Friday, 14 November 2008

Experiments in sewing

The first part of my week - at work - was madly busy, tiring and draining. Long hours and late evenings at the office.

And when it came to my days off, yesterday and today, I couldn't face any kind of to do list or busyness. After I'd taken the children to school yesterday I just headed straight back home and immersed myself in fabric, thread and ribbon. The very best de-stressing treatment there is!


One of the things I wanted to try and make was a suffolk puff - one of these:


I love the look of them, but never had any success with the cunning gadget from Clover that is meant to enable you to make them. But then I found a tutorial on Whip Up showing how to make one by hand - easy peasy.

I had ideas about turning the suffolk puffs into some kind of Christmas tree decoration for my swap partner in the 2008 Holiday Traditions Exchange. But I haven't come up with a way of using them that I am happy with yet. More experimentation (or inspiration perhaps?) is required.

Holiday Traditions Exchange 2008


However, I then went off on a tangent with some applique, inspired by this great book, and I now have one Christmas tree decoration for Christie that I am happy with. I just need to make a few more for her now.

Today was a non-uniform day for the children at school (in aid of Children in Need) and O wore her Clothkits funky chicken skirt. As I waved her off at the school gates I remembered that when I ordered the kit for the skirt, I also ordered the kit for a matching hat and bag. The kit had been languishing in my sewing box ever since and it was about time I made it up.

For some reason I was very nervous of this one - I think because I couldn't quite visualise how the hat (lined as well) was going to fit together. I imagined it to be very fiddly.


But in the end it was fine - it came together in under two hours and I'm really pleased with it.

So I've had two days of no work and plenty of sewing. I can't tell you how much of a treat that seems. And this weekend I'm going to have supper with old friends on Saturday, and then lunch with my extended family on Sunday. Work feels like a world away now. Enjoy your weekend!

6 comments:

  1. You really have been very productive on your non-work days. The hat looks great.

    I have tagged you for a "six random things" meme. Details are on my blog if you want to play along.

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  2. love the sewing! I forgot to sign up for the christmas swap this year, I really enjoyed it last year..
    I'm sure I've seen a cute christmas tree made from lots of suffolk punches somewhere.

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  3. Heee! How cute does she look in that hat.

    I vowed last December to make myself a new tree skirt featuring yoyos. I haven't begun yet. Have a feeling it's destined to be a 2009 project.

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  4. The suffolk puffs (my mom and grandma have always called them yo-yo's) you can use to make mini Christmas trees. You make them in different sizes/colors of green fabric. You then poke a hole through the center of all but the smallest one. You glue the smallest one to the end of a stick, then thread the rest on (smallest to largest) and glue them to the stick. The stick becomes the trunk and the yo-yo's the 'branches.'

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  5. The hat looks very smart.

    I've seen a Christmas tree wall-hanging made from suffolk puffs arranged in a triagle. I tend to have grandiose plans for Christmas crafting, which never actual happen.

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  6. What are suffolk puffs?

    And that may be the cutest hat EVER! I absolutely love it!

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