November Fibre Clubs...

November

The Natural Fibre Club

Dave - EL X Corri

Jane has a new drum carder that makes the most squishy 100gm batts.

 Batt spun up to yarn...

I spun and plied on itself.

November

Batt Club

Merino, EL, Romney and Glitz(nylon)

Spun up to Yarn...

 I spun it as thick singles then plied it on itself.

The bonus batt... 

 

 Spun up to Yarn

Spun into a thick single and plied with a metalic thread

Crazy....

 It's been a while since I made any of these Crazy patch bags.

They are a great way to use up scraps.

It's a lot of fun (and angst) trying to put colours together.

This is one of the first things I designed.

I designed these when I was teaching a class in Tennant on crazy patch.

The Tutorial is HERE if you'd like to make one too.

These were made for Nancy, the lady I wrote about in the original post.

She asked if I would make her 8 to give as Christmas presents this year.

I spent most of yesterday sewing these up and had no problems finding scraps!

I really must make another scrap quilt soon.

I am grateful...

My mum

That 44 years ago this beautiful woman gave birth to me.

And raised me to be the person I am.

For the father who loved me.

Who I miss very much

In labour with Heather

I'm grateful for my health and body

A body that has birthed 7 healthy babies and been blessed to carry 4 more, if only for a little while.

Peter

 

 

 

 That Peter came into my life, my best friend and husband.

His immense love for the children we have together.

For dear friends who have seen me at my worst and still love me.

Who love and adore my children.

Sorry Janene I can't find a photo of you too.

For my beautiful children.

Who teach me so much each day about love, patience and myself.

And for my home in a beautiful country.

A country which is stable and safe.

A country that I am so proud of.

More I am grateful posts HERE

Wool Toys & Friends Step-by-step Instructions For Needle-felting Fun

 I've spent the day happily playing with fibre!

I've had so much fun, apart from stabbing myself numerous times.

 Meet my two new creations.

The pixie and the sock monkey.

Both were made following the instructions from the book I bought in Port Pirie yesterday.

 The kids are arguing about whether this little fellow is a gnome or an elf.

He's supposed to be a pixie.

Wool Toys & Friends By Laurie Sharp

Hardback published by Creative Publishing 2010

I bought my copy at Meg's Bookshop in Port Pirie

It's available at the Book Depository  for less than I paid.

The Book Depository offers free world wide shipping too.

(I get no kick-back, although I should apply to be an affiliate)

I didn't have to wait for my copy to arrive and I like to support real life book shops if I can.

There are 15 didfferent projects in the book.

Most are needle felted and a few wet felted.

There are some trace off patterns at the back of the book.

The instuctions were very clear and step by step as the title says.

I really like the selection of projects.

Many are perfect for using in the classroom and at bedtime as props, when reading to children.

The fingers puppets are on my must do list and will make wonderful Christmas presents.

The supplies mentioned at the back are all American.

If you are looking for needle felting supplies I can recommend:

Suzanne's House of Wool for fibres

Ali at Craft Alley stock felting needles

Mandy at Ewe Give Me The Knits stocks felting needles and fibers

All the above I have bought from and been very happy with the service and products.

Mulberry Yarn...

This is the end result and the colour in the photo is true.

I boiled the yarn in the strained mulberries liquid for an hour.

Then left the yarn to sit overnight in the liquid.

I did felt it slightly but it's not too bad as the yarn can still be wound off the skien.

I'm really not sure I like the colour after all of that effort.

It's sort of a muddy purple brown.

I still want to try dyeing with the walnuts.

The walnut tree looks fabulous this year and has lots of walnuts,

so there will be husks to try out walnut dyeing.

The books says that walnuts don't need a mordant.

And talking of books.......

We went to Port Pirie yesterday. 

Mum sent me some money for my birthday and 

I visited Meg's books and I spent my birthday money on two books.

The First is Make It Perfect By Toni Coward and the second Wool toys and friends -step by step instructions for Needle-felting fun.

My challenge is to make something from each of these books this week.

I'll write a review of each once I've had a chance to make an item from each.

We went to Pirie to pick up my machines which were in for a service.

One  is an electric spinner, that didn't need a service!

Turns out my power board is a little dodgy. 

If only I had checked the spinner in another socket!

 My friend Helen of Stitcharoony saw this at an auction in Adelaide and bid on it. 

She knew I would want it.

She is a total sweet heart!

I think it's a home made spinner.

There's a foot control and a dimmer switch.

The tensions are adjusted like on my Ashford traditional.

I've had a little play and spun a little merino on her and she spins very nice.

I'm finding with all my wheels each feels different to spin on. 

They have their own personalities and I have to spend a little time learning the 'feel' of them.

Being Brave with a dye pot and my handspun

 I'm at present cooking my beautiful handspun Merino X EL wool

It's cooking away in it's mordant of Alum with an enhancer of Cream of Tartar.

For 200gms of wool I'm using 20gms of Alum and 14gms of Tartar. Well that was the recipe for dying with Blackberries so I'm hopeful that for Mulberries it is the same!

The recipe comes from the book in the photo.

Pete bought it for me as a birthday present a couple of years ago.

I bought the Alum from the Chemist, they ordered it in for me $18 for 100gms and the Cream of Tartar is from the supermarket in the baking section. Mums will know it, you use it to make play dough!

The yarn has to cook for an hour than soak in the solution for a few hours before it is dyed with the mulberries. I;m going to leave mine overnight and dye with the mulberries tomorrow.

The recipe in the book calls for 600gms of blackberries (Mulberries) and that isn't a problem right now!

How to make a dress from the Sun Top Pattern

I had a little play with the Sun Top Pattern,
this afternoon and made a couple of quick dresses.

This first dress is made by lengthening the side seam.




Simply use a ruler to extend the side seam of the top to the desired length.


Then using the base of the original pattern as a template cut a new hem line.
Then continue on with the instructions as in the original pattern



How easy is that!
I made this in less than an hour with op-shop fabrics and left over yo-yos.


This version is made by cutting the Sun Top shorter and adding a skirt.


I measured 7 cms down from the underarm and cut the top to that line.
Then I cut two skirt pieces 55cm wide by 25cm long.
I pleated the skirt piece to the top and then finished the construction as in the original pattern


There are lots of options here too.
You could gather the skirt to the top instead of pleating.
Add a few smaller pleats like I did on the popover top


A simple fabric rosette and a button add a little flare.
A tutorial for Rosettes is HERE

Summer Sun Top - Free Pattern and tutorial

Mad Quilter's 

Summer Sun Top

Size: 12 months

Requirements:
1 fat quarter of quilters cotton.
25cm of 2cm wide elastic
50cm double fold bias binding
General sewing supplies.

Pattern.
Download and Print the pattern from HERE
I host my PDF's at MediaFire this is a free fileshare and sometimes there can be difficulties downloading the file. If this is the case, you can leave me a comment with an email address and I will email the file to you. Please remember I am giving this pattern to you for free so be polite. Gosh I shouldn't have to say that but I do sometimes get a not so nicely worded request. 

Cutting:

 Cut two of the pattern pieces from the fat quarter.
And two strap pieces 6cms wide by 26cms long.
The length of the straps isn't that important as it will be gathered over the elastic.

 Cut two pieces of elastic 12cm long.

 Fold the straps in half lengthwise and stitch with a 6mm seam along the raw edge.

 Turn the straps through. I find inserting a safety pin into the seam allowance and pushing it through the tube is an easy way of doing this.

 Insert the elastic into the strap using the safety pin.

 Move the elastic in the tube so that there is a 3cm end without elastic in it. Secure the end of the elastic in the tube with some stitching.
Part of the strap does not have elastic in it. This is to reduce the bulk when you add the straps to the top.

 Gather the fabric of the strap up on the elastic. Leaving  3cms of fabric without elastic in it, secure that end of elastic in the casing.

 If you are going to embellish the top now is the time to do it.  Embellishment with a little fiddling can be added when completed.
With right sides together. Pin and sew the side seams of the top.

 Time to finish the arm hole shaping.
Apply the bias from the front. Open up the bias and align the edge to the edge of the top. Sew along the fold.
Fold the bias to the back, so that no bias tape is seen from the front.

 Pin the bias into place.

Now take it slowly and from the front sew about 6mm from the edge.
Use your hands to help keep the fabric from puckering as you sew around. Little wrinkles can be steamed out.

 Finishing with bias encloses the raw edge and makes for a nice finish to the garment.
Finish both armholes like this.

 Finish the hem.
I use some lace in this version.

You can also make a ruffle with the extra fabric from the fat quarter. As I have done on this top.

 Fold over the top edges of the top 6mm and then over again1.5cm and press.

 Insert the ends of the straps.
Sew along the folded edge catching in place the straps.

 Flip the straps up and sew along the top catching the straps in position.

 Do the same on the other side.
And your top is complete.

I offer all my free patterns with the same Copyright:
It's ok to share these patterns for free
It's ok to make things from these patterns to sell
It's not OK to sell my patterns
It's not OK to claim my work is yours.

And I have now added a little how to make two types of dresses
from this simple pattern HERE

And now you can follow THESE instructions to draft this any size you want!