Fractals, Crystals and Tiny Stitches

Hi Everyone, well there has been some sewing this week but it is slow progress for me. I actually had a chance to slope off yesterday for a couple of hours and do some more work on my neck corsets. I know that it seems like I have been sewing them forever, well it does at least to me, but I stitch everything together very carefully by hand before it gets machined and I am not very fast or confident with my handwork.

Hopefully these will sink into the fabric once it has had a press.

I have put in the boning on the red one and lined both the red and the orange making sure that all the seams of the outer shell and the lining line up. Then they were tacked together and I sewed on the bias binding, finishing it on the inside with lots of tiny prick stitches to try to make it as unobtrusive as possible. Hand sewing is definitely not my strongest suit.

The fraying will be covered by tiny flowers and is where I am going to attach some strings of vintage pearls.

I have added in some Swarovski crystals that I had lying around in four shades of cream and brown. I think that they pick up the colours of the motifs well although both the colours and the sparkle are proving elusive to capture in a photo. Here the dark ones look too brown but in reality they have an orangey glow when they are hit by the light. I still need to bind the top of each one and find some silk flowers in the right size and colour. I did have a cheap one from Primark kicking about so pinned it on to see how it might look. It is of course too big and not quite the right colour but it gives the general impression of how this will be worn. No wallflowers in this one. 

Gosh, she looks a bit grumpy from this angle but I would be too with a flower pinned to my neck.

So, apart from that this week has just been all about work. It is pretty mental at the moment as I have a product launch on Friday next week. Am really excited about it but it is going to be a bit bonkers for the next few days, as if it is not normally!

Anyway, I hope that you have been having a good time, creating loads, having fun and here's to getting life back to normal again. I will leave you with a picture of a cauliflower that looks like a fractal (and now looks like a curry), just because I can. 

Mandelbrot Cauli. What an awesome beastie! Maths and curry in one dish.

 Vegetable rights and peace!

K xx

Heart of Glass

Hello! Well things have been stupidly busy here at MOR. We went for a big drive yesterday and ended up going to the beach as it was Sprogzilla's Dad's 50th birthday so he got to choose.  Of course I took this as a good opportunity to nag them into taking a pic of my newly knitted scarf. 

Thought that this lipstick was a bit bright but I like it. MAC's Ruby Woo.

The day did not start too well as we had a bit of a crazy rain storm when we had been out of the house about 10 mins.

Only Happy When It Rains?

 However, later on the weather was lovely, real t-shirt weather so the scarf was a bit inappropriate, and hence the sunglasses. Otherwise, all the other shots had me screwing my face up against the glare from the sun and the sea. We had a lovely walk along the sands at Seaham on a hunt for some of their famous sea glass.

Vintage Sea Glass

Seaham had a glassworks there from the 1800's to the 1920's and story goes that at works closing each day the "end of days" glass would just be turfed into the sea. It gets washed up and can be found in a whole kaleidoscope of colours, but mostly green and white. The most prized pieces are the multicoloured ones. We found a cobalt blue with deeper stripes and a black and clear glass combo. Most of the bits are very small but we are going to use them to make something  for the house which I will share when I have enough bits. We found 2 pockets full yesterday in about 2 hours and a good couple of mile walk.

Apart from that I have not done any sewing as with things from work being as they are I have had no time although I have bought some new wool. At least I can knit while I am commuting.

Sirdar Divine. It has Lurex sparkles in it!

It is from Sirdar and the colurs remind me of Monet's Garden. I bought the fabric underneath too as a remnant . It is a cotton batik and a couple of metres long x 112cm.

You can see the colours a bit better in the shot above. 

One of Monet's Waterlilies series.

Definitely a touch of "waterlilies" in this palette.

We ended the day with the obligatory fish and chips and an ice cream. Seems a bit wrong to go to the seaside and not indulge. We went to South Shields for these and they were very good. The light there was fantastic and we had another long stroll along the shore. 

Lovely Light

Boy are my knees feeling it today though. Joys of age!

Well I had better dash as I am off down the Studio for a meeting. No time to breath this week.

Have a great time!

K xx