Inspired by my forsythia drawings, I made this little stitched sampler this week.
The forsythia twig is ‘drawn’ on some loose woven, vintage linen, framed by scraps of toning cottons, vintage lace, cotton tape and shell buttons, all sewn onto a small piece of pale yellow recycled furnishing fabric. I want to experiment with lots more botanical stitching, based on drawings, I`ll just play around with little samplers till I feel I`m getting it right.
Filed under drawing, embroidery, inspiration, machine embroidery, my garden, recycled fabric, vintage fabric
More butterflies this week…. I made some more brooches…
and some new lavender hearts featuring an embroidered butterfly…
I really like the way the brooches and hearts look together.
I`m really pleased with these and have just listed a few hearts on my Etsy shop. I am enjoying working with these techniques and can see my butterflies and bees emerging as my signature style. I want to keep developing this way of working, combining drawings from nature, machine embroidery and vintage linens and lace. I`m hoping to spend a few days drawing soon, but first I have to make a few more bees, there`s only one left on my Etsy shop!
I`ve been busy this week making some more round heart brooches. They proved to be popular for Valentines day so I decided to make a few more. I used more muted colours for these ones, with some thick, twill-woven vintage calico for the background. I was quite pleased with these, the rough texture of the calico gave them a look (I think) of little sandstone pebbles. I only have a small piece of this fabric, so I`ll keep it for more brooches. I`ll be making a few of these brooches for my stockists, these ones are heading into my Etsy shop.
I`ve been experimenting with bits of linens and lace this week and I bought a big piece of calico to play with. I used to use calico all the time and it`s fun to work with it again. It`s such a humble fabric, with a folksy, homespun feel and speckled with tiny imperfections, but is also really sturdy and versatile . I love combining the textures of calico, grainy old linens, homely ticking and frothy vintage lace. I`m planning to combine these in new work, using the lovely creamy, neutral shades as a nice contrast with embroidery.
The calico I bought was stitched together like this on the roll. I like the utillitarian, rough stitches.
My first butterfly… lots more to follow…
I`ve been working on some little keepsake hearts this week too. They are stitched from calico, vintage fabrics, vintage lace and shell buttons. They have a linen sachet of lavender inside as well as a bit of padding. I like the idea of making little one-off treasures and mini embroideries, something I`m hoping to develope over the next few weeks. I tried to give these hearts a collagey feel, and I`ve used both machine and hand embroidery.
I saw this gorgeous tulle in palest oyster in John Lewis a couple of weeks ago and bought half a metre to have a play with.
It coincided with lots of white flowers appearing in the garden. I love white on white, so fresh and pretty and really evocative of Spring.
I made these pretty corsages while sitting out in the garden, basking in the warm sun the week before last.
They combine recycled linen with the tulle and vintage lace, with a cluster of vintage crystals and pearls in the centre.
Very sweet and pretty, just right for a Spring wedding. Making them really fitted in with the gorgeous weather of that week, then last week we had white on white of a different sort- snow blizzards and hail!
Filed under lace and tulle brooches, recycled fabric
agnesandcora 