Furnishings

 

Recently I was rummaging round one of my favorite charity shops and found some AMAZING tartan fabric for very cheap. I always buy fabric, and never really know what to do with it? Seen as I weave, I don't feel right using already woven fabric to make things. But.. I had what felt like a good idea, cushions! Everyone loves and needs cushions in my eyes. 

I bought some zips, and made these pretty simply cushions but I think they're really effective being that they're reversible. I also added pom poms onto one to see how it'd look. I really like them!

I was suppose to be taking part in a craft fair in York this month but it unfortunatly got cancelled. I was looking really forward to taking these with me! But hey, they'll have to stay with me until next time.

Forms and structure within Knit..

I've recently been working a lot with Form and Structures within knit and weave. I feel like i've found my place in the world of crafts. These are 2 of my hand knitted pieces that I created over about a day and a half. I've worked with increasing, decreasing, stocking stitch, garter stitch, and change of colour. The work looks much clearer presented properly and mounted and I'll get some photos soon. I'd worked with 3D weave work before, such as making things like small baskets and shapes and tried to re-create these through knit. I think knit is seen too much as a flat surface pattern, a jumper or a pretty flower. Why can't knit be outside the box too?

Knitting away..

I've recently got back into knitting... I had a little craze whilst at college then gave up! However, now I'm hooked again... I went a little mad and knitting myself a hat and then the boyfriend! His is the first and mine is the second :) If anyone is interested in the pattern ask, it's so easy!

Coiling.. How to..

My own picture tutorial on how to coil.

Make time for tea!

Homemade teacosy. Me and my boyfriend developed a thing for Bettys loose leaf tea, I advise all you tea lovers to try it! We use to keep the teapot warm by wrapping a tea towel round it, so I decided it was time to take action. Being a craft student I have loads of bits of fabric all over the place, which is perfect for a piece like this. They're so simple to make and can make great presents! 

I started by roughly drawing a half moon round the teapot we use, leaving room for sewing, around 1 or 2cm is fine. I then turned up the bottom around 1cm, and stitched along the line on a sewing machine, if you want you can do things like this by hand and iron it over, you could even use bondaweb if you want! I then added my decoration to the front, I cut shapes out of various fabrics and used applique to add them onto my teacosy, you can do whatever you desire! and use whatever means to attach them, I've used a combination of machine and hand embroidery. I then created the tab at the top by just cutting a rectangle of fabric, facing the outsides together and stitched along the edge and turned it inside out. I then faced the front and back together, remembering the tab at the top and stitched about 1cm away from the edge around the outside, turn it inside out and there you have it! You can also add a lining if you wish or some insulation.