There it is ... one ounce of hand-spun cotton yarn. I’m not sure how long it is - I’ll have to measure when I wind it off - but hopefully it will be long enough for this pattern from Blue Sky Alpacas. It’s a crochet pattern so I’ll be learning something new there too.

The long draw technique started to feel a bit more natural as I worked my way through the second half ounce and the roving didn’t split apart as frequently. I still found joining kind of difficult but didn’t have to do it as often. It’s pretty lumpy-bumpy yarn but I like it. There are a few places when it got so thin I thought it would break but didn’t and I discovered I was looking at short pieces of real cotton thread.

How amazing to think that this same stuff is what makes up my favourite clothes (and my entire Regency costume) and here I’ve just turned it from fluff into yarn with my own hands. People used to do this all the time; every piece of cotton cloth started out as fluff and became yarn or thread on a spindle not too different from this one before being woven on some sort of loom.

A close up for texture.

This is my first project out of Simple Sewing by Lotta Jansdotter. It’s supposed to be a chequebook cover but doesn’t actually fit my chequebook and instead will be fabulous for holding my little jewellery pouches when we are travelling. It has two pockets on the inside and closes with an elastic and button.The colours are kind of retro looking but they just went together so well when they were piled up on the table that I had to use them.

I made a few alterations to the pattern instructions - mostly to accommodate the materials I had available. Since I was using quilting weight cotton (which seemed a bit lighter than what was called for) I added a muslin backing to all the pieces to give them a little more body. I made my own binding tape (using this handy-dandy gadget without the fusible strip) which ended up being 1/4” instead of 1/2” so I had to trim a quarter inch off each side to get the seams to fall in the right places (note: I measured after I discovered the chequebook wouldn’t fit and this didn’t make a difference - chequebooks must be slightly smaller in Europe). The binding would be easier to do with half inch binding - my basting stitches showed in a few places and I had to do some tidying up on the inside where I had missed the edge of the binding when I was topstitching.

My favourite part of this is the button. I love covered buttons right now (this book has some really nifty examples). I just like the way you can create the perfect button to finish off a project. This button matches the fabric for the pouches inside the case. I think it picks up the brown in the cherry blosum print on the outside and gives the case an earthy feel.

 

 

My Sewing Bug had been a bit neglected lately. My Knitting Bug has only been around for a couple of years, making it much younger, but somehow it has nearly taken over. I think it may be the portability of knitting and the way it can almost always be done sitting on the couch watching a movie. It’s easier to stop and start a knitting project - there is less equipment involved.
 
I still love sewing but I’ve been finding that my sewing projects tend to be large and involved or for other people. I haven’t been doing so many simple little project and they are the ones that I find really feed creativity - knitting is full of these and that is probably part of its appeal. I needed something very simple and pretty to wake up my Sewing Bug and make it a little hungrier.
 
This has got to be one of the simplest projects out there. I followed the Very Easy Pincushions instructions from the Purl Bee to make myself a new pincushion (my old one tends to roll around the table). There isn’t any machine sewing involved so I was able to do most of it while chatting with Rob and I got to use some of my own home-made felt for the top. It will be a perfect assistant at my sewing table.