Empower people bandana

EmPower People is a craftivism project aimed at uniting crafters in all mediums to engage people across communities, so as to spark conversation, engagement and action to uphold social justice and human rights. The project launched a call to knit, crochet or sew a purple bandana and to wear it proudly, while you speak and act against injustice. This crafting community is committed to embrace humanity and family, to embody community, and to emphasize equality. 

I am all for this and also feel strongly about craftivism. So I knitted this bandana, a pattern by Casapinka. And I wear it proudly, at the moment while I am doing my social distancing. I knitted it in Noro Tokonatsu (a cotton, silk and viscose blend) which I have found a wonderful yarn! Aport from its significance,  this bandana is also beautiful and warm! 

You can find the patterns for the different bandanas here.

 

Sweater becomes mittens and cowls

I had a sweater that was still in reasonably good condition but had become too small. I loved its fabric and colour so decided to walk the recycling path here.

I should have taken a photo of the original sweater, but I cut it up before I even thought of that.

From the sleeves I made long fingerless gloves. I cut them from the main body, picked up the stitches with my circular knitting needle and cast off neatly, cutting an opening for the thumb and sewing round it. Really happy with them!

The shawl neckline of the sweater was kind of special so I cut it off in its entirety and made it into a cowl. By sewing round the edge with a nice yarn (Manos del Uruguay Serena alpaca cotton blend) I managed a ruffled edge. With the same yarn, I embroidered some flowers. I added an invisible press stud so it stays well in place. Not completely my style, but I still think it is a successful project and hopefully will make someone else happy.

Then there was the body of the sweater, which I cut into broad strips, sewing them together into one loop cowl that wraps around the neck twice. Again I picked up the stitches, and added a small knitted edge in a colourful yarn (Mayflower Egyptian organic cotton Print). The colourful edge makes this a really pretty cowl, I think!

 

So instead of an unused sweater, I now have 3 nice accessories 😊 

portrait of my Dad

Another Stitch challenge, this time through a workshop given by Ailish Henderson : a collage portrait with fabric, paint and stitching. Since childhood, I have never drawn or painted again and I found this challenge a bit terrifying to be honest.

But since I promised myself I would try all the different challenges, I poured myself a cup of tea, took a brave sip and started sketching. I added a bit of paint, a bit of fabric and paper collage, and some stitching.

The result is my Dad, as a green man...which suits him just fine!

A silk painted scarf

Now this is a fun craft : It’s easy, quick and has a lovely wow-factor!

First you create a design on the scarf (or just some lines or shapes) with outliner, a kind of paint. Mine was copper. 

When the outliner has dried, you fill in the spaces you just created with silk paint, which is a really fun thing to do. 

When the silk paint is really dry (next day), you have to iron the scarf, to secure the colours.

Washing my scarf made the copper outliner disappear. I don’t know if that is supposed to happen, but I like the scarf without the copper lines too. 

Et voila: a unique piece is created!

with the outliner :

no more outliner, because it is washed out. Also the colours have slightly faded:

Paper glove

This glove is the result of an assignment set by Jennifer Collier, via TextileArtist.org. At first I was not that thrilled about making a paper glove, because it didn’t seem to make much sense to me. However, the process was very enjoyable because I love paper and finding the colour combination was fun. Besides, I found yet again that stitching through paper is great. 

I used a wallpaper sampler, a bit of decorative paper from my stash, a soap wrapper, a bit of plastic waste, three small buttons and some ribbon, and of course some thread and wool yarn.

This made me think about how I can use more paper in my work. There are so many more possibilities than you might think at first sight!

Mixed media landscape

A mountain landscape in winter. I used mostly recycled fabrics, such as a worn handkerchief, worn kitchen textiles, pieces of clothing and old sheets, but also some sheer fabric and a few quilt fabric scraps. I added paper, stitched onto the fabric piece : a small picture of some logs, cut from a magazine and a piece of food packaging material. And of course lots and lots of stitching!

An icy cold winter, with a hint of light in the sky.

A messy puzzle to start with :

In my kitchen, there is this friendly cloud.

He is made from wool, needle-felted into a fluffy and very friendly cloud shape. Though it still never rains in my kitchen!

Circular sunny landscape

This textured vessel wrap is my response to a workshop by Emily Notman.

I used textile strips and stitching, adding texture with textile scraps and thread.

I loved adding vibrant colours with ecoline paint.

The sun is created with a silk yarn, and the whole piece is enforced with backing fabric and iron-on adhesive.

It has turned out a happy sunny piece!

 

Woollen handbag

In 2018 (you can read the blogpost here) I dyed some yarn with onion peel. 4 of the skeins, all of a different shade of yellow, I knit into a piece with wide stripes. 

This piece I washed on a high temperature and high spin cycle, to get it felted. It worked : the fabric is firmer, smaller and thicker now. 

And this week I decided to make it into a handbag of my own design.

I chose a nice fabric for the inner lining. It’s all hand-sewn, because I wanted to do some slow, meditative stitching. The wooden handles fit perfectly, in my opinion. 

This project is is a good example of slow crafting: hand-spun and naturally dyed yarn, hand-knit and hand-sewn into a bag. It reminds me that the journey is so much more important than the goal. That it turned out to be a nice handbag is a bonus 😊

the knitted fabric, before felting :

working on the bag, with the lining fabric and the handles:

the inside of the finished handbag:

Diptych still life

This piece came about through a workshop led by Stewart Kelly. 

First I made a still life drawing. Then I used a view finder to look for two interesting parts I could use. It was like looking at the still life from different perspectives!

These two views I tried to capture in textile, for one of them using only embroidery and for the other adding appliqué as well.

They look quite interesting together, so I sewed them onto one background. 

I very much enjoyed the thinking and exploring that came with this work! 

the embroidered piece: