mumblings

I met a friend for coffee this morning and we popped up to take a look at a medieval fayre. Sadly, it was just about to close when we arrived but I was highly amused by her prop – do you see the F&M on that basket? That is a gift basket basket from Fortnum and Masons – I did comment to the lady that they obviously went back a long way

It did look fairly interesting but we’d missed the main action as people were starting to take it all down..
maybe next year!

The kittens are frolicking. Sirius is back to his very naughty self!!

I found a couple of super websites: Colette Patterns and Tilly and the Buttons where you can download and print out your patterns for instant gratification. I also love the idea that I can print it out again if I cut it out wrong or print another size if I need to I would like to make the Tilly’s Miette Skirt and the Jasmine blouse from Colette. I was thinking about using the cat fabric for the blouse but as it is cut on the bias, I really don’t have enough even with the other metre that I sourced so I’m going to use some spotty fabric instead. Tilly and the Buttons has some great step by step instructions for the skirt. I’m going to be making a toile for the blouse as it looks like it will need it for the fit. Any one got any suggestions for websites that can help with making a toile?

I’m quite relieved that Sirius is back to his helpful self again. Of course, I may not be so pleased if he gets that friendly when I’m trying to cut the fabric!

We had some bad news about our car and are currently carless for around a week. The main computer in the car was fried so has to be sent off to be replaced and re calibrated for our car. We are taking buses which although are very green are not very time friendly. We missed the one at 7.25pm and had to wait until 9pm for the next. I won’t be miserable when the car comes back!

.. we can only live in hope. Last night, it rained like it was November…

1. Ma Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie. I totally loved that show when I was little and loved the fact that Ma and Pa were so kind but firm and didn’t really gossip about anyone.

2. Violet Crawley, The Dowager Countess of Grantham. Downtown Abbey’s doyenne. I love how direct she is.

3. Lorelai Gilmore. She’s a cool mum.

I can’t think of any more favourites. Of course, there is Peggy Bundy etc but I wouldn’t class them as favourites!!

This is my all round favourite mum

I did rather enjoy finishing off my bag!

I gathered a few pieces together to get my bag all lined. I found a remnant in our local fabric store for a third off that went beautifully with the bag and my friend Annie gave me a corrugated plastic bottom for it.

The corrugated plastic piece was a great idea as it will reinforce the bottom of my bag. I puzzled a little over whether I should glue it to the bottom of the felted bit or sew it to the bottom on my lining. In the end, I decided to let it float free so I could fold the bag to make it flat for storage, photos etc if I ever needed to.

Thanks to a great tip from Louise, I used some baking parchment to make a paper pattern. I added on a 1/2 inch seam allowance.

I put it inside the bag to see if it worked and saw that I needed to reduce the height a bit.

I added some very thick iron-on interfacing for extra strength

before I cut out my inner. That was scary but I did it. I used my wonder clips to hold it together.

I sewed a 1/2 inch hem at the top of the bag lining. I did this for two reasons – the first to make it look neat and secondly to have a line to follow when I got to the handstitching part of the bag.

It does fit fairly well. It isn’t completely perfect but I figured that since it would be filled with things, I wouldn’t sweat it too much.

Finally, I added some leather straps so I could use it as a shoulder bag. I ordered them from a great place who describes himself as ‘one man and his dog’ called Barefoot Leather.

The main thing is that it meets Sirius’ approval! I think he is more keen on it than he is locker hooking!

I do feel like I am my cats’ entertainment director and one of Sirius’ favourite activities is gardening.

He does enjoy being involved.

Especially with the dirt. What is it with dirt and boys?

Watering is fun, too.

Tamyra likes water. Tamyra likes water a lot.

So not one but two kitty helpers.

Argh!

Hmm – I think they are plotting.

She is definitely plotting.

Sirius decided that it was very important to stand guard over the tomato seeds to make sure they grow. How long do you give that propagator before it is distributed around the house?

I can only describe locker hooking as a little like rug making. This is a sample made by the class teacher of what I was meant to achieve today.

I failed to bring the right materials so had to scrounge some fabric from the tutor. When I went to our local craft store, they looked at me like I was some kind of crazy woman when I asked if they kept locker hooking needles. They do see to be a special thing indeed as they are like a crochet hook with a needle eye on it.

The first thing we all had to do was snip the little sticky out plastic bits off so it was all even.

We then folded it down two squares worth. I did two sides to start with. If I was going to make something bigger, I’d have to fold down four or six squares.

Using some of the fabric which was cut into a 1/2 inch strip, I threaded some onto a bodkin needle.

Using the bodkin needle, we then secured the edging by going through all the loops

and folding down the other two corners as we went.

We sewed round until the whole outside was covered.

We then cut up a whole heap of 1/2 inch strips of fabric.
Note to self : make sure you have long strips!

Our class teacher drew on a leaf motif for us to follow with permanent marker pen.

We then got to locker hook! You need to have a piece of strong cotton thread which will anchor your stitches onto the canvas. This needs to be tied on and the thread goes through the eye of the needle.

You hold the fabric under the mesh and use the crochet hook bit to pull the fabric up to create a loop. Don’t do what I did and pull it too tight – I ended up unpicking it a few times after doing that.

Once a few stitches are created, you pull the thread through the stitches on the crochet hook to ‘lock’ them in.

I then followed the leaf motif round and round until I’d filled the leaf. As I didn’t have any more fabric, I decided to take my potholder home to finish. I’m now wondering where pao’s old shirts are

So now you know what locker hooking is! On my way home, I dropped into Badger’s Hill Farm (I have tried to bring my favourite people there but it is always closed when they arrived in the UK) to get some plants for the garden and said hello to Texas, the one-eyed bulldog.

I couldn’t believe it when I found the epitomy of Sirius in a shop today. But what to make with it? I’m thinking a simple blouse – any suggestions for something very easy that doesn’t take up lots of fabric as I only have 1.25 metres.

Can you see the resemblance?

I couldn’t post on Monday as Dreamhost were having issues so I couldn’t upload photos of my beautiful sewing project. I wanted to make a crochet hook roll in the same style as the DPN roll I have already so I had a good look at how it was constructed and got the good old Singer handcrank out.

I had some spotty aqua fabric set aside for it and had a good rummage in my ribbon stash to find something that would go with it. I hope I’m not the only person who saves ribbon from gifts etc to reuse

I cut out two long pieces – one shorter one for the pockets for the hooks and another long one for the case. I folded them both in half to make a stiff-ish case.

pao bought me these really cool wonderclips which are really good at holding things in place. They are a lot less sharp than pins and I am so pleased as I’ll be using them to hold together knitting projects. They are so much more expensive here so I’ll have to keep an eye out for a deal on them but they are really great.

A quick check to make sure my hook fits.

Sirius had to be persuaded to help (quite unlike him – we thought he was ill) and his helping was quite half-hearted.

I used the chalk pencils that Louise recommended to mark the lines for the sections. I had just under 4cm between sections.

After I sewed all the sections, I turned the whole thing inside out and sewed two of the three edges up and sewed most of the third side except for a little hole.

and sewed most of the third side

except for a little hole. I pulled it right-side out through the holes and carefully sewed up the hole by hand.

I measured out my ribbon and hand stitched that on.

Ta-da!

I am very pleased with it and I’m now plotting what to sew next!