creative space

Given it's nearly December, I decided in a rush of crafting blood this morning that it was high time I made the kiddies an advent calendar.   And as with all spur of the moment projects, this one is currently being created with materials all on hand. My aim is to not buy anything for it at all (apart from thread) but just use what's here.

Lily and I sat down this morning for a little bit of designing and chat about what we would make. I'm not going to share all our plans here, they are rather ambitious and that way if we don't achieve our plan I won't be embarrassed.  Let's just say this calendar may be a couple of festive seasons project.  

 

Finding a fabric for the background was the first challenge.  Initially I was thinking some calico would be the go but I didn't have enough.  After an extensive rummage we settled on some very pale mint heavy weight denim; 1 metre by 60cm wide.

After an afternoon session at gymnastics with a walk there and back in the rain, I got down to some sewing. This is what we've accomplished thus far. U-huh. doesn't look like much really.  And now that I see the tree from a distance I think I would have liked it to be narrower. Mmm, I guess all that won't be as noticeable once it's decorated.

Construction wise, the tree is made from leftovers from Lily's mermaid skirt, the netting part actually. It is stitched along the sparkly lines to some black interfacing. Of course, the only black interfacing I have is not iron on.  I've then appliqued it to the denim using a 7mm wide satin stitch, ahum.  yep, that's a lot of satin stitch but it really was the best way to do it to get the look I want. 

Things I learnt: 

1. mesh netting is still crap to work with, particularly when appliquing.

2. When working with such a massive applique piece (60cm  tall)  the good stuff is perhaps a little sticky and hard to manage without sticking to other bit incidents. Best to stick with the cheap vliesofix (unfortunately, I had none on hand though)

3. It is Murphy's Law that children always fight and hurt each other when you're in the middle of applique.

Some more progress on this as it happens, hopefully.

More creative spaces over at kootoyoo.