Three More Stockings..

I'm back and I'm blogging! Only a short post today because I'm absolutely cream-crackered and need to go and have a sit down and a cup of cocoa (with a gap*, of course). I had a fantastic time down in London catching up with old friends from student days and with some of my old workmates. We realised yesterday that it's 9 years or so since we all worked together at Senate House in London (designed by one of my heroes, Charles Holden). It's great that we've managed to stay in touch for so long - something to do with being thrown together by adversity I think...

Before I went off to catch my train I sped round to the Post Office to send these 3 stockings off on their way to their new owners. I can't take credit for the design, but I am happy that I managed to embody the customer's design idea pretty successfully. It can be quite tough to translate someone else's pictures into a 3D form - and what's more, with this project I had to do it 3 times! I really hope they bring a lot of Christmas cheer to the recipients, and of course that they get filled with presents from Father Christmas.

While I was in London I decided to spend some time at the craft stalls at Spitalfields market. I was quite amazed at how much the market had changed since we used to visit regularly a decade ago. It's all spruced up, less Bohemian, and the people you see browsing around are a bit different too. However there was still some really inspirational crafters doing their thing (but maybe not as many as I remember) - will post about what I bought very soon.

*with a gap - means leave a gap that you can fill with alcohol of your choice, e.g. cointreau, rum, brandy...

Finished Another Christmas Stocking!

Here's another Christmas commission all done and ready to be posted, as soon as I've finished another one for Daisy's big sister!

Working from my friend's specification I've used pink corduroy in the main body and Michael Miller's Yule Trees fabric to form the lining and the cuff. The name and the Christmas tree applique are made using wool felt, embellished with vintage buttons. There's also medium interfacing in the body of the stocking & the cuff also has a layer of fusible fleece to give it structure when the stocking is hanging.

I've really enjoyed making this, it worked out almost entirely how I'd hoped, although rather different from the original design. And I was pleased that the method I used for putting the stocking together worked too! I'm now just hoping that Daisy Rose and her mum like it.

Christmas Stocking Prototype

I've been working hard on this prototype Christmas stocking today (with a little break when we had an unscheduled power cut!) and am now nearly done. As I've already mentioned I've got a commission from Celia to make stockings for her 2 lovely girls, and before I started cutting fabric and sewing applique I really wanted to have a go at making a trial version. I realised I was being handed the perfect opportunity to make stockings for my 2 lovely boys! I have been meaning to do this for 3 years now, and even have some fabric cut out ready to go, but they've never got finished in the Christmas rush. Poor things are always getting prototypes and rejected experiments (a misshapen owl and a turtle with no eyes are quite popular..) but this time I think they are going to pretty pleased, because this has gone really well. The main body of the stocking is lovely orange (Danny's favourite colour) corduroy which I got from Ditto Fabrics. It's the 1st time I've used this shop and I am very impressed with their selection - especially with the lovely corduroys in lots of beautiful colours - the staff were very friendly too. The fabric trim on the stocking cuff is Laurel Burch Bountiful Blessings Tress in Ivory (from a very helpful ebay retailer called Quilted Mouse Fabrics). All the applique is in 100% wool felt from my favourite Handmade Presents - not cheap, but in my opinion it's fantastic value because it's top quality. I'm pretty pleased with how it's all worked out - the only thing I'd change is the colour of thread I used for the name applique - it's too light I think. It's a bit of a work in progress photo because I haven't sewn the final seam - so you also get to see my workspace, and today's number 1 distraction - Selvedge magazine - which arrived this morning. As usual I'm totally gobsmacked by all the gorgeous work and photos of beautiful things. As someone else said - even the adverts are lovely to look at. I've already been through it twice and will have another browse tonight. It's such a treat to receive that it really was a no-brainer to fork out for a 3 year subscription recently.

Some Commissions!

I've had some commissions lately which is really great - it's good to be working on something that you've already sold! Far better for your confidence, although it can be more stressful, especially as you have a customer's expectations to worry about too. But my customers have all been lovely so far, so fingers crossed. It's a real mixed bag of projects. Gill wanted a hat... it's just been finished, and this is me wearing it - excuse the crazed smile (see below, I'm very tired). The yarn is Colinette Point 5 in a shade called Velvet Damson. It really is lovely and a real pleasure to work with. I've also crocheted up another in a shade called Bright Charcoal (I couldn't go to the shop for just one thing could I?) - can't decide whether to sell or keep that one! I am becoming slightly obsessed by Colinette yarns, they are such blissful colours and I love the different textures and structures that they produce. I've had some requests for proper full-sized stockings, so I've been having fun working on designs. I thought it might be interesting/scary to post a picture of my initial design so that you can compare it to the final result. So, here's my design.... The customer requested pink and wanted the stocking personalised, and I suggested the applique. I think the one thing that this tells everyone is that my artistic skills are extremely limited. And don't you like the use of the pink gummed paper I pinched from my sons' craft box?! I'm going to be using pink corduroy for the main body of the stocking, and felt for the tree and the letters. The stocking is going to be lined with some gorgeous Michael Miller fabric called Yule Trees (the link will take you to Hancock's of Paducah - I warn you not to click on it if you suffer from fabric issues). We tracked down a UK supplier of this fabric on Ebay - it's been a very helpful service so far from Quilted Mouse Fabrics. Another item I've been asked for is a blue hippo amigurumi with a nurse's hat and apron. I'm thinking felt for the hat and apron - I'm hoping it's going to look pretty cute. Other stuff I have almost finished at the moment are: business card wallets made with some really funky Free Spirit fabric, 2 or 3 crochet brooches and a patchwork bag. Phew! And of course there's just the small matter of my lads' 6th birthday party at the weekend and finishing decorating the front room by Christmas. See, I told you there was a reason I look tired...

I pricked and pounced!

I've been personalising Christmas stockings full time for the last few days it seems. Because the stockings are made with quite rough textured felt it is a real problem getting the lettering on to the fabric so that I can embroider the names. I have been using a charcoal pencil, but that is rather unsatisfactory because drawing on the felt is difficult, smudgy, and the pencil gets very clogged up with wool. Yuck.

So, today, I had a bit of an inspiration when I remembered reading about the 'prick and pounce' method of transferring pattern to fabric in Diana Springall's book Embroidery. So I tried my own version of it.

First I drew my design on thick tracing paper.










Then I pricked along the lines of the tracing with a chunky needle (sorry, rubbish at knowing about needle sizes) - you might be able to see in the photo below that I missed the dot on the letter 'i'!













Then I laid the tracing on the felt stocking I'm working on at the moment. Holding it firmly in place I then scraped a bit of tailors' chalk dust on to the tracing paper & rubbed it in a bit with my finger. If you were doing prick and pounce properly then you would use pouncing powder - ground up cuttlefish - & a brush so I don't think you would need to rub it in.

















Then I lifted up the tracing paper and - tada! - it worked perfectly! I then pressed the chalk in a bit with my finger so it didn't just brush off.














People have been using this method of transferring pattern to fabric for centuries. I think the next step is to join up the dots with paint, otherwise the pattern would soon be rubbed off. Fortunately, the chalk I used lasted for long enough for me to finish the embroidery.













I've just read that it's also traditional to use ground cinnamon for pouncing. That sounds infintely preferable to using ground cuttlefish... And wouldn't it make Christmas stockings smell nice and Christmassy?

I feel the need to record how hard I've been working these last few days. So - we've got the embroidery above...

This very sweet little blue elephant:


















Some crochet brooches (er, not quite finished):














Finished a scarf using the stunning beautiful Colinette prism in Autumn Leaves:














No wonder I'm cream-crackered...

Personalised Christmas stockings

I've so enjoyed making these stockings as a custom order. I was a bit concerned about how the heck I was going to fit the names on to there, because they're not huge things - but it worked out just fine! They are meant as tree decorations rather than to hang up for Father Christmas to fill, but there's certainly space in them for a little tiny gift or two. Please ignore the awful Xmas tree I've used for the photos - we found this tatty number in my dad's attic & we thought it would be good for our product photos. Maybe not!!

The stocking itself is handsewn together and the fur is also sewn on by hand because my sewing machine can't get into such small places! The applique is done with wonderful wonderful bondaweb and finished with hand blanket stitching round the edge. I do love to blanket stitch but I always forget how to start - have to get my book out and look it up every single time... Hopefully I'll get some more custom orders before Christmas and then I can practise a bit more.

I now have another two to make for two more little girls. I've had fun today chosing the coloured felt & floral fabric that I am going to use. I can't remember if I have mentioned where I buy my felt from before. They're called Handmade Presents & they have fantastic stuff - gorgeous colours and 100% wool so it is a dream to work with and doesn't have that sheen that you get with cheaper felt. One of the things they sell at their site are these absolutely gorgeous felt animals. Take a look at their fab stuff!