Thread Texting

Last week I was AWOL from the blog due to fun and frivolity with the grand kids. But this week I am going to show you what project  I managed to squeeze in that included them. What I didn't squeeze in was a photo op! If you remember from a previous post my grand-daughter was not a willing model. So I had to get my son to snap a few and these are his iphone results.

 "Yes, I LOVE my zipper bag."

 Isn't Grandma AWESOME to make this for me?"

The text is sewn on with the capabilities of my new Janome machine. I am limited in size but can say whatever pops into my head...even in Cyrillic.
Son did not photo the interior or even think to turn the zipper pull to the right side (extra gift in an order from Zipit.)

The frog bag has a froggy green lining and the bunny bag has a black and white polka-dot lining. The reverse is plain...no time.
Here are a two I have on my Etsy shop.

Side one

Side two  This one has a flat bottom.

 

This smaller model is not.

The typewriter, the frog and the bunny images are all from THE GRAPHICS FAIRY. The keyboard and typewriter+Write images were bought from Etsy seller Graphique.

When Thimbles Ruled

After having acquired an old Singer sewing machine (see previous post) I decided to continue in this historical vein and tell you about a book I acquired from my bookseller friend (Garrison House Books or her blog).

The cover is a bit bland but it has real charm inside.

 

The book was published in 1913 by the Butterick Publishing Co. which was housed in the Butterick Building in New York. Wonder if the building still exists.

The book is written for the teacher and not a step-by-step for the student. 

 Thimbles are my thing and they are used but not pictured. There is NO machine sewing anywhere in all the projects right up to a middy blouse at the end. I am throwing a picture in here just for interest. Beneath it is the detailed 11 step and repeat thimble exercise!

In the supplies for your sewing outfit it suggests an aluminum thimble because they are light and inexpensive. "Colored thimbles are pretty, and children like them. Silver thimbles are nice, of course, but children outgrow them, so that there is very little point in getting them." So these little ladies were expected to start quite early.

 Click HERE if you missed out on my earlier post about my first thimble.

She's not in the book but isn't this ad image from THE GRAPHICS FAIRY sweet? I don't think they started THIS young!

Methods (for the teacher)

"Always remember the never-ending patience which it is necessary to use with the dull-witted, awkward child. Some time this patience may be rewarded with a result showing some degree of success."  Is this PC?

 

Miniature clothes

"These small garments are an excellent preparation for the making of full size clothes in the upper grades. "

 



There are instuction for making a baby cap from paper and then using the folded paper as a pattern for a one made of "fine lawn".  Great for the unwed mother! We go right from dolls to real babies.

The book continues with gussets, bias edges, tucks and mending.

 

The best feature of this book are the beautiful line drawings of the sweetest young ladies of the early 20th century. I used one of them to create THIS.

 

I shared these with Karen at THE GRAPHICS FAIRY and she has posted two of them for you to use. Click HERE and HERE.

The book ends with the middy blouse that you see when you click on the first HERE in the previous sentence.

Helpfully the text suggests:

"For the Summer for play dresses or for gymnasium suits the middy blouse is frequently made with a short sleeve. For colder weather and for school, the long sleeve blouse is more practical and comfortable than the one with the short sleeve.”

Duh!

 

                              

So who has ever sewn any more than a hem by hand? Could you complete a whole garment that wouldn't fall apart the first time it was washed?

Spring Break

Due to a bad cold that drained my energy and kept me from accomplishing any new projects this week, I will be putting about the same amount of energy into this week's blog enty. This beautiful young woman will have to do. She is the cover girl on a 1914 women's magazine. April is looking to be a busy month in non-sewing areas so the whole month is looking to be slow-blogging.

Sources and ReSources

Last week I stated how much fun it was to have this blog and post something every week. WELL, this week I have not found it so much fun because I just ran out of ideas.



Click on image to see more

I start pondering about Wednesday and think I might have a germ, but then  forget what that germ was.  Production fell off considerably as well. Nothing was coming out right. Fabric puckered, seams misaligned, not enough fabric in the right color!

Then this morning in the shower, an idea fell on me with the water hitting my head. I always get my best ideas in the shower. Sources!  The Graphics Fairy has been my muse from the beginning and always will be, but recently I have started to acquire my own graphics.  I will in no way be real competition to the lovely Karen at Graphics Fairy, but acquisition costs and so I am going to start offering images for sale in my Etsy shop as well as finished goodies.


Sample offerings like old luggage labels



Old Photos



Retro Kitchen

The idea to sell images was already formed. I had researched how to do it with CraftHub and then it became my topic for this week's blog. Next week should be my launch so drop back and we'll see how it's going.

Thanks for Sharing

I have been having a great time writing this blog approximately once a week since last August and I need to give credit where it  is so eminently due. When I stumbled onto Confessions of a Plate Addict while searching information on Quimper Pottery.  I was immediately enchanted and reading her blog and oohing and aahing over the great pictures and ideas led me to the great and wonderful and aptly named

The discovery of the treasure trove of fabulous images led me to resurrect an old love of working in fabrics. That in turn caused me to create a whole lot of stuff that I love but cannot actually use so I am now "sharing" those items on Etsy at CherylThimbleFingers.

Last week Karen at The Graphics Fairy posted another of the six young girl images I sent to her. She has shared three of them so far. They were found in an old sewing book acquired from friend who happens to be a blogger about rare and antiquarian books, Books, Art, Life and a Cat.

I finally used one of the little ladies myself this weekon a reversible apron. This is the girly side. To see the other more unisex side click HERE

























So, the point of all this rambling is that I want to return the favor and share some more. I have no idea how Karen at The Graphics Fairy technically does it but today I am posting an advertising card found at a New York City flea market. The colors are so pretty and rich that maybe the words won't make you think UNDERWEAR!

I hope you can copy and paste it and do what you will with it. I haven't done a thing with it yet. Maybe I'll see this on Brag Monday soon.

Footnote: While browsing on Etsy I found someone selling one of the "sewing book girls". Before you buy an image, check if it's free from Karen at THE GRAPHICS FAIRY!

      

Pillows and Books

I would have never gotten into this whole blogging thing if not for a renewal of an old friendship. Since retirement I have the luxury of spending time again with friends who, like me, had little time to nurture and cherish the people we really like to be around.  Tess and I can't even remember exactly how we met. It was in the 1970's and we both lived in the tiny village where I still reside. But, it was a great match because we both love to talk and she is an incredibly good writer and I enjoy reading anything she writes.
When we rekindled the friendship I learned she had a blog. You can DO that? I went to hers (Books,Art, Life and a Cat) and started reading. all the way from the first to the last posting. As a former school librarian, I was always a book fan, but this was something I knew nothing about. Rare and antiquarian books are her field and she has built a great little business. Her website is Garrison House Books.


Pillow given to Tess with her logo

If you have clicked on the last link you will see her logo. The image of a young Jane Austen era young woman in a red velvet chair who has been disturbed from her reading by SOMETHING! Not very long ago I discovered this same timid female on THE GRAPHICS FAIRY (HERE)
The image worked out very well on an Osnaburg fabric pillow with a wide flange border, don't you think?
With an urge to try to buy locally or make as many gifts as possible, we set up a trade. She got a pillow I had done for a friend and I got a book. We had a rather silly exchange on facebook where the message read. "You bring the pillows and I'll bring the books". Sounds like a literary pajama party.

The pillow traded for a book

The book is THE SEWING BOOK by Ann Jessup from 1913 and the young girls have been so charming that I asked Karen, THE GRAPHICS FAIRY if she would like them.  She loved them and I have sent her all six and she has already posted one HERE.


The book traded for a pillow
 

Creative Need

When I first retired I thought I should paint. After all, I had earned my undergrad degree in art education. But, painting was not my forte then and years of admiring other's work has not somehow caused me to be any more skillful with the brush.  So I started using the canvas as a framework for textiles and three-dimensional objects in collages. One of the first things I did is HERE . I didn't use a canvas for that one.




Graphics Fairy bird and butterfly

Then I began stretching the fabric over stretcher frames which you can buy in various sizes and put together yourself in a variety of dimensions.

This one required a lot of hand stitching which I really like to do. A bit of fabric glue was also involved.
I have managed to aquire a number of old vintage lace and embroidered hankies and this is another way to use fabric samples like I used in some pillows.



 

 

The dancing children from THE GRAPHICS FAIRY inspired this one.
The most difficult challenge here was to find a way to curve the lettering just right and then reverse the image so I could use the Leslie Riley TAP paper and iron it on. AND, I even changed the color of the image to green using a laborious process in paint.net before I discovered befunky.com.

This next one is because I love France and THE GRAPHICS FAIRY has so many great images reflecting the ambience.     

                               

The perfume bottle is from the GRAPHICS FAIRY but I changed the colors. The label and the butterfly are from her, too. The lovely lady in the boudoir is from BUMBLE BUTTON.     

I thought you might like to see how the back is finished off by stapling a muslin covering to the stretcher frame and hiding all the exposed fabric edges and adding the hanging wire.

                      

You can see more at my Etsy shop.

The Paris Bathroom

When we had this house built 11 years ago, it was the first time I had a home with a guest bathroom. It is the usual tiny space but I wanted it to be fun. I could be more creative in this small room without hubby being concerned that it was "too much".

And TOO MUCH was just what I was aiming for.  I wanted to see just how much trip acquired and just Paris inspired could be tastefully crammed into a small room. It will not be considered complete until stuff reaches the ceiling.

The first to grace the wall was this collage (the bottom one) that I made from scaps of memorabilia from my very first trip to Paris in 1989. The collage on the top was an ebay purchase. If it was today, I would have made my own.

The poster and the metal tray were also ebay acquired. If I had only known in 1989, I would have bought more stuff then, but I had no idea we would ever consider a new house at that time.

The arrangement on this wall is probably my least favorite. It lacks the personal attachment but it has "the look".

 

The newest additions are my proudest because I created them with the help of the fabulous images from The Graphics Fairy. The fan image is transferred to Osnaburg fabric stretched on a wooden embroidery hoop and hung with a ribbon.

Numerous Frenchy labels and a postcard image adorn the potty lid cover made of simple unbleached muslin.  Yes, it washes quite nicely!

 

Graphics Fairy images were added to three decorative hand towels I found for $2 each in an antique shop. Even the tissue box has Graphics Fairy images on all four sides. They were added after I painted the box with Annie Sloan chalk paint.  The little tip plate says "Merci" and has some old European coins in it.  I really need to find some old French francs.

Here is a wider view showing the little impressionist painting (just above the towels) actually purchased in Paris near Sacre Coeur pictured in the print above it. There is a repeat of 3 more plates on the other side of the collages just out of view. The ones in the racks are Paris scenes and two others are "fashion plates".
Someday I want to get brave enough to do some sort of paint technique below the balloon border.

 

 

Pillow Talk

I am showing some other ways I find to keep the creative force busy by also making pillows. My elderly attention deficit keeps me avoiding the boredom of making the same things over and over. 

The pillows above are sharing some interesting ribbon I picked up from an antique booth and transfers from two sources.  The gate on the top pillow and the little bunch of grapes are from my favorite "The Graphics Fairy".

The transfer for the lovely Italian typography  was acquired from an etsy site called GRAPHIQUE.

I used  ticking and a nautical theme here. The one on the right has some cording that had to be sewn on tediously by hand but worth it. Only the starfish gold button on the left  had to be hand sewn.

I gave up images for awhile (more attention deficit) and turned to fabric alone for design.  I found the instructions to make these through  Pinterest.
It's in the AROUND THE HOUSE category on my Pinterest page.

And then a completely different style out of the past. I said I have trouble sticking to something for too long. Well, many years ago I used to make quilts and  even taught quilting to others who were interested. However, that was when we all quilted by hand. Baby quilts and wall hangings mainly  because I lprefer  the design and planning more than the actual quilting and finishing.  In a box tucked away I found  the start of a twin size quilt from at least 25 years ago. I had cut out all the pieces and was in the process of embroidering images of houses. These three blocks were done and  have been turned  into pillows.  I was told that they have limited appeal now because the trends have changed and I  agree that the colors are not would I would choose now. What do you think?

Messy Madness

I am doing a craft booth to earn a little cash back to support this hobby and I only really have a month to prepare. I have a friend who has a book selling business and she was just lamenting how out of control things have gotten at her place. (See http://booksartlifeandacat.blogspot.com/ ).

To make her feel better I am posting this picture. What you can't see are all the tidbits on the carpet...pins, needles (ouch!) threads, bits of fabric, scraps of paper, pattern pieces. Most of that stuff sitting around has no decorative purpose. It is just waiting to be used in some creation.

I did create these:

 

 

The images from the fabulous Graphics Fairy inspired the caption "Let's Eat Cake" and I thought they were a complete turn around from my last post's retro images. I'm trying to appeal to all tastes.