Thursday, April 4, 2013

Apron dress progress

I went to fiber arts guild last night and have made some progress on stitching the roundels on my apron dress. A while back I sewed down the second roundel (left) and stitched the edges for it. Last night I worked on the first roundel (right). I've finished the white stitching and am working on the gray fill. roundels-progress

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

(Very) Tiny Purse

I was chatting with our gift coordinator for the crown and she mentioned that they were a bit low on largess, so I decided to make a little something to make her job easier. This little project combines three "to-do" things on my list: eyelet practice, twisted cords, and up-cycled shirts. I've been meaning to practice eyelets and have yet to feel comfortable with them. This little project had 12 of them - and I think I've got the hang of it now. Recently one of the blogs I read posted a tutorial on quick twisted cords and I had been meaning to try it out since I don't seem to have a good track record on finishing long finger loop braids to finish out projects. Finally, I was gifted a box of old silk shirts from my sister a while back and I have been wanting to use them for more projects. Most of the shirts have large chunks of silk that is still nice, so I just have to dissect them and pull out the good bits as I go. The silk for my apron dress is my first shirt project. This is my second. purse This is a simple little circle purse in silk with twisted cord silk drawstring. I put my favorite teas in it as a little bonus :) When I patterned it, I had intended that it be large enough to have the tea totally inside, but drafting patterns just really isn't my strong suite. Oh well, another skill to work on. The eyelets turned out very nice and surprisingly consistent. They are a little snug for the draw string, but they work. Even as a tiny purse I think it works out well with the tea and the silk is so shiny and soft that it still makes me happy.