Comfort Sewing.

Autumnal poppy fascinator bands., originally uploaded by Wychbury.

My loft studio is often cold in winter and I drive my entire family batty by gradually migrating downstairs through the course of the season! What I have noticed in recent weeks is that my style of working has altered to accomodate this, right down to the type of pieces I am designing and producing. My Remembrance Poppies involve only handstitching and no machine so can be produced curled up on the sofa with a blanket and a cuppa!
The Poppy range went mad this year and all I seemed to do for weeks was to sew black seed beads onto deep red flowers. What was suprising to me was that rather than being bored I was actually rather comforted by continuously repeating the processes of making such a familiar and well loved design.
Designing and making individual pieces, although inspiring is sometimes daunting to me too. What if no one likes it? What was I thinking? That was really hard to make - is it worth it? The poppies though, no such worries. The are beautifully tactile, richly coloured, tried and tested and honestly - a delight to make. I'd already dipped my toe in the idea of producing other versions of the Poppy design through the Ghost Poppy/Grey Lady Fascinator band I made around Halloween time so when Goose and the Moose Gallery at Malton asked for more fascinators in other colours, it seemed a good time to make some more. I love the big faceted bead on the the 2011 Remembrance Poppies so ordered some other colours with a view to making some rich, Autumnal combinations. I've also used bugle beads instead of seed beads on some designs to add to the opulance of the design for the Christmas season.
These fascinators have gone off to Malton now but I feel I have a new reason to stay by the fire and am producing corsages in these designs. These will be available shortly on Folksy and Etsy as well as our fantastic stockists all over Yorkshire.
Keep warm this winter, grab your work box, put the kettle on and get comfy!

Paula x

Stitching Together.

My little girl is called Dara, she is four years old. This Christmas she has some spending money and to my absolute delight she wanted to buy a toy sewing machine she had seen in The Works in Harrogate. The whole family had gone up there to take some Wychbury work to The Stalls, the fab shop run by Natasha Harris. Natasha stocks amazing work including many of our fave Yorkshire Artists and we were thrilled when she also agreed to stock us.

Dara discovered the sewing machine while we were rooting around in the Dr Who annuals for Aidan, my six year old and was immediately taken with the fact that it is like mummy's but PINK! So, shaky though my faith the quality of a toy that costs £6.99 was, I liked her style and went with the purchase. From what I gather, all toy sewing machines are without a bottom thread and sew in a chain stitch. If they work and you secure the thread at either end it is perfectly possible to sew small items together and certainly embroider patterns. My mum had a gorgeous red Vulcan sewing machine that she passed on to me and I have had it, unused on display in my various houses for as long as I can remember. If distant memory serves, the Vulcan sewed in a neat chain that automatically pulled the fabric round so that you could do little to resist sewing in a very pleasing spiral!

Anyway, back to the charming pink plastic machine. I inserted the 4xAA batteries as instructed and was (perhaps predictably) disappointed that they didn't in fact power the tiny pedal OR any motor that may have existed, but instead poured all their 4xAA energy into playing 'Twinkle Twinkle' very slowly and very endlessly! Never mind I think, I'm sure it will work manually - alas, the chain stitch wouldn't catch and unravelled every time.

I must admit I wasn't entirely devastated by this discovery as I had been secretly hoping for an excuse to clean up my Mum's old machine and see if I could get it to work. A load of WD40 and a new clamp from ebay, painstakingly filed down to fit and it works! Dara is thrilled to bits to be using her Nanny's toy sewing machine and so am I. I still use an electric Singer sewing machine that belonged to my Grandmother from time to time and the thought of the endless stitching running from one generation of my family to the next is nothing but wonderful to me!

It is nearly time for me to buy a new machine and I am a little sad to think that anything I will choose to buy nowadays will almost certainly not stand the test of time like the ones our ancestors used. Fellow stitchers will no doubt all agree that sewing machines are like pets, they either become one of the family - or they don't. Some we bond enough with to forgive any malfunction, oil regularly and get repaired when they break, other we smack with our hands, swear at them and grumble at the endless torment they put us through until we can afford to replace them!

What I will remember when I buy my new machine is that it doesn't matter if a sewing machine plays 'Twinkle Twinkle' or can make a stitch in the shape of an chain of crocodiles. If it makes your shoulders tense up the minute you sit down in front of it and there's no way you would ever pass it on to your daughter then it's not worth knowing!

Paula x

Stitched Leaves.

I do some work part time as a childminding assistant for a pretty large setting. This gives me lots of opportunity to devise and try out lots of creative, textile-based activities with a fantastic group of children aged between two and eight. I'm always suprised how well young children respond to being introduced to new skills that we would normally try to put them off for as long as possible due to sharp, hot or mechanical elements! Last week I was amazed at the skill shown by a little girl who isn't two for another month as she used a huge needle to thread beads, accurately and rapidly until she had a six inch long 'necklace'.

This week we have started our autumn projects and I thought it would be a good time to introduce the children to using a sewing machine. We used appropriately patterned fabrics and the children chose their threads and stitches from the sewing machine's menu and created these fantastic leaves for our display.

Paula x

My Pocket Sewing Box

I love this and felt the need to share! I found it on our local car boot sale last year for the standard 50p and didn't realise that it had sections in it until I got it home. I have no idea how old it is but I'm imagining it was a trinket box in its day, I now use it to carry all my tiny bits of hand-sewing in that I can work on away from the house. I sew at toddler groups, outside school, on the bus/train, in the park, cafes, on the stall at craft fairs - anywhere! This is way more atractive than the plastic bag I used to use and my needles don't poke through it!

Paula x

Confound it all, I love it though!

After reading Black Lily Pie's post of yesterday http://blacklilypie.blogspot.com/ I got to wondering. Why do we do this to ourselves?

Working from home is one of the most difficult things I have ever attempted. I post on Esty forums with one hand, wash up with the other and hold the phone between ear and shoulder at the same time. I have toys on my work table and find my sewing machine bobbins in the toybox, there is printing ink on my carpet and paintbrushes on my draining board. I dash to the post office on the way to school and my laptop will no doubt pack up soon from either being next to the cooker or full of food, juice or crayons!

Seriously, I must love what I do mustn't I? Either that or I have a cog off somewhere!

Paula xxx