August Creations

That title should be “August Creations Written About in Mid-November Because ‘School!’.” I thought that because I am taking “only” three classes this semester, I would have more time for crafting and sharing blog posts with you. However, it seems that the “extra” time compared to last year has been eaten by my learning to read more deeply. Which of course is a good thing, but I do miss having chunks of time to work at maker projects. But I am also greatly enjoying the deeper dive into my studies, and the changes in how I think about various topics.

With all that said, I’d like to share with you some maker projects I did manage to do during August. As I mentioned previously, I had most of April off school before doing summer classes May to July. Then I had August off to catch up on life duties and prepare for the new school year. Unlike last August, this August I had time to prepare for school and do some fun projects.

Below is the finished textile necklace I started making years ago. The pendant is a huge chunk of blue sea glass (rare!) from a necklace I had bought from a local maker. I took the glass off the original chain, glued smaller pieces of green sea glass to it, and zig-zag stitched a rolled up piece of green silk cloth for a chain. Then it sat in a basket for years. I finally took that chain and figured out how to make sliding knots for an adjustable chain. Then I played around with making textile beads. They turned out looking more like thread spools, but it’s all part of the fun to try something new and see how it turns out. I’m sure if I try these beads again, I can figure out how to make them a little more compact. However, I like these beads here!

Below is just a closeup of the pendant and bead part. You can see I had to make knots on either side of the jump ring in the blue pendant. This was so the pendant wouldn’t slide all over the place on the green chain. You can also see the beads up close. I used bits of leftover cashmere fabric wrapped around a knitting needle to form the bead hole, and then stitched and tied everything with embroidery floss. I could get addicted to making these.

Next up, I have been wanting to do this project for years, too! As you know, I love upcycling natural fabrics into new items. I have collected cashmere sweaters from thrift shops, and initially made a ton of mittens from them. When I ran out of thrifted suede leather for the mitten palms (and tried to stop buying more thrifted suede because I have the classic maker’s problem of collecting supplies to overflowing…), I stopped cutting cashmere into mitten patterns. I decided I wanted to make a poncho, but that idea sat in my head for a few years. Along came August, and voila! I looked at handmade patchwork poncho patterns online and figured out that it’s just one giant patchwork square turned so the corners are at the front, back, and sides of the body, with a hole cut in the middle square. I have no idea why this took me so long to figure out. Anyway, I did all that, and then inserted a cashmere sweater neck piece. Now I wear this thing to school on the cool fall days and it is so cozy! Several fellow students have commented positively about it!

Because I’m in school full-time, I travel with a backpack that carries books, notes, water bottle, food thermos, wallet stuff, and random other things I might need in the run of a day. My normal leather wallet that I’ve had for over twenty years needed to go due to the weight, so I made a folding card holder with some scrap linen and cotton pieces of fabric. I forgot to take a photo of the inside, but each internal side has five or six pockets made from folded fabric. It’s a clever design I found online. Before I sewed everything together, I embroidered this flower.

You can see the flower up close here; I tried my hand at this intertwined satin stitch for the pink petals. Like the textile beads above, they aren’t perfect, but I sure had fun experimenting. I also had fun practicing making French knots with the yellow thread. I had finally conquered them last December while working on Dorset buttons.

Oh, I LOVE this next project so much!! I really want to keep experimenting with textile jewelry. I sewed three layers of scrap fabric together: silk, then wool, then cotton. I sewed them in a rectangle with zig zag stitch, and then cut carefully around the rectangle. Once I had a rectangle “pendant,” I began embellishing it. First I sewed blanket stitch around the edge in green embroidery thread. Then I played with bead weaving technique around the edge. It’s a bit wonky in some places, but again, I was learning and having fun. Then I began embellishing on top of the blue silk piece. It’s not completed yet, because school started and I mainly carry around a sock-on-knitting-needles and make a few stitches on the bus here and there. But I can’t wait to pick up this pendant project again.

Finally, I experimented again with making flowers from strips of thrifted silk fabric. Obviously it isn’t finished, for the same reason (school again!). But I mainly wanted to figure out what would be good strip lengths and widths to make a fluffy flower that would still come together with gathering in the middle. I’m pretty happy with how this looks. Likely I will embellish in when I have my December break.

So what are you working on, creatively? Please feel free to share in the comments!