dancing on ice......

I was a bit of a tremble when Ricky asked me to make ice skating costumes for Joni and Poppy,two of my  lovely granddaughters. I felt his confidence in my sewing skills might be misplaced! However,armed with my new sewing machine with lots of things on it which I had no idea how to use, I said yes but with lots of...... ooh I have never sewn stretchy material or lurex or they might turn out rubbish. The girls chose the very pretty fabrics, a lovely pink and silver lurex with a very striking contrasting pink stretch material together with an attractive costume pattern.They arrived in the post and I got very excited when I saw the pattern and lovely fabrics. Well chosen girls! I need not have worried! The pattern was easy to follow, I used the correct needle for the fabric (I only broke one) and I learnt to make better use of my sewing machine. I must admit I did struggled with attaching the skirt to the upper and lower parts of the leotard (they are made in two separate pieces, the bodice and the knickers) but got there in the end! Voila

I will start on Poppy's this week and hope to have posted them by Friday. Joni and Poppy will look lovely as they are both very pretty strawberry blonde girls and they so suit pink.

Felting in Needham Market

Had a very pleasant Saturday afternoon attending a felting workshop at Halfpenny Home in Needham Market. Felting is  basically transforming wool into felt using hot water and soap and lots of squeezing and plenty of manipulation.
We set out to make a tea pot stand although my finished piece could probably stand several tea pots on it! It was good fun.

The colours of the wool were gorgeous and we were spoilt for choice.This was my first piece before hot soapy water was added. From this and two other different coloured pieces, would be cut flowers to put on the background felting.

This was the background piece prior to sprinkling hot soapy water and lots of manipulation. Patterns cut from the other pieces were added to this to make the final mat, but guess who forgot to photograph the finished product!! As soon as I get back to Suffolk I will take a photo of what should have been a tea pot stand but could be better described as a tray mat!!