Category Archives: fabric

MeiJo’s JOY: Cactus Pincushion – tutorial

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cactus pincushion by PC Lim

cactus pincushion by PC Lim

This little cactus pincushion was a handmade present from PC of MeiJo’s Joy, when she and I met up in Penang a couple of weeks ago. I wasn’t just being nice when I squealed and gushed over this tiny potted cactus…it really took hold of my tender ‘cuteness’ gland and gave it a hard squeeze.

Ms. Lim at Air Hitam Saturday markets

If PC wasn’t my sister-in-mischief, I would be tempted to do a tutorial for these cacti, myself!

Luckily, PC has put together her own tutorial (see the link, below) for making this (and a whole family of others, different shapes and everything!) that couldn’t be simpler to understand.

I love that she has used recycled materials instead of new store-bought stuff: a streaky green T-shirt has been the perfect fabric for all the cacti, and tiny plastic disposable pudding cups were used for the pots. Don’t forget to check out her additional tutorials, to make the puffy flowers that she uses to make both the bright pink flowers and the bases for some of the cacti plants.

This photo of the whole family together really fires my imagination…I’m starting to see all sorts of variations on this theme…a perfect little project for a rainy afternoon, as they are really simple to make.

MeiJo’s JOY: Cactus Pincushion – tutorial.

a whole family of potted cacti

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✂ – - – displaying embroidery in a hoop – - – ✂ [from Hell to Breakfast]

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I’ve received a few hooped embroideries in swaps over the years, and noticed that none of them were ever finished off properly. Which is a shame, because after the considerable time and effort that no doubt went into the stitching of the pieces, the final presentation can go all sad and pear-shaped if the finishing stage was rushed through—usually carried out with nothing, it seems, but a pair of scissors and the lazy idea that no one will see the back of the piece.

After all, I see the back of the piece…and rough, choppy cuts, or messy webs of loose and flimsy lacing, or excess fabric forcibly stuffed into the back cavity of the hoop, these measures speak volumes about the “crafty goddesses” who made them, and their priorities, and the level of their skills. C’mon, all that fuss and preening over a “handmade” front, and then this muddle of a “Made in the slums of India” hidden in the back? It’s a crying shame.

So when I got my faux crocheted doily hooped up, I took a few snaps of the steps, and have put together a very simple, quick how-to over on H2B.

Seriously, it takes hardly any time—10 minutes?—to finish an embroidery this way, yet it looks like someone clearly took the time and made an effort to care for the entire embroidery, and not just make sure the front looked pretty long enough to take a picture (and the hell with what it looks like in a week’s time)!

People. Show some genuine pride in your handwork; try to make a thing of beauty and quality…something made to last and treasure…not just some eye-candy held together with tape and blu-tack that falls apart a week after you’ve shown it off on the interwebs. Put some effort into doing things right.

What is the point of a handmade revolution that has espoused the shoddy manufacturing techniques of sweatshops and factories in China? Stop giving “handmade” a shitty reputation. Be worthy of the movement, if a movement is what you claim to be part of.

Let’s put some craftsmanship into the thousands of internet personas who style themselves “Mr. or Ms. Crafty So-and-so”

Tutorial is here: Displaying embroidery in a hoop | from Hell to Breakfast.

New in my shops: fabric senbazuru (origami CRANES, doh!)

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My creation

1. fabric origami cranes — color palette, 2. hot pink crane, 3. lavender crane, 4. black white and red crane, 5. olive crane, 6. pink crane, 7. mid blue crane, 8. bright floral crane, 9. black and white crane, 10. navy blue crane, 11. magenta crane, 12. coral pink crane, 13. chocolate crane, 14. bright red crane, 15. dark red crane, 16. pale pink floral crane

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys

A project I’ve been keeping under wraps until I had enough of them: I’m making senbazuru (origami cranes) out of fabric…using up those fabrics that I really just have too much of and never use. They’re lined with interfacing, to give some stiffness, and made using a clothes press that Kris brought me from the dump, years ago. Finally found a use for the thing! I have to start the generator to use it though, so after the initial rush of enthusiasm I got tired of making them. I think I’ll go back to doing paper ones, late at night, in the silence. :)

But I’ve made a couple hundred of these fabric ones, though…it’s a good start! I’ve put an eyelet in each one for hanging.

They’re for sale in packs of five on my Etsy and madeit.com.au shops.

bokeh senbazuru...fabric origami

So far I’ve just hung a whole bunch of them, red ones mainly, from the ceiling above my bed (so nice to wake up and gaze at a flock of red cranes gently bobbing overhead, aglow in the slanting morning light). I took a bunch of pictures using a homemade, triangle-shaped bokeh filter a few days ago…I liked the way the triangle echoed the cranes’ wings.

Other things I am thinking of doing with them are stitching them in a graceful flight pattern on a skirt, and embroidering the wings on a couple of them, to hang in the shinto altar in Kris’s sailboat (when he gets back, of course) Kris spent many years in Japan…he speaks Japanese, reads it well, can write it a bit, too. He would love these, I know.

*momentary pang…miss him so much all ready*

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