Update and Mad Hatter Jacket finished

Happy Easter to all -  I have not done much this Easter break - I have been thinking :-)

In the last few days, however I have made two more Kindle pouches:

  And whilst looking for something - obviously the room got turned upside down.........

 I did not find what I was looking for however I did end up clearing the work surface to make it more user friendly!
And I did find something interesting - that I have not seen in years and years,,,,,, When I first started my C&G courses back in 1992 I was a guinea pig for Empress Mills and their new selection of threads box idea (they don't do this offer any more - obviously). I purchased their offer of a box full of threads of your choice  - 34 reels for £75 - a bargain at that time.  I found these threads so special that I hardly used them - and look - they are still near perfect !!

My daughter was here for lunch yesterday and we spent the afternoon making this - we had seen one in a garden centre gift shop a couple of weeks ago and were sure we could make our own with the buttons and beads I have collected over the years !

Now to the Mad Hatter - yes I have finished the Jacket..

 

Catch up, Mad Hatter, Alice, Creative Morning and Scrapstore Haul

So it's about time for a proper catch up - what has been going on here?  Well I have been busy. This post is a bit photo heavy and is not necessarily in the correct order :-)
This morning a friend was meant to visit but as she was unable to come I spent a happy couple of hours making bread (not in the machine as that is broken, but by hand).  Here are the results from the right: two small rye loaves with caraway seed, cheese and chive soda bread.  Front left is the best loaf - multi grain and behind it is also multi grain but with olives and it sank a little!  However, they all taste lovely.

Last Saturday I gave a talk about the Mid Summer Night's Dream Fairy costumes to the Spinners, Weavers and Dyers Guild, Wiltshire branch - the fairies enjoyed their outing....

Then on Monday I went off to Kingcombe, to spend three great days with my textile friends. My daughter calls it 'Going to your made up Harry Potter place' - becuause of the name of the village we go through... Toller Pocorum - it is real, and although I have never read or seen any Harry Potter I do think it is a magical place :-)

 

Whilst there I visited the chickens (who are very friendly) and watched this magnificent pheasant, so close to the door.

I did a lot of creative work and have nearly finished the Mad Hatter's jacket - and continued work on Alice's skirt......

Today after lunch I fancied a trip out to the local Scrap store to see if they had anything new in.  This is my very wonderful haul..... - the lady only asked for a donation of just £8 !!! I have used my phone to give you an indication of the size of the fabric sample books.  They are Anna French fabrics - which are either obsolete or the shop selling them has closed and given the books to the scrap store. 

The designs are just lovely - here are are few examples....

I also picked up a whole heap of small samples from the scrap bins and a couple of small sample books

 and found the cutest tassel samples - so had to have a handful of those  -

 there were threads too

and a lovely, small book of wallpaper samples which are really pretty...

This is how the bag covered my dining room table - loads to sort out.

I feel some patchwork Kindle or IPad covers are itching to be created.  Having said that though - the large Anna French pieces would make lovely quilted wall hangings - lots of stitching and some wadding etc - Must get on with some ideas, - No - I must get back to the Mad Hatter and Alice first :-)

Jolted back - with thanks

Thanks to the kind words of my blogging friends and my daughter I think I am on the mend - miraculous really. I think I needed to vent my misery and now I have begun to feel better. I looked more closely at Art Girl scraps and divided them into two sets - the straight pieces which I will keep for later and these odd shaped scraps.  Without thinking too much I have put together a mug rug - it measures 20 cm x 16 cm and is crazy patched together with one of the longer pieces as the binding.  The remaining tiny scraps will go into another project too. So two more projects yet to come from this lovely bag of scraps from Art Girl. - Thanks  

This little project only took an hour from the start but it has kicked started me back to scissor production for the Mad Hatter.  These are made on water soluble in reverse - so here you see the back - the front surface is silver metallic thread.  I only have another 18 pairs or so to go so there will be 30+, to go with the 76 cotton reels - then I need to make more needles as I only have 30 of those so far :-).

Cotton Reel Production

People have been asking about the scissors, needles and cotton reels. Yes each one is made individually by me.  I could have set up my machine to stitch these out but then each one would be identical to the next and I wanted them to be individual.  I know its labour intensive but at least I can say I made each piece myself.  Here you can see the next batch of cotton reels.  They are all just thread on water soluble fabric.

Mad Hatter Update Jan 2013

I know its been a while since I blogged but life has been in the way as usual,  The Mad Hatter is progressing well if slowly.  I have put the main pieces of the jacket together 

The cuffs started out big and I did try arranging various scissor combinations over them  (see below) but I thought they looked better smaller and may have cotton reels rather than scissors.

 Here is a rough idea of the cotton reel layout.

I also have more work to do on the main establishment for the front of jacket. So its off to make more scissors, needles and cotton reels.

You can see in the top pictures the trousers I will be altering and customising into my Mad Hatter trousers - not sure how yet but if you have any suggestions I am always happy to receive ideas.

Mad Hatter update

Having outlined one side of the large scissor print, I've done the needles and the I started on the reels of thread - the ends are going to be loose.  Having done just two I realised that the part outline is not strong enough and needs to be darker with more depth.  So it needs a perle cotton but as I don't have the right deep colour in perle I am going to do my very favourite thing - make a cord!! using the perle I do have and the deeper metallic and cotton thread I am creating yards and yards of the right colour, right thickness yarn and YES I love it - I am cord making - what could make me happier???

Here I have laid the darker against some outlining to see if it will work.

Back to the mad Hatter

I have been working on the Mad Hatter outlining all the printing on all the costume pieces - this is taking an age.  Here is the sample  

I have also been making more of the scissors, cotton reels and needles - they look good laid on the sample.  

I have now started the highlighting on the background fabric - at the moment I am highlighting the large scissors in blue metallic thread. 

Mad Hatter update

I have been sewing thread only scissors and needles for a while now -even more today, also today it was time to have a go at thread bobbins:  

The Mad Hatter is dangerous

 Why do I chose to make such labour intensive pieces of textile art work?  Whilst stitching on the background fabric for the Mad Hatters jacket - which is going to take me an age -I have also been making the thread only pieces which will be applied later!
Here you can see the underside and the rough needle drawing ready to stitch - these pieces are on water soluble fabric with metallic thread and as my machine does not like metallic thread I have to use it in the bobbin and work in reverse.

Here ready for washing out

So far there are 10 pairs of scissors - lots more to go!!   

Why is the Mad Hatter dangerous - because look what happened whilst I was stitching - the pointed end hit me in the face - luckily I had my specs on!!