JOY!

Yippee! I've been featured in an Etsy treasury today! I love it when that happens, it feels so special, it really makes my day! Thank you to Theresa of Utile Mud for including me in such a colourful collection! :-)

Read her interview on Etsy here: Featured Seller: Utile Mud

Theresa makes wonderful ceramics by hand. I love this beautiful pink and brown bowl especially, it reminds me of a conch shell with the flesh-coloured pink inside juxtaposed with the rougher exterior.

Ok then, time to carry on sewing methinks!

Joey xx

Bunny Giraffe brooch - first step

Bunny Giraffe brooch - first step, originally uploaded by Joey 7.

I've finished the very first steps in making a new brooch - I've cut out felt (using templates which I drew myself), and ironed on felt appliques using Bondaweb. The felt is backed with mediumweight Vilene iron-on interfacing for extra strength.
The next step will be to add a brooch pin to the back and add features to the face.
More to come soon, so watch this space!

Joey x

Finished Brooch - Little Tiger mini!

Little Tiger mini, originally uploaded by Joey 7.

Yippee! I've finished the first of the three amigos! Little Tiger mini here is made in lovely wool-blend felt (I think it's 30% wool, so I can iron it but it still has a nice soft natural feel, not harsh like polyester felt), which i've embroidered with black for the stripes and pink for his piggy nose!

I used Bondaweb to adhere the white and black pieces of felt to the orange base piece, as it makes it easier to stitch if the pieces are stuck on. Bondaweb is an essential material for me, I use it a lot when i'm making brooches. I used to pin the pieces but when you're working with tiny bits of felt, it isn't really the best way. Bondaweb securely bonds one fabric to another so it's like you're working with just one piece of fabric. You could use fabric glue but Bondaweb is so quick to use - after ironing, the fabric is ready to sew!

What's your favourite sewing/crafting material/tool?

Click here to see more pictures of Little Tiger mini on my flickr stream: Joey's Little Tiger Mini brooch

New Brooches Coming Up!

Three Friends in a 'boat' (cardboard box) a year ago, originally uploaded by Joey 7.

I'm starting some new brooches today, so watch this space... they will be based upon three little friends who share our house, pictured here... I'll be posting pictures soon.

Will they be cute? You bet! :D
Joey xx

Sunset Fireworks Bag

orange bag in garden, originally uploaded by Joey 7.

You know that fabric I bought from the Extra Care charity shop in Hillsborough the other week? Well, I finished the first bag made with it about a week ago. It took me about 15 hours to make in all! I really love this stripey orange fabric, it's so sunshiney and bright and also reminds me of my bedroom when I was about 4 years old. My eldest sister (who is 16 years older than me) had just decorated it as she wanted - completely in a deep, rich orange; and then promptly got married and left home! Not that it was a sudden event because it wasn't, it was a very well prepared event for which I was bridesmaid for the first time, and loved every minute of it. But this meant that I got to have her bedroom - orange walls, orange sink with an orange tiled surround, orange floral curtains (very 70s design in some very nasty synthetic fabric!), and I think the carpet might have been orange and brown, but I may have been making that bit up. I loved her bedroom before it became mine, chiefly because she liked cooking and had under her bed, a couple of shoeboxes of pictures of different food which she'd cut from magazines. These were very lovely, and I wasn't meant to touch them. Anyway, I think this may be one reason why I love the colour orange so much.

You can also tell from this bag that I love buttons and embroidery! I really enjoy the repetition of embroidery, there's something meditative about it, it concentrates your mind but also lets you think of other things whilst you're doing it. I feel so relaxed when i'm embroidering.

Do you love this bag? See the listing for it on my Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=26329582
My goodness, i'm doing an origami workshop at the Sheffield Pride festival a week today. Naturally, i'm a little apprehensive, mostly that people won't turn up, and i'll be making origami all by myself!! I've spent hours cutting and sticking some nice yellow wallpaper to make squares of paper large enough for hats which will fit adult heads! When I get started on something, I always think it'll take just an hour or so, but that hour turns into 4 or 5 hours... Well, you live and learn. Anyway, if you will be in Sheffield next Saturday (20 June), please pop over to Endcliffe Park off Ecclesall Road at 3:30 p.m. and come and join in the paperfolding fun!

A few friends who came to my 'test' workshop a few weeks ago did blog posts about it:
Janine's blog: http://dilystreacle.wordpress.com/2009/05/17/origami-not-with-ziggy-with-joey/

Louise's blog: http://louisebroomhead.blogspot.com/2009/05/joeys-origami-workshop.html

Julia's blog: http://handknittedthings.blogspot.com/2009/05/test-workshop-origami.html

Thank you again everyone! :D
Joey xx

Famous Kitty!

I had a nice day on Thursday. Firstly, I had a lovely surprise. Argento (click for more pictures of Argento on my Flickr stream), the name of a Mewberry Cutes brooch which I made and sold over a year ago has been featured in the British sewing magazine, Sew Hip! I'm really pleased about it because I'm never sure how popular my creations are, so this has given me a real confidence boost!

Secondly, I went into Hillsborough and bought some lovely fabrics. I bagged a real bargain from the Extra Care Charitable Trust charity shop near to Morrison's, which is, in my humble opinion, the best charity shop in Hillsborough. A pair of very, very long bright orange and yellow striped curtains, obviously vintage (70s?) which i'm intending to use for making some bags, so watch this space if you're like me and your favourite colour is orange!

My favourite fabric shop, Fine Fabrics, is also in Hillsborough. It's a real 'aladdin's cave' of fabriccy treasures and there's some great bargains at the back of the shop if you've got the time/inclination to rummage, from £1 per metre! The shop sells mostly heavier upholstery fabric and quality wedding dress fabric but they also have lots of pretty dress fabrics and some nice wool flannel and corduroys. Well, everything really! If you're in Sheffield I recommend a visit.
So, add all that to the brilliant sunshine and blue skies, and you have a great day! I hope you all have great days like this too, they keep you going, don't they?
Best wishes
Joey xx

New embroidered bag

New embroidered bag, originally uploaded by Joey 7.

I'm sorry that I haven't posted anything for AGES! Well allsorts has happened which I could have blogged about but didn't... did my first craft fair, ran my first workshop to make origami, saw "Synecdoche, New York" (which is a great film and I still intend to post about it because of that), etc etc. I think i've got to that age where time starts to go so quickly that I just can't keep up anymore!

Anyway, enough of excuses! I finished a bag today that I'm really pleased with. I've made a few bags before of various styles, but I set out to make a very simple lined bag, although it progressively got more complex as I made it, just because I was enjoying myself so much!

I've bought a bunch of lovely souvenir tea towels that I intend to make into bags, and so I wanted to test a simple bag shape. I've seen bags like this but couldn't be bothered to get hold of a pattern so just drew out a shape I liked, then added a strip of checked fabric to the centre.

This was going to be it, finished design. But then I thought it needed something else, so stitched on a crocheted motif I'd bought in a charity shop about a year ago. Then I looked through a bag of buttons I'd bought from Craft Haven in Sheffield the other week and thought it'd be nice to have those on... but the buttons by themselves looked a bit 'lost' ,so I was going to sew simple backstitched circles around each button. However, I do like to try to broaden my embroidery repertoire, so instead I tried out various stitches from the "Stitch Dictionary" by Lucinda Ganderton.

I finished the bag off with tips and instructions gleaned from a lovely book, "Making Vintage Bags" by Emma Brennan, because she tells you how to insert the lining and insert a magnetic clasp... things I know how to do, but I prefer to have instructions there so there's less chance of me making a massive mistake! Which usually happens when I'm making bags. Like stitching the bag right side facing the wrong side, or cutting corduroy out with the nap going up instead of down... yes, silly annoying things! From what i've learnt about making bags or sewing in general, is that when there are a lot of steps involved in making the item, it helps to write it all down first, to guide you and help you remember important bits! I tend to do this because it helps me feel more confident about it and takes away the stressful feelings (yes, bag-making can be stressful!).

Now i've made it, I can't decide whether to put it on Etsy to sell, or keep it for myself! What do you think?

more pictures of the bag: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joey7/sets/72157619062739222/
See ya SOON!
Joey x