Tag Archives: Home Wares

A handmade Christmas, II

10/12/2011 2:14 am \ 20 Comments \

some Christmas decorations…
a series of mittens and gloves, of a single width of felt and decorated in various ways.  These made nice and simple little gifts for friends.  The little glittery gold bell was made by a 4 yr old Sam, and he made 4 of these in different colours and shapes.  Cassie made the stuffed stocking

a fairy… a lot of girls of my age would have come across this project, made out of safety pins and beads.  I think it was out of a magazine, or on Better Homes and Gardens, or something like that.  A group of my friends and I all made one together.  Her place is on the top of the Christmas tree, when she has a fairy light stuck up under her skirt (keep it clean now) she actually looks pretty speccy*!                   (* Aussie slang for spectacular)

… beaded snowman and white beaded and embroidered pillow both from kits (by me); the blue sequinned and embroidered stocking by a pre-school Cassie

Using up some leftover wool, one year I made a series of knitted envelopes filled with pot pourri, to give to friends.  The star buttons are made from Fimo clay, painted with acrylic paint and with glitter sprinkled onto the wet paint.  (the gold and green ball was a kindy project by Sam too)

A few years ago I got really enthusiastic and made everyone in our family a glitzy Christmas stocking; big enough to be worn on a real adult foot, believe it or not…  These are all of satin, each front and back double-layered and padded with old ironing board padding (yup, I keep stuff like that, just in case; sad, huh?), and with velvet cuffs, all decorated in an individual way.  They each have a cotton loop to hang them up, even though they never ever actually get hung up since I baulk at having nails hammered into our beautiful jarrah mantlepiece… (that’s an over-my-dead-body sort of a thing)  They usually lie flat around the bottom of the Christmas tree.

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , , ,

A handmade Christmas

09/12/2011 12:23 am \ 14 Comments \

I do admire other people’s Christmas trees, the ones which are all glitzy and sparkly and beautifully colour co-ordinated, sometimes even with a new colour scheme each year, but it is just not for us.  We have a small artificial tree that we use each and every year.  It was bought when we were first married 23 years ago and our collection of decorations has grown and been added to over the years and each one tells a story.  Hardly any of our decorations have been bought cold, as a finished object.  
Some of them are souvenirs that we have bought on overseas holidays, or are gifts from dear friends.  Our most precious decorations are the ones that our children made with their own chubby little fingers, and proudly brought home from kindy, daycare and preschool, and even sometimes as they got older too!  I used to be into beading and embroidery, and so made some decorations too… and some of our decorations are little things I did with the kids as fun little activities, to fill in those long weeks when Craig was working and we were home alone.

According to Aussie tradition, these gumnut babies have to be hung somewhere so they can “see” a gum tree. (embroidered and beaded on cardboard by me)

one year, Cassie and I ceremoniously transformed her Kelly dolls into elves and pixies…   Tim made the sparkly gumnut elf with googly eyes…
Cassie made this beaded gingerbread man…
you can make cool decorations using origami too… one small sheet of paper is all it takes!
the advent calendar… when my children were little this would have 3 lollies tucked into each heart pocket, and it was such a treat to take one out just before bedtime… !   The top heart would have 3 Freddoes; it was a tight squeeze to get them in there but you’ve got to have something a wee bit special for Christmas Eve! 
a clothes peg with toothpick arms and wrapped up in embroidery thread makes a cute Father Christmas… don’t you think?
a pine cone. stuffed randomly with glued-in cellophane and tinsel, makes a pretty good table decoration I reckon.  This is the very first one Tim brought home from kindy, and the beginning of my obsession with non-commercial handmade decorations…
pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , , ,

Some haute couture…

16/10/2011 12:56 pm \ 13 Comments \

… hehe, just kidding.  Just proving that I actually followed through on my promise.  Sienna now has cast-off old sofa fabric no, wait; brand new (to her), freshly washed and fluffy, specially custom fit covers on her two beds.
Lucky girl!!!
the inside bed…

the outside bed…

details….  whoa, blowing your mind much?  Precision high fashion sewing on show here today… NOT!
Sorry.  Well, sewing for practicality and not for fabulousness is sometimes required of me too.  You might be able to see that at least I used pink and purple overlocker thread.  Sienna appreciated that little girly touch.  Really.

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: ,

Sage green lounge suite

04/10/2011 9:49 am \ 32 Comments \

I am so proud of my latest project that I will not sully the experience by babbling about it…

Oh OK then, I will.  Cannot resist a little showing off, hehe…  ðŸ˜€
Remember this?  Going back yonks ago I wrote about re-covering our lounge suite (way back here!), and mentioned that it needed doing again soon; well, I have finally got my act into gear and got it done.  Took me from 8am Sunday morning and finished around 10.30pm Sunday evening, but it was done, and I am pretty jolly proud I kept it confined into a one-day project too…  yippeee!

(this is the “before” cover; 2 yrs ago)

We bought this lounge suite twenty years ago, and I’ve recovered it approximately every five years.  I’ve found the old covers are really on their last legs by this time… yup, we have three teenagers, three cats and a dog, so I guess we are pretty tough on our furniture!  This is the fourth time I have re-covered this lounge suite and I think the outcome gets better and better each time.  Nice to know practise really does make perfect, yes?!
This time I am nearly completely satisfied.
I took a few photos during to illustrate the process, but really it’s not a difficult thing to do, just, well, tiring.  Tiring just because of the unwieldiness and bulkiness of it all…  Struggling around with large swathes of upholstery weight fabric and draping and pinning, removing to carry over to the sewing machine, sewing, over to the overlocker, overlocking, carrying back to the lounge, re-fitting etc, is just a fairly draining exercise, full stop.
We chose this heavy hessian-like fabric which has a ecru warp, and a variegated weft of grey and sage green threads through it, resulting in a refreshingly light and bright sage-green/grey hue. 

 To make my covers, I’ve kept one each of the important pieces from my first re-cover of this suite to use as a template for each new cover and this helps massively each time… 

I cut out the bigger pieces first and lay them in position, wrong sides out.  Pin together, smoothing out any bubbles and aligning the grain to be as straight as possible, overlocking all the raw edges and sewing along the pinned lines.  

I incorporated a fold, where the back of the seat meets the backrest, for some ease and to lessen strain on the back and seat areas of the cover when you are sitting on the couch.  Yes, lounge suites need ease too!

Each cover and cushion cover was pinned and fitted together and basically finished inside out, and only turned right side out when it was ready for final fitting in place.  Craig took off the old covers, and fixed a broken strap in the innards of one of the couches, which we only discovered was broken when we took the covers off!  He also stapled the edges of the finished and fitted-into-place covers underneath to the wooden frame of the couch, and re-screwed the little wooden “feet” back into place over.  Most importantly, he made dinner so I could continue working on the seat cushions undisturbed…. 🙂
 Each of the four seat cushions has a zip on the back edge, so these can removed for individual laundering, if necessary.

I just love it.  We all do.  It’s not a new suite, but it feels like we have one now.   Everybody is trying to be eco-conscious and green in all our choices, which means re-using and re-cycling as much as we can; but there is no denying the truth that something new, and especially something big like your lounge suite, is a very uplifting thing to have in your life.  Agreed?  So our lounge suite is not new, but it sure feels brand new all over again, and I feel good about achieving that newness buzz without having to go down the path of actually buying new furniture.  And it gives the whole room a lift and makes everything feel so fresh and clean again… 
And hopefully will last for at least another five years!!

(What will I do with the remains of the old covers??  Well to start with probably two new dog bed covers.  We only have one dog, but she has two beds…  go figure.  Spoilt, or what?!)

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: ,

Little house pillowcase, and old slipcover

11/08/2011 5:43 am \ 9 Comments \

I made this pillowcase for my niece when she was born five years ago, and have had it back the last few days for a few minor repairs…
Yes, the patchwork is intentionally wonky.  I am normally very obsessive about exact squares and perfectly matched corners and edges, so this sort of inexact “naive” style was a nice change.  I enjoyed the randomness of it!
The design is my own.  I had the vision in my head of a little pink cottage with a skewiff picket fence in a field of green; but made it up pretty much as I went along, based on a few similar sorts of designs that I’ve seen over the years in homewares magazines and such.  I chose the sharp lime green/hot raspberry pink colour scheme because it was fun and funky; and feminine without being too over-the-top girly.
D’ya wanna hear something funny?  My son asked if it was a Space Invader.  He’s thought it was one for years.  LOL!

The back view… and here it is perched on top of my very first attempt at a slipcover.  Don’t look too closely at the slipcover, because this is years old now.  It has served as a kitten scratch-post more than a few times, and is a bit thin in some places, a bit ripped in other places, has a few permanent stains, and has a few wonky seam-lines.  But I like the less than perfect look of it.  
At least I know no one’s been afraid to sit on it.

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , ,

Sam’s quilt

19/07/2011 4:15 am \ 18 Comments \

An ongoing part of this blog is the documentation of stuff I have handmade in the past, including the small collection of quilts I have made for my family.  I have shown here before Tim’s quilt and Cassie quilt, now here is Sam’s quilt.
Like the others his quilt still lives permanently on his bed, but unlike the others has never had to be repaired and, apart from some fading of the colours, is in very good nick.  This is probably due to three reasons; firstly probably because it is the newest of the three, but also possibly because Sam is not the sort of boy who played on his quilt like the other two did.  He liked to hang out with his older brother and sister so would go and play on their beds instead!  And lastly, because I had finally learned about finishing a quilt in the traditional way this one is actually finished off “properly”, if there is such a thing!
The design is a simple arrangement of squares of fabric that I chose because I liked them, and I thought the soft antique-y shades of yellow, red and blue suited Sam’s sunny but shy personality.  The squares are enclosed and showcased in a grid of pale yellow strips.  The quilt is bound in the traditional method with self-made bias binding.  Each of the squares is bordered by hand-quilting.  I embroidered my name in the bottom corner and the year in which I made it.
Every now and again I read on the internet about the “slow-sewing” movement; a trend that is about taking the time to appreciate the sewing process and work meticulously and carefully on getting a perfectly handcrafted result…  Of course, nearly always such references are about a garment of some sort; a project that would take a few months at the most, whereas to the quilting fraternity (sorority) that time-frame is hilarious!  
A handmade quilt is the very definition of slow sewing.  Making someone a quilt is a labour of love, not a project to be taken by someone after a quick-fix result.   Each of the quilts I have made has taken me a year to complete; no exaggeration.  I have usually machine pieced the top so this can be put together in a few days, but the hand-quilting process takes at least a year.  Anybody who has made a quilt will attest to this highly labour intensive hand-made craft, so I always have enormous respect for people who quilt.  I don’t think I personally have the patience for another quilt (although I have at least one more, I think, to show here.) so I am pretty proud of these that I have made!

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , , ,

Cassie’s quilt

23/05/2011 5:29 am \ 7 Comments \

“Now here’s one I made earlier”… I think this is might be the next thing in my chronological documentation of my creations.  And luckily another one that is still used and loved on a daily basis.  I’ll have to admit to a bit of necessary repair work before it was anywhere suitable for its photo shoot today!  The second time in its life this quilt has had a major repair and maintenance session.  I’m just glad she obviously loves it so much…
This was made, according to my hand-embroidered signature and date in the corner, in 1993.  Like Tim’s quilt before it, it is just based on a very simple design; just same-sized square patches, and is machine pieced and hand-quilted.  Unlike Tim’s however, I had learnt at least a teensy bit about quilts by this time and the border treatment is a little better.  This time, I folded the outer border over the edge and under, and slipstitched it in place over the backing, then quilted in the ditch on the back, making a little quilted border of about 2cm width all around on the top side.  Still not the proper or recommended method of finishing quilts, mind you, but since when have I ever cared about properly following recommended methods, anyway?  Yah, I’m such a sewing rebel…
The backing is simply a single sized bed sheet, and yes that rather garish blue colour is far from a perfect choice for the very soft, antique shades of blue, pink and ivory of the topside fabrics, but meh.  The back wasn’t very important in my back-then eyes, and sheeting fabric is tough and cheap, also priorities to my back-then self.  Since the back is, unlike the topside, in absolute perfect condition, I guess it turned out to be a good choice.
The part I was most pleased with was the border quilting design (which I designed myself); a little arrangement of quilted hearts and nesting hearts, joined with garland-like rows of quilting stitch.  And I did quite a good job, if I say so myself.  I’m glad I still have things like this around to remind myself of how patient I used to be with regard to my sewing projects.  Seriously, I don’t know if I could ever do something like this ever again.

above; all these are the original fabrics…
above; fabrics added later over two major repair sessions (“major” = “now covering nearly a third of the quilt”)
below; border quilting design and (retrospective “what-was-I-thinking” moment) backing fabric
pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , , ,

Cathedral window cushion

10/05/2011 3:15 am \ 11 Comments \

This is a cushion cover I made for my mother a few years ago. Actually more than a few. I think it was for a mother’s day … oh btw, Happy Mother’s Day for last Sunday to all you yummy mummies out there! I’m sorry I didn’t manage to blog this cushion cover for that day as I intended, but I’ve been having a few problems with Blogger… (grrr)

When my Granny had to move to a home, and after we had finished cleaning out my grandparents’ house we had a big pile of things to find new homes for; many really beautiful things that found instant homes in the children’s and grandchildren’s homes, some things for charity, and some things that were too personal and beautiful to toss out, but really had no useful purpose for anyone…. one of those items was a beautiful paisley silk tie once belonging to my grandfather. Mum gave it to me, saying something like “here, you could use this lovely fabric for something or other if you like”.
Obviously I wasn’t going to toss it out but equally obviously you can’t just drape a tie over your couch as an ornament. But I still felt like it was important and needed to live on somehow. Bit of background applies here; my grandfather used to own and run a highly respected menswear store in London,  and later here in Perth, so he always wore the most beautifully tailored suits and shirts. So to me this wasn’t just an old tie really, but much more; a symbol of intrinsically who my grandfather was, a representation of his life and his trade.
Now, a tie has only a very small amount of fabric in it. Not enough for anything much. I thought about what to do with it quite a lot, before deciding to be brave enough to cut it up…
And I made a cushion cover for Mum to have, so she could still have the fabric there to look at as a little memento of Grandpa about the house. I took this picture of it in Mum and Dad’s house the last time I was there.
So this is a patchwork design known as Cathedral Window; used to showcase small pieces of really beautiful fabric like this. The backing fabric is calico. The design is interesting, because you end up needing like three or four metres of calico for one little cushion cover, and just mere scraps for the “showcased” fabric. You cut huge squares of the calico and fold them in an intricate origami style design, down into much smaller squares in which is sewn the little pieces of beautiful fabric.  I remember having to be quite clever to cut the tie strategically to get sufficiently large squares for the cushion.  It measures 50x50cm, and has a cream coloured dress zip on the back for a cushion insert.  The top is completely hand-sewn.

pinterestmail
Posted in: Uncategorized \ Tagged: , ,
Switch to mobile version
↓