My study partner Lynn and I have been working on Module 8 of the embroidery diploma course learning about Tinting on fabric. It’s easy once you know how, after a few Google searches I was able to find a few videos on how to use the different art media on fabric.
The pieces I am sharing are the same design with dissimilar colour-ways and different tinting techniques, and two seperate hands. In July I had an accident which saw me sprain my left ankle and broken right wrist, and so I have been doing physio to get my right hand moving again.
On the left side of the photo I have used watercolour tinting with multiple weeks of stitching and stages to give my hand a rest and the right side of the photo shows pencil tinting and stitching completed in my left hand, it does feel quite unusual to stitch this way and I am intrigued with the results.
I have been approached to be part of a auction on Facebook, so while recovering from my broken wrist I was thinking it is best to use one of the existing flowers that I normally sell at Greenwich market.
The ivory flower has wire work as a central theme, I was working on developing ideas with wire to incorporate into the fascinators, this small flower is the only one of its kind in the smaller flower range.
You can wear this ivory flower as a lapel pin to secure your scarf or onto your jacket as a broach or as a hair flower on the side.
Meet Orville who is wearing a flower crown made in peach lining and created by Sarah who attended Flower Crown Red back in July 2021.
Looking through my posts I have seen that I managed to blog in August, todays blog is brought to you written on a laptop and I am managing to touch type.
For the past month I have been swimming twice each week and have manged to swim a good few laps, 16 in total for the past 3 times, this is encouraging all round as I am getting stronger and increasing the steps I am walking. I have seen from swimming that I am gaining more strength in my wrist, I am still writing with my left hand and when I write with my right hand, (I am right handed) it is scrawly and unrecognisable.
I was booming and busting, as my physio had said when I had my first session for my ankle physio, the accident that happened in July saw me spraining my left ankle and breaking my right wrist and I was pushing myself too hard increasing my step count to soon, to the point that the days I was walking 8,000 to 10,000 steps, the next day saw me laid out on the couch recovering and limping when walking.
This is my sewing machine that has just come back from Deptford Sewing Machines, the case I had to purchase on top of buying the sewing machine over twenty years ago at Chapman Sewing Machine company (my mum bought me the sewing machine), travelling from Southeast to North London is not a funny matter especially in these unusual times of Covid. A few weeks ago I made the trip to Deptford Sewing Company and walked up the high street just with the sewing machine in the case, golly it was hard going and as I have become unfit in Lockdown I had to stop every few yards to rest my arms. I went to the shop to find it was closed and I phoned the number to be told the shop was only opened for two days per week at the moment, that is not what was showing on the website, at that time it was showing that it was opened and closed on Thursdays and Sunday, and I realised that going forward I need to phone ahead to make sure the shop is open. The shop is no longer there and I got there in time to get my sewing machine fixed and collected on the last day of the shop closing for good, if you look on the website you will see they have moved to Gillingham. If you live in the South East ask them which shops do they collect and drop off from as an additional service they do, as there are a few sewing shops dotted about.
I kicked the timing out on the sewing machine, I did my research and googled to be informed this is what had happened, (after watching a video on the bobbin case sitting within a Bernia sewing machine) on YouTube. On one of the videos the mechanic showed how he stripped down a sewing machine and worked on the timing and I thought okay it has to be repaired. The sewing needle was hitting on top of the bobbin and therefore not into the bobbin to connect with the thread to pull up through to the top and from phoning another mechanic in Southend, he confirmed what I had done and that it might as well go in for a service. I phoned the chap in Southend as I was looking for the chap who serviced my sewing machine the last time and he used to work at McCullough and Wallace, then where I was living all I had to do was get one bus from A to B, the chap has now retired and moved out of London, in hindsight I don’t think I would have gone to Southend, but when you have had good service from somebody one always wants to go back to the original person.
When I took the sewing machine to Deptford I had the bright idea of hooking it up to the IKEA trolley, which they still sell and which was ideal for travelling on the bus and wheeling it down Deptford high street, plus this little trolley was my first go to trolley of taking my kit down to Greenwich Market for the Samines stall on Fridays.
Yesterday I taught how to take a pair of your jeans, cut one side of the leg and transform into a Boro (Japanese inspired mending) sewing roll. I took mutiple photos of each stage of the creation and created a PowerPoint, in total I had 40 slides. I needed all those slides so the participants could understand what they were doing. As I am teaching a craft base subject, the more slides to show the greater the comprehension and confidence of the participants to complete the project.
This was Saturday night’s bubble, watching Downton Abbey, we are in series two and watched episode 6, I seem to be getting confused where we are as it has taken us a long time to watch series 1 and 2, we started watching in January and have recently started meeting fortnightly instead of weekly. I am so thankful for my bubble in meeting up, they have been a life saver for me and has been a highlight to the end of my week going into somebody’s else’s home or they coming to me.
This is my living room and over the season of Lockdown the room has turned into my studio, which means I had to do a major revamp of the rooms layout with shifting furniture and getting rid of pieces I no longer needed and that I had grown out of. I think sometimes we and I can hold onto things that bring us comfort, but we have stretched out of and need to be giving it away, so we can be growing into the new space and new space is here within me through teaching online workshops. Thankfully I was wise to keep old files of my teaching notes and how to create a course outline, scheme of work for a ten week course and lesson plans, I have been using these templates to build my own for delivering the workshops. I recently taught with Blackheath Embroiderer’s how to make a fascinator, on the lesson plan I put in demonstrate and student watches and then has ago, but I realised, (a light bulb moment!) that this would not be the case, as my attendees will be working alongside me in creating their fascinator; because it is online, all they need to do now is have the computer in front of them and have a clear sight of what I am doing while stitching along.
My new workshop I have been working on and ready to be delivered is how to recycle your denim jeans into a Boro sewing roll, I am quite excited by this piece that I have created. A friend gave me his old jeans that were going to the charity shop, that are good quality and has no holes within the trouser legs, I have cut one pair up and used one side of the leg and folded to make insert pockets to put your sewing equipment in, like scissors and pins or if you were into stationary one could put their smaller pencils and eraser’s in. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/upcycle-your-denim-jeans-into-a-boro-sewing-roll-tickets-153201962193?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch
