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*

More stitching etc has been added to this blue and white collage piece. The printed flower may have some extra stitching added to the image, I'm waiting to see how it fits in with its completely surrounded. I'm currently in the middle of stitching three suffolk puffs onto the blue gingham patch.

This is the start of a cushion cover. I've used an embroidered corner of a vintage napkin that I've stitched onto two panels of fabric (the seam of the third piece has yet to be permanently stitched down) and added some beads too. I'm waiting for some fabric and beads I've ordered before I can continue with this wip.

 
This last one is a skirt that I'm making for myself. It's the first piece of clothing I've made for myself for years, so I've gone for a really simple gathered skirt, made from two rectangles of black and white gingham and it has an elasticated waist. I'm trimming the hem with some vintage broderie anglais and some cotton lace and I'll also be adding some suffolk puff flowers too.

Hopefully, I'll have finished the skirt when I next post on Wednesday.

TTFN
Louise

*wips - works in progress

Just a week late!

I'm sorry for the missing week of posts. My chronic fatigue was bad last week (I won't go into the details!), which meant that I couldn't do much of anything so I decided to take a few days off.

I've been able to do a bit more over the last couple of days so I actually have something new to show you. I'm not going to be back on my regular, every other day, posting schedule for another few days, so I can have a couple of posts in hand. I'm also hoping to have more posts about other things rather than just about my own work. For example, my next post is about an exhibition of the work of two artists that's currently on at the Seagrass Gallery in West Kirby. I'll be going to the Vintage Fair at St. George's Hall next Saturday (27th May) and I'll visiting an exhibition on Japanese prints at the Lady Lever Art Gallery in the next few weeks too. 

 This blue one has grown in size considerable since I first started it, as I've added two further vintage cotton background pieces. There's still a lot of work left on this one (mainy of the pieces on the top half are unattached).

This one is much smaller. I've used a small vintage linen napkin as the background and used quite large, in comparison, patches. The centre embroidered flower is one of those that were given away with cigarettes many moons ago.

I'll be back on Monday with the Seagrass artists' post.

TTFN
Louise

More buttons and a couple of needlecase wips*

The needlecases and the set of four red silk buttons will be taken to the Seagrass Gallery next week. The other two buttons will appear on projects still to be thought of!

I'll be back on Friday.

TTFN
Louise

*wips - works in progress

A birthday card, a button and some new stuff.

First of all, I can't believe that a third of the year has gone already - it doesn't seem that long since new year!  I must be getting old!

This a birthday card for a family friend, but I should have some on Etsy soon, or you can just let me know in the comments below if you'd like me to make you something similar.

I used a precut card from The Works for this one and it's a B5 size not my usual A5.  I printed the vintage image onto mat photo paper then used a mixture of watercolour paint and gel pens to colour in and enhance the image. I then stitched it onto a piece of patterned paper before attaching it to the card and adding the sentiment and enamel dots.

I made this button in the same way as I showed you a couple of weeks ago, us four different pieces of fabric to create the circle to cover the button with. This button will be going onto a lavender pillow I'm making.

I spent a couple of hours yesterday looking through bits of fabric and vintage linens etc to put together a few new pieces, mainly lavender or  rose sachets and pillows, to add to my wip* pile. I tend to work on the principle of finishing one thing and then starting another half dozen!

I'll be back on Thursday, with at least one finished thing!

TTFN
Louise

*wip - work in progress.

A bit of a stroll and adding to the wip* pile!

It was lovely and sunny this morning so we caught the bus up to New Brighton to have a bit of a stroll and a coffee in Morrisons.

 
I love the big blue skies we get here when it's sunny. The ferris wheel is new, it was put up last week, and it looks like it may be there for the summer. It has little open baskets, unlike the bigger one in Liverpool that has little pods. I don't think I'll be having a go on it, but if I did I definitely wouldn't do it on a windy day! The wind comes in straight off the sea and it will shake those little baskets really hard!

Your saw this piece in the hoop in my last wip video and I've added some flowers etc to it since then.

The first two photos above are new collages that I started this weekend (rather than working on the stuff on the go already)! I blame it on the fabric! I came across some little scraps of fabric in my sewing tin that I thought would go well with a birds image that I'd printed onto fabric (the first photo). Most of my work starts this way, rather than doing a sketch first, but that does mean I need to start it when I get the idea! 

The second one happended because I started another button top (the photo above) that I didn't need it for my last #our52weekproject post so I was thinking of what I could use it for and decided on another collage using the button as a starting point  (see the middle photo above). Plus I had another bird image that I could use with it.

I'll be back on Thursday with my button tutorial.

TTFN
Louise

*wip - work in progress