Notebook Covers

This first notebook cover that I finished this week took ages to make. My temperamental sewing machine keeps refusing to catch the bobbin thread with the needle. Occasionally I can force it to, then it runs for a while, then I go to turn the piece I'm working on and realise it was just making sewing noises and everything I thought I'd just sewn is loose :(   I kept going back to this until it was finished, then put the machine away so it can't annoy me anymore. I had a collection of felt pieces I'd made with natural coloured wools and plant fibres. None of them were big enough for notebook covers and either too thick or too thin for coin purses, so I thought I'd make a few natural coloured collage notebook covers. Or just one as it turned out. I used some unbleached calico as the backing fabric to sew the pieces onto. I really like the way this turned out. This is the front:

Some of the grey pieces are from a piece of felt I made for Karen's Weather Challenge on the Felting and Fiber Studio site, using grey Gotland Locks for rolling clouds. This is the back:

I machine stitched the top edges together, then finished off the edges and the flaps with some grey/brown thread I spun myself. It was quite chunky for a thinnish thread, but I like the way it looks.

This next notebook cover is probably the nicest one I've ever made. I used a piece of nuno felt that I made for my Beyond Nuno book. It has some gorgeous flowery blue synthetic fabric nuno felted onto merino tops. I made a little tie for the front from an offcut of the nuno felt. I cut a strip about 8-10mm wide and wet it with soapy water and rolled between my palms until it formed a cord. I used a spring toggle as the fastener. This is the front:

This is the back:

I really love the colours and the way the fabric rippled so nicely.

SuperMacro texture close up:

I'm getting better at letting things go and listing them on etsy, but if this doesn't sell before the listing expires, I'm keeping it!

Catching Up

I've been trying to some of the projects I started before I began working on my polymer clay e-book. I had a few purses and glasses cases cut out or part sewn up. The first one I finished was a ruffle camera case. It hadn't even been cut out, so I did some measuring and cutting then discovered my electric machine won't work :( I cleaned out the bobbin case and took the parts off and wiped them and put them back, but the needle won't pick up the bobbin thread. From what I can tell it is timing or something and I don't think it's something I can fix. So, out came my ancient electric Singer without the electrical parts. It's slow going but it works, for straight stitching anyway :)  This is the front of the case:

And this is the back:

This was one of the purses I hadn't even blanket stitched, it's made from the same piece of felt as one I made earlier. It's a slubbed wool which I added some cotton and silk threads to and some strips of rolled edges from silk scarves. Front:

Inside:

The felt this wool makes has a really nice texture. Back:

A piece of coppery bronze felt that I made a while ago was just big enough to make a purse and matching glasses case:

I have to edit a few more photos then I'll be able to add the pink ruffley camera case and the bronze purse and glasses case to etsy later today.

Do you have piles of WIPs at different stages?

Making Things

I mentioned recently that I had a look through my box of felt pieces to make things with. I think I put as many pieces back as I kept out (I think anyone who makes felt knows how hard it is to cut pieces up to make things!) so I went through it again telling myself it's a waste to keep them all packed away in a box :)  I had quite a lot of pieces this time. I started looking at some of the bigger pieces to see how many notebook covers I could make. Some of you might recognise this flowery piece from my e-book, I'm trying to convince it it's big enough to make a notebook cover from! In the end I decided to make a couple of camera cases from it as it had a base layer of muslin.

I cut out a placemat and two coasters from a thick felt piece I made just before Christmas and found some pieces perfect for making into glasses cases and coin pouches. I added some stitching to these to make the felt stiffer. I tried to find the perfect embroidery thread to blanket stitch them, but I wasn't happy with what I had to waited for the threads I ordered from Rainbow Girl on etsy. They are just like DMC coton perle but with more colour variations. I also finished sewing together my other cotton gauze purse, but haven't sewn the button holes yet.

Quite a few of the pieces I had were perfect for gadget cases (camera, phone, iPods) so I ended up with a huge pile of cut out felt pieces waiting to be sewn up with the machine. I finished them by Monday, though I think half that time was spent trying to thread the needle, just as I thought I was about to get the thread through, my eyes would flicker and I'd miss :)

Machine stitching might make me feel like the cases are secure, but I never feel anything is finished properly until I blanket stitch it, so out came the threads again.

One thing I did manage to get finished this week was a notebook cover. This piece of felt really was hard to cut up!

When I made a pot pouri case last year, I kept the natural edge of the felt for the flap, I really liked the uneven edges. I liked them so much that I try to use the natural edges as much as possible now instead of cutting, and luckily this piece of felt was the exact width I needed for a book cover and I left both the inside flap edges natural and just finished them with blanket stitch. When I've managed to work out postage prices and convert to US $, I'll add this to etsy.

Talking of etsy, I'm trying to add a variety of different things to my shop there and this last week I added some more collage sheets. They are all A4 sheets with 9 ATC size (3.5 x 2.5 inch) images. There are a couple featuring English census returns images and I'm working on a series of sheets featuring altered versions of my original artwork... oils, pastels acrylics and gouache.

UK readers probably know that postage prices have gone up again, and not only that but the weight categories have widened too, so the prices/weights jump quite steeply. The new price list is available online now, but it seems they've tried to make it as complicated and as clumsy as possible. I went through it and made myself a couple of charts to simplify it. I think I copied all the info correctly, so if it helps, here's a PDF of prices for letters and small packages.

Weekend Projects

I discovered the other day just how much time it can take to list things on etsy. I thought I'd put together a pack of fabric samples from all the fabrics I used in my e-book, thinking it couldn't take that long, but it did :) I enjoyed going through all my fabric though. I think if I list fabric or fibre supplies again though, I will put together a pack while I'm getting together the fibres for a project, get some extras out and build one up. It might work better like that anyway because I often work on a colour theme and get out similar coloured organzas, silks, embellishment fibres and novelty yarns.

It was nice and tidy once I'd put everything away though (and picked up a load of fabric threads!) so I had a good look through my box of felt pieces to make things with. I had quite a large piece I’d made with black merino and strips of coloured cotton gauze (sometimes called cotton scrim). The back was blues and greens with silk embellishments. I thought it’d make a nice purse or wallet, with two sections. I’ve almost finished it, I just need to add the button and button hole.

I almost used the blue side on the outside, but I'm glad I didn't

Trying out a button:

I cut out some pieces to make another one, and this is almost finished now as well.

I also had time to make this notebook cover from a nuno felted piece I made a while ago:

The silk piece had an unusual pattern, and it made a really nice texture when it was felted.

I'm running out of cotton threads now though, so I might have to have a look at the Rainbow Girl's shop for some more gorgeous hand dyed ones. She sells lots of gorgeous threads and fabric and fibres for felting, including dyed cotton scrim.

Etsy

I've opened an Etsy shop :)

There isn't much there at the moment, but there are a few silk fibre packs. They are packs of aproximately 20g each of natural silk hankies; silk carrier rods; silk noil and gummed silk throwster's waste. I got a shock when I looked up postage prices! I always wanted to be able to offer reasonably priced fabrics and fibres, but the price of postage has shot up recently. If you're in the UK it might just be cheaper to call round for them :)

Silk carrier rods are odd, ugly looking things! But once they are soaked in water and the layers are separated they make great embellishments for felt or mixed media. Like any silk fibres, they can be dyed too. They look like coloured foil to me. I've even carded them and felted the 'fluff'.

Silk Throwster's waste really doesn't look much at first, stiff and nylony, like tangled dolls hair! But once it has been degummed it is soft, fluffy, shiny and crimped.

 It's easy to dye too, and looks gorgeous once it's felted. It spins well too.

Silk noil has great texture. Soft but with nubby bits that feel a bit like oats :) It smells nice and even has a nice sound when it's separated. You can use it to create subtle interest and texture or use it more densely and it will have the appearance of a fabric.

Silk hankies are one of the most popular silk fibres for using with felting. They can be used whole as a single layer:

Or more than one layer for more  texture:

 Or you can draft them into roving and use smaller pieces for different effects:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/FeltbyZed