Free motion embroidery and applique

I've done three one-off evening classes at Guthrie and Ghani in Birmingham, and Tuesday night was the final one, free motion embroidery. I "drew" a rather poor Christmas bauble, and then appliqued some bits for another bauble and some holly. The base is some calico, some wadding and some thin muslin. We set a small stitch size and off we went. Claire (the tutor) is lovely and very helpful.



Some more practice required I think...

Then we had a go embroidering on two thicknesses of water soluble interfacing. This was really fun!



Then you cut them out and run them under the tap.

The finished flower. The key ring has nothing to do with it, but it curls a bit so I used that to weight it for the photo.



Then I made a start on a wrap top in a blue satiny polyester (it was a freebie with a sewing magazine), and soon realised I'd confused the first two hems. Luckily Claire very patiently helped me unpick them. It wasn't clear which side I was supposed to start on, as the front piece is almost symmetrical about the centre axis. Luckily there wasn't much damage and it will be hidden in the facing hopefully. There's no deadline for this top luckily. The magazine said you could make this in a shiny polyester, but as the front has a twist there's going to be a very clear wrong and right side showing. Will have to see how it turns out.

Excited to wear the Vogue dress and get some proper photos of it on Saturday. Watch this space!

Current mood: enthralled

Bits n bobs

Made myself a craft-themed bracelet from various bits picked up at Hobbycraft:



I was after a decent scissors pendant really - these look a bit bendy!

Made myself another Morsbag with some leftover Kath Kidston curtain fabric:



Cartoon characters (or characters with black edges) aren't very successful on my Husqvarna Rose - the design is always shifted by the time it gets to the black, which is the last thread. Ones with large blocks of colour seem to work ok - if the bobbin thread runs out partway then it can go a bit awry too.

Popped into Knits N Bits stocktaking sale, I'm sure Wendy won't mind if I share her pic:



I picked up an adjustoform tailor's dummy, some coned yarn, some binding wires, a grading ruler, some MK books, and some MK bits for other folks.



I think I might call her Etty - although, I nearly called her something else when she tried to stop me applying the handbrake on the way home! I was larking about with beads at the weekend, hence the necklaces!

The poorly tuck stitch:





I might have a duff needle at 20R

Can't take any credit for this, it's a dress I bought from 2dye4 on etsy a while back:



It's way too big now and I'm wondering if I can somehow make it fit my smaller frame.

Autumn started on October the 1st - it's colder and we may have already had the gas fire on. Himself is home with a head cold.

Current mood: cold

Creative bits and bobs

Just because there's not much knitting going on, doesn't mean to say I'm not messing about with stuff.

Learning to use the sewing machine, I don't think I ever tried buttonholes with this one. Finally redid the embroidery with the right colour.



The cross-stitch is romping along:



Another tee top got knitted and sewn up:



Version two of the skirt is done, awaiting an "on me" modelling session:



And I finally tested the programmeable reader card on my sewing machine, and yes it does work - I think there should have been more colours in this, and I wasn't completely paying attention as I was half-watching the Great British Sewing Bee at the same time.



We said goodbye to one of our longest serving engineers yesterday as he had his birthday and retired (we're going out for a meal tomorrow night). I've never worked anywhere long enough where friends retired on me, it's rather depressing! He'll be much missed for his expertise and his always laid-back attitude - I could always pop downstairs for a natter and a chuckle. As our receptionist is also winding down her duties, this year will be doubly sad. I know things must move on, it's just going to feel weird for a while I guess.

Current mood: sad

Deadline, what deadline?

It was always like this during revision for my finals. Give me a deadline, and all of a sudden I've an urge to do something else entirely - like clean the oven. I didn't clean the oven because it wasn't my house and cleaning the oven is a horrible job. We're just past the half-way point of Ravellenics, and on Saturday I had a whole morning to machine-knit something. So, what did I do? I got my sewing machine out and had a play with the embroidery attachment instead. See what I mean?

The rather out-of-focus motif above is the result. One part of it is green when it was supposed to be blue; that's because the first attempt was aborted when the thread slipped out of the needle, and in my panic I pressed the STOP button. Lots. Turns out STOP means don't bother stopping to change colours on this machine, it's the button with the curly arrow actually makes it stop sewing. So I think I've found a use for the rest of the xmas Hobbycraft voucher - buy some more SULKY threads (I only really have primary colours - those flowers were supposed to be pink) and get some more stabiliser, because this was half-done on a small piece that came with the machine. Feeling quite proud of myself as the instructions aren't very clear about how the special embroidery foot goes on, and I had visions of my breaking the machine. Not sure what you're supposed to do with the jump threads (where the needle jumps to a new position) so I just used a seam ripper to carefully trim them as close as I could. 

You insert a special card into the machine and the designs are all pre-programmed in; I have four cards altogether. Now what I REALLY want is a programmable card reader/writer, with card and software. This machine (Husqvarna Rose) is a little old so I'm struggling to find one. It would be a lot of fun to design my own embroideries. Himself wants little St George flags sewing onto things, and I'm just waiting to hear he wants a Judas Priest or Metallica logo putting onto something. I might try asking at the local sewing shop, although I'm sure she'll want to sell me the latest model which is way out of my budget.

Talking of which, I do know of a Brother Innovis 4000D for sale in Coventry. I'm sorely tempted - but as it was £3000 new, a sensible offer would be above £1000 I think. I just don't have that kind of cash floating around. I did find it quite ironic that as soon as I start thinking about using the embroidery functions of my machine, another one "turns up" in my life. 

Anyway, we had our second little MK meeting in the afternoon. Owing to a few cancellations it was only the three of us, but we had fun working a bunch of decreases (as for the crown of a hat) using one of Kriskrafter's garter bars. They are very well made and nice and smooth. Of course, when I tried making a simple hat on the standard gauge later on, with the "suzuki" garter bars, all it did was shred the yarn and drop off. I gave up in disgust after an hour and produced the most stupidest looking hat (more of a beanie) ever, with the EON method I usually use, and some accidental holes. At least the Rav stash is down to 89 entries, the lowest it's been in a long time. 

Saturday night I cast on Susan Ashcroft's Quick Sweater - I've been eyeing it up for a few weeks now as it's been in the test-knitting phase. Mostly because I picked up a bag of Rowan aran tweed last month, and it turns out it has to be quite a loose knit to make a sweater to fit an adult from 500g, and that was one of the yarns quoted. It won't be that quick for me though as it requires 7mm circulars for the most part, and I've lent mine to a friend. Drat and double-drat. 

I finished another pair of plain CSM socks in the Texere Jura Ruby colourway; they are drying as we speak and are awaiting their photo shoot. I also decided to make a plain v-neck raglan jumper last night for myself, using up some grey slubby yarn I picked up in September. Nothing exciting about it - not a cable in sight. I just wanted to use up the yarn really. 

The Drip Candle socks - I'm past the heel on the second one and enjoying them immensely. Whilst also trying to decide if I want to make another pair (I've plenty more Mexico yarn left). 

Having resigned myself to not winning many Ravellenic medals this year, it turns out I unexpectedly have this Saturday free, so who knows?