Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Christmas is nearly here!

This Christmas card was sent by my grandparents in the 20s or 30s. I found it in a stack of correspondence. I'm just about to leave work for the long holiday weekend. I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday.These charming crocheted and felted hot pads were a gift. I love the fibers used and the way the colors blend.I didn't get everything done that I wanted last weekend but I did finish some things. I made these wallets for my nephews. I got a remnant of faux tooled leather last month and decided this would be fun. The photo shows my paper mock up that I used for a pattern. My "bad" decision was to use my rust dyed fabric for the pockets and lining. The sewing machine very much did not like that fabric. Two or three layers was fine but when it got more than that (and I think the folded pocket piece got to eight layers) it would not under any circumstances stitch that. I did what I could by machine and did the rest by hand and with fusibles.

Another could-have-been-wiser decision was to use an very fine iron-on interfacing to back the folded credit-card pockets. The idea is to stitch all the way around, slit the fusible, turn it and fuse it to the back of the pocket, holding it all in place. It's a great idea but the fine interfacing I chose was way too thin for the project and pretty much just shredded. I just slapped on more it and made sure all the edges got finished. Not elegant but it should work.This is entrelac bag #3 with the knitting complete, felting to come. It's smaller than the others and one row is mixed fibers--I was using up the leftovers from bag #1.Since I took this photo, I finished this towel and began on one with carrots. These are great fun and relaxing. Now on to wrapping!

1 comment:

WhatKathyDid said...

Happy Xmas Marjorie! I love that card too.