Sunday 2 February 2014

Hex-A-Go-Go on Petite Street

When we received our delivery if Dashwood Studios' "Petite Street" fabric at the shop I knew we had to make something with it for display purposes. Yeah OK I just needed the most thinly veiled excuse to play with it. 
I've done so many mini hexies. Literally hundreds but never BIIIIG ones. Perfect. I'd spotted a wall hanging made using Nordika in a magazine at that was all the inspiration I needed. 
I used our Darlene Zimmerman hexagon template at full size which is 51/2" across the width. This was the size of my papers. My fabric I cut 1/4" bigger (which was not really enough seam allowance). A 1/2" would have been better. Then it was standard EPP. Pin and tack and stitch. And that's where I am now. 
Oversewing those hexies together. And because they're bigger my stitches can afford to be at smidge bigger too. So it's all quite quick. I've used 19 hexies in total to make a diamond pattern. Once they're all pieced together I'm going to appliqué them to a peppered cotton ground fabric then quilt. Whether by hand or machine I've not yet decided. 

OK. Back to the needle and thread. 
ttfn x

Thursday 2 January 2014

Handmade 365 + 10

So, as promised, an actual garment. 


Many readers of 'ethel and edna' in the olden days will know all about this skirt.  Yes it's been kicking around a while but, in the true spirit of patchwork, I have added several new bits to repair it. 
I made this little baby having seen a similar one online. That one was 9 tiers if 4" squares. The bottom tier had over 1000 patches in it!!  No way Jose. 
Being a slightly shorter person I could get away with 7 tiers of 5" squares and that gave the perfect length. So that's what I did. 

It didn't actually take too long to piece. The hardest thing was gathering and joining the tiers. The bottom one was about 15 metres so quite a sizeable piece of patchwork to handle. I did it though. Hooray!  
The intention was to wear it for belly dancing but to be honest I love it so much I wear it more. Much more. It's my festival skirt. It's my happy skirt. If I'm having a crap day I wear it. If I'm having a good day I wear it. I really need to make another one 'cause the day will come when this one is beyond repair. But for now I'll keep patching and twirling. 
And now I must go and decide what handmade delight I will be sorting tomorrow. I have 3 new cardis and new socks but they were all bought. I feel a brooch coming on. 

ttfn 
x