Textiles | Fairy of Mokosh

Recently finished pieces

Made a cute top and dress for my teddy bear Hazel. When I've got some time and have made it some jewellery, I'll share pics over on the toys section of my site!

tank top in a royal blue African fabric with colourful geometric floral dot patterns.

Sorry, haven't yet bothered ironing it ;P

Made myself this summery tank top with a lovely African fabric from the shop Abakhan. I followed a youtube video on self-drafting a tank, and it went a bit wrong. The neckline was much too wide, so I folded it back on itself at the front and back, creating a fold. I used facing to finish it, which was a bit of a faff. If I make another tank top (which I'm planning to do) I'll make the armpits a tad more cut out to avoid deoderant stains, and I'd try get the neckline right first time, though I do like the effect of the fold.

Work in progress

Making myself some felted slippers using Nimble Needles' pattern (though I was too lazy to swatch so I'm hoping the felting doesn't go horribly wrong).

applique and embroidery of smiling cartoon crow wearing flowery red skirt and white blouse with a babushka-headscarf.

Started this applique-embroidery crow piece May '24 at a local embroidery workshop. It's a lot of fun - I've not really combined applique with embroidery, or done such complex applique. It's inspired by russian and slavic traditional folk costumes, as well as the Plasticine Crow from the 1981 soviet cartoon. I hope to finish it fairly soon; I did most of it and I've only got the waistband and feet to do now but have been busy.

Edit 11/08/2024: As of earlier yestoday* I've restarted this as I hope to get it done in time for a local art gallery display project. I'd share the details of it, but it's extremely localised to my street so I'm afraid that'd doxx myself ;P . I've sewn on the waistband ribbon since the photo above was took. So to finish it, I've got to:

Finish sewing the skirt on
Embroider the feet
Possibly add some background decor - e.g. folklory cross stitch motifs
Iron/ neaten it up and trim the edges for display, maybe add backing.

*Yestoday: a new word I just coined. Taken from yesterday + today, it means technically yesterday, but before you sleep so it's still today. I.e. it's currently 1am on 11/08/2024, so technically 10/08 is yesterday, but as I've not slept, it still feels like earlier today.

(Edit 11/09/24: Actually finished this at the end of August, but haven't yet had time to properly update this page!).

Work on pause

Granny square crocheted patches in green, blue, pink and yellow next to a blue measuring tape.

I was crocheting myself these granny squares for a cardigan over winter 2023/24. It was on pause as I was busy making presents for other people over xmas. I'm following a pattern by Kristen Salzer-Frost on ravelry. I didn't manage to finish it before winter so it's on pause until autumn. However I'm considering making it into either a blanket, or a vest, or perhaps both. I was thinking a blanket is good for more of the year than a thick chunky cardigan, and I'm worried it'd be too heavy and bulky as a cardigan. Someone at Butchcrafts suggested I make a crochet vest as it's better for layering. I like this idea as I think it'll be less risky than a cardigan and cuter. Plus if I have remaining squares I can make a blanket too. I had 60 squares on 13/03/2024. For a cardigan not incl. a hood I'd need 76-88 squares, while for a vest I think 45? So not many for a blanket unless I made a bunch after last counting. But anyway, I'll come back to this when the leaves start turning.