Category Archives: craft

Art Room Organisation

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Dad stayed over in the reinstated guest room recently and it all seemed to go well. I haven’t used the writing desk but it’s accessible. The textile room has had plenty of use since we put a table top on the loom. When I cut out fabric for clothing I do it on the drawing board in the art room or the dining table, but the loom table is good for pinning pattern pieces, and as a place to rest tubs and their contents when I’m looking through habby, patterns and materials (which I do a lot when planning projects).

That leaves the art room. Corners of it were getting used, like the computer desk and the drawing board for cutting out patterns, but when It comes to art I’ve done nothing but some tweaking of oil paintings, a little sketchbook work, and a bit of framing. No new paintings.

Why not? The truth is, I hadn’t properly started reorganising the contents since the big room reshuffle. My general idea was to store the crafts that require a nearby sink like dyeing and printing in the laundry cupboard, and everything else in the art room wardrobe, but other demands on my time left me feeling too physically tired to do all the moving of stuff too mentally tired for decision-making. But when those other matters started being delayed, art organisation turned out to be a good distraction from the frustration. They also forced me to do it in more manageable stages.

It made sense to tackle the laundry first since I knew what was going there. I moved all the relevant items in and did a ‘cull then organise’. After a few trips to buy storage tubs (it’s amazing how downsizing always requires more buying of stuff) almost everything was packed away neatly, and I was pleased to find I had freed up some space.

The art room wasn’t going to be as straightforward. For a start, I was dealing with three to four times as much stuff, including a ridiculous amount of paper and card and an overly optimistic collection of general stuff to repurpose. (I did wonder how I ended up with so much, but then remembered inheriting art materials, adopting other people’s stashes and that I truly believed, at the time, that thing would be useful one day. And at least it was all free.)

How much I culled would depend on how much space I had, so the opposite approach to the laundry would be better: organise then cull. After considering what there was in different categories, I guessed that I had enough ‘grounds’ to fill the left side of the wardrobe. That included canvasses, card, paper and sketchbooks. It turned out that I was wrong about the quantity so all the books stayed on that side, too, which my back was grateful for. The repurposing matter looked like it would all fit into the middle section of the wardrobe, which is a narrow vertical area of shelves and drawers, so I moved everything that didn’t quality into the right side of the wardrobe, which was mainly art mediums, small stationary, tools, framing supplies, packaging for paintings and finished sketchbooks.

A lot of shuffling and culling later, everything had found a new home but for the small amount I culled or threw away. An extra bonus to all this was that I had to tackle some filing I’d been putting off. Also, I didn’t wind up with a multitude of new projects as I normally do after a tidy up, just a small pile of old Daily Art I want to bind into a book.

So much more could have been culled, but with those other matters sucking up time and energy, I’m content with what I achieved. I did test and reorganise all my inks, and cull jewellery-making supplies, and can tackle other sub-categories more easily knowing how much space I have overall. And if another shift in our lives forces more downsizing any time soon, I won’t go into it expecting it’ll be terribly painful. Just… a little achey.

Pinstripe Pants

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A few weeks ago I took my Dad to a medical appointment and needed to fill in a couple of hours. Which wasn’t hard, because there was a fabric store two doors down. I hoped to buy some fabric to replicate a top Paul liked and wore literally to pieces. The owner showed me some options and I settled on one then, since I had the time, I browsed fabric and patterns. They had lots of Style Arc, and I found a long-sleeved top pattern, a t-shirt pattern with lots of options, and a wide-legged pants pattern.

There’s fabric for the first two in the stash, but I needed something suitable for the pants and once again the owner’s knowledge was invaluable. I settled on a black linen with light brown pinstripes. It also turned out that she’d made samples of the pants in a couple of fabrics, so I got to see some pairs ‘in the flesh’ and confirm I liked the shape and design.

A few days later I traced the pattern, then over the following weekend I made a test pair with old bed sheet fabric. Trying it on, they fit great. There was just one small detail I wasn’t 100% happy with (the gathering around the waistband makes the pockets gape a bit) but I decided could live with that. So I cut the pieces from the linen. I ran out of weekend, so on the following one I sewed them up.

The pattern had more directions than the usual Style Arc pattern, but was pretty straightforward. The waistband was fussy – not hard to understand but seems needlessly fiddly to sew. The band is sewn together lengthways with the elastic inside then sewn to the waist of the pants, which means two rounds of stretching it out while you sew and makes you wish you had a third hand. It seems like an approach that someone who hates threading elastic might take and, while I can see both pros as well as cons in the method used, if I make these pants again I’ll try a different way.

And since I like the pants, there’s a good chance I will make another pair.

Kawandi Done

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And I like it.

It’s been an interesting project. A good one for between other tasks, when simple running stitch is all I need.

Though thin compared to quilts with batting, it’s still warm enough to use as a lap blanket.

I found the greatest challenge was keeping the space between the rows of stitching consistent. There’s a bit of variation – the gap tended to widen, but I made myself narrow it again gradually. I ran out of the yellow cotton thrums and moved onto salmon pink, which looks good and helps to unite the shirt colours.

Maybe I’ll make another one day, but for now there are too many other interesting stitchy things I want to try.

Pencil Case

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This is the fourth of the little sewing projects I decided to try, and the first failure.

How is it a failure? Well, it’s supposed to have dividers. I gave up on them when I realised they weren’t going to attach at the bottom, so the contents of the case would get mixed up anyway. Why struggle through inserting it when there was no advantage to be had.

Also, the instructions were pretty dodgy. When you get to the dividers it says something like “from here you’ll have to watch the video”. Maybe if I had, I’d have noticed the non-attached dividers problem. But then I wouldn’t have made what turned out to be a nice little pencil case.

It might not have dividers, but it does open up fully to create two ‘trays’, making it easy to grab the contents with one hand, and not have to searching for the thing you want.

Would I make it again? Maybe. The bias binding around the inner seam is fiddly, and I wonder if it’d be easier to have a non-attached lining or no lining at all. It’s definitely not a ‘whip this up as a last minute gift’ kind of project. But it is useful and the cute potential with the right fabrics is high.

Kawandi-ish Progress

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It’s no surprise that this is quite a meditative project. And yet it can also be addictive. Adding new pieces of cloth is the exciting part, and the stitching is the relaxing bit. I find it’s better to add enough scraps that I can stitch uninterrupted for some time before I need to stop and add more.

On YouTube the vloggers sometimes use dressmaking pins to secure the fabric. I’m using quilting pins. Less chance of stabbing myself.

I’m using a long sashiko needle with a ring thimble, which took a little getting used to, and I really like it. The layers limit how many stitches I can do at once, but it’s much easier on the hands than a finger-end style thimble.

The scraps usually need a bit of tweaking to make the edges sit along one of the rows of stitching. This can be a bit harder to anticipate at the corners. A rectangle might be neatly stitched down a few rounds ago then not be quite aligned once a corner is turned. But having the edges folded under by a generous half inch gives lots of leeway.

I’m going to have plenty of shirt fabric left over, but I won’t be making another kawandi-style quilt from it. I’ve been thinking about ways I could vary aspects of the quilt. Maybe stitching individual patches in spirals instead of the whole quilt? Curved stitching instead of straight? Colourful/fancy fabric? Non-square fabric scraps? Borrow from Boro?

There are so many directions to go in, and they don’t have to be overly complicated. It could still be relaxing and exciting in the same way.

Bowl Cosies & Triangle Bags

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Lately I’ve been catching up on gardening with the help of a friendly and much-fitter-than-me gardener. My weeks seem to involve one day on which physical work happens, after which the rest of the days are spent recovering whilst also tackling the usual commitments. I am certainly not as young as I used to be.

Weekends are for resting. And craft. How complex that craft is depends on how many days into the recovery I am. My brain seems to be the last part of me to heal. Last Sunday I was energetic enough to try a few small sewing projects.

The first was two microwave bowl cosies. Pattern here.

The second was a triangle bag from the YouTuber “Pin Cut Sew”. Episode here.

The bowl cosies must be made from 100% cotton fibre, batting and thread to be microwavable. I know the thread and batting are, and the batik fabric should be, but the lining fabric is a bit of a guess. Fingers crossed it doesn’t melt!

The triangle bag is such a quick, easy project. Even so, I managed to cut the wrong size and got a wonky bag, but then it was easy to just resew one seam to correct that. Next time I’ll make a template.

There are two more sewing patterns I want to try, but first… more gardening. Sigh.

Little Birdy

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Weekends are for craft, and by the time I get to them I’m so tired all I want to do is something easy and small. So I printed some patterns and sketched out instructions from videos for a few small projects I wanted to try.

One was the Little Birdy Pincushion by Sharon Holland Designs. Once I’d printed it out and cut out the shapes, I went looking through my bundles of scrap fabric for combinations I liked. The body and tail of the first one is an old handmade hankie of Mum’s, the second uses dress fabric scraps she gave me.

I didn’t add the dried lentils, but they sit well enough if you give them a firm tap. They’re stuffed with chopped up scraps of fabric and batting. The eyes are french knots, but I think I might switch to a bead as it might be more easily seen.

The first one took me more than two hours. I started off hand sewing then realised that the seams would gape once it was stuffed, so I switched to machine sewing. The second one took a little bit over an hour.

I kinda want to make a flock of them, and maybe line them up along a shelf or branch.

The Cat Bag

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I bought this pattern and the materials for it at the Craft & Quilt Show. The cutest little Japanese-inspired cat bag caught my eye and I guessed it was a sample. So I took it to the woman working at the stall and said “I have to have this! What do I need?” and she furnished me with all the components.

Once at home, I decided it would be a palette refresher when I needed a break from my two long-term slow stitching projects: the skirt and the kawandi-inspired quilt. Last weekend I needed a quiet few days of craft after a busy week, and a small project seemed like the perfect project.

I’ve never paper piecing, and it was much more time-consuming than I’d expected. Though it was obvious it would be much faster sewn on the machine, I embraced the slow pace. It wasn’t finished until the following Tuesday night.

So cute. And quite impractical, really. I have no idea what I’ll do with it. But that isn’t stopping me wanting to make another one. There’s enough of the outer fabric left over, I just need some more iron-on felt and lining fabric.

Cutting Table

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Having swapped the drawing board for the Lotas loom, I’ve found the lack of a flat space in the craft room meant I suddenly wasn’t inclined to pick up a sewing project (aside from slow stitching, which I’m doing elsewhere). So I got thinking and found a solution:

The Lotas Loom can now become a table with the simple addition of a board resting on top. The board is a piece of plywood – the lightest material I could find that came in a large enough size. Cork tiles have been glued on the underside to protect the loom (recycling something I already had). My cutting board fits on top leaving a small area at once side that currently has melamine covered mdf on it, but I’m thinking I’ll replace with an ironing pad.

Early versions had fold-down legs that attached to the front beam and castle, raising the board above the beater. Then I put the beater in the front position and discovered it sat at pretty much the same level as the castle, so didn’t bother with the legs.

The removable castle shelf that Paul made now has hinges so its sides can fold away, making it easy to stow when I’m not using the loom.

When I first put the plywood in place to test out the idea, I found myself using the surface to sort scraps of fabric and lay out potential project materials. Of course, I got a nasty splinter under a fingernail because the surface was unfinished, but it did prove that a cutting table was all that was stopping me sewing. As soon as I had added the cork, drawing board and mdf the creative juices began flowing and I had a new project underway and had made several bundles of fabric for future ones.