Little Miss Rabbit

Posted on January 4, 2023 by craftycreeky

The well dressed rabbit I made for my daughter for Christmas has gone to her new home. She was made from the patterns in the Luna Lapin books by Sarah Peel of Cool Crafting in Kendal. She has a reversible sailor dress made from Liberty tana lawn and a dark blue wool coat, looking suitably respectable…so long as the wind didn’t blow her skirt up as I didn’t have chance to make her any undies during the busy run up to Christmas! The phrase ‘fur coat and no knickers’ comes to mind…

Well I’m sure you’ll all be relieved to hear her modesty will remain intact whatever the weather as she now has a pretty pair of French knickers. The cotton is trimmings from a nightdress I shortened for someone at work, it already had a lace trim so it was an easy job to stitch an inside leg, a gusset and then the elastic casing.

I even remembered to leave a hole in the back seam for her white fluffy scud…

I think Little Miss Rabbit is feeling a lot happier now she is fully dressed.

I’ve made five rabbits and one mouse from Sarah’s books, they are a delight to make and I love the detail in the various outfits too. I usually hand-stitch the rabbits and machine stitch their clothes but you could make them either way. If you fancy having a go just follow the link above. I can also recommend the Luna Lapin page on facebook, it’s very friendly and supportive – some people have made dozens of them! There’s lots of different animals too now, I’ve a kit in my stash to make a sheep, the otter is very cute as is the polar bear and the latest pattern release of a donkey looks gorgeous too.

Posted in Luna Lapin | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

New Skirt for New Year’s Eve

Posted on January 2, 2023 by craftycreeky

I first cut this skirt out in November, planning to wear it for the works Christmas party on December 4th, I then changed my mind about the party and thought I’d wear it to a Christmas lunch on December 12th with former work colleagues. Sewing Christmas presents took precedence and I wore something else…maybe I’ll make it in time for a trip to the ballet on Christmas eve or Christmas Day itself…well Christmas Day came and went and it was still sitting in pieces on my sewing table!

I was determined to make it for New Years Eve!!

I’ve had the pattern for a while, it’s called the Amira skirt by Fibre Mood. I think I saw it first on social media and loved it immediately, it’s a full pleated skirt, just above ankle length with a shaped waistband. The pattern says it’s suitable for light floaty fabrics or heavier wovens which will hold a pleat. I dug out some lovely damson colour fabric from my stash, I’m not sure what you call it but it’s sort of like a heavier taffeta with slubs in, it’s also got a one way stretch which I didn’t realise when I first cut it out, luckily it didn’t cause many issues.

It’s the first time I’ve made a pattern from the Fibre Mood magasine. Fibre Mood is a bit like the Burda magasine in that all the patterns are printed on a few sheets and you trace off the ones you want. It took a while to work out where the pattern pieces were that I needed, I traced them onto some tissue paper which luckily I had bought a roll of a while ago. I also made life a little easy as I realises that I only really need the top width of the skirt as once it got to hip length it was straight down. The instructions in the magasine are very brief, just pictures really, but on line there are much more detailed instructions.

I was initially planning not to press the full pleats in but having tried the front of the skirt on, the weight of the fabric meant it wasn’t hanging nicely. I realised I was going to have to press all the pleats in. This meant a lot more work, I spent three evenings measuring and tacking each pleat down. At first I worked from the side to the centre, but I realised it wasn’t going to be accurate enough and any inaccuracies would be right at the front of the skirt. I tried measuring each pleat from the centre front or back and that worked much better. Once they were all tacked down I could give them a good press and then stitch the front to the back.

I hand stitched the side zip in and used a decorative stitch for the hem, I’d overlocked the hem first so I didn’t need a bulky double fold for the hem. I finished it mid afternoon on New Years Eve!

When I first tried it on I thought it fitted nicely, but after a few minutes it’s sat a bit too low on my hips, so I did a quick improvised stitch down the side seam of the waist. It could probably do with a bit more but it was sufficient for the evening.

I’m pretty pleased with it, the photos above are from this morning so the pleats are a little crumpled as it’s the morning after the night before.

I need to make a top to go with it as the black cardigan doesn’t really work, however I realised that a cardigan I’d made from an embroidered velvet a few years back actually went with it quite nicely.

Posted in Dressmaking, Serendipity | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Stitch a Garden SAL

Posted on January 1, 2023 by craftycreeky

Happy New Year everyone, we’ve had a lovely Christmas and New Year shared with family and friends, nothing too raucous, just enjoying time together. I even managed to get some sewing done…

I’ve managed a couple of evenings working on my garden book, I’m still stitching the page which shows the summerhouse and the pond round the lawn. Three weeks ago I had just started embroidering round the pond…

Well I haven’t done a huge amount of stitching but I have made quite a bit of progress as I used bondaweb to stick on hand-painted calico to represent some of the bushes. There’s quite a few bushes and shrub roses in this part of the garden…

…so far I’ve added a purple one for the continus cogghria, green ones for osmanthus, spirea, pieris and rhodedendrons. I embroidered the osmanthus with fly stitch both round the edge and in the middle to give the idea of a prickly plant as its leaves are a bit like holly. The one on the right with creamy pistil knots and French knots is meant to be a pieris.

I’ve blanket-stitched round the purple bush but I haven’t quite decided how to show the round purple leaves, French knots seems the obvious choice but that might look more like purple flowers, I might just do little seed stitches instead.

Having applied the shrubs the rest of the borders don’t look quite so daunting an area to fill, especially as there’s quite a few rose bushes which are fairly quick to do with large French knots and a few stems and leaves.

Hopefully next time I’ll have a bit more progress to share, in the meantime please follow the links to see what everyone else has been stitching…

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, Cindy, MaryMargaret

Posted in embroidery, Garden, Stitch-a-long, Stitching my Garden | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

Skipton Stitchers

Posted on December 22, 2022 by craftycreeky

At our December meeting at Skipton Stitchers we have a lovely tradition of a Christmas card swop, this involves everyone (who wants to take part) making a Christmas card, preferably with a bit of stitching on and writes a general Christmas greeting from the group. Having brought a card you can then take one home.

I needed something fairly quick to stitch. I decided to use one of the ideas from my Stitch a Garden course, I embroidered a tree on a scrap of linen. It really didn’t take long, it’s only small.

I just used straight stitch for the branches, stem stitch for the trunk and some satin stitch for the pot. A few red French knots just nicely finished it.

To give you an idea of size, this is an A5 card…as I said, it’s pretty small but I think it’s worked well.

In return I got a very cute cross-stitched card with a mouse on, I’m tempted to make it into a little decoration ready for next Christmas.

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Last Minute Stitching

Posted on December 21, 2022 by craftycreeky

I’m feeling a bit of a last minute Lucy at the moment, I’m usually really organised with Christmas but this year it seems to have sneaked up awfully quickly!

My daughter Helen asked me to make her a Luna Lapin for Christmas, she wanted a Liberty print so she sent me two quarter yards of pretty Liberty tana lawn. I used one with a pretty ditsy pink flower design for the ears and feet…

Yesterday I set about making an outfit for her. I couldn’t decide which fabric to use so I had an idea, I used them both…I made a reversible sailor dress! I’m well chuffed with it! The basic pattern for the sailor dress is from one of Sarah Peel’s Luna Lapin books, I basically lined the top and the skirt with the second fabric. In many ways it made it simpler as I had no faffy facings, I didn’t even need to hem the dress as I stitched them together along the hem line before gathering the waist as one and attaching it to the bodice. The only bit I had to be careful on is stitching the inner bodice over the waist seam very neatly so it doesn’t look like an inside out dress.

I found some buttons in my stash, pale pink for the ditsy flower dress and more of a red for what I call the berry dress. I made five buttonholes down the front and stitched the buttons back to back. I tried to stitch them securely but not too tightly by making a bit of a thread shank on each side. Hopefully it just gives that bit of ease between the buttons.

The coat pattern is from the original Luna Lapin coat. I made it from some lovely wool felt from Cool Crafting (Cool Crafting in Kendal is the home of Luna Lapin) It’s a beautiful deep teal colour. I picked the blue as the pink or red felts either went with the flowery one or with the berry dress, not with both I love the details in these patterns, I think that’s what makes them special. The main seams are all edge stitched so it looks like a flat felled seam, there’s mock welt pockets and a button tab on each sleeve. I stitched the buttonholes – about the smallest my sewing machine would do. I decided not to cut them so they are purely decorative. The buttons came from my stash and were a perfect match, size and colourwise.

I was surprised just how quick the coat went together – I didn’t cut it out until just before tea last night and I stitched most of it last night…and I went to bed at a reasonable time! The instructions are nice and clear, you just have to methodically go through them.

She just needs a pair of knickers now, the pieces are cut out but I think it will wait till Christmas is over as Helen is coming up to stay tomorrow morning. I think she looks very smart in her Liberty dress and wool coat.

I do enjoy making these rabbits, Sarah’s written patterns for lots of different animals, I think the otter and the polar bear are particularly nice, I’ve got a kit somewhere to make a sheep so I really must get on with it.

Posted in Luna Lapin, Sewing | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Wren Stocking

Posted on December 20, 2022 by craftycreeky

Having recently discovered the free Christmas stocking designs on Michelle Palmer‘s website, I’ve just finished a second one. The first was the barn owl…

They’re only about 8-9″ tall so they don’t take too long to do.

The second one I chose is a design of a wren with some holly. It’s a design from 2019, still available on Michelle’s blog. As with the barn owl I painted the plain felt in my stash with silk paints, it’s given a nice subtle shading to the head and the wing. I added some embroidery to the bird too with fly, feather, chain and blanket stitch together with a few French knots.

The holly branch on the pattern was narrow strips of felt, but I decided to embroider them with a variegated thread in chain stitch. I added the twirly whirly green bits to fill a bit more space,

After blanket stitching the front and back together it was finished, I love these little designs and they’re lovely to stitch too. I think I might stitch a couple more next year.

Posted in Christmas, embroidery | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Staying Home Quilt HQAL

Posted on December 19, 2022 by craftycreeky

I’m a day late with this post as I got carried away in my sewing room and completely forgot to post! This is my Staying Home quilt which was made from leftovers from my Coming Home quilt during the lockdowns of 2020, I’m now hand quilting it and enjoying the process, even if other projects get in the way sometimes! Three weeks ago I was part way through a second row of blocks…

The row with the cat on was complete, I was working on the one below it…and I’m still working on that row, just got a bit further along.

I’ve quilted the embroidered block on the right with a rainbow and a house on. I kept it simple and quilted round the rainbow and round the outside of the house. I also finished quilted the house nextdoor by adding the windows, these are just quilted and then whip-stitched to make a solid outline.

I’ve started quilting the hearts in the sashing too so I think this row just needs one block quilting and then the sashing. I think I’m making slow but steady progress! Hopefully over Christmas I’ll have a little more time to quilt in the evenings and I’ll have much more to show you in my next post next year!!

Hand Quilt Along Links

This Hand Quilt Along is an opportunity for hand quilters and piecers to share and motivate one another. We post every three weeks, to show our progress and encourage one another.  If you have a hand quilting project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, and  Cathie 

Posted in embroidery, Quilt-a-long, Serendipity | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Barn Owl Stockings!

Posted on December 17, 2022 by craftycreeky

Here’s another finish from last week. I spotted these free patterns on Michelle Palmers website. She does all sorts of designs for applique or needle punch as well as some cute pen and ink illustrations. Each year recently she has kindly published a free design or two for a felt Christmas stocking. They are gorgeous designs.

I decided to stitch the one with a barn owl on. I found some nice felt in Boyes, it isn’t 100% wool like Cool Craftings wool, but it feels fine and it comes in a lovely range of colours. I chose a dark spruce green for the main stocking.

I wanted some subtle shading on the felt – the one on Michelles blog uses felt with a smudgy sort of finish. I only had plain felt so I cut out the various shapes and added colour with silk paints. I’ve not used them on felt before but it worked pretty well, I tried painting it on but it was a bit splodgy so I dunked the whole piece in the brush water which nicely evened out the paint a bit more, I could then add more colour to certain areas and it blended in well with the wet bits. The barn owls wing started off the same colour as his breast but as you can see it’s coloured up nicely,

The pattern just had the face of the owl embroidered with all the French knots, I love that bit. I decided the rest of the owl needed a bit of stitching too. I embroidered the breast first with fly stitch in a variegated cream. It took me a while to get going on the wings as I couldn’t work out how the feathers went. Fortunately someone on facebook on a bird-watching in Yorkshire fb page shared a photo of a barn owl in extactly the same pose! As you can see I used a variety of stitches with a DMC variegated thread, feather stitch, herringbone, fly, blanket and back stitch.

The wooden post he’s sitting on has a little bit of stitching, just some back-stitch to give a little detail. Round the bottom are some gorgeous seedheads with what I think is meant to be snow collecting in the cup of the seed head. They stand out beautifully on the dark green felt.

All that was left to do was to blanket stitch the front and back together. I really enjoyed stitching this piece and I’m already stitching another of Michelle’s Christmas stockings!

Posted in Christmas, embroidery, Serendipity | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

Robin Redbreast

Posted on December 14, 2022 by craftycreeky

Last month I embroidered a robin, it was pretty easy to do as I used a heavier weight of cotton which has a very pretty design of robins. I used one as the base for the embroidery…

At the time I was still undecided what to do with it, I did ponder about including it in my garden book but I decided to make it into a mini cushion for a Christmas present.

I rummaged in my stash and found a fat quarter of duck egg blue with a subtle pattern on it, not too overpowering for the robin! I trimmed the robin to just over 4.5″ and cut 2″ strips, stitching a simple border round the embroidery. With hindsight I should have stitched the side ones first then the top and bottom would have the wider width, but it looks fine.

I stitched a square of the same fabric for the back and stuffed it, not too hard, just enough to hold it’s shape without distorting. I felt it needed a little extra, so I found two old DMC threads, one a darker duck egg and one lighter. I have a cord-maker which twists threads neatly into a cord so I measured a generous three times the perimeter so as to have sufficient and twisted the threads into a very pretty cord. The colours worked even better than I expected.

I was planning to just stitch it round the outer edge of the cushion, but when I tried it round the embroidery it really lifted it so I couched it round there to start with and then the outer edge. Talk about playing thread chicken, I had 5mm of cord left!!

All it needed now was a pretty button to cover the join…

I’m really pleased with him, the finished cushion is about 6″ square, now I need to wrap him up and post him on his way.

Posted in embroidery | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Stitching My Garden SAL

Posted on December 11, 2022 by craftycreeky

I’ve been busy trying to catch up with Christmas preparations over the last couple of weeks leaving me with little time to stitch my garden. Three weeks ago I’d made a start on my second big piece for my fabric book, this embroidery depicts the lawn and the summerhouse area….

Since then I’ve finished the gravel path, started to add a hint of paving stones in front of the summerhouse and back-stitched the roof of the summerhouse.

I have also finally started stitching some of the plants. I still need to add the small shrubs with applique, that will make a big difference to the piece as the borders do have quite a few shrubs as well as the shrub roses.

I’ve begun to embroider the plants round the pond, so there’s a couple of hostas, some irises and some solomon’s seal…

Hopefully once Christmas is out of the way I will start to make better progress!

This stitch-a-long is organised by Avis, please follow the links to see what everyone else has been stitching.

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, 

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, Cindy, MaryMargaret

Posted in embroidery, Stitch-a-long, Stitching my Garden, Textile Books | Tagged , , | 7 Comments