Sewing projects

Our house is becoming a gilhoolie gallery…

I keep telling myself it won’t be long until the sun’s shining so that I have an excuse to buy some new clothes, have a barbeque and sit in the garden sipping a nice cold glass of Pimm’s… well you have to dream don’t you?! At least I finished this machine embroidered picture today, oh and I think this weekend is going to be dry too, hooray!

Pimms machine embroidered

I delved into my fabric scraps bag (which is growing by the day) and decided to use the floral Liberty fabric from my last empire lampshade for the detail on the Pimm’s bottle. It has a really summery feel and I love the colours too. The main stitching on the picture is in a light grey but I added a gold/yellow thread for the writing on the bottle and the crown of course.

Pimms machine embroidered closeup
A close-up of the label

Last week I made a cushion and it reminded me that I don’t really enjoy making soft furnishings any more; far too many straight lines and neatness required. But drawing with my sewing machine is another matter entirely and as I get better at it the more fun it is and the less tense I am as I sew. I think I’ll frame this picture and put it on the wall in my kitchen, to add to the gilhoolie gallery (sorry family!)

Creative Courses

A lesson learnt…

It’s been too long since my hand-stitched lampshade course and I’m only just finishing off my next project. Luckily I have some really good handouts from the course but I wish I had made another one straight away! I remembered how to do the outside fabric but really struggled with the lining, taking two attempts to get it right. I know it shouldn’t have been hard but I’ve learnt a few things from the experience.

1. always have a go as soon as possible on your own after attending a course – it might all make sense when you’re there but things look very different when you’re trying to do it on your own.

2. Make sure you get handouts from a course if you can and make your own notes as you go through.

3. Don’t panic, you can always do it again and get there in the end, learn from your mistakes – I definitely won’t make the same mistakes next time!

I’m really lucky I had such a good teacher, Angela from Cocoon Home, who I’ve been able to email for advice and support, thanks Angela!

Close-up of my lampshade
Close-up of my lampshade

Nearly there now though, I just need to add some trim to the top and bottom to finish it off. If you look really closely you can see the streetly stitching at the front of the lampshade and lethal pins at the back! The fabric is a 100% cotton Liberty print called Boxford A Jersey from the SS12 Whitworth collection. It’s very pretty and floral and colourful and also very me!

I’m hoping to get it done this week now that the boys are back at school and I have some time to myself. I’m going to take them along as examples of my work to the Vintagenie arts, crafts and vintage fair I’m doing next Saturday, 21st April at Park House School in Newbury. I get the feeling I have a busy week ahead!…