Tiny Things

I didn't make any specific New Year's resolutions, but with the holidays far behind, I'm resolved to focus back on my work, and back on updating more frequently. Just in general. Also drawing more and cooking more rounded dinners. So I guess there was a few little things.

Working on some physical little things as well. My poor woven vest has been languishing sans-pockets for a while now. After the tough going with that tape lace, I figured some tiny, quick little pieces might be a good thing, so I set to work on some pockets. Instead of making a matched set, I like the idea of completely different ones, perhaps given by different people. They're almost like little badges that way, marking connections or events. This character's clothing is a little more piecemeal in general, for two reasons. The House of Horns is the house of orphans and clergy, so their clothing is bound to be a little less ornamental, and even further recycled than other house. She's also an outsider, recently taken in, so the clothing is going to be a sort of donated mish mash.
The knit one I didn't get an in-progress of, unfortuately, but you can see the patchwork one taking form. It was worked on 0 or 00 (I'm not sure, they were not marked?) needles with one strand of three-strand crewel or rug yarn. I would love to get even finer, if I can find a finer wool to work with. Lace weight wool tends to be sort of fuzzy and doesn't come in great colors. Any ideas?
And now pieced! It's a traditional 'snail trail' pattern, which I think looks like a variation of several older 'ram's horn' patterns. The beautiful silks used in this were gifted to me from my studiomate Astrid who dyed them. I used three shades of blue and a pale green. I'm not sure how tiny those seams are, but I think they are just shy of 1/8th.

And here it is bound and quilted. I love how this silk feels when quilted, would love to work with a whole garment of it. The variations of blues are also really nice.
You can see from the back of the knit one that there are a *lot* of ends--this is due to using (reusing) those short lengths of wool pre cut in embroidery kits. I was working with wool only about a yard long. So lots of joining. I'll probably line it as well so it's not so messy inside.

I think the next project I'll be moving onto is a hat/headpiece. I've been posting some 'hat-spiration' over at my tumblr, here's some of the key objects I'm looking at.

A Few Finds and Some Terrible Fabric

I generally try not to buy much old trim/ephemera or old embroideries. I'd love to collect them but I just don't have the room and they'd just pile up. Usually it's just old clothes to process (tear apart) and recycle into garments, and maybe something for myself. But I did pick up some neat things today.
Some really amazing old bias tape, in two plaids and a candy stripe. There was also polka dots but I'm not so fond of polka dots. It's still sealed and entire, and I'd really like to use the plaid! The plain muslin skirt facing is actually useful for my work, and the last, I admit...I bought for it's really lovely metallic label. The scalloping itself is kind of beat.
Entirely New!


The other big find was an unfinished piece of tape lace.
It's about half-finished. Sadly it's not really usable for my work, but it's a great reference for different stitches (would have been great to have about a month ago, hah)
I wish I could find this sort of premade lace. In any case, if I try my hand at tape lace again, it'll be a much finer lace.
Little eyelets!

My own tape lace is having some issues. The cheese-cloth like fabric that I was using to back the lace/make the arms ended up being incredibly difficult to work with. It's beautiful (thanks to Diana for gifting it to me!) but it shreds and pulls, and it definitely not made to be a weight-bearing fabric. Oops. At this point, I am going to finish it, and I may replace it at a later date.
It was originally going to be a full sleeve, but it was just not going to happen. Still, I'm okay with it. Many of the historical garments I look at have some pretty strange improvisations or fix ups, it doesn't necessarily harm the integrity of the garment.
Little baby sleeves. On the bright side, the lace merged really nicely with the body of the shirt.

All that said, I am a little ashamed of the hot mess left on the inside. I've always been pretty proud of the neatness of my insides (one the difference, I contend, between costume and clothing) but holy crow this fabric did not cooperate. And I don't want to add even more bulk by covering it. Agh.

Just...one...more

One more christmas gift eked out, this one for my workplace pollyanna. Thankfully we exchange those on Saturday, so I still have time to finish one thumb.
Pattern is Can-Cans from Ravelry. Knitted in Knitpicks Palette yarn, which was really nice to work with and inexpensive. I bought three balls just in case, and didn't even use a whole one. And I did add to my practical knitting knowledge--now I know how to work a thumb gusset.
Went back to work on quilt blocks. I added one round to the blocks I already had done. They were honestly a little small (6") and I didn't feel like joining a million blocks together. So I have 30 finished blocks and 20 half finished. I probably need 100 to get a good sized quilt.
Best of all, the tape lace is off the backing, and beginning to be turned into a garment! It held it's shape fairly well, though next time I will make sure to have more points of connections on the tape itself, I think that will help reinforce it.

And just a little bit of relevant Christmas loot--Seamus's father got me an Amazon giftcard, with which I scored some new textile books (as well as a few science books and novels) The black work and whitework books are mostly design inspirations (not all that clear on technique, which is fine) the Fashion in Detail is my second, and one of the best series of books! And the Art of Manipulating Fabric we had at my school, and I always meant to purchase it. More pleating, quilting, smocking and cording how-to and images that you can imagine.

Holidays are Taking Over

Seriously, I haven't made anything that wasn't a gift in almost a month. As much as I like making things for people, I a) am afraid of getting so out of the swing I can't get back and b) feel vaguely guilty posting them here...it's not exactly exciting stuff I'm the first to admit. But forgive me, here are some gifts to come out of the Havinghorns factory recently.
The diagonal scarf for my mom is finished and blocked. It's nice and long and quite soft, so I think (hope) she will like it.


Also for her (well, for the house, so I guess for both of my parents) is a little table runner. I bought a pack of christmas fabric and made up this pattern, which was fairly easy. I'm terrible at cutting things out accurately, so quilting not made of strips or single shapes gets a bit hairy.
Machine pieced, hand quilted because I don't really trust this machine to quilt. It bugs out and breaks threads even while piecing.


Also been busy with ornaments, I've made 6-7 of the little granny square stockings, they're my favorite so far. The I-cord wreath was a bit of an experiment

These wreaths came out better--a sort of improvised crochet over an ornament hanger twisted into a circle. The fabric balls were made out of leftovers from the table runner. I remember having a ball like those on my tree growing up.
And last, but not least, for my Something Awful Secret Santa, a needle point 'smug' emoticon. Just because.