This project is this weeks result of longing to spend a bit of time in the sewing room and also opening boxes of stashed fabric and thinking….I need to do something with this. Because I sew..a lot….people give me fabric and honestly I have a room full of bits and pieces that I would need a hundred lifetimes to use up…
Read MoreAs the Coronation approaches it is a time to reflect and look back in history and a thousand years and more of monarchy. Whatever you might think of the institution and it’s place in the modern world, it will no doubt be a historic day that I am glad to be able to witness. My pincushion is a very grand addition to my sewing room, but tremendous fun and perhaps one day it will be part of the legacy of all my sewing endeavours.
Read MoreThis year I am resolved to find more ways to live sustainably.… ..I also have a huge stash of fabric and need to work on some more dressmaking projects and other small ideas which can help with sustainable living. One such little project has been so much fun to work on this week and I am completely thrilled with the results. Reusable (and completely gorgeous) make up remover pads.
Read MoreHello there and Happy Easter. I do hope you have some sunshine to sit in while munching your easter eggs. There’s a new pattern in Ruby’s sewing room and it is just the prettiest set of little designs that are fun to stitch and great for putting on any number of things, especially handmade gifts.
These girls are around 5” high so they are quick easy projects to sew and there is a world of possibilities to explore with embellishments like teeny tiny buttons, seed beads, sequins and metallic threads.
Read MoreThis is a lockdown project if ever there was one!!! I actually can’t believe it is finished and I can’t believe how pretty it is either. It has been a real journey over the past few months and it has kept me company in the kitchen beside the Aga on chilly autumn days and opened up a whole new world of possibilities to me. My whimsical…free style… garden needlepoint box …. I am just so proud of this and feel a new heirloom has been born.
Read MoreBeing in lockdown has been an interesting experience. In some ways a chance to recalibrate and reorganise. I have spent the last few weeks reorganising my sewing space and really looking at what I have been collecting over quite a long period of time. Of course I am a fabric hoarder - but it’s no good stashing fabric if you cannot see it and don’t always remember what is there. I decided I needed a better way of sorting my fabrics and protecting them too. Making storage baskets is a great idea….a great way to use your stash and really not at all complicated.
Read MoreIt is so good to revisit something in needlework that you had all but forgotten and to find that there is a whole new and modern world going on with it. Needlepoint might be a centuries old pastime but it is really a glorious thing.
Read MoreRecently I went to see the film ‘Little Women’ (twice). Have you seen it? It is Greta Gerwig’s new interpretation of the novel and I loved every second of it. In fact I was so enamoured of it that it plunged me into the world I used to inhabit as a teenager of Victorian style fantasy. I always desperately wished that I could wear the clothes of days gone by when women looked like women and wore what I may describe as ‘extraordinarily pretty things’. I remember when we were over the US a few years ago and we took the kids to Gettysburg. Driving away from it, I saw a shop selling civil war costumes - Scarlett O’hara style for sure. Oh how I wanted a crinoline dress. My husband laughed ‘what on earth would you do with it… wear it do the washing up???’ Of course he is right - I am neither actress or a drama queen. But after seeing ‘Little Women’, I saw lots of ideas that could easily be adapted to today’s wardrobe, which in my case, would absolutely have to include jeans.
Read MoreOne of the projects I am working on this year is a series of embroidery patterns based on famous books or authors. I am a bit of a nut for books and just love curling up with a good read and a quilt. I always loved to read as a child and a lot of my favourite books go way way back. I first read Jane Austen in my early teens and have always loved the dramatisations and films that have regularly graced the screen. Such is our thirst for her stories and insights that the latest adaptation of ‘Sandition’ was in fact an unfinished novel. The fact that Ms. Austen has finally made her way on the £10 note is testament alone to her standing in the world of literature and an acknowledgement of her well deserved place in our national conscience. Why is it that her writings still have such popular appeal today?
Read MoreI love this time of year, thinking about Christmas gifts and planning what to make. I love to put together something small and handmade for all the girls in our family and thought it would be fun to post some ideas up on the journal. Early last year, I did a post about how to make a little fabric box. It can be used for whatever you like really, but in our case it has become a permanent fixture on the kitchen island where it looks after our nail polish and manicure tools. It has been a real hit. Friends and family alike sit around pottering with the pretty colours and painting their nails and for me, often in the early morning hours I like to sit by the Aga, with a candle and a book and do a ‘home manicure’. Our daughter is starting her first proper job in London next week and in packing up and sorting things out, she asked me for a nail box to take away with her. I was quite surprised but realised just how useful it has been. I made her a pretty one with Rifle Paper co. ‘Wonderland’ fabric and bought her a few nice bits and bobs to go in it. She loves it and we both said what a great idea it was for a Christmas gift, so I revisited it, revamped it and wrote a pdf tutorial.
Read MoreAround Easter time, our youngest son was home from London for a couple of days and it so happened that it was warm and sunny weather. He was lying on the grass in the middle of the garden while the rest of us were sitting on the terrace with our mid morning tea. All of a sudden he jumped up and declared ‘we should have a pond!’ and within 5 mins, he, along with my husband, had got the spades out of the garage and started digging.
Read MoreHello there and Happy New Year to you all. I do find this time of year quite hard, taking down the decorations and feeling a bit flat after Christmas, so the best thing to do is hole up in the sewing room and create something….the result is a new mini quilt pattern to start off my new project ‘Literary Threads’.
Read MoreMaking Embroidery Modern
