The Bee Hive

apron dress

I'm hanging up my apron in 2008. I am going to try and stop escaping into the kitchen for frequent sugar highs and instead start making items of lasting value.

I have started by making a apron-dress for the girls with some old Ikea fabric I've had for years. It's lined with bright lime fabric for contrast and it ties at the shoulders. It absorbs all the spills and dribbles a toddler/child makes, and it also looks practical and dare I say it, a little charming.

I'm thinking of making it Evie's school uniform, just whizz up a set of various colour-way gingham aprons, so to avoid the daily scrummage of  'what to wear - where to find it - and will she wear it if it's not pink.'

crewel work

...the crewel puns keep going through my head but I'm going to resist from using them.

Crewel embroidery has been around for over a thousand years. It's a technique that's involves wrapping wool over stitches to form a decorative relief on the surface of fabrics.  More often than not,  the patterns stitched are of flowers and are used to add adornment to womens clothing.

I'm a fan of most embroidery techniques and really like some this one. I have two cardigans which have crewel work on them; one is from the 1940's/50's (above) and one from the 60's which was purchase at the weekend, coincidentally found hours after I had tried the stitching technique at home.

My attempt was quick and fairly crude (pink bud) and I was thinking how  felted crewel embroidery would look so I may try adding some samples to a machine wash to see how they come out.

 

wired, feathered birds

Cathy Miles bends beautiful birds out of wire and decorates them with feathers, thimbles and other small finds. They are so enchanting, I would love one or perhaps a flock. The simple, drawn-like lines created from the wire makes them very naive and delicate. 

I have something quite similar made by Rosie some years ago,  she sculpted hands out of different gaged of wire (I'm sure the shoe use to be a hand before it was squashed) out of wire. These too are very beautiful...make some more Rosie!