TAST 51 - Raised Herringbone Band

This band uses a combination of stitches to produce a very decorative band. It is time-consuming but I do like the finished result.

I had planned to stitch something different but in the end I came up with this colourful Easter-inspired egg.  The satin stitch was done in Janlynn DFN threads (I don't know anything about them, size or even colour - they came in a value pack with no information, but it's a twisted thread about twice the thickness of Perle no. 8), the herringbone in Aida crochet cotton no. 20, and the weaving in Anchor metallic.

Do head over to Pin Tangle to see how the band is worked.  It's well worth reading through the comments to see how people have interpreted the stitch. The TAST FAQ page also lists all the stitches done so far by number so you can easily look at previous examples.

TAST 50 - Inverted feather stitch

I am soooo behind with TAST! But determined that I will catch up at some point.  Here's my attempt at Inverted Feather Stitch.

I'm happier with the idea than the execution.  I think my silhouette is a bit dodgy and as I wasn't using counted thread fabric I should have taken more time to mark out the border to get nice straight edges.  Live and learn :)

Pay a visit to Pin Tangle to see the other offerings.

Pretty Things

A few weeks ago we went to the South Downs and on the way home stopped of at Winchester.  It's a pretty little city best known for its Cathedral.  On the day we visited there was a market in the city centre, where I saw this lovely embroidered bedspread.  There were a lot of other embroidered items on the stall, but restless kids meant that I didn't have a lot of time for photographs.

This wonderful colourful book cover in a museum shop also caught my eye:

Wear Flowers in Your Hair

Last year I opened a shop on Folksy, but it was a bit of a half-hearted affair.  So at the start of this yuear I decided to make more of an effort to fill it and promote it.  It's slow going with all the other things that I've got going on, but slowly but surely I'm getting it together.

My mum used to sell costume jewellery, some of which she made up herself, and during a clear out of her garage she found a HUGE stash of plain metal hair clips in pristine condition, which she donated to me.  Well, they were just crying out for a bit of embellishment and so I accepted the challenge to make them pretty!  I love flowers, and crocheting them so that seemed like a good place to start.  This is what I've done so far (+ a pincushion):

Berry Bakewell on Folksy

What do you think of my crocheted flower hair clips?  I like them, and have actually diverted a couple from the shop for my own use (not a good business model!).  9 down, about 300 to go!

Make do and Mend Monday - Upcycled Denim Skirt

I'm a woman of the large-thighed variety, so this is an unfortunate side-effect of many of my trousers:

Rather than try to patch them up or throw them away I decided to make a skirt out of these jeans.  I can't remember where I saw the trousers-into-skirt thing, but no doubt there are hundreds of tutorials online.  I made my little upcycling project the basis of a couple of my sewing lessons.

First step was to cut the jeans to the length of skirt that I wanted and then to cut down the inside leg seams.

Then I took the bottoms that I'd cut off and cut a piece to match the gap, which I then pinned to the wrong side of the skirt. The piece was then top-stitched in place. Lastly, I added a length of colourful fabric to the hem to brighten the skirt up a bit. Ta dah!

Not a great set of instructions or photos I know, but I just wanted to show you what I did.