A Little Handstitched Card

With needle and embroidery threads, I stitched a little gift card, with four tiny pink butterflies. 

Little hand stitched card.

On a leftover piece of watercolour card, I drew four floaty butterflies lightly in pencil. Using the point of a needle, I pin punched their outlines ready for stitching. With a dark and a light pink thread for their wings and a chocolatey brown for their antennae, I sewed in simple back stitch to complete each little butterfly.

Stitching butterflies.

One tiny stitch at a time.

Sitting out in the warm shade on our verandah, sewing one tiny pink stitch at a time into the card, I thoroughly enjoyed this process, so much so that I lost track of time completely while stitching butterflies. 

Meg

Sunday's Simple Sewing: Little Linen Bag

Simple projects, in these complicated times, seem to be what I want to lean into. I want to make things that don't require too much "figuring out" but rather things I can relax into because they are easy or repetitive or I've made similar before. Perhaps, there's a comfort in a familiar process and a reassurance that it will all turn out fine. So it was with this little blue ribbon bag.

Little blue ribbon bag.

This sweet little bag is the first in a set I am going to make from an unfinished and beautiful vintage tea cloth. A tea cloth gifted to me, amongst many other linen-y treasures, by the lovely and generous Maria. The tea cloth is embroidered with swirling ribbons tied in bows, twining green stems and lazy daisy flowers. 

Vintage and antique linens are my favourite fabrics to sew with. They are often soft with age and use and embroidered with sweet motifs. They often come with stories! Sometimes, their motifs may be incomplete or the fabric may be threadbare or stained in some places. So, choosing what to make will often depend on how much of the fabric can be salvaged and re-purposed into something new.

I made this little blue ribbon bag using the instructions detailed by Jude Van Heel, of the utterly gorgeous Fairy Wren Cottage, in the latest issue of Grass Roots magazine (#257). It was so very simple to make:

I made a template and cut out the pieces for the bag.

I stitched tiny french knots for flower centres.

I mended a few flowers as their centres had frayed.

I sewed it together and threaded through a blue ribbon. 

(It had to be blue!)

A project like this embodies a simplicity that gladdens my heart. I 💙that it makes something new from something old in a world where older things are sometimes just discarded. 

More of Maria's pretty tea cloth.

I am looking forward to sewing up more of these little bags, with the fabric from Maria's gifted tea cloth. I think I should be able to make at least three more. One with an orange bow and purple flowers, one with a purple bow and orange flowers and one with blue flowers tied with a pink bow. More simple sewing ahead!

I'd love to know what simple projects you are working on too.

Meg

Hello, Sunday!

Hello, Sunday! It was an early start, there's nothing quite like a hungry Labrador who thinks the breakfast clock has been wound back an hour now that the day dawns before 5a.m. Lucky I am a morning person and said Labrador is so cute!

This extra hour allowed for the propping up of pillows and the reading of a fascinating book I discovered at my local library. Patchwork Prisoners, by Trudy Cowley & Dianne Snowden, is the study of The Rajah Quilt and the women who made it. This treasured textile, discovered in a Scottish attic in 1987, is the only known surviving quilt made by female convicts who came to Australia from England so long ago. It is amazing to think that on such a perilous voyage, aboard the convict ship, Rajah, and in such difficult circumstances, that something so beautiful was created.

Simple pleasures on a Sunday morning.

While I have never created a patchwork quilt, I did spend some time this morning stitching some little pale green olive sprigs onto a piece of dark brown cloth. Later, I will add tiny olive blossoms, with white and yellow threads, to these little sprigs. I am making a surprise for a sweet and generous soul.

After enjoying my own simple pleasures on this Sunday morn, I then indulged my canine friend with a lovely long walk along the path that follows the little creek. We strolled along, happy in the company of one another and the creek's soft gurgles. Being a Labrador, a swim along the way was compulsory!  We returned home tired, wet and content. Ready for breakfast and the rest of this beautiful Sunday day.

I hope your day holds some of your own simple pleasures.

Meg

Frugal on Friday

On this particular Friday, I thought I would join in with Fiona, over at Stay Home Instead, and list some of the frugal things I've managed to do over the last little while. I enjoy reading about the frugal things that other people do in their daily lives as there's a wealth of ideas for saving money among them. 

I regularly visit Fiona as she posts a list every Friday (I think she is a very organised person!) On Saturdays, I pop over to read Wendy's frugal ideas at My Abundant Life and I also like catch up with Kath's list too that she posts on her blog Four Miles North of Nowhere.  Here's my own list:

A fresh loaf of banana bread. 

1.  Made banana bread to use up two over-ripe bananas in our fruit bowl. I froze most of the slices. A piece of nourishing banana bread makes a nice alternative to toast at breakfast time.

Pre-loved linens drying on the line.

2.  Found some pretty op-shop linens for less than $10.  There are six little cotton napkins, each embroidered with a little cross-stitched rose, that we will use here at home. The two longer panels of fabric, decorated with beautiful Australian native flowers, are actually old curtains. I plan to make cushion covers out of them. I think they'll make lovely gifts!

A sweetly-stitched heart.

(Design by Charlotte Lyon at House Wren Studio.)

3.  I have been steadily stitching different little motifs onto tiny cotton bags ready for Christmas giving. I have had a stash of these bags, which I bought for a song at Reverse Garbage, years ago. With a little embellishment, and a pretty drawstring ribbon, they are perfect for gifting soap, seeds, hair scrunchies and other tiny gifts. Some motifs I have stitched have been free and others, like Charlotte's, I have paid a small amount to be able to download. I know I will use her designs over and over again.

 A home sewn skirt.

4.  I finished sewing this simple A-line skirt using fabric I already had in my stash. The only thing I had to buy was an invisible zipper. I used the pattern I made from an old skirt. I absolutely love the tiny white flock of birds flying all over the most gorgeous sky blue. I have worn this skirt several times already!

A gift for a friend.

5.  Wrapped a birthday gift, Furoshiki style, using dyed fabric I had in my stash. (It originally came as a large remnant from my local community centre.) My son then created a handmade card using craft supplies we already had here at home. (I find a pot of coloured marker pens comes in very handy!) This saved having to purchase wrapping paper or a card.

I think it is really good thing to think mindfully about the things we do, not only to save money but also to re-use and re-purpose resources. While I doubt I'll be organised enough to post a frugal list every Friday, I may do it periodically just to remind myself that it is a priority in our household.

I'd love to hear what you've been up to on the frugal front at your place.

Meg

Sweet Strawberry Cloth

Folded gently and hanging over a polished wooden rack, in the far back corner of my favourite little antiques and other old-things shop, I found this most lovely afternoon tea cloth.  I imagine many a cream tea with fresh scones, fruity jam and dollop-y cream would have been laid out upon this beautiful cloth. 

Strawberries for afternoon tea!

Old, soft linen embroidered with dozens of twining strawberries. So many ruby red and pink fruits created with such tiny stitches. With its circle of berries, leaves and blossoms, it reminds me of botanical art that pays such close attention to the intricate detail of plants. 

So many tiny stitches.

I am looking forward to spreading out my strawberry cloth, over a table in the shade of our verandah, and having my very own little cream tea. I'll make sure to have strawberry jam for my scones as somehow I don't think apricot jam would be quite right. 🍓

Meg

A Tiny Felt Brooch

Little blanket stitches frame a sweet snippet of embroidered flowers, attaching an ever-so-small piece of long-ago stitching to a scrap of soft, woollen felt. Pinned on to a dress or a blouse, with a small pin, and it becomes a tiny brooch.

A tiny handmade brooch.

Tiny brooches like these, made by the talented Jude Van Heel,  featured in a recent issue of Grass Roots magazine (No. 248 Aug/Sept 2018). I set my copy aside, the instructions flagged for when a little window of time opened up for making one. Just such a time presented itself on Saturday evening and I so enjoyed the quiet time I spent stitching the little circle of flowers to the felt backing. Even with very careful stitches, so as not to fray the edge of the old linen, this project took less than an hour.  

A little safety pin for the back.

I didn't have a brooch pin for the back but a little safety pin works just fine. It's only tiny and very light so it doesn't pull on the fabric that it's pinned to. 

Perfect for a dress or a blouse.

I love that a project like this makes use of old embroidered linens, perhaps those stained or forever unfinished or floundering in op-shop piles. I always think the stitching too beautiful not to find a use for and this is one tiny, sweet way to make something from such linens.  I'm sure I'll make a few more soon. 

Meg

A Posy of Nasturtiums

As I wandered along a little local street, the subtle fragrance of a familiar flower reached me on the breeze. At first, I couldn't quite place that delicate scent but then I saw masses and masses of brilliantly coloured nasturtiums. Spilling out from a garden bed, trailing down an embankment and covering part of a grassy 'footpath' with garlands of their flowers.  As there were so many, I picked a little posy and brought home some of their orange, yellow and red happiness to place upon our table.

A little posy of nasturtiums.

Such vibrant colours! 

Nasturtium in Latin means "nose twist"!

I haven't grown nasturtiums sucessfully but now I am wondering why ever not? They seemed to be thriving in the little street just a few over from ours. They would not only make me happy every time I saw them, the bees would be beside themselves too. There were many bees foraging among the nasturtiums I found, buzzing with abandon. I wonder if native bees like ours love them too?

The other thing about nasturtiums is that they are edible, their vibrant petals but also their leaves. I shared a slice of a quiche once, flavoured with peppery nasturtium leaves from the very garden where we ate, and it was delicious. I have read too, at the link above, that you can pickle the seeds and use them like capers. Clarissa, over at Simply by the Beach, posted a list of twenty good reasons to grow nasturtiums.  I think I've talked myself into it ... a niche for growing nasturtiums needs to be found!

It would be lovely to wander out and pick nasturtiums from our own garden. There'd be flowers for the table, food from the garden and their subtle scent wafting along on the breeze.

Meg

p.s. Finding these little flowers reminded me that I have a little stitching of nasturiums that I did years ago. It was to be part of a quilt I never got anywhere near finishing but I've since used many of the flowery embroidered squares to make re-purposed bags like this one. Perhaps I will make one of these little bags over the weekend ... a gift for the gardener in the little street just over from ours who grows nasturtiums!

A Little Bit of Boro Mending

I tend to live in my favourite pieces of clothing until they are worn, ragged and frayed.  I  keep wearing them unless and until decidedly embarrassing holes, in less than strategic places, emerge in the faded fabrics. Such garments are then piled up for mending where they may languish for a long time. Either that or they become "gardening clobber". My favourite (and only) pair of denim shorts reached this point recently and, rather than send them to a pile from which they may not return any time soon, I decided to mend them but in a way that makes a feature of their patches. 

 Patched shorts.

Boro is a traditional Japanese patchwork where scraps of cloth were used to mend clothing and quilts. In doing so, the life of garments and quilts was extended and they were often passed down through generations as they remained useful. I used this simple online tutorial to help me try a little boro mending to extend the life of my very worn shorts. 

My well-loved shorts.

I cut patches from material scraps I had left over after sewing this dress. I love that this process uses scraps of fabric, reducing waste and finding a purpose for what otherwise may be thrown away. After pinning my little fabric patches in place, I stitched little sashiko running stitches, worked over and on top of the fabric patches. It was a lovely, repetitive and quiet process. While I gather there are certain dos and don'ts in regards sashiko, mistakes are imperfectly perfect too!

My imperfect sashiko stitches.

Stitches securing patches to denim of my shorts.

I experimented with little criss crosses too ...

Little crosses.

I love the little mushrooms, seedheads and flowers that peek out from the patches I've stitched into my old and much-loved shorts. No only have I mended them and extended their life but I've added something to them which I like very much. 

Making some of my own clothes and learning ways in which to mend and alter the ones I already have is in direct contrast to the culture of fast, cheap and disposable fashion that sees Australians dispose of 6000 kilograms of fashion and textile waste every. ten. minutes! It seems too that there are many other home sewers like me who are developing or rediscovering their sewing skills and making their own clothes in order to bypass fast fashion and waste associated with it.  As Jane Milburn, whom Chel over at Going Grey and Slightly Green wrote about recently, asserts that we develop a true appreciation of our clothing when we have made it ourselves. I certainly would find it hard to throw away the garments I've made ... I know just how much unpicking I did!

I've no doubt I will need to continue adding patches to my well-loved denim shorts. It might get to the point where they are more patches than original material! I might have to patch the patches even!

Do you sew or mend your own clothes?
Meg

February Flowers & an Embroidery Book

My love of flowers knows no bounds! I grow them in my garden for the sheer delight of them.  Their colourful forms, their sublime fragrances, their botanic beauty. I wait as buds form, marvel at them as they open fully under the sun and watch as they slowly fade and their petals fall. Bees plunder them, butterflies drink their nectar and I save their seeds so I can enjoy them again when next their season comes around.

At the beginning of this February, here are four lovely flowers that are lending their beauty to our garden:

Yarrow ... tiny & sweet.

Penstemon ... tubular & delicate.

 Salvia ...  vibrant & tall.

Queen Anne's Lace ... intricate & so fine!

As much as I love real flowers, like those that bloom in our garden, I am equally enchanted by the embroidery that is inspired by them. Melissa Wastney's beautiful botanical stitching has long been a favourite and I recently discovered the stitching of Kazuko Aoki. She grows the most gorgeous flower gardens with her needle and threads! One of her books, The Embroidered Garden arrived in my letterbox recently and I can't stop looking at it! There are so many beautiful flowers, tiny garden creatures and pretty projects. (The link to this book takes you to a review over at Feeling Stitchy. (Please note the giveaway at this link is no longer current.)

A beautiful embroidery book.

I would love to be able to embroider just a little of the beauty of the flowers in our garden with such detail. Perhaps I'll play with my own needle and threads this coming weekend. If the weather clears, I think I will spread out a little blanket on the grass near the yarrow and its tiny, sweet blooms. 

I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Meg

Unfinished Blue Birds & Other Old Linens

In a wicker basket, just inside the entrance of a little antique shop, a flash of beautiful blue caught my eye. Folded neatly and unfinished, a pair of bluebirds forming on soft and creamy  linen. Oh, my!  For just a few dollars I brought it home along with a few other finds...

Beautiful, unfinished bluebirds & two cross-stitched doilies.

I would love to find matching threads and finish these beautiful blue birds. Originally part of a Semco traced-linen embroidery kit, the creamy vintage linen is so soft and light. It's gorgeous! Once I've finished the stitching, I'd like to turn what would've been an afternoon tea cloth into something special. Something where these beautiful bluebirds take flight. Any ideas?

Light flowery fabric with that creamy bluebirds linen.

The tied bundle of floaty and flowery fabric cost me just $2 and is perfect for sewing into a Strata top of my own for Autumn. I think it will drape beautifully! (My copy of the Strata top pattern by Meg McElwee came in the special "Make" edition of Taproot magazine that I treated myself to for Christmas. So much handmade goodness inside!) *I am not sponsored to say that, I just love leafing through the pages and finding so much inspiration.*

Lovely linen tea towels.

At a little op-shop, just a short stroll from the antique shop, I found these three soft and stripy linen tea towels. I love their colours! Together with the cross-stitched doilies in the first photo, I plan on using them in little sewing projects. I want to make cushion covers out of the two matching tea towels. (This is the tutorial I'll be following.) The other tea towel and a doily will be lovely sewn up into a pretty drawstring bag like the ones that Jude Van Heel makes and shared the instructions for in a recent edition of Grassroots magazine (No. 244 Dec/Jan 2017/18).  You can see one of her pretty bags here on one of her Fairy Wren Cottage Pinterest boards. The other little doily will look very sweet decorating a drawstring bags, like this one, that I like to make from repurposed  flour bags. It seems I have some making to do! 

I love how little serendipitous finds, like these old linens and fabrics, can spark a desire to create new and purposeful things from something old or worn or discarded. I'm sure I can find some time, over this upcoming long weekend, to get started on my little projects. I hope you have something lovely planned for your weekend too.

Meg

January's Crafting: Embroidery in a Hoop

On a scrap of worn linen, that I cut from a vintage tea towel, I have been stitching something special ...

Wise words stitched on linen.

This beautifully simple design, stitched within its own embroidery hoop frame, comes from Cheri Lehnow. Scrolling through her blog, tinkerwiththis, is a feast of handmade goodness! I found the pattern and easy-to-follow instructions, as a digital download in her Etsy shop, for less than AUD$5. 

I had most of the other materials here at home and just needed to buy the pearl cotton as I have not used this before to stitch with. I adored the calm colours Cheri stitched her "Be Still" embroidery in but I chose colours that I feel my friend would love and that would work well on the creamy old linen background.

Backstitches and tiny french knots.

This little project, a January birthday gift for a close friend, is worked in just two stitches. Backstitch, which I'm confident with, and little french knots, which I am learning to perfect. (I watched this short YouTube tutorial to remind myself ... again ... of the way to form a french knot.) I chose to stitch a felt circle backing, to finish off my hooped embroidery and to hide the back of my stitching. I followed this great tutorial,  over at the Spruce, as I learned how to do this. This felt backing neatened up my little handmade gift beautifully. 

Stitching on a felt circle for the backing.

Now that the front and the back are finished, all that's needed is a ribbon to make a loop for hanging on the wall, some gentle wrapping and a little tag with a heartfelt message for the happiest birthday. 💗 🎂 

A little tag saved from a magazine completes my gift.

I hope my dear friend will breathe in deeply whenever she sees these quieting words that I stitched with love for her.  Xxx

Meg