Wips*

I have so many wips at the moment! I do try and finish things before I satart on something new, but ideas do keep on popping into my head begging to be made! It's an occupational hazard I guess. I do use a sketchbook for jotting down ideas, but my fingers are always itching to get into the actual making!

In June last year I bought some early 19th-century silk. It isn't soemthignthat I would normally buy as antique fabrics can be really expensive, but the three pieces I bought are quite thin and fragile making them unsuitable for large pieces if work. However, as most of the things I make are small, it was an ideal opportunity for me to have something that was nearly 200 years old!

19th-century silk in purple, red and green (though it looks grey in this photo).

I'm using some of the purple to make a small bag, which began life as the small sketch below:

Though the only thing I kept from the sketch is the shape of the bag as I wasn't sure one how well the silk would hold up if I trued to patchwork pieces together. I also swapped the running stitch fir chain stitch. First of all I tacked the silk onto a piece of cotton fabric (recycled from one of my Dad's old shirts) to help stabilise and support the silk. I'm now in the process of stitching lines of chain stitch, both to attach the two pieces of fabric together and as decoration, as I'm altering both the direction of the line and of the stitching.

The back showing the cotton backing.

Once this side is completed, I'll start on the other, though I've not quite decided what I'm going to do with it yet.

I'm also using some of the purple silk to make some buttons, one of which may appear on the finished bag. The first one (on the right in the photo below) is a mixture of my favourite french knots and little 'stems' of beads edged in chain stitch.

For the second button (in the images below), I've secured five little beads inside a piece of silk that I've mounted onto the base fabric and I'm adding french knots into the fabric folds.

If you pop over to my Instagram account (@louise_at_elsiemayandbertha) you can see images of my progress on both the bag and buttons, and whatever else I'm working on.

TTFN
Louise

*Wips - works in progress

Wips*

With the flurry of activity towards the end of last week making things, like those above, to take to the Seagrass Gallery, and working on my covered buttons (see Monday's post), I've not had much chance to work on anything else. 

These are the items currently on the top of my wip pile (it's not too big, honestly!):

This one is new - a house made from a scrap of linen, along with a lace roof and fabric scrap door, all on some vintage linen being made into a little picture. 

You've seen this one before, another collage/picture. The Jessie Chorley bird will be added onto it once the I've finished stitching it. There's still quite a few pieces to be appliqued and stitched onto this, so it's nowhere near finished.

This white piece is further on than the one above. Something needs to added to the patch on the top left, but I'm undecided whether the rest needs anything more. I think I need to decide what it's going to be before I can decide. I'm deciding between a pillow top or a pouch. We shall see.

I'll be back on Friday.

TTFN
Louise

* Wip - work in progress.

A white wip*

Happy St. Patrick's Day to those who are celebrating and don't imbibe too much in the black stuff!

I've been doing a bit more work on this white piece in between other projects, so it's moved on a bit since you last saw it. I've added a patch of white on white spotty fabric on the top left that's really just there as an excuse for me to decorate a couple of seams!

At the bottom right corner of the central lace piece I've added a little pocket. It's just attached with stab stitches at the moment, but I may add some more embellishment to go with the suffolk puffs and french knots on the top of the pocket.

I've permanently attached the long piece of broderie anglais by stitching on shell knibs and beads, and I'm in the process of using bullion loops to tack down the bottom side of the broderie anglais.

Once the remainder of the bullion loops are done, I'll be adding a few white sequins that I've just ordered especially for this piece (I have loads of different colours of sequins, but no white ones for some reason!). There's still planety to be done in this piece as yet, so it's going to be a while before you see the finished article (probably a pillow, but I'm not entirely sure yet).

I'll be back on Sunday with this week's #our52weekproject installment.

TTFN
Louise

*wip - work in progress

Needlecase etc wips*

The finished article of anything is still alluding me so I still only have wips, including these needlecases, to share with you. 

These two are the closest to being finished. The yellow one just needs to be lined and have its felt 'pages' added. The dark grey one is nearly in the same position, I just need to finish adding the needles label on.

These ones are in the pre-embellishment stage, with its additions chosen and ready to attach.

These two are bigger than the others and will become sewing cases rather than just for needles.

I really do need to get busy!

I hope your week is going well and I'll be back on Friday.

TTFN
Louise

wips* - works in progress

A few wips*

This is just a little collection of what's on my worktable at the moment! The second photo has needlecases in various stages of completion. Photos 5 and 6 are of pincushions to match a couple of the needlecases. The  next couple of images show the very beginnings of a new pouch, then we have the start of a lavender sachet and two lavender pillows. Hopefully, the majority of this little lot will be finished this week.

I hope you've had a good weekend and I'll be back on Wednesday.

TTFN
Louise

*wips - work in process

A couple of wips*

These are two of the things I'm working on at the moment. The top one is a piece of lace cloth I made a while ago from silk scrim and fabric and lace scraps. I have now started to add embroidery and beads to it. I'm using a mixture of threads, the one is the photo are all vintage but I'm also using some cream silk and coton a broder that are new too. I'm not entirely sure what I will do with this when I think it's had enough embellishment. It may form a top of a pillow or an art piece or be cut up into smaller pieces to use on more than one piece of work.

The second piece will be a lavender pillow. I'm making it out of wool fabrics and lace and it'll be further embellished with stitch and buttons, probably. Sometimes a piece can evolve into something different than what you originally intended to make, but at the moment this will be a lavender pillow. I am enjoying working on this wool fabric though, it has a definite autumn feel to it, plus you don't really need to worry about it fraying either.

I hope you have a good weekend and I'll be back again on Monday.  

TTFN
Louise

*wip - work in progress