Welcome to the first Ribbon Tin post, the first of a monthly series featuring a miscellany of bits and bobs, odds and sods, knicks and knacks, all sorts of interesting things related to textiles and making. I hope you enjoy it.
Over the last couple of weeks, I have read many, many crafty New Year resolutions and making lists. It seems we are a highly focused, can-do kinda community. Here is my favourite one.
Looks straight forward eh. The fiendishly clever part is that the list is generated by a set of principles or guidelines that balance the maker’s need for deadlines with flexibility, spontaneity with completing projects and her preference for working in different mediums. The categories stay the same, each month will add different projects. This masterful piece of list making and the words of explaining can be found at Mousy Brown’s House.
Go and have a wander. I liked it so much, I am adopting it. After making my yard-long Medusa of a craft list for the year, I was turned to stone for a week in sheer terror. This monthly iteration of my year goals and personal preferences is the kinder alternative.
That sorted, head over to My Sister’s Knitter’s Knit Along on Ravelry to start getting it done! This is the place to share your list and get started on any spinning, knitting, crochet or weaving project. Or you can just read other people’s lists…which I just love doing…much more relaxing than my own!
From favourite lists to favourite quilters, have a look at this.
This is my friendBlue Mountain Daisy’s Double Wedding Ring quilt made out of a stack of old jeans! It is so incredible, it won a Judge’s Choice at the NYC Metro Mod Double Wedding Ring Quilt Challenge. Over Christmas, it had to be packed up and make the long journey from the balmy Blue Mountains of New South Wales to the frosty climes of New York City. It is lucky it is a quilt. You can read about the process of making this quilt here.
All the Blue Mountain Daisy quilts are delightful. They are witty and ingenious. One of them lives at our house and is the prize of the sick person on the couch, the indoor cubby makers and the movie snugglers.
If one of the things on your list this year is to try more breed-specific yarns or support small yarn producers, you might like to know that Fairfield Finns now have a webshop. Fairfield Finns is a small Finnsheep farm in Central Victoria run by Maureen and Gerald Shepherd. The fleece is fine and have won many awards. An Alpaca guards the sheep. The shop sells fleeces, tops and also Finn yarns: sport and DK worsted spun and laceweight woollen. If you have never spun or knit with Finn, it is a sublime experience…soft, long fibres and a lovely handle.
The last treasure I have for you this month is a very special book, The Illustrated Hassle-Free Make Your Own Clothes Book by Sharon Rosenberg and Joan Wiener, published in 1971. It was recently destashed by friend’s mother-in-law (who clearly had an exciting youth) and has found a home with me. From a time before cover design and styling, this book reckons you can make anything you like from, well, anything.
Here is a great design for dress made from an old towel.
You will also find handy hints on making kaftans, flower dresses, hobbitops, bellbottoms and sorceresses dresses. You won’t find darts in here though. “We don’t use darts because we don’t use bras, they give your clothes a funny shape”. Mmm, that would be a breast shape.
Whilst much is funny and quaint for someone who was a wee babby when the book was published, I have to admire the ethic of the authors which is still very pertinent. ‘There’s a thing about high fashion – it’s pretty much a hype. All this raising and lowering of hemlines, these do-dos and don’t-don’ts seem to us to be just a way for the clothing industry – big business indeed – to keep their thing going. We find Vogue and Bazaar magazines best for cutting up…they are not, under any circumstance, to be taken seriously’.
Sometimes, the authors’ still sound revolutionary. ‘Men should get over their uptightness about making clothes, about doing all kinds of things they have been brainwashed into relegating to women…We have this friend…who is a really fine carpenter and a fairly heavy cat…he makes clothes for both himself and his old lady. His most recent project was a pair of white brocade bellbottoms with blue trim’.
What I wouldn’t give to see those bellbottoms!
