Scarves Part Two

Do you remember the scarf samples I posted about in October? One of them was an irregular shape with lots of different pieces and sizes of cotton scrim for a base, I wanted to make a full sized scarf based on that idea. I didn't want to make the overall shape of the scarf quite as irregular as the sample though, just more 'uneven'. I got out lots of pieces of hand dyed scrim in variegated shades of blues, greens and greys,  and ironed them-apparently those big plastic craft tables bend from heat more easily than I thought! I laid the pieces out on the template, and overlapped them in places for a bit more texture. Then I chose some 18.5 mic Merino in similar colours and matched the wool layout to the scrim.

It was interesting to just follow the colours of the scrim instead of planning the colour layout, it was a lot more random:

I really like the scrim side, it is so texturey and reminds me of lots of different landscapes:

This next one is a grey marl Merino on hand dyed cotton gauze. I blended up 4 shades of 18.5 mic Merino, 2 greys, a duck egg and black. It wasn't very easy to get photos, they kept turning out blue!:

Those were the last of the scarves, but I did make a few samples to test out some other fabrics. I used some scraps of stranded scarves with a couple of offcuts and some 18.5 mic Merino:

I laid the wool out very finely, cobweb thin really:

The fabric offcut rippled into a nice texture:

I used just two fabrics for this one, strips from a green viscose scarf and strips from a very pale green/beige/ blue charity shop dress which I was convinced was silk until I did a burn test, very realistic imitation!

I laid the 18.5 mic Merino wool tops thicker on this piece, though they were still quite fine. I also didn't go right upto the edges of the fabric:

The ripple textures were interesting, the viscose seemed to ripple more vertically, and the imitation silk more horizontally:

This sample is a fabric which might look familiar as I bought 3 scarves with the same design in different colours.  I think this is the first time I tried it with 18.5 mic Merino:

Well, that's it for this year! I hope you've all had a great year, and enjoyed reading the posts. And if you've got a bit of spare time over the holidays, don't forget I have lots of free tutorials which are all  felt, fibre and fabric related: https://feltbyzed.blogspot.co.uk/p/free-tutorials.html

Scarves Part One

I've been into making scarves lately, though I probably carded more wool and ironed more scrim and gauze than I used for making scarves, but I have finished quite a few. This is a white one I made a few weeks ago:

I used 18.5 mic Merino, and Rose fibre for embellishing:

I cut the scarf wider than my template, and scrunch gathered it to size before adding the wool, so it'd have some texture on the back:

I also made a short, wide scarf/wrap similar to the white scarf, using natural cotton scrim and 18.5 mic Merino:

It's about 3 times as wide as the scarf, and I didn't scrunch the scrim first:

I used 3 different cellulose fibres for embellishing this: Viscose, Rose and Tencel, this is the Viscose:

Another scarf I made recently is this bright, colourful one. I always prefer the side where the wispy ends of the wool tops overlap (or underlap since they're laid first) the next colour:

This is the other side where the colours are in blocks:

An 'arty' shot to shop how soft it is :)

I think the multi one is the only scarf I made recently which isn't nuno-felt. This next one was made with 18.5 mic Merino and hand dyed cotton scrim. I embellished this with hand dyed bamboo top:

I cut a strip of subtley variegated lemon/yellow scrim to size, then cut the strip into roughly even pieces and re-arranged them before adding the Merino on top:

I've got a few more scarves to show, so check back before the end of the year to see part two :)

Project Updates

I promised photos of the blue/green bag I was in the process of making, though it really doesn't look too much different to the separate panels :) This is the front, or more blue side:

This is the more green side:

 I also made a smaller bag with some of the green pieces. Side 1:

 Side 2:

I've only got as far as making the last of my nuno strip pieces into panels for a bag. It was this yellow piece:

I used various types of fabric–cotton, viscose, silk, suspected silk, so got various textures:

I liked these two strips next to each other, they showed the very different way felting/shrinkage affected them:

I used some of the spare offcuts from the orange piece to make up the panels:

 I showed some half finished purses not so long ago. I finally finished all the blanket stitching and buttons/buttonholes:

I also had some others I was at various stages with, and finished those too:

It's nice to have a growing pile of finished projects instead of a growing pile of felt pieces waiting for the inspiration (and energy!) to make them in to something!

More Nuno, More Sewing

One thing I realised when I was making the bag I showed last time is that I was running out of offcuts. So decided to make some more. I suppose technically they're not offcuts if I make them with the intention of cutting into strips, but you know what I mean :) I made a few different coloured nuno felt pieces:

I loved the variety of textures I got from using different fabrics on the orange piece:

The red piece was made with all silk pieces:

This is a corner of the red piece with sunlight on it:

Before I got too attached to the pieces, I cut them all up into strips:

I made a mistake with some of them, because some pieces weren't very wide. I should have left them 'whole' instead of cutting the strip in half like I did the others. I started with the red and orange strips, and matched up some pieces, it turned out some of the purple strips worked well to so I used some of them. I made them into a passport style shoulder bag. I made this side as the front:

I made the back to match, but different enough that it can be reversed for a different look:

It's not very easy to see, but I finished the bottom of the strap off with some wooden beads.

Another Bag and Some Weaving

If you're anything like me, when you get the sewing machine and felt and/or fabric scraps out, you end up with stuff absolutely everywhere and a huge mess to tidy away afterwards which takes so long you start to consider whether you really need to use that room again or if you can get away with shutting the door on the mess forever. I usually try to make the most of it and do as many sewing projects as I can all in one go and live with the mess in the mean time. After making the satchel type bag, I had some good sized off cuts left over so thought I'd make myself another bag. This one is 'passport bag' size. This is what it looks like from the front with the flap closed:

And this is what it looks like with the flap open - I used magnetic closures again:

 The felt piece I used for the flap is at least 4 years old, one of those pieces you make for fun and put 'in the box' until you find the perfect use for it. Weirdly after using it on the bag, I was watching Neighbours (an Aussie soap, for those who don't know) and a character was wearing a jacket, just like my bag flap!

I did a bit of spindle spinning and then weaving recently. I thought it'd be nice for fairs or the well being classes to show how hand woven yarn can be used. This first one was made with fairly neat (by my standards, anyway) yarn, just single ply, and I didn't wet and set the twist or anything, just wound it onto an old broom handle from the spindle. I wove it on a little kids loom I bought:

A closer look:

I was doing some of the weaving at night watching Parks and Recreation and thought I was using all naturals, but it was obvious in daylight I'd used some yarn I made ages ago from hand dyed Merino (green over orang, I think), but I think it matches alright.

Since not everyone has a loom handy, I thought I'd make a few pieces with cardboard looms, so I cut some rectangles and then marked out sections and cut notches in the bottom. I also used some yarn I'd made from my carding scraps - the really wiry, scruffy, short and matted bits - and some coarser wools like Herdwick (the bits I used looked like unpicked Brillo pads) and a couple I got from Wollknoll which look like shredded wheat - to show that yarn, and weaving, can still look good even if you don't make smooth, even yarn. This is a tall one I made:

That's a dried pepper keeping it flat, I'll probably have to wet and block some of these becasue they want to curl! Close up:

Closer:

This is a really small one I made:

A close up:

This is the larger of the cardboard looms I made:

And this is a photo of the loom above with a smaller cardboard loom (it already has the warp thread wound on it) and how they compare to the kids’ loom I have. That is probably smaller than A4/printer paper: