Christmas present progress

Posted on December 2, 2013September 24, 2014 Posted in sewTagged embroidery, embroidery nude, gift, woolLeave a comment

My lovely friend Lauren has been a big fan of the embroideries I’ve been doing lately, and she’s requested one of her own for Christmas. So this weekend I got the fear and figured I should get a shift on with that.
So here’s the work so far. I’m quite pleased, although I wish I’d done it on a more tightly woven fabric because this is getting quite distorted and I’m a bit worried about trying to steam it flat! Her face is nice though, and the hands are less terrible than they could be. I’m sewing this in Appletons crewel wools, which I think I enjoy more than the usual embroidery floss, and trying to get tones in without any background shading. Fingers crossed she’ll end up as a nice piece.

Pink Hair, Red Knickers embroidery

Posted on November 3, 2013September 24, 2014 Posted in sewTagged embroidery, embroidery nude, etsy shop, woolLeave a comment

I’m pleased with how this turned out :) I traced out the basics of a photo onto graph paper and added the block colour. I started out following it literally as a chart in a normal scale cross stitch, but it just looked terrible, far too tiny. So I started over, with bigger crosses and following the chart as a guideline. Left the pants until last, that was a bit of rookie error, didn’t have a clue how to stitch them. Ended up with half size crosses, which were a right pain but I’m pleased with the effect. It’s not easy to stitch on top of a regular cross though, as and when I start the next one I’ll try to leave a space. I’m also a little disappointed with the hands, the mitten hand leaves a lot to the imagination and the other side has a very lumpy finger – will crack it next time.

So I want to take this and make prints, although I’m not really sure how to go about that. Scanning it was not a sucess. Maybe the best way is to take a photo and retouch it in photoshop if needs be? I’d also like to do others in the same style but various colourways, I have the same fabric in blue and mint so they’d be a nice starting point. Just need to look through some more pictures of scantily clad girls. Tough life.

Margaret Howell

Posted on September 25, 2013September 25, 2013 Posted in sewTagged fashion, photography, tailoring1 Comment

All things Margaret Howell are always supremely beautiful, but this series of photographs is extra lovely. Really gorgeous shots of their exquisite tailoring and Italian production:

http://www.margarethowell.co.uk/collections/women/autumn-winter-2013-campaign/

Liberty print cushion cover

Posted on March 25, 2012 Posted in sewTagged liberty print cushion1 Comment

For months I’ve been groping this half metre of Liberty cotton. I love it, and true love waits… For an idea that is, and with my cushion obsession in full flow there was no fighting it. I came across some matt white grossgrain at which which there was plenty of and no-one would miss :) so I wanted to try my hand at piping. I’m pretty chuffed with the results, to be honest!

Considering this only cost £11 for the fabric and £1.60 for the piping cord I think it looks really swanky. There’s certainly no way my flat would have any liberty designed soft-furnishings in it if it wasn’t for my little bit of domestic sewing. Bit of advice for you kids – if you’re gonna go to uni at least learn a skill which will make living with student debt a bit easier!

Done and framed :D

Posted on March 18, 2012 Posted in sewTagged home sampler1 Comment

I finished the sampler!! Hooray!

Deadline was missed slightly, given that I visited the home in question for the first time on Saturday. Luckily the recipient is a close friend, who I went to uni with, dropped out of post-grad with, and now work with. I’m sure I’ve had more unreliable moments than being two days late with a gift, but much to my delight she continues to put up with me :)