A birthday "card"

In April this year my very dear friend Lou turned 30. At the time I had been in somewhat of a creative slump and decided it was high time I dusted off various crafty related tools. I've known her all of my life and didn't think a store bought card would suffice to represent the value I place on our friendship, no matter how many soppy verses it might contain. That only left the option of making one so I set about scouring the web for inspiration; I found myself perusing a page I bookmarked a looooong time ago: Sublime Stitching. I LOVE this site, the designs are gorgeous, not twee in the slightest and (most importantly) within my embroidery skill level! Anyhoo, I happened upon the book (which I have since purchased) and fell in love with the cover design. I'm not so hot at conjuring up my own designs and have no qualms borrowing, as long as credit is given...I don't make any profit from it either before anyone gets upset.  I made a few tweaks to the original to make it fit with the birthday affair et voila! 

Now, I know what you're thinking: that's not a card Sarah. You're absolutely right. It's not. I finished the embroidery and then started to panic about how I was going to make it into a card. Framing seemed a little excessive and I couldn't see how to turn it into an actual card without making a hash of it. It was suggested to me by a friend that perhaps turning it into a cushion might be a good idea and also offered some fabric that went with the theme. The same wonderful lady also showed me how to make the world's easiest cushion cover! It's amazing what happens when you verbalise panic - kudos Bec!

So there we have it, a 30th birthday "card" for my friend of old; here's to the next thirty years of being friends!

It's [not] a dress

One day a few weeks ago while thinking absent-mindedly about upcoming birthdays and was totally stumped as to what to get for a friend's daughter. I um-ed and ah-ed for a bit and then decided to make a nice little dress from a pattern I saw a while ago. I couldn't remember where it ws from, so I Googled it and found this one which looked almost identical. Now that I come to write this I cannot for the life of me locate a link. Gah! Anyhoo, it looked easy enough and half of it was crochet - how could I fail?

About a year ago I purchased a beautiful piece of Liberty fabric that had been reduced (massive win as it's usually approx. £21 per metre - yikes!) I decided to use that for this project. The button I gleaned from my hoard of spares and odds and another win was not needing to buy the cotton yarn for the trim as that had been making friends with my stash for about three years now! I once had grand designs for a Totoro hat, but  (considering the love/hate relationship I have with knitting) that's best left alone. Especially as Isaac is now far too big for the pattern sizings!

I digress...I do that a lot...back to the "dress".

The fabric part didn't take very long, but the measurements seem to concur with the finished item being far too restrictive to be a little girl's summer dress unless she wanted to stand around looking pretty rather than running around which is what every little girl I know does! Weird. I even added six more inches to the width to allow for more ruching!

So, I chopped a bit off, re-hemmed and made it a top instead; hopefully she'll be able to walk in this version!

I gave it to her today and await the verdict from my friend to see if fits her lovely little daughter. Fingers crossed eh?

Happy birthday L!

Update 12.06.06 - it fits!

Two peas in a pod

I can post this now because I know she's got it!

Last month one of my dear school friends gave birth to two beautiful baby boys. Her first son was due on the same day as Isaac, but he came a whole month early and Isaac (in true Isaac style) came when he was good and ready. Neither of her pregnancies have been straightforward and I fully admire her strength and patience; I don't know how I'd handle being made to lie down for a month! But she did and there are three little people here as a result of her determination.

Here it is after a frighteningly expensive trip to the framers!

It's the second piece of embroidery I've done recently, more on the other one another time. I enjoy doing it, but never seem to keep anything I make! This is because I only seem to be motivated to make things for other people. Hmm. 

It's the first time I've used long and short stitch for shading, usually favouring satin stitch, but I wanted to try colour grading. I think it turned out quite well [for a first attempt].

That's all I have to say about it really. I hope she likes it!

P.S.: Postage to Germany is not cheap. And glass is not insured. BOO!