Tag Archives: ropebowl

May27

Squeezing in sewing time

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Often when I get home from a full day on my feet, having lifted myriad bolts of fabric and dealt with lots of people (can you say extroverted introvert?!) I am wiped and all I have the energy for is food, tea, Netflix and bed.

Other days, given the right motivation, I can actually get things done.

The barbecue display at work

One evening to make an apron and a second to make an oven mitt to add to the display.

The finished rope bowl

My hand-dyed yarn crocheted over cotton clothesline.

A new mask and earsaver

Just because I love the camper fabric so much!

And another WhitneySews bag from the same tutorial as the cat bag I showed you last time. How adorable is this fabric, with the yarn-bombed trees!

One day, I managed to have a complete sewing room blitz and now everything is tidier and better organized.

All that clear space waiting to be used!

I’m working tomorrow but then I have three days off. Ooh, what mischief can I get up to?!

May18

More makes from the makeaholic!

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My boss called me a makeaholic! I confess. I am. And I’m not a bit sorry.

This mandala is from a pattern by Lucy of Attic24 called Positivity Mandala. I used a rather splitty acrylic yarn from work without too much thought as to colour placement but I don’t think this could look bad however you made it. It’s pretty!

It was quick to crochet but it took me a while to find the metal ring locally. It was only a couple of dollars at a dollar store.

This is a crochet bowl in progress. At the stage above, I was crocheting a flat circle for the base. The yarn was a white cotton one that I dyed (my first dye experiment) with Procion MX dyes. At the time I thought it was so eye-searingly bright that I wouldn’t find a use for it but this bowl is perfect.

Once I decided the base was large enough I stopped increasing and kept going.

I love that one can pop the yarn (and in this case the rope that I am crocheting over) into the project in progress!

This is a gift for a coworker. The fleece toy is just made from a bear that was printed on the fabric, backed with more fleece, sewn around, cut out and stuffed.

The bag is from a tutorial by WhitneySews on YT. I like this style. It’s spacious and has both handles and a drawstring closure.

It goes with the baby quilt.

It was a very quick quilt. No piecing, just top, backing and batting. The backing was cut larger and brought to the front to act as a binding. I tied it in places with embroidery cotton.

All in all, a productive week! Oh yes, and I also sewed a quick apron from a quilt cotton panel for work. I will set up the display tomorrow and try to remember to get a photo.

May10

In case you were wondering…

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I actually started a crochet project this week but I’m not sure that I want to continue with it. I wanted to make a baby gift so pulled out some DK yarns in some analogous colours plus some from the opposite side of the colour wheel.

I started following the Relaxghan pattern, found on Ravelry, but now I’m not crazy about the combo or the pattern.

I need this gift to be fast, and a blanket made with DK yarn with lots of ends to weave in is just not doing it for me.

Nah!

Maybe I’ll go back to it later but for now I think I’m going to do a simple quilt with a fun fabric, one piece for the top, one for the backing, add batting and tie the layers together.

I have fabric in my stash for the top. Just need a metre of a coordinating solid for the back.

I did have some fun with rope tonight.

This stuff was from Home Depot and cost about $9 for 100 feet. I used almost a whole pack for a bowl that ended up about 9.5 inches across at the top edge.

Dang, that used a lot of thread. I think I filled the bobbin four times! The teeny bit of vinyl at the end is a scrap from work. I like the pops of colour from bits of quilting cotton wrapped around the rope in places.

I have the makings of more bag handles here – I found the cotton rope at the dollar store today so with the grommets and the scrap of vinyl to cover the ends of the rope I’d say I’m ready to construct a new tote bag. I’m thinking patchwork……….

See you again soon!

Apr8

Fun with dye

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The store where I work has a monthly DIY idea and this month it’s a rope bowl.

My boss has been making these for ages and she uses cotton clothesline which she buys in bulk online. But the fabric store obviously wants to promote their own products so they used cotton piping cord for theirs, plus they dip-dyed it in Rit dye.

I brought home 8 metres of cord, some 100% cotton thread (so it would take up the dye) and some Coral Rit. I already had a scrap of vinyl at home.

Above photos are after sewing and before dyeing. The top diameter is about 7″.

(Spoon for scale.)

I was pleased with the result, but I did just go back and add a bit more stitching to the final loop to make it look neater.

When I was dipping the bowl into the dyebath, the water was barely soaking through so I scooped some water into the inside and then had to hope it would drain out, or I’d have had dye up the side and over the edge!

There was so much dye, I didn’t want it to go to waste, so I grabbed a couple of balls of white cotton Drops Safran and tossed them in as is. They instantly went a vibrant orange. After they’d had a chance to dry a bit, I used my swift to make them into hanks so they’d dry faster.

I got a nice tonal effect. In real life, it’s coral, not as bright as the photo suggests.

I’ve had a satisfying day today, cleaning and airing the house.  Soup is cooking and now I’m going to make a couple more earsavers for myself. This is one I made last night.