SweetMyrtle

sewing for the home - the 'Flower meadow' blind

last year i bought some beautiful cotton lawn locally. i fell in love with the print of gorgeous pink flowers on the blue and crisp white background. 

I decided that i would use it to make a roman blind to hang in our bathroom so  that each morning i would be greeted by  it's cheeriness and i could make believe that i was bathing in a fragrant flower meadow!

I started the blind last summer then for some reason put it to one side as work and other jobs took it's place. I remembered recently that this uncompleted project was still in a bag under my work table so out it came. I only had the Velcro, rings and cord to add and  the baton to fix up and it would be ready to hang.

Meanwhile over on twitter i saw that Amanda from Sew Deputy was using the very same fabric to make  herself a Ruby dress. We exchanged tweets and Amanda said the fabric reminded her of the TV program Rosie and Jim. We then reminisced about Rosie and Jim which our children had enjoyed watching when they were younger. So my flower meadow blind nearly changed into my Rosie and Jim Blind!

we still have my youngest girls Rosie and Jim dolls plus a duck, not the real one from the program but a wooden duck i got at a car boot sale which i am strangely fond of and who always seems to to survive any de-cluttering i do.

i love my new blind and it really does freshen up the bathroom and  my man even let me borrow his new drill so i could put it up.

Amanda finished her Ruby dress and managed to snap a picture next to a barge! for those of you that remember the program you'll understand why. Do go and have a look at her creation.

If you love the fabric then White tree fabrics  sell it, although i think after Amanda made her dress they sold out, but i see it is now back in stock ; )

making gifts

Now i have finished work i am enjoying sewing gifts.

These are Morsbags which are simple cloth bags, designed as an alternative to plastic bags. Because of the availability of plastic bags since the supermarkets sprang into action in the 70's people seem to have forgotten to use cloth bags. My parents generation always used cloth and many still do. ( & mum had a brown shopping trolley which me and my sister used to argue about who had to pull it! )

A movement was set up in 2008 by Clare Morsman to raise awareness of how plastics pollute the environment, break down and end up in marine life. She created www.morsbags.com sharing a great tutorial on how to make the 'Morsbag' and suggesting ways to create 'pods' and community groups to make them en masse and give out free to members of the public.
They are super easy to make and can also be made from upcycling fabrics from curtains or worn house linens. The fabrics i have used were from small sample curtains in the remnant bin at my local fabric store. The bags are great as they fold up small and are perfect to keep in your car glove compartment or bag so you always have one when you go out.
If you fancy making one then check out the Morsbags Sociable Guerilla Bagging site.

opportunities and being brave

sometimes opportunities and invitations to step outside our comfort zone present themselves to us.

being offered an opportunity to write a book was one of these times (massive learning curve), and also giving a talk to a large group of senior women was another (i was petrified).

these opportunities often come out of the blue and require a little (a lot of ) bravery to say' hell yeah, lets go for it', even if we have no prior experience and those little voices in our heads say, ' you can't do that, you'll be rubbish, what are you thinking?!'

i had such an opportunity a few weeks ago; an invitation by the inspiring and beautiful spirit that is Jamie Ridler to be a guest on her Creative Living Podcast. at first i thought, does she really mean me? Despite these feelings and knowing that i am not the most succinct speaker and thinking, do i have anything to say?, I replied and said, yes please. As someone so inspiring to me  the excitement of chatting to Jamie seemed to outweigh my fear.

Jamie has recently taken up sewing so she was curious to find out about my sewing life.

I, in usual fashion, asked the Universe to guide me and just allow the conversation to unfold.(this always seems to help me feel grounded and less scared when trying new things). Jamie is so encouraging and up beat that  i knew i was in safe hands.

We had a great chat including discussing whether creative people are also practical and how sewing is a journey so we must remember to be kind to ourselves as we learn. You can hear our chat here;

I want to say thank you to Jamie for her invitation, as for me personally i often struggle with finding my voice and by the simple act of her wanting to hear my story and valuing that i had something to offer and to share, she has helped me grow in confidence, so thanks Jamie. X

my creative space...

 

today i am feeling festive whilst stitching Christmas stockings...

alice and i have been making bespoke personalized Christmas stockings for some time now. over these last 8 years we have made them in various colours and fabrics and it gives  us such a thrill to think that the stockings  we have made will be adorning fireplaces and bed posts this Christmas waiting to be filled by the man in red...

at the start of our business we were lucky enough to have our stockings featured in House and Garden magazine  (2002) and from that wee bit of publicity and through the customers we met at shows we always get orders to make some each year... the pictures are of two that  i have nearly completed...

tomorrow we are running a stocking making workshop at the West End Centre based on the stocking pattern in our first book, which coincidentally has been included in this month's edition of 'Sew' magazine. i am looking forward to seeing what our group produce...

i wonder do you still have stockings? we do ... and i have just got them out today ... 4 for us and two for the cats which the girls designed and made last year.... (our cats are very spoiled). here are the cats ones...

 

they are very sweet and it was a great little crafty project for the girls to get in to last december... i wonder what project i can suggest this year ... any ideas?

Wishing you  Happy Weekends

x

for more creative spaces pop over to kootoyo's blog