Textiles Archive

Repository for things that used to be on the main textiles page. Kind of like a mini, textiles specific blog archive.

Octoberish 2024

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

now the squares are sewn into strips of four. 16 green, yellow and blue mini cushions arranged in a patchwork square. 16 green, yellow and blue mini cushions arranged in a patchwork square.

Making a puff patchwork seat cushion for my Babushka following this pattern. It's a bit of a nightmare to sew tbh but I'm getting there and like how it looks!.

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). Edit 17/11/2024: they went 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:

  1. Finish sewing the skirt on
  2. Embroider the feet
  3. Possibly add some background decor - e.g. folklory cross stitch motifs
  4. 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!).

19/07/2024

Recently finished pieces :3

two crochet satchels with a swirly circular front pocket, left is turquoise and teal, right is black and red. back of the satchels showing the contrast colour CD-shape. photo of satchels from above, showing CD players in front pockets and a folding flap closure for the CD compartment.

Made these two CD player bags to hold a portable CD player and 3-4 jewel cases. My sibling is big into CDs rn and wanted a case to protect his player, so for his birthday I made him one. I actually started enough in advance to make a prototype (which doubles as a gift to myself) which is on the left. The square panels were SO HARD to do the maths for - I wanted it to look like a CD, however squaring such a big circle required the use of pi and the Treble Treble crochet stitch?! I'm so proud of these. Not sure if I can stomach writing a pattern but I may make a dedicated page with progress pics, notes, and photos as I've not seen anyone make something similar. Not sure how useful it would to the average 2024 individual, but who knows? Regardless, making up something quite complex to a specification was so much fun, and taught me a lot.

Works in progress

wet green fabric in dye bath.

This evening I dyed some linen trousers I got in a charity shop a nice green. Currently waiting for them to dry overnight. I dyed them much darker than intended, but the colour is still lovely. I also like the scraps I dyed esp the shibori one.