Sew Tiny - a little progress report

Charlotte has posted about her project at www.charlottesewfarsewgood.blogspot.co.uk.  She is making up something from her stash of 'engineered' prints.  These are so called because of the way they have been arranged on a panel, ready for cutting out and assembly.  Although they can be quick to make up, there are some gorgeous, sophisticated designs out there.  I'm quite envious of Charlotte's little collection.  Clothkits are a good source of these, for clothing and toys.  Not sure where she's found that beautiful fox though ...

My project involves felt.  I have a long standing love affair with felt ... it began at Primary School, when I begged my mum to let me stay behind for after school sewing club - I still have some of my first efforts, hee!.

Russell Scott Primary School - now gone and a motorway in its place! See the hat factory chimney in the background!

An oven glove and an egg cosy.  Looking at the oven glove, it's quite sophisticated really.  There are two embroidery stitches on it, blanket stitch and a kind of variation on that, and it's lined in a striped cotton ticking type material.  It doesn't have any padding though, which is why it probably still exists, as I think it's hardly been used.  It's lived in a kitchen linen drawer for years on end. Then there's the egg cosy, with chain stitch to mimic water under the appliqued duck, which I've cut out quite neatly considering I must only have been about 8 or 9 at the time.  I know that several stuffed felt animals came after - dogs, cats, fish, tortoises, owls, but sadly I don't have any survivors ...

Later in life, in my early 20's, I wrote my Polytechnic dissertation on the felt hatting industry of my then home town of Denton in Manchester.  My Primary School had actually been surrounded by manufacturers and I can still remember the strange aromas emitted by the factories during hat production.  Sadly, the industry no longer exists. My dissertation focused on manufacturing processes and changing hat fashions.  There's a copy of it in Stockport Hatworks Museum should anyone wish to read it.

Stockport 'Hatworks' Museum

I've only recently started to be interested in using felt again.  I've sewn up a couple of kits using felt shapes ...

and even made my own felt, which, as I discovered, is very labour intensive involving lots of damping and rolling ...

I love the non-fraying qualities and the feel of it in my hands.  I'd like to try felting knitted pieces next and make up some more kits I've accumulated.  I even bought one today as a Christmas treat!

Which brings me to Sew Tiny ...a little more will be revealed in the next week or so ... what could it be???