6 posts tagged “sewing”
I bought some great new shwe shwe at my favourite store Arthur Bales in Linden last week.
I love the spirals because they remind me of the spirograph I used to love playing with as a child. My nephew and niece recently got one too, and I got to relive some of the fun while showing them how to use it.
The stripes are quite unusual for a shwe shwe pattern, so I had to get them too.
I think I might cover the cushions of the morris chair on my front veranda with these two fabrics . I had originally thought I would use the fabric to make reusable gift bags, but when they started measuring it out I succumbed and asked for two more meters of each for possible cushion covers.
One of the fun things about being at home and sewing is that my fluffy cat who has made appearances elsewhere in this blog loves to "assist" me. I think I over locked some of her tail into a garment last week, and have developed a new technique of sewing so that she always has something to sit on.
Unfortunately she finds pattern paper great fun and whenever I try pin a pattern to some fabric she appears from out of nowhere and tears through it. Great fun (for her, less so for me) .
When I brought home my latest shwe shwe she came over to investigate what I was doing and my 3 Cats branded fabric became 4 cats.
I have been sewing some yoga bags for my awesome yoga teacher Clara , and because she was keen to have some with a South African feel I made a couple in shwe shwe.
Here is the latest batch ready to go. I used two different shwe shwe patterns from the 3 cats range and tried to make them all slightly different using ric rac, or the reverse pattern. The logo on the reverse of the 3 cats says " designed in England for Da Gama Textile" so I tried not to include too much of the reference. I made some similar blue ones last week, using Toto Six Star Fabric and that say "Made in South Africa by Da Gama Textiles" and so I had more of them with the branding showing
So there are several Bettys now in this blog, Ermelo Betty, Betty Mielies and Betty who hangs out on the corner with Gladys and her tomato street stall. For clarity I will refer to Gladys' friend as Brixton Betty.
I have a suspicion that Brixton Betty might actually be waiting for me to come past these days. I photographed her in this gorgeous patchwork dress last week Friday and yesterday on my way home she waved at me in another new skirt. If she has an many skirts still as the patches in this dress I will be thrilled to have her wave at me everytime she has a new one :-)
Brixton Betty sews all her own clothes and this dress is made up of all the left overs of various dresses she has made. She wasn't so sure she wanted to be photographed in it- because its an old one she said, but I thought it was beautiful and she posed for me. I loved all the various patches in the skirt that speak of the many other outfits Betty has made for herself. It also looks very comfortable and like it is one of her favourite dresses.
more fun had with the Venda Circle print
This is my brave cat stalking a vicious blade of grass in front of the meters of new print Venda Design cloth that I recently bought. I turned all of this into a panel skirt for each of my sisters-in-law and used the green for myself. With the left over bits I managed to rustle up a few smaller things including this dress below for my neighbour Fiona.
I often find Fiona in our garden on "her swing" when her own space is not happy. She and my marvelous husband put it up together and so she claimed it as her own. Last week she dragged the younger girl from the house on the other side of our house to come and play on "her swing " with her. I thought I could run up the skirts before lunch, but they needed some alternations. I will try get a picture of them both in their dresses.
