my eyes are bigger

You would be forgiven for thinking that I have more ideas than I have time to execute. You would be right. I have, however haphazardly, been working on the odd thing.






















This little jumper is an op shop purchase that I have refashioned. I really liked the red and white stripes and the fact that it is 100% cotton but didn't like the bear and 'baby club' embroidery on the front. I have only shown the wrong side of said offending embroidery here - not to show you my neatly finished ends (hmph) but because I didn't take a photo beforehand. On the right is my refashion solution using a scrap of fabric kindly supplied by Di of Clementine's Shoes - do you recognise it here in her wonderful baby sling? Thanks Di!

It was a very simple refashion which, of course, was not simply achieved. I cut the piece of fabric to size (simple) and stuck it down with spray fabric adhesive (also simple). I then sewed the patch down with sewing thread (reasonably simple but the fabric frayed a tad in parts). Then after a very enjoyable trip to The Button Shop to choose just the right shade of embroidery floss (Anchor 44) I went to buttonhole stitch around the border. Not so simple because it just didn't look right so I did very small back stitch all around the edge and then the buttonhole stitch. Laborious but satisfying.

Oh, and the ladybird. Not to forget the lovely ladybird - gorgeous.

I have previously written about some materials, all recycled from the op shop, that I have collected to make a bag from. Gradually, I have been making progress on this too. The bag itself will be made from a felted dark green wool jumper. Inspired by a friend's lovely Gorman bag, I am going to do a tree appliqué/embroidery. The trunk is cut from a lambswool Esprit jumper that I bought some time ago from Josies - before cutting I stabilised it with iron-on interfacing on the wrong side.

The leaves are cut from a cotton jumper utilising the fashioning at the shoulder seams to represent the veins in the leaves, also stabilised with iron-on interfacing. Seams on cotton jumpers can be quite bulky so how did I get the leaves to be so flat? Well ... I actually undid the shoulder seams and ironed the knit fabric flat. Then I sewed the seam again on the machine using very small stitches and trimmed off the fabric beyond the seam. Then back under the iron. Very laborious, but also very satisfying.