Filed under: in my studio | Tags: Conrad Ivitsky, Cutting fabric, eco motives, Eliza Carthy, grass design, leaf design, Orkestra del Sol, Salsa Celtica, Shooglenifty, the love boat big band
City scape on tweed.
Fortunately, the only grey blocks I’ve had to look at lately are the endless blocks of fabric needing cut for this Eco Motives order. It makes me thank my lucky stars I don’t live in a town anymore, even this much grey regimentality is getting me down, no less because I’m sure a large fabric guillotine could do the job in a tenth of the time. Dreeeeeam!
That was yesterday, today was decorating. Much more fun but more time consuming than I had hoped even though I was sewing like a pixie on speed (except this pixie was on strong coffee).
Cushion fronts and coffee wrap cuts.
I cycled back in glorious sunset hues of deep orange and pinks, stopped at the shop to grab something sweet and something savoury for the Halloween party in the hall and completely forgot about the duking apples…ooops! Right now Yorick and Tom (ill looking devil) will no doubt be whirling sparklers and gasping at fireworks organised by our resident explosives expert, Mark. Handy, very handy! And I’m not there…hurraaaay!
Snow capped Mull this morning.
I won’t be around for the next couple days. Heading down to a lodge near Edinburgh for a night of hedonistic revelry with musician mates (Shooglenifty, The Love boat big band, Orkestra del Sol, Salsa Celtica and Eliza Carthy ) and my great friend Conrad who will be 40 tomorrow.
Have good weekend
x Sarah
Filed under: in my studio | Tags: Beret, boiled wool beret, dyeing wool, Egg cosy, fabric brooch, fashion, felt beret, hand dyed, Hat, mogwaii beret, nest brooch, silk lining, wool
Boiled wool beret. Custom order for Paula
Finally I have the opportunity to write a new and far more up to date post for the bewildering number of surfers who find my blog as a result of googling beret. What is it with berets? Everyone seems to be on a beret quest (take note crafters!). The ‘back from Origin’ post written a year ago, attracts more views than all other posts put together and this as a result of the tag…..(do I need to say it again?).
Today I made a customised beret for Etsian Paula. She wanted one in colours other than those offered on etsy so I showed her a few pics of other fabric samples. She chose a boiled wool fabric which was left over from a previous commission and I was excited to get the opportunity to play with it once again.
Beret panels cut and ready to sew
The fabric responded well to the usual treatment of zig zag seams and embroidered dots. Paula had requested a raspberry flower for the crown. I tried making the flower in felt but the combination of felt and boiled wool just wasn’t right. So out came the red dye and a rosy brew was mixed.
OK...lets give it a go!
Looking good!
So the raspberry flower was cut and attached and here folks (drum roll) …is the beret!
and for a little luxury, a pure silk lining!
It looks scrumptious on. Just my size and I want it!!!
Also emerging from my sewing machine were two lovely Lobelias.
Looking a lttle apprehensive about the impending journey ahead.
a nest brooch for Naomi’s mum’s Xmas (how organised!)
and a Hebridean Hare Egg cosy for the purpose of documenting a how to pattern for Sew Hip magazine.
Dazed and confused
Got to go. Desperate housewives!!
Filed under: life on lismore | Tags: boat to lismore, hen, Oban boat, Soft toy, Tartan, Tweed
Work was nervously abandoned today for the sake of my youngest sons tooth, or lack of a bit of it! We sauntered dazed and still half asleep onto the 7:40am ferry in the hope that an emergency dental appointment could be made at 8:30.
No such luck. Tom’s pain had subsided and the receptionist said no, not emergency enough!
Still, Ruben needed a haircut, an opticians appointment, and we all needed more food. All these things were somehow accomplished. I’d thought, for one glorious moment, that we may indeed be worthy of emergency dental care when Tom’s face started to redden in the opticians and he squealed “Ow, sore again mum” to which I responded gleefully, GREAT! Lets get to the dentist quick while it still hurts, but it soon calmed and Tom insisted that he’d rather have lunch. I think maybe I should have ignored lunch, taken him anyway and poked him hard at reception. What is the NHS coming to when mothers are driven to such desperate measures?
Back to the studio in the afternoon where Hyacinth MacColl was cut, sewn and stuffed for customer Smith.
Hyacinth in bits.
Hyacinth with her legs in the air! Sorry, bad light = bad photo!
Filed under: latest news | Tags: contemporary wool, The woolroom, wool, wool bags, wool cushions, wool products
Apart from the woolroom that is my studio after three days of hooverless work, there is now another, far more classy woolroom in existence. It is the brand new and far from fluffy www.woolroom.com. This is the online shop for which I made a fairly large amount of cushions, lamps and various other wool things (see post Mission Accomplished!)
Butterfly strip looking very savvy!
There are all sorts of wool items available from cushions to wool filled duvets. Liz, their buyer has an eye for clean and contemporary lines and the occasional quirky trinket. All you wool enthusiasts…check it out!
Very clever piece of pie seats!
Pink butterfly strip in front of an original Damien Hurst no less!
Scrumptious wool bag
Good luck you woolroom!!
Filed under: life on lismore | Tags: cuddly hare, cuddly rabbit, Love heart brooch, soft toy hare, tweed and tartan, tweed soft toy
The only…I repeat ONLY problem with being as good as married to a builder is this! If they get in to the bath before you, the bath is not worth even contemplating for a second run. But I did and I did!! I was quite clean and now I sense a mucky,greasy film of grime all about my person…NOW I need a shower!
Today our house could have potentially burnt down if it hadn’t been for Ruben the super hero son. I’d asked him to keep the Rayburn going while I was at work and he dutifully filled it with coal. A couple of hours later the house was full of smoke and some clothes which had been left a top the beast to dry had begun to smoulder and burn. Fortunately Ruben caught and flung the charred remains out to the rain and no major damage was done, but my favourite pair of pants, a tea towel and two tops are barbecued to cinders.
So…I was really looking forward to the return to a guilt free work routine with Tom back at school and time to focus. Two hours in to labeling and packing an urgent order and I get a phone call from the school. ” Sorry to bother you Sarah but Tom has toothache, could you maybe come and get him”. Grooooan!! Poor soul, he had to wait a couple of hours before I turned up clasping a pack of nurofen and he returned with me to the workshop. Tomorrow orders are put on standby. The dentist beckons!
I have a picture here of Rosy Macpherson the highland hare…coming your way Natalie!
Just about to skip off to France. Don't they eat hares there? Shhhh!
And here’s the threads for your love heart brooch Jude.
Made,packed and sent today!
Filed under: in my studio | Tags: Berry deign, chocolate, Coffee cosy, grass design, Mogwaii coffee cosy, too much cake, Tweed, waxed linen thread
Jeezo I’m feeling stuffed! We’ve just had friends round for dinner. Yorick and I made Brazilian black bean stew (feijuada), and Dot brought one almighty chocolate pudding with a big bowl of gooey choc sauce and I ate far too much. We also then managed to swill it down with too much red wine, more chocolate and a coffee to sober up.
Talking of coffee..I’ve spent today dressing my studio cafetiere in the finest tweed.
Coffee coat off the cafetiere
The brief was to make coffee cosies in the grass, leaf and berry designs. I didn’t want to make the complete smother cover type (like a taller, thinner version of tea cosies), but preferred the idea of wrap around jackets. Initially velcro was tried as a fastener but that just looked a bit clunky, so I used a button and waxed linen cord instead. This cord is fantastic. I use it for a lot of things from packaging to labels. I bought it from a basket maker friend and it has such a lovely, rigid, slightly sticky quality and will hold it’s form. So you coil the thread once or twice around the button and IT STAYS THERE! I’m very excited.
Berry coat on the cafetiere.
Filed under: in my studio | Tags: Tartan, Tea cosies. Jonathon Ross, Tweed, tweed tea cosy
because Jonathon Ross is on in five minutes and I’m shattered. Working through this October break is beginning to take it’s toll. Arrived back from the studio today to a house swarming with kids (seven of them). Stew was dealt out to the masses and a mountain of dishes and greasy pots left for muggins here to wash. The only bummer about not making the meal is that one feels obliged to clean up!
OK…so I thought I’d better show you today’s invention: the tea cosies…
Leaf at the front, then grass and then berry in blue.
I’ve never made tea cosies before but a little common sense, organic cotton wadding and piping and hey presto!
They’re OK aren’t they? Part of me wants them to be a bit more mad and unconventional but a new concept is always harder to sell. I think products sold online have to be understandable.
Piping
Jonathon beckons…speak soon.
x Sarah
x
Filed under: in my studio | Tags: berries, cushions, designing, Ikea, table runners, textile design
The berries have now been devised and installed on cushions and a table runner. Too late to change my mind now but I don’t want to. I’m liking them!
Firstly I had to die some habotai silk red. Extricated the rusty red die tins from the leaking shed, I mean REALLY leaking because this morning the heavens opened in grandest style and dropped an almighty load on the island. Dieing was fairly straightforward: bowl and a kettle and a scoosh of very posh balsamic vinegar (all I could find) and abracadabra…red silk.
Honestly...it is died silk not murder in a steam room.
I cut out the discs of habotai silk and spent far too long shifting them about the twig design trying to figure out the right positioning. I had originally planned to sew a single circle around the inside of the disk as in the leaf design but this didn’t look good…so machine embroidered spirals were tried and worked. All colourways completed and then an age was spent trying to figure out the best approach to table runners. This designing business does take time, but it’s satisfying.
I think I’m going to approach Ikea. I think they might like my work. I have a hunch one of their designers already takes sneaky peaks at the web site. I like the idea of being able to make a range which could be available to lots of people at a low price, but as a sole maker I just can’t make that happen. I wonder how I should go about approaching them?
Oh…by the way. Yorick is stranded on the mainland…no ferries since 2pm!
Filed under: in my studio | Tags: Add new tag, designing, fluff, gales, Isle of Lismore, leaf design, Oban boat, sewing machine, stranded, Tweed cushions
Oh oh… Big gales forecast for tomorrow AND Friday. I can hear the wind hurtling in form the west, moaning and sometimes howling and battering the roof slates, limbering up for the full, unadulterated rammy! An air of apprehension and excitement as to what force nature will throw at us tomorrow and how we may have to alter plans to adapt to it’s unpredictable temperament. Yorick MAY go to work on the mainland if the ferry runs but will take his sleeping bag in case he can’t return, Ruben felt very sick on the big boat on Monday and that was just a mediocre swell, will he endure the sea gales tomorrow for a day’s veterinary experience? I wonder!
I however, will one way or another venture to the studio to complete one of each design ordered by eco motives. Fabric arrived yesterday, thank god, so work could proceed today.
Delicious tweed
First things first! My sewing machine was becoming increasingly rattly and I know that sound. It is the sound of congealed fluff in the system and right enough, when I opened the hatch it looked a little as though the contents of a hoover had been rammed in to the works. Out with the paint brush and oil and in with avengance. It’s now purring like a happy cat again. Miaow!
Fluff wars
My original plan for today was to finalise the berry design but that involves dyeing habotai silk and I’d left my dies in the shed back home. Bum!!
So I pushed on with the other cushions, designing certain aspects of their structure as I made. I’m realising that my understanding of what will and won’t work with fabric and design has grown with experience and I’m able to apply ideas with a little less trial and error. I wanted there to be an element of 3 dimensionality and structure to these cushions so I have ribbed the side panels. I want it to look a bit like a tree trunk, but nothing too fussy and (let’s get real) time consuming.
Front of the twig and leaf cushion
Cushions on the scabby seat.
Tomorrow I WILL finalise the berry design and I’m well looking forward to making my first tea and coffee cosy. Stay tuned!
OK…for the benefit of NOTS customer I’m going to throw in a few pics of her moss nest brooch which was sent out today!
Threads and fabric for the Moss nest brooch
Nest sewn, buttons to be added
Done!
See you tomorrow
xx Sarah
Filed under: in my studio | Tags: berries, cushios, fabric berries, sketching ideas, soft toy hare, soft toy rabbit, Tidy studio
Threads in a KIND of order.
What joy…to breeze between threads, scissors and tape measures without sending out search parties or stumbling over fabric mountains. The aim now is to keep it this way; everything returned to it’s proper venue after use, all tools home after every assignment.
This is actually ordered. You should have seen it yesterday!
How long can it last I ask myself?…probably about as long as my fingernails (eaten)!
So today was actually quite productive. Ruben cycled heroically through the rain at the break of dawn toward the Oban ferry and work experience at the vets. Tom cycled to Carnie cottage where all cousins and sisters (mine) have descended for October break/chaos. So I was able to work unhindered and unfettered by distraction.
First assignment…a window panel kind of thing for a customer who wants to dress the window but no point in a blind because it would always be up. So we have devised a shallow felt panel with a slot at the back for the pole. Interesting!
I think it worked out well, hope she likes it.
Then on to etsy orders, one of which was Lobelia Campbell. I thought I would document her birthing process for you as I find it very entertaining and maybe you will too.
I can see the head but I think the shoulders are stuck
Puuuuush!
It's a ...Ooooo what is it??
It's a rabbit thing. Is it alive? Quick, resusitate!
It's Lobelia the Highland Hare
OK…maybe I should get out more.
Then I made a little sparrow on a branch brooch and a Cluck and Pecker cushion for Etsy buyers.
Machine embroidering swallow.
Hens pinned and legless.
and began the next big job of cushions, lamps, tea cosies and other things for a soon to be online shop called eco motives. I am designing a totaly new range for this shop so as not to step on the toes of my other eco client. Berries have been requested in the design so this afternoon was about finding a Mogwaiiish way to do berries. Still working at it and havn’t quite clinched it, but I have a cunning plan. All will/may be revealed tomorrow.
Photos were taken of berries
A bit of sketching ideas
and more importantly, trying out different ideas on fabric
