Fox cross stitch pattern - and summer holiday

As you know, I am a teacher. That means that for more than a week I have been enjoying my summer holidays now. After a few days not doing basically anything, ans celebrating midsummer, I started cleaning my little flat. I have lots of pain in my back that means that I can only do any physical activity for 30-40 minutes maximum, then I have to sit down and relax. So while the cleaning goes on very slowly, I also sew and read a lot. I have also set myself some goals for this summer, like drawing and trying to live a healthier life. Not much success yet on these fronts, but going slowly.

Cleaning the flat mostly means organising. During the spring I spent lots of time stitching for university, but I was quite stressed with time. I was also working full time, I was not feeling well, had lots of pain, had an operation, didn't sleep much - the result is a horrible messy place. And since my flat is really small, it became kind of impossible by the end of the term.

So far I managed to sort out most of my fabrics and yarn, clean the bedroom, most of the hall and most of the living room. (The kitchen and the bathroom I had managed to keep more or less OK, thank God. I should go through drawers and cupboards there, too, but that is not so urgent.) The main problem is, of course, finding place for all my craft supplies. I still have lots to do, but mostly small things.

Yesterday, while trying to fit all my yarn in containers and vacuum bags, I sorted out my old and broken knitting basket. I bought it a few years ago in a loppis, that is a typical Swedish second-hand shop. You can find them all over the place, often in the countryside, in small sheds or in barns. I love hunting for treasures in them. I should stop, because I have no place for any more stuff, but I just love it. :) And it is enviromnment-friendly to recycle old things, right?

This basket was full of wool yarn that I wanted to buy, and got the basket itself in the bargain. Unfortunately it had lots of broken parts and my yarn got always caught on them. I found a piece of thick canvas fabric in my stash (also from a loppis), and made a lining for the basket. I am very happy with it. The leftover small pieces were just enough for another smaller basket.

Now both of them are full with yarn and UFOs, and these are just the ones I am planning to work on soon. I will write a post about my knitting soon. Watch this place.


Another thing I do when I get tired is sit down with my computer and draw in my cross stitch program. The felt fox pattern I shared the other day was so popular, had lots of views in just a few days, so I thought I could draw the same little fox in cross stitch. Even though there are lots of fox patterns on the net, there might be some who like this one.

Here it is, click on the picture to get the pdf.

Happy stitching.

Fox cross stitch pattern - and summer holiday

As you know, I am a teacher. That means that for more than a week I have been enjoying my summer holidays now. After a few days not doing basically anything - apart from celebrating midsummer - I started cleaning my little flat. I have lots of pain in my back that means that I can only do any physical activity for 30-40 minutes maximum, then I have to sit down and relax. So while the cleaning goes on very slowly, I also sew and read a lot. I have also set myself some goals for this summer, like drawing and trying to live a healthier life. Not much success yet on these fronts, but going slowly.

Cleaning the flat mostly means organising. During the spring I spent lots of time stitching for university, but I was quite stressed with time. I was also working full time, I was not feeling well, had lots of pain, had an operation, didn't sleep much - the result is a horrible messy place. And since my flat is really small, it became kind of impossible by the end of the term.

So far I managed to sort out most of my fabrics and yarn, clean the bedroom, most of the hall and most of the living room. (The kitchen and the bathroom I had managed to keep more or less OK, thank God. I should go through drawers and cupboards there, too, but that is not so urgent.) The main problem is, of course, finding place for all my craft supplies. I still have lots to do, but mostly small things.

Yesterday, while trying to fit all my yarn in containers and vacuum bags, I sorted out my old and broken knitting basket. I bought it a few years ago in a loppis, that is a typical Swedish second-hand shop. You can find them all over the place, often in the countryside, in small sheds or in barns. I love hunting for treasures in them. I should stop, because I have no place for any more stuff, but I just love it. :) And it is enviromnment-friendly to recycle old things, right?

This basket was full of wool yarn that I wanted to buy, and got the basket itself in the bargain. Unfortunately it had lots of broken parts and my yarn got always caught on them. I found a piece of thick canvas fabric in my stash (also from a loppis), and made a lining for the basket. I am very happy with it. The leftover small pieces were just enough for another smaller basket.

Now both of them are full with yarn and UFOs, and these are just the ones I am planning to work on soon. I will write a post about my knitting soon. Watch this place.


Another thing I do when I get tired is sit down with my computer and draw in my cross stitch program. The felt fox pattern I shared the other day was so popular, had lots of views in just a few days, so I thought I could draw the same little fox in cross stitch. Even though there are lots of fox patterns on the net, there might be some who like this one.

Here it is, click on the picture to get the pdf.

Happy stitching.

Patchwork to save birds - and the environment. Tutorial.

It is spring - although it is still really cold here in Sweden. But the birds have already come back. The area next to my house is full of starlings, they nest in holes in the trees.

This reminded me of a sad thing that happened three years ago, my first spring in this flat. One of the starlings flew into the window and died.

I checked what we can do to keep them away from flying into the glass, and found that a black silhouette of a hawk is the usual solution. But who wants to look at a dark shape all day? So I made a shape, made it dark on one side and nice and colourful on the other. It was actually one of my first attempts at patchwork. It is hanging in my window ever since and we had no more accidents, thank God.

I though I would like to make one or two more, and that I can perhaps make a tutorial while I am at it. But please, don't expect something very precise, it is more a description of my own experimenting, that you can follow and make your own, if you want.


I made two pieces, using the method known as "quilt as you go". I used a very thin, iron-on batting (Vlieselin X50) on one bird, and on the other one something that is more an interfacing for bags to make them a bit sturdier - sorry, don't remember what it is. But I don't think it is very important what kind of batting or interfacing you use. It can also be something else, a piece of felt, for example, or perhaps some sturdy leftover fabric sprayed with starch. For the back, that needs to be dark, I used some old jeans, this way this also became a recycling project!

I am not very good at drawing but luckily there are thousands of such silhouettes on the internet to download and use. I used this one. I printed it on an A4 page, then enlarged with the photocopier to an A3 size (140 %).
(Later I realised that it was silly of me: I should have drawn a line around the bird, and only photocopy and enlarge the drawing - it was a waste of ink to print all that black.)

So, draw your shape or find one on the net you like and make it as big as you wish.

Cut around the shape and put it on the material you want to use as the base of your work: batting, interfacing, felt etc.

Draw around it and cut out the shape from the batting. Also gather some small pieces of fabric scraps, mostly strips. Make it randomly colourful as I did, or choose a colour scheme that suits your home.

Choose a piece of fabric that is long enough to cover one section of the bird. Put it down right side UP. I started in the middle, but I think it would work just as well starting at one of the wind tips, too.

Take your next piece and put it on top of the first one, matching one edge, right side facing DOWN. As you see, my fabric edges are not very straight, and it does not really matter.

Sew a 6 mm - 1/4 inch - seam allowance.

Flip the second piece up, and finger press well. This is one of the disadvantages of using an iron-on batting or interfacing: you cannot iron your pieces as you open them. (I did have some creases on my work because of that - but luckily they are not very visible.)
If you are using something that is not sticky, go ahead and iron your pieces as you go.

Continue in the same manner. I think it looks nicer if not all your fabric pieces are of the same width, and you slant them a little as you go. You don't even need to cut the fabric pieces in advance - just sew them and clip the seam allowance afterwards.

Soon you will have the whole shape covered with fabric pieces.

Cut around the shape, leaving about 1 cm of the fabric pieces overhanging the base.

Put it face down on a piece of denim - preferably (for the environment) from some old, worn jeans.

Pin, and sew around, trying to sew right next to your base shape. Leave a hole for turning it inside out!

Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the next few steps. But it is not very difficult. :)

Cut around the shape once again, this time cutting the jeans. Clip the corners and curves. Turn it inside out, fold in the seam allowance of the opening, iron well, and topstitch all around - this way closing the hole, too.
I forgot to add a piece of ribbon before sewing them together, so I sewed it on from the outside - not very elegant.

Here it is all ready to hang:

With the ironing the batting got glued to the denim, so I did not need any quilting lines - this is why I chose them for the base. But if you want to use something that is not iron-on, you can add a few quilting lines to keep all the three layers together.


The second bird was made almost exactly the same way - only with the interfacing. I made the shape just a bit bigger, and planned my lines a bit more carefully in advance. I drew the lines I wanted to follow on the paper pattern, but not on the interfacing. I tried to follow them as good as I could just eyeballing it, without stressing too much about it.

This is what it looks like halfway done.

Put it on the denim face down, the same way as the first one, and sewed around. Only this time it was really hard. The interfacing did not want to move under the presser foot, it got stuck all the time. It was not my best sewing experience. Perhaps I should have got a teflon coated presser foot or something.

Anyway, I managed. Turned it inside out, folded in the seam allowance on the opening and ironed it well. Sewed a piece of ribbon on the tip of a wing to hang it with - this time remembered to do it from the inside. Then topstitched around the bird.

As you can see, the topstitching did not go very smooth either, it got stuck under the machine a few times. Luckily, it only shows on the denim side - and that side is only for the birds to see. I hope they will not complain. :)

Make some patchwork birds! Hang them in your windows, help the birds stay alive and at the same time create something cheerful for yourselves too look at.

Now I am thinking that this would look lovely in a kid's room, too, in any shape, not only birds. Hm…

I hope you guys will find this tutorial helpful. Happy sewing.

Blackwork biscornu for St. Patrick's Day

Hello,

I am back with more reports about my knitting - crochet course, with some more felting and some embroidery, a finally finished long-time WIP and another freebie - this time it is blackwork for St. Patrick's Day.



Here is a picture from one of my lessons. We just started our knitting unit, and I used this technique that I called the "human knitting machine" to teach the kids the basics. It was great fun! I learnt this at the university. It works the same way as finger knitting or the knitting looms, we just used the kids' hands instead of the pegs.

And here come some more pictures of my homework for the course.

To try out different materials, I did some crochet with a thick cotton cord. The flower shape, as well as the third one, in wool, was done with freeform crochet: I used no pattern, just started and then went on to see what happened. It was fun.

I tried out shadow knitting. I borrowed a book from the library, this one and tried to create my own pattern. While the book has some lovely modern looking pieces, and I found a few interesting pieces on the internet too, my experiment turned out a disaster. I wasn't thinking clearly, I should have realised that the pattern will become too long - I should have adjusted it accordingly. There was no time to do another experiment, and now I am busy with the next course, but this needs to be put on my list of "To try again". I certainly recommend trying this, it looks complicated but it isn't really and it is cool.

Another thing I learnt is called tvåendsstickning in Swedish. It means two-end-knitting, but it is usually called twined knitting in English. The basic technique is that you knit with tho threads, even if there is only one colour. They usually used the two ends of the same yarn ball, hence the name. The first stitch is knitted with one yarn, the second with the other and so on. Between each stitch you twist the threads. It makes a thick, firm fabric, there is hardly any stretch in it. Traditionally you have to do it with z-spinned yarn, that's what I was using for my mittens. I think it works with the usual s-spinned yarn, too, it only looks a bit different. I designed the pattern with the flowers myself, and on the palm side I was just improvising.

This is what it looks like on the inside. You can see how the twisted yarns create almost like a cord on the wrong side of the fabric.

Another homework was to take a knitted woollen sweater or something, felt it in the washing machine, and experiment with it: embroider on it, cut it apart etc. This is what I made out of two pieces. It's a vest, the collar and the sides come from one piece, the "body" from another. I added the crocheted band on the shoulders and around, and the embroidery. On the right side there is a Hungarian motif, on the left a Swedish one. I myself dyed the thread to match the rest.

Two pairs of socks that I also made. The first is knitting the traditional way - although that is still quite new to me. The other was knitted toes-up, and with an afterthought heel. Both of them were made on circular needles, instead of the usual double pointed ones, using the magic loop. I love this technique!

We also had a group homework: we had to create a piece together, on a chosen topic within "communication". We chose "power". We created a puzzle, and this is my piece. I collected a few pictures from the internet for inspiration, and then used a piece of a felted woollen pullover as background, then needle-felted and embroidered my interpretation.

I have collected quite a few links for all these techniques, if you are interested, go and look at my Pinterest page.


My old visitors can perhaps remember how I started to do some weaving on a huge piece of cardboard - perhaps two years ago? Shame, I know, but now I finally managed to finish it.

Although the edges became strangely loose, I still like it a lot. In the middle it is quite nice - not too densely packed but the boucle yarn has made a good, solid fabric, and still soft. I will use it as a scarf. I will take it off the cardboard and tie the ends tomorrow.

And finally, my freebie for you today. I made a blackwork pattern that reminds me of clovers, so I thought it would be perfect for St. Patrick's Day. But with another colour it might give a different effect.

I made it into a biscornu pattern, I hope you will enjoy it. Some more clover patterns are coming soon.

Edit:
If you are interested in St. Patrick's Day patterns, why not take a look at my other freebies here, here and here?

Make a skirt bigger - thrifting-sewing tutorial

What? Sewing tutorial from me? Well, yes, I thought I would give it a try and we will see how it goes. :)

I really like thrift stores and I have often praised the ones in Sweden, there are lots of lovely things in the so called "loppis" shops. Unfortunately, used clothes are quite rare, and in the charity shops they are not too cheap. At least not if you still have to do some work with them so that you can wear them.
Anyway, last Saturday I managed to buy a skirt for only 10 crowns (about 1,20 Euros or 1,50 dollars). I loved the fabric and thought if I can't use it as a skirt I can always cut it up for quilting.

The skirt was way too small at the waist, but then I found a way to sort things out. And it took me about half an hour.

(Just in brackets: I love the many thrifting-recycling-refashioning blogs out there. But most of them follow the same pattern: buy something for the fabric, something that is too big for you and make it smaller. I however find it difficult to buy things that are too big for me.)

I have tried to make a pun once, when I upcycled my old cardigan, and I will repeat it again, perhaps someone will like it this time: up-cycle can mean UP a size :D. So here is how to make a skirt, that is too small for you, bigger.

The skirt needs to be long enough, and flaring out at the bottom. That means if you cut off the top part, it should still be a good length, but the new topline will be much wider.

Here is the skirt I bought:



It had a line of buttons on the front. I tried the skirt on and checked where is the point where I could button it up. It was at 18 cms from the waistline.
I don't like a skirt that buttons all the way, I have had a few uncomfortable incidents with buttons opening in critical places. So I decided to cut them off.

Then I marked 18 cms from the waistline all around the top of the skirt. Like this - there is very faint blue line starting at the 4th button. I cut off the top part along that line.





Then I cut off the buttons and sewed the front together, hiding the buttonholes. Sorry, forgot to take a picture of this phase.

Then folded over about 5 cms on the top, ironed it down, and took it to the sewing machine. Folded under about 1 cm, and sewed a line all around. I feel like I am not very good at explaining this, I hope the photos will help. I didn't pin much, just in a few places to keep the side seams together - since the part I folded down was a bit narrower than the part where I folded it down - so I had to do a bit of easing.






I left a little opening where I pulled in a piece of elastic. Then I sewed together the ends, tried the skirt on, then cut the elastic, cut off about 8 cms and sewed it again. Every time I cut elastic, I measure it around my waist, cut it a bit smaller - and it always turns out too lose.






Anyway, my skirt was almost done. I just had to sew back the buttons, only for decoration, so I decided to go lazy and only sewed back every other button :). And here is the end result:






It is still long enough to reach a bit under my knees. I am actually very proud of myself. :)

I am hoping to wear it tomorrow, will try and have a photo taken in it.



All this has just happened and I sat down to write a blog post about it quickly, but I know I promised some other updates.
Let me just boast say that I have finished my Swedish course, and got a B as a final grade which I am really happy with. But I am still so very tired from all that really intensive work.

There is some cross stitch I did but not much, and I also started quilting my first quilt, made some mistakes, and now it is waiting for some unpicking... I will be back with some photos soon.