away during the tidy up. The rest of it is still in the other bedroom, in a pile :D

I found some really good stuff that I have not looked at properly, stuff that came from car boots and Freegle. Next week, when the lawnmower man has built the cubes, I will remember to wind up the camera and take some really good piccies.

The best bit was finding the blackout curtain lining. I had wondered how to stop the edges of any folded fabrics from getting sunbleached. Now I know. I shall velcro the curtain lining to each cube. Easy to remove and no problem to do. I may even decorate it - eventually!

I suspect that I will prevaricate a while longer whilst I consider using piccies to catalogue what I have.  Oh but shall I sort by material, by colour, by possible end product....? Oh how complicated it all gets.

Meanwhile I have re-sorted all of my tools, beads, bits and bobs into the mushroom trays I have collected. It almost looks tidy now!

I shall be back next weekend with more tales of woe - or piccies of a very small victory :)

Oh the shame of it!

OK, I always knew that I would find actually making time to make things difficult. I am a college lecturer, I have a large garden, chickens and a weight loss habit to be gained. But how long is it since I last posted? Unforgiveable!

I had a delivery, 3 of these beauties. Each cube is 35cm in all directions. They are in the shed at the moment, waiting to be built! I have done all I can to get myself organised but it became painfully obvious that I had to do more if I was ever going to have the space to actually use my sewing machine and make something. That something turned out to be storage and organisation. So in a way my making journey gets a re-start here.

I have cleaned and oiled my sewing machine. Sorted out all my tools, replaced rusty bits and the tape measure my haste cut in half. All I have left now is a bedroom that I can't get into properly as I have dug out everything I had tucked away under beds, in corners etc. Who knew doing something that is so much fun could cause such chaos?

Over the next couple of weeks I will continue to explore the darkest recesses of boxes, bags and hidden bits. Some of it has been hanging around since the late 80s. I may find it hard to find the time to make and post as the first few weeks of term are always hectic, but I will make a real effort to get things moving.

I have also started a de-stashing programme. My thoughts journal is bulging, I have matched some materials with projects already and am desperately trying to control the urge to leap into something and wreck the material or my machine. I am not setting any deadlines but I fully intend to use up some of the less interesting fabrics on practice pieces, making pattern pieces etc, and to get rid of a lot of it.

Don't tell him on lawnmower duty, but as you all know, the only reason to de-stash is to make room to re-stash [:)]

I WILL make it..... lots of 'its'!!

Freegle collection - photos later

Oh how I love freegle!

I put out a shout 2 weeks ago for bits and pieces of material and 'stuff' and got a single reply! Oh dear, I thought, how disappointing. Worse, I couldn't make the date I suggested to pick up the stuff offered and felt like a heel. Fortunately the nice lady emailed me back and offered to leave it out for me to pick up today.

Well.... I am gobsmacked - and you will be when I get it all sorted! Buttons, jewellery, curtains an old woolly kilt and an amazing coat from Afghanistan - very colourful and lined, even after 30 years of life in a bag, I think!

I'll be washing and thinking over the week. It is all lovely and clean but, like much of my own stash, has that stored smell (which is nice, like old books, but probably won't sell well) so photos and ideas for it all will be up soon.

But I have to say, Freegle helps you meet the most amazingly generous people (or not quite meet, if you see what I mean).

Hopefully I'll get more over summer - my ideas list has growed like Topsy!