Sew Happy

One of things I thought I would have lots of when we were in lockdown is time.  Oh how wrong I was.  I thought this might be, because we didn't have to be anywhere by a certain time, I was not using my time so efficiently.  So many of the jobs I do still need to be done, the house needs cleaning, the laundry bin needs emptying, food needs thinking about, buying and cooking and of course there is the education of my children.  We have done this from our home for years but now we found ourselves at home, and rather than their needs being fulfilled in part by me and in part by classes, groups, and playdates on every week day, now it was just me and my husband when he was on furlough.  

My time to do the things that I wanted to do was in small pockets, dotted throughout the day, much as it always has been.  I have become the master of breaking projects down into small pieces, choosing things to do that are small enough to be achieved in the time I have or things that can be picked up and put down easily.  It has been a long time since I shared anything I have made or am working on, so grab yourself a cuppa and somewhere to sit comfortably this is a long read!

Way back in April, remember then?  No me neither.  I found a lovely free embroidery pattern online.  I have always loved embroidery, and would love to improve my skills, but am not drawn to kits nor have I found any patterns I would like to purchase. My sewing has always been fairly freeform and that is the kind of embroidery I wanted to do too.  This pattern seemed like a good place to start as it gave advice on what stitches to use, and videos of how to do them.  I didn't however want to do the embroidery for the sake of it, so I did what I always do, I let it sit in my thoughts and waited for an idea to come to me.  Eventually it did whilst the children were sitting knitting with me, they both have me made drawstring bags to hold their projects in, I have made lots of these bags as gifts but I have never made one for myself.  I would embroider onto the fabric for the main panels.  As this was the time of total lockdown I had to make use of what was in my stash, I found some linen which would be perfect to embroider on, the lining is also linen, light green.  I also found a small piece of green fabric with cream flowers which was a perfect match.  The tape for the draw strings was more difficult to lay my hands on.  I have a drawer of ribbons and tape and it is rather messy so diving in there is always an interesting activity, perhaps I should tidy it?  I am rather pleased with the finished bag, I am currently using it for my sock knitting.

We bought ourselves a new bed at the beginning of the year, it didn't have a headboard as the old one did and sitting up reading was not very comfortable and giving us both a crick in the neck every evening.  I needed to make some cushions.  My husband wanted something plain and his was made using an old cushion cover from our futon sofa, I was able to make use of the zip so it was an quick and easy project.  I fancied something a little more patterned and thought I would do some random patchwork using pieces of fabric from my stash, we were still in full lockdown.  I didn't have any suitable zips in my stash so I used an envelope method where the fabric overlaps at the back.  I once again made use of the linen I used for the bag above for the edging and the back.  In fact the fabric at the top right is the flowery trim at the top of my bag too!  As both of these cushions covers were made to measure I had to make the cushions to go inside them myself.  I had a bag of sheeps wool which a friend had given me years ago, I had made use of some of it but luckily there was still some left.  I washed it, carded it, made a cover and stuffed it.  I had exactly enough wool for both cushions.  Reading in bed is now a lot more comfortable.

A dear friend of mine had a birthday back in May.  I wanted to make something to send to her but it needed to be light to keep the postage costs down.  I have made many of these fabric baskets as gifts and for us.  They are so useful for keeping things in and fold flat for easy postage.  The basket on the left was sent to my friend, along with a small green felted bowl.  This was made by knitting on large needles to create holes in the knitting then you wash it on a hot wash to deliberately shrink it.  It makes a lovely tight, thick strong 'fabric'  which is perfect for a little bowl.  The basket on the right was made as a gift for my friend's daughter who has been finding life during lockdown hard and also because I love to make things to gift to people for no other reason than it brings us both pleasure.

A long time ago, I think perhaps last summer?  I bought a metre of purple linen fabric with the intention of making myself a skirt.  I had washed it and it sat in the bottom of my ironing basket, waiting patiently.  Back in January I finally got round to ironing it and cutting out the pieces.  I don't have a dedicated sewing space so I have to be creative storing my work in progress, I found a suitable hanger and hung the pieces in my wardrobe, a ingenious solution I thought except it was out of sight, and out of mind.  When the weather started to warm up in April I discovered those pieces amongst my summer skirts!  It is now all sown up and being warn a lot, hence the creases in the photo above.  The pattern was a free one I found online, however it was unlined,  I don't think linen hangs very well unless it is lined so I adapted it to make it a lined skirt.  Luckily, as I had bought this fabric so long ago, I had a zip and thread otherwise it might have had to sit there for a lot longer waiting until my local sewing shop could open once again.

It hasn't always been about sewing these past few months.  Alice and I tried out needle felting for the first time back in December last year, we made some felted stars using biscuit cutters to help with the shaping.  We have become rather hooked, excuse the pun, and had a go at some other shapes which we felted together and attached to some blank hair slides that I had in my sewing box.  Alice made the one in the middle and I the other two.   A girl can never have too many hair slides.....

Alice loves needle felting so much that she requested a couple of books that we had looked at online for her birthday, along with her own needles and felting wool.  One of the books was full of ideas and tutorials to make dolls and fairies.  When she sat making her first one, I couldn't resist having a go myself, they are fiddly but such fun to make.  The tutorials are really easy to follow with lots of photos which makes it easier for me to follow it, I don't do well with only words.    The fairy in the middle was sent to my friend's daughter along with the fabric basket above.  The other two have been added to our collection of things we have made for our seasonal table, for Spring and Summer, they sit in the little driftwood tree that a friend made for us.

I wouldn't be without my knitting, ever.  I always have a project on the go.  This is the cardigan that I made for Alice for her birthday.  She is still wearing it a lot despite the fact that it is on the small side, she loves it.  The buttons are a little on the large side but they were the only ones she liked that I had in my stash, once I am able to take her shopping with me again we will look for some that are a little more suitable.

This is turning into a year of making socks, I am not the fastest knitter so this is my fourth pair this year.  They match rather nicely with my sock project bag too!  I made a mistake in the first pattern repeat, one that does not effect the overall pattern, it was creating a twist.  I decided to leave it in rather than rip out many rows to get back to it.  I just need to make sure that I do the same with the second sock too, otherwise they won't match!

I have mentioned here, many times, that I am knitting myself a shawl.  By sheer coincidence it has the exact same pattern on it as the cardigan that I knit for Alice.  I am knitting the stocking stitch part at the moment so this is very easy to pick and put down, I can also knit it whilst I am reading or watching something.  I bought this yarn in a local-ish yarn store, it is spun from locally bred sheep and is wonderfully soft and a delight to knit with.  It was, as you would expect, expensive to purchase (I used money I had been given for my birthday and Christmas, the perfect present) but I can see why as it has the most beautiful drape and is creating a wonderful 'fabric' if you can call knitting that.  There is a narrow edge strip all the way round this shawl, some of it has buttonholes knitted into it and some will have buttons sown on.  This enables you to wear the shawl in a endless number of ways, something that attracted me to this project in the first place.  I am hoping it will be in use year round, as a extra layer of warmth in the colder months and as a means of keeping off the cool that we have in the evenings in the spring and summer.

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Embroidery tutorial here

Drawstring bag pattern and tutorial here

Fabric Baskets are in this book 

A Line skirt pattern and tutorial here

Needle Felted Fairy book is this one

Cardigan Pattern here

Sock Pattern here

Shawl Pattern here

Creating opportunities

Thank you so much to all of you who left me such lovely comments on my last post.  I really appreciate your kindness.  Writing about my own creativity has made me think about why I place such an emphasis on this in our lives, I have never really considered why I felt this to be so important until now.  

I have written about creativity in our lives, about my worry that I was not offering my children, particularly Cameron, enough opportunities to cultivate creativity.  My children were much younger then and I was spending time reading other blogs and beating myself up for not doing the sorts of activities that I was seeing and reading about.  I needed confirmation that what I was doing was the right way for my family and I found this in the wonderful book The Artists Way for Parents, this author has written many books on the art of creativity not just this one aimed at parents.  It made me realise that creativity is so much more than paper, scissors and glue.

When I was a child I spent a lot of my time watching my parents make things. My father built an extension to our family home, it doubled the size of the house, he did this in the evenings and weekends, whilst holding down a full time job outside the home.  My mother used to make all our clothes, this was at a time when children's clothes were not widely available and those that were were expensive, she would also knit and draw.  I loved to watch them both, as I expect they must have done, one of my grandfathers painted, I have a few of his paintings hanging in my house, and worked with wood, I have a jewellery box he made for me.  One of my grandmothers knitted, her needles would click as she sat and talked to us, I still have a jumper she knitted me for my 18th birthday.  All that watching has been part of my journey of making, it has made me realise the possibilities, not to default to buying something made by someone else.  The act of making something is as important to me as the finished product, well most of the time.

I was lucky enough to go to schools that encouraged creative subjects, my parents chose the secondary school that I attended (my siblings and I went to different schools at this age) because of its excellent music department.  I wouldn't say that the current education system places such emphasis on these subjects, education the world over has a hierarchy of subjects with maths and languages at the top, the humanities and science in the middle and the arts at the bottom.  Even within the arts subjects there is a hierarchy with art and music at the top and dance and drama at the bottom.  Those children whose parents encourage creativity at home are not going to miss out, but what about those children whose parents either don't value this or don't have the money to provide the opportunities.

This approach to education, where arts subjects are marginalised, is creating skill shortages for many industries and occupations.  If there are no opportunities to explore and play with different materials where are our future designers going to come from?  The rather wonderfully named Professor Kneebone, a professor of surgical education, has noted a decline in the dexterity of his students, their ability to perform important surgical skills of cutting, stitching and sewing are having to be taught to his students, they are no longer able to make the assumption that they will be good with their hands. Are we going to have a dearth of original thinkers if the focus of education remains geared towards knowledge and SAT scores?

I wonder if any readers here had a favourite subject at school which was an arts subject?  I wonder if you were left feeling that you were not talented, as the subjects you were good at were not valued and you were steered away from them as you were told you would never get a job doing that?  I hope that the decision makers involved with education bring back creativity into the curriculum and value the contribution that arts subjects can make to society as a whole.

What does creativity mean to you?

Hopping

Over the last few months a blog hop has been making its way around the world, moving from one country to another and from one blog to another.  I have read many such posts and on occasions have been tempted to join in myself when a blog author has passed the baton on to one and all.  I have now been tagged by Leigh who writes over at leighside knits so here we are....

What am I working on...

...now that it is Autumn my focus is on my home and my family preparing ourselves for a time when we will be inside much more.  It is the time of year when I feel the desire to clean my house much more than in the spring, when all I want to do is be outside.  Cleaning away all the dust and cobwebs that have accumulated over the Summer when my home is largely ignored.  In the kitchen I am preserving something that I do every year, more of that in another post.  In the garden we are tidying, pruning and picking the last harvests, getting the garden ready for its dormant period over the Winter. The dew is heavy each morning and it won't be long before the frosts arrive for their stay.  Our learning has taken on a new rhythm with the turning of the season, focusing on being inside a bit more as the temperatures cool.  I am creating many things at the moment, ideas in my head and on paper, gifts for birthdays and Christmas, clothing for myself and my family, items for the home.  Working on each a little bit here, a little bit there as and when time allows.

How does my work differ from others in its genre...

           n. kind of style

                                       Oxford English Dictionary       

My style is my own.  I don't know exactly where it fits in.  I love to cook, sometimes following recipes to the letter,  or exchanging ingredients or making a recipe up from scratch.  I write about this sometimes but I am not a food blogger.  I garden, less than I would like to, I use the biodynamic method as a basis.  I write about my garden occasionally but I am not a gardening blogger.  We home educate, like all home educators, we have our particular way of doing this I can, and sometimes do, tell you what we do but not a how to do it.  Home education is our way of life which I write about but it is not the sole focus of my blog, that I fear would be rather dull.  I make and create things mostly sewing and knitting sometimes I share these but lately less so.  My work is different simply because it is mine.

Why do I create what I do...

...almost everything I create has to have a use be it practical, for warmth, for learning or out of necessity.  I rarely if ever create for decoration except perhaps the odd piece for festivals usually for Christmas.  I wouldn't make something just because I liked the pattern.  I apply the same thought process to my making as I do to purchasing something - do I/we really need it?  We are hugely wasteful as a society throwing things away when have no more use for them.  When I look around our home at the items we have created from bits and pieces that were no longer performing their original function it makes me very happy.  It is what my father does and my grandfather and I suspect many of my forebears did.  It is what happens in the 'poorer' nations of the world, the ones we label as 2nd and 3rd world, I struggle to see the creativity in going out and buying new, throwing the old away.  There is one expression that has been much used in our financially straightened times "make do and mend".  This was a pamphlet produced during the war to provide tips for women on frugality and style during rationing.  Now whilst rationing is what we are doing then and now the basis for it couldn't be more different.  For me it speaks of if we make do now then there will be a time when, in the future, we can go back to how we were.  Or perhaps I am being a little too cynical?

How does my creative process work...

...I have had a bit of an epiphany recently, nothing new really..............I have always known that the more organised I am the more time I actually have.  For years the structure and rhythm in my life came from education and employment, then five years ago I found myself at home all the time and for the first time in my life my rhythm and structure was my own well perhaps not entirely my own as I had a baby..........  As the children have gotten older and they move away from me more, the time I have to call my own has slowly increased but, like a rabbit caught in the headlights, my use of this time was not terribly efficient.  Early on in my time at home I started to plan our food, born out of need to get a meal on the table for a young child whilst also caring for a baby.  I have tried various rhythms and structures to our day with varying degrees of success, what I have come to realise is that any changes I make need to be slow and small, big ones meet with resistance.  By thinking ahead about each day, what we will eat, what we will do, timings, doing the preparation necessary in advance if needed, I actually have more time for other things.  I have cleared my head of the clutter of the important parts of our life and made room and time for me to think about other things.  I now know that if am I working on something there will be time to complete it and I have the head space to think about when.  What I need to ensure now is that I don't have another rabbit in the headlights moment and have too many ideas and not enough time to fulfil them.  Slow and steady is my mantra.

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Thank you Leigh for inviting me to join this blog hop, I would like to invite...

Just Having a Yarn

Marigold Jam

...to keep it moving along and of course anyone else who wishes to take part and share your answers........let me know in the comments and I will add a link.  Enjoy your blog hopping!

Creativity

I have almost finished reading a book which I bought primarily for inspiration, it has provided it but not in the way I thought it would.  I often read on blogs wonderful crafty type activities that are going on, none of which have ever been tried here.  At first it made me feel inadequate that we were not creative in our house and I was in some way depriving my children.

In the past I have rarely sat with the children and engaged in some activity that could be described as craft.  This is mostly due to the fact that I had hit a wall with my eldest, he hates anything which is tactile such as painting, glue, playdough, clay and the like.  He loves to draw and does so most days but when he was little I struggled with what else to offer and do with him.  My youngest on the other hand loves to do anything which involves paint, glue, glitter, stickers, clay, paper, pens you name it she will give it a try.

I have been pondering our weekly rhythm recently trying to work out what to include, I really wanted to include a specific time for craft, that is not to say that we will only do it at that time in any given week but that I will set up activities on that morning and see what happens.  I have also been pondering what to do in that time as my children had very different needs and wants.  I know that I could borrow books from the library or browse the Internet and find a plethora of activities to offer my youngest but what to offer my eldest and was I failing him if I didn't offer him as much?

So as part of my research I have been reading about activities we could do and hoped that The Artist's Way for Parents would give me some ideas but it is not that kind of book.  What it has given me is a strong sense that there are more ways to cultivate creativity in your children than providing some paper and glue.  That of course is part of it, but it is so much more and that more is already a big part of our lives.  We listen to a wide variety of music both recorded and live, we have a good rhythm to our lives, we spend a large amount of time outside each week, we live in an uncluttered house where everything has its place, we read lots of books together and alone, these are all things that this book suggests that you could put into place to assist with cultivating creativity.  The author suggests that you allow your children to try everything, that you provide the tools to do this and they will find the things that they are good at and want to do more of.   So now I need to decide what it is I provide for them to try, I don't want to end up with a house full of stuff that only gets used once or spend money on classes that they don't want to attend it is about finding the balance.

I am feeling more positive about it now.  I am no longer coveting the lovely things on other blogs that my children are not making.  We need to do what is right for us, for each of us as individuals and whatever that is I hope to find out!