Owl In Flight Week 5

Here's where I was last week:

Week 4

And here's the first 1/6th of the pattern completed!

Week 5

Still a long way to go, but you can really see how it's coming along now that I've completed one whole sheet of the pattern (now measures 11x17cm). The depth of shading is really fantastic...I really need to get that new daylight bulb, these pictures aren't doing it justice at all.

I've made a start on the next sheet down (where you can see the new blue patch starting), mostly to get a fairly dull bit out of the way - there's nothing but fence and sky and an owl claw here! Also because I'm too lazy to be taking the fabric out of the frame often - it's on rollers so I just moved it around and slack it off after each session.


No crafting tonight as I have a date with my beloved! But over the weekend I hope to finish at least one more commission, I'm really starting to see the end in sight now. At some point I'm going to get the machine out again and have a good fiddle - many thanks to Gail, who suggested that the plastic foot is possibly for embroidery, and to Kirstine for loads of helpful ideas. I may be picking both your brains again in future! I did actually get a bit of sewing done yesterday; K was given a "make your own" doll for Christmas, but the materials supplied (er, mostly sticky tape) meant it was an ornament rather than a doll you could play with. So we decided we'd get making our own and so far the doll has a shiny turquoise satin tube dress and a freaky fun-fur crocheted dress-thingie. K likes them, anyway! We've been drawing outfits in a sketchbook which has been loads of fun to do together. Pics next week, probably.

These Feet Were Made For...

...scaring the hell out of me, sigh.

Whose feet are those?

I have a love-hate relationship with my sewing machine, a Singer 2808C. Some days, we get on great - everything flows smoothly and the final product is something I can be proud of (and evetually ends up in the shop or being worn!). More often than not, though, I approach it with bafflement and not a small amount of terror. In theory, I know why it does crazy things like bird's nesting, but it seems to happen randomly, so each sewing session is filled with trepidation.

One of the things that really puzzles me is "what on earth are these extra feet for?". They certainly aren't in the manual! I've studied Florence's Guide To Feet til I'm blue in the face and they just aren't there. I presume the one already attatched is a standard presser foot, but what on earth are these plastic ones for? Is that big flat one even a foot? I can't see where you'd attach it. And do I need to buy more? Zips and buttonholes terrify me and it's really holding me back from tackling projects I'd love to do, so it would make sense to help myself by having the right equipment. Having bought Bend-the-Rules Sewing and One-Yard Wonders recently (not to mention a heap of fabric scraps for making doll clothes), I'm itching to sew...but the fear, oh dear.

So, lovely readers, can you help a poor addled brain and set me on the track to actually making something which isn't just straight lines?

Flower Hair Band

New design - surface embroidery on this one!

And the ideas keep coming...! I spent a lot of Monday night fiddling with this and eventually frogged it all out and started again, ho hum. I do love cherry blossoms on a blue sky, though. Said hairband and K are now off to the park with Daddy to learn how to skip, since Little Bump was less than pleased last time I tried it!

Oh, mum, not another picture - I'm off to the park!

I now have two willing models to try out my custom-fit theory and once I've made sure that these do actually fit people other than K, I'll be listing the whole set of patterns in my Etsy shop, Seawood Designs. I'm not intending to actually make many of these - with Little Bump on the way I'm trying to slow down the amount of actual physical making of stuff at the moment - but you know, talk nicely to me and I might do a few custom orders before he/she arrives!

Zebra Stripes and Owl In Flight Week 4

Oh dear, really not been up to much recently, hence the lack of interesting updates (sorry). I've discovered the knack of being able to sit in front of the telly without actually doing anything, it seems...not good for the workload or the creativity. I feel very tapped-out at the moment, anyway - whilst discipline is good for the bank balance it doesn't do a lot for the creative mind. Still, I got the last of the biggest orders out of the way this week and will hopefully be able to rattle through the smaller ones by the end of February. Then I can go back to actually making stuff up! I've treated myself to a few new sewing books lately, and we took a trip to Hab-Fab last week (so much for trying to be Craft Neutral this year!) for some fabric scraps. K has a doll which needs dressing and we've been designing outfits for her in a sketchbook.

K and I have also been choosing the cross-stitches I'll be doing for Little Bump to match the ones I did for her: a birth sampler, a Bothy Threads "Row of..." and a name plate for the door when they eventually share a room. I'll be ordering those after our 20-wk scan next week. All very exciting!

I have sneakily managed to make a few more hairbands for the collection, but I'm struggling a little bit with the custom-fitting. I think it's mostly my carelessness/lack of concentration that's done it, but it does mean I have to rework two before I can write up the patterns for sale. Here's one I've completed and fits perfectly, though:

Striped, ribbon-threaded hairband on reluctant model

Top view of striped hairband - you can see the ribbon threading better in this shot

Now for the Owl In Flight. Here's last week's finishing point:

Week 3

And here's last night and this morning's work:

Week 4

That fence post looks really odd at the moment in this picture, but it does look better actually on the fabric, properly lit so that you can see the shading. My daylight bulb has gone so I'm not getting much good light, I'm afraid. I really didn't get as far as I'd hoped with it last night, so at some point if I'm not so knackered this week I might put in another evening or morning's work to catch me up so I can move to the next sheet next Thursday.

Owl In Flight Week 3

Here's where I was up to last week:

Week 2 progress

And here's last night's efforts!

Week 3 progress

I have to admit to cheating a bit here. The tail part - no more than 1.5ins square, if that - has six colours and took me over 1.5hrs to do! So in order to finish off the sky parts that I wanted to do, I did a bit of extra stitching this morning. You can see in the image above that now all of the sky for this section is done; the missing parts are all part of the fence. I'm intending to do those next week and then move down to the next section the week after, which will be fairly boring, I think - it's mostly fence! Still, it's going quite well for just one night a week and overall I'm pleased with it. I've already decided where to hang it once it's done!

Not much other news this week - I've been slowly working on the commissions and have one more almost complete, just the tedious stitching together to do now. I also made K another new hairband; I'm considering making a set of patterns available for purchase if I can come up with a few more.

Anyway, we are playing host to Barnaby the Preschool Bear this weekend, so I'd better head off and entertain!

Bonus Bells

A long explanation for a small thing, this one. I really wasn't supposed to be doing any random, spur-of the-moment crafting, but did you really think I'd even make it a week without doing some?

K got one of those pop-up toy-in-a-cone things, a jester, from her preschool Xmas party. The stick promptly snapped twice and unfortunately there was no way to save it, so it was ready for the bin. At the last minute I snipped the bells off the jester - may as well save something useful. K picked them up and looked at them thoughtfully for a while, then said "I wish I could wear bells in my hair, mum." What a good idea, thought I. I could stitch them onto clips...but she doesn't wear them much at the moment. Ah, but she does like hairbands, I'm sure I've got a crochet pattern somewhere. I looked and didn't like the one I had, but I remembered that these and some other bells I had in stash would thread onto Pattons 100% cotton yarn. Last Summer I made myself a skirt trim with over 100 bells on it (yes, I was mad, yes, I drove A insane with the jingling, and yes, I've only worn it once so far).


So this simple hairband pattern was born:

The happy girl

Close-up

And now, she shall have music wherever she goes. Apparently it was much admired at preschool! Since it's a custom-fit it does do the job rather well; I'm going to make some more in different colours but this time I think I'll make them a bit wider, and some stripy ones to go with her favourite tights. Watch this space, I'll probably write the patterns up for next week!

Owl in Flight Week 2

Here's where I was up to last week:



And here's last night's progress:



Hopefully you can see that I've now completed the full length of the owl's wing and added in more of the sky to the right. That's as far as I can stitch on the right, I'm to the edge of that page now and it's a full 17cms wide. The large gap under that piece of sky there is for a fence post - I think I'm probably going to complete the rest of the sky next session and then add in the fence post and owl's tail the week after that. Then that'll be a one pattern piece completed (1 of 6!). I know it's not all that exciting at the moment but I think it'll be quite interesting to see the fence post coming in next time.

As for the rest of the week, I have been a diligent girl and worked hard on the commissions - I'm pacing myself and trying not to get too frustrated with it; no getting away from the fact that when you've made something 300+ times, it's going to get fairly dull to make it again! I even had a night off everything on Wednesday as I was shattered after three classes and having to dig the car out of the ice. It really has been awful here - this morning it's raining, making the ice even worse, and the streets are really frightening to walk along. If Little Bump and I get through this without injury I'll be very surprised.


Still, you know. Ice is not an earthquake. My lovely friend Laura posted the following link on Facebook this morning Pennies Per Hour Of Pleasure, which is a charity knitting site in aid of Medicines Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders). They of course are doing a lot for Haiti right now and are a fantastic cause. Sadly there are no crochet patterns, but if you're a knitter (and this is the kind of thing that might drive me to be!), get along there, make a donation and get one of their lovely sock, hat or scarf patterns.


And no, I didn't manage a week with no random crafting. K has worn her latest request to preschool, but I'll try and get a piccy later.