I want to make a couple of  food  covers for Saturday's market, but, obviously, I can't spend too much time on them. So I'm not going to sew beads around the edge. I did have to spend some time experimenting on the edging though. The net is very soft and has a tendency to get stuck under the foot plate of the sewing machine. I tried putting paper underneath, but I couldn't get the paper off without distorting the stitches. Eventually I ironed interfacing onto the back of the hem area, which will just stay there: Most of the daisies are simple ones, but I did tat one double ..read more

  We made fabric angels at the retirement home on Friday. I saw several examples on Pinterest and then followed a series of links until I found this tutorial.  It's always fun to see the different versions of a project that emerge.  I'm still working on Jane Eborall butterflies for my second food cover. I should have enough by the end of the day and be able to start sewing them to the net.  ..read more

   I can take most of the puppets  I need for an order from stock, but there was a special request - a butterfly. I had to think about the mechanics of it for a while. In the end I sewed the glove and the butterfly wings separately and then hand sewed the body on to hold it all together. Note tatted antennae!  ..read more

  It turns out that the cardigan I was asked to knit is a good take along knitting project. It's very easy, consisting of oblongs of garter stitch, and is knitted on big needles. The yarn was a bit thin for the needles, so to get the correct gauge I combined it with a 3 ply grey yarn that was also in the stash. I've done the back and two fronts, I have the sleeves to knit and then the selvages to do.  That may be a stay at home job.  I'm in a bit of a whirl at the moment though. The jewelry lady wants 50 bags this month instead of the usual 30, in anticipation of Christma ..read more

  You want a food cover with tatted snakes and lizards?  Sure, no problem. For the lizards I used Jane Eborall's Pamela's Gecko pattern, and for the snakes I adapted a Teiko Fujito edging. The butterflies are also Jane Eborall's pattern, the SCMR butterfly.  ..read more

  I took some time off working on the food cover to sew myself a dress over the weekend. I bought the fabric months ago, but there always seemed like something more urgent needed doing than turning it into a dress. I tried to take a selfie, but that didn't show how the dress looks on, so I took a photo in the mirror. There was plenty of fabric, so I was able to cut carefully positioning the motifs on the fabric, lining up the motifs on back and front skirts and that sort of thing.  ..read more

  The brief for the food cover is lizards, snakes and butterflies. Right. Jane Eborall's gecko works fine for the lizard. What about a snake? Google threw up great numbers of tattooed snakes, so that wasn't useful. Pinterest gave me one pattern, by a Canadian designer, on Etsy, but it was a rather frivolous snake. Instead, I turned to Teiko Fujito and adapted the pattern I used on a skirt last year.  I left the picots off and added a head and tail. The head is a bit small because I ran out of thread. I started with a chain for the tail and am pleased with the idea, though it ..read more

  I've tatted two geckos for my food cover, carefully marking off each line of the pattern as I go.  There was a gecko on the pantry window last night, so I took a photo of him. This is his underside, but look at his legs, they show how clever Jane Eborall's  pattern is.  ..read more

  The next food cover requires lizards. I've tatted Jane Eborall's gecko before and I reckon it qualifies as a lizard. It was tempting to just print the pattern out again, but in the interest of saving ink, I trawled through my file until I found it. It has a mark against each line for each time I've used the pattern. Surely that's unnecessary I muttered to myself as I started tatting. That was until I looked carefully and saw I'd tatted an extra ring. I will have to start again, and this time I'll mark each line so I'm sure of where I am in the pattern ..read more

 The market on Saturday had a lot of stalls, but not that many customers. I sold enough to make it worth my while, and enjoyed the morning.  I'm working on the second half of the lavender order.  I'm not sure I'll finish today because my little sewing pupil is coming this afternoon. I'll see how it goes. I have another food cover order to work on after this order is done.  ..read more