Diary of a Seamstress

[The Seamstress]

Sooo I'm opening a thread here for future projects, which will hopefully help get me going and to actually finish something. Ahem. (Nothing to see here yet, sorry.)

I think my main creative endeavours will be sewing & drawing, but there also might be the occasional exceptions to that rule - there are a few things I'd like to learn, like cross stitch or needle felting. Things I've tried so far: pottery (when I was a kid), crocheting (still do), knitting (I'm not made for knitting, that much I know), spinning with a drop spindle, a little embroidery, paper crafts, making little dolls/plushies, painting & collage, comics, creative writing,... And I'm always curious to try new things!

That said, I'm now going to cut pieces of a pumpkin-to-be out of orange velvety fabric, as Spooky Season is just around the corner and my flat needs to be decorated. 

[Spritelady]

Love this! I'll keep an eye on any creative endeavours you post. I don't think of myself as an especially creative person, but I do enjoy creative writing and recently finished a Paint By Numbers of a rainbow lion! Do share photos of your pumpkin when it's ready!

I have also decorated for Spooky Season (mostly via the medium of fake mushrooms and pumpkins in various formats) and started lighting cinnamon scented candles which make everything smell lovely.

[The Seamstress]

Thank you    And of course I'll show you The Pumpkin as soon as it's finished.

[Jubal]

Am also looking forward to seeing more when it occurs

[The Seamstress]

Thank you! Pumpkin's in the making.

[The Seamstress]

Ta-daa!

It's huge, haha. Well, I enlarged the pattern to twice the original size because it looked so small when I printed it, and this is what I got... huggable pumpkin pillow!

You cannot view this attachment.

[Spritelady]

That is an excellent pumpkin!

[The Seamstress]

That is an excellent pumpkin!

Thanks! 

[Jubal]

It is magnificent! Very squishy looking.

[The Seamstress]

It is magnificent! Very squishy looking.

Thank you! 

[The Seamstress]

*blows dust off this thread* Ahem, I really should try to take more pictures of the creative things I do to post them on here. Anyway...

Last week I attended a course titled "Spinning with a spinning wheel for beginners"! It was a five-hours afternoon course with a very nice teacher who has been spinning & textile crafting for over forty years iirc, which is so cool. Apparently her parents were among the pioneers of organic farming & stuff in the 70s, and she now lives on a farm in Lower Austria, teaching spinning and weaving.

You cannot view this attachment.

This is the wheel I worked with most of the time (there were two different models, this one - Sonata - and another more modern design - Fantasia - but I preferred this. Made by Kromski.) - after a brief intro and demonstration we were allowed to practice with different types of wool. Most of them were British sheep breeds, unfortunately I don't remember all the names, one of them was Romney. (Should have taken notes...) There were also German ones and one from New Zealand I think?

You cannot view this attachment.

My first attempts at spinning! I didn't like the coarse brown wool, the fibres were rather short so it was more difficult getting an even yarn than with the longer fibres. The colour is nice though.

When we had a full bobbin we were shown how to ply, which is less fun than spinning imho... I ran into trouble far more often, lol. We had to use cotton yarn the teacher had brought for plying, since there wasn't enough time to get another bobbin full.

You cannot view this attachment.

And here's the result. It looks rather questionable, lol, but hey, I'm a beginner and at least it is recognisable as YARN. You can see the different types of wool in gorgeous natural colours (white/off-white, brown, and grey). The grey one was my favourite to work with, it's also very pretty (unfortunately I don't remember the name! Maybe I can find out.)

I had previously only spun with a drop spindle, years and years ago, and always wanted to learn how to spin using a spinning wheel. It was so much fun and definitely is something I want to practice and learn further. Now saving up to buy a spinning wheel some day...