on the last day of the holidays

How to make a window box on the last day of the summer holiday.

1. Find all the buttons, glue, pieces of felt, scissors, tape, shoeboxes you can find. Cover the table entirely. 

2. Make some playdough (first ever solo trip to the shop to get the cream of tartar optional here). 

3. Press down and fill the shoebox with playdough. Observe dyed-brown fingers. There may be some reminiscence about making playdough in days gone by. This is ok.

4. Make some flower stems from tightly-rolled tissue paper. Draw some petals on felt and cut them out.

5. Choose a button. Negotiate with the button owner. Re-negotiate. Glue the button on to the petals with a gluestick. It falls off. Glue it back on with PVA. 

5. Chat about school, about new beginnings. There are butterflies.

6. Display with pride. Over the coming days it's fun to water the playdough soil. It's less fun to wipe it up. 

I hope summer is ending gently for you and yours. Good luck with all new starts.

Dusting down the shelves

The door creaks open...sorry about all the dust. If I find the kettle we could have a cup of tea. I brought milk. Probably best not look in that biscuit tin though.

It's been a while, much has happened. I have journeyed far and near through art education, teacher training, job applying and matters very real world, taxing and big. 

I am now a qualified teacher in charge of steering the nation's youth on the righteous path of art and photography.  A sobering thought.

Through all of this I did not stop making, this is one strong and primal urge. As if I didn't know. 

Projects have got a little smaller; they fit in with me rather than vice versa. Can I pick it up after a few weeks neglecting it? Does it fit in my bag? Can I do it during the hour and a half my daughter sleeps during my day off? If the answer to those questions is yes, then I'm in.

Stay tuned if you want to see some of the fruits of my labours.

Meanwhile, here's a photo of a poncho I made for a doll. She usually has a nice red dress on but a toy cat stole it. You know how cats can be.

I promise they won't all be like this. Pattern from the Ladybird of Crochet. 

Smocking lessons

My aunt Sue got inspired by the post I wrote on my grandmother's handmade dresses. This is very exciting as she is someone who so often inspires me. She is the finder of all things needed and useful, the gatekeeper of an Aladdin's cave  by way of Forest Gate. Ladybird books, buttons, old cameras, haberdashery, toys and all manner of good good stuff. Everyone should have an Aunt Sue.

Once a week a little part of this cave gets taken to her stall on Broadway Market here in Hackney and we are so happy to make our visits to her a Saturday ritual. What will she have this week?

So it came as no surprise that she had some old magazines and books with instructions on how to smock, and that she knew the basics.

It was not as hard as it looks. It is case of making a few gathering stitches to form the pleat, and then sewing the pattern with decorative thread.

The upshot of it is that we have gone halves on a pleater. These do the gathering bit for you and make the whole process much faster. I am thinking about all the applications for smocking beyond dressmaking, which is definitely not my forte.

Watch this space (patiently).

A work roll for a writer

A writer friend of mine had a birthday so I made her this work roll: 

She can put in a paperback, a notebook or two, and three pens or pencils. Just right for the scribe about town. I kept the colours quite understated because this writer is going places, and whilst I know she loves vintage Miffy fabric, perhaps this look is better for those high-powered meetings.

These are such a joy to make and have become a firm favourite for presents. They can be made in one sitting and the pattern is straightforward. 

Hours of endless fun thinking about print and colour combinations. 

Here are some I made earlier for two small children:

I got the pattern from breadandbuttons. You can download it free on the sidebar of her homepage.

 I have adapted mine for the adults: larger in size, stronger fabric (the one shown here uses canvas lining which works beautifully) and different placing of the pockets. I wanted them to have room for a paperback. For the children's rolls, I measured them to fit a ladybird book. Form and function. Lovely.