a matter of time.

Cards and Tunics

2011-12-08T20:20:00.002Z

Blimey, has it really been a month since my last post? I have been very busy - alas, the bears are on the back burner at the moment... I did finish the tunic for little Lotte, however, so some progress:

I am quite pleased how it turned out, particularly since this is the first time I attempted to make something with sleeves. I would have worn that when I was a toddler in the 1970s...

It was also my friend Mandy's birthday and I made her an overflow shopping tote bag from a lovely vintage piece of fabric I found on ebay. In it's former life it was a curtain. Luckily it happened to be colour co-ordinated with our kitchen wall and I could lean it against a matching background for the photo shoot.

Finally, I have started to craft this year's Christmas cards. I used my favourite cut and paste method:

So. Pre-Christmas greetings, crafters!

I apologise for the lack of bears in this posting. Hopefully I will have some finished next time.

Tunic Dress

2011-11-07T22:06:00.001Z

I went to Columbia Road Flower Market in East London yesterday to meet up with a friend and I thought while I was there, I would quickly visit the lovely Beyond Fabrics shop http://www.beyond-fabrics.co.uk/ too. I came away with two lovely pieces (the two patterned ones, the plain mustard piece is one I had acquired earlier) which are re-issues of designs by Sara Morgan for Blue Hill, ca. 1930:

I went for patterns 7471 (brown) and 7476 (yellow). Go to the Blue Hill Fabrics website for more shades and different patterns http://bluehillfabrics.net/collections/item/20-feedsack-ii I think they are simply beautiful! I must do some research on Sara Morgan too...

I shall use these lovely pieces for making a tunic dress for a two-year old girl, following a pattern I bought last week from http://www.made-by-rae.com/ I will post updates on my progress in due course - I am beginning to think I might soon have too many projects on the go and will have to be careful that they don't remain half finished. At least with the dress I have a deadline, as it is supposed to be a birthday present...

Cheerio, crafters x

Fabulous Felt

2011-11-05T12:19:00.000Z

Just a quick hello to say that I have received this fabulous felt fabric bundle from Gertie&Mabel www.gertieandmabel.co.uk - I wish I had ordered two as it is so great to look at that I shall be sad to cut into it. The colours are simply wonderful, the shades of a vintage rainbow. None of that garishness common in felt packages sold on the highstreet. And the quality is better too: 30% wool, 70% rayon/ viscose.
I shall start cutting out my bears' eyes, noses, feet soon.

Bye for now!

Welcome and Introducing Mr Bear

2011-11-02T22:57:00.002Z

Welcome to my blog, where I shall introduce the results of my craft experiments!

I guess as many other craft enthusiasts, I grew up in a household where both parents were rather skilled makers of things. My Mum used to sew all of my sister's and my clothes (I must dig out some photos where the three of us wear clothes made from the same fabric with variations in the cut reflecting differences in age...), and amongst other things, she and my Dad made us a groovy dolls house and Punch and Judy dolls (except that we called them 'Kasperlpuppen' in German). My sister and I picked up a thing or two about woodwork, sewing, knitting and acquired some crafting skills in the process.

For my current bear project, I decided to go 'back to my roots' and use a pattern that my Mum followed for making this cute little fella. She made a whole army of them at the time, I don't remember ever giving this particular one a name, but I still have him.

The pattern came from a 'Ravensburger Bastelbuch', which I now have in my collection. I find the simplicity quite appealing. I shall post some pics of the book and the proper reference with my next entry. In fact, at some point in the future, I shall introduce a few of the books, I think they are absolutely brilliant, particularly the ones from the 1960s and 70s.

For this current batch of bears, I have decided to put a pair of 1970s flared Lee cords to good use (upcycling!) and try to get as many bears out of them as possible. I am waiting for some nice quality felt to arrive, which I will use for adding the details, most importantly the eyes and nose. I might try different colours for the ears, hands and feet. And I also need to order some stuffing. I am picky with these details. I don't want to use any nasty polyester fillings or acrylic felt. That would spoil it!

Firs things first though, here is what I have done so far:

Under the watchful eyes of Mr Bear (I think of him as a he anyhow), I have traced the pattern on the reverse side of my old trousers, and have cut the pieces out using zigzag scissors- I don't actually know what the technical term is, but I think it is obvious what I mean.

I was watching 'Kirstie's Handmade Britain' on Channel 4 at the same time so the progress was a bit slower than planned, but by the time I shall be finished with the trousers, I should have maybe 5 or six little blue bears ready to be sewn together. Hurrah! That will make me feel better about never going to be able to wear those fab trousers again.

That's enough for today, I shall be back with the next installment soon!

Happy crafting x