Tatting is one of my most favorite things- I never leave the house without a little tin or pouch that has tatting shuttles, thread, a tiny hook and tiny scissors in it.
I have been busy in the woodworking room again… carving more Goddess and Hedgehog tatting shuttles.
Until the end of the year, I will be reducing the price of the Goddess shuttles to $39 + shipping and the Hedgehogs to $25 + shipping.
Please message me if you are interested.
Here are some helpful videos about my Goddess Tatting shuttles:
I have been weaving a lot of butterflies lately, as a metaphor of hope, transformation, healing, creativity, community, and so much more.
These butterflies are ones that I designed to weave on the Mirrix Saffron loom.
I love the way that I can set up the Saffron to the exact size that I want….
The pink butterfly is made by weaving a full size triangle on the Saffron (see instructions in my book: Innovative Weaving on the Frame Loom).
And, the blue butterflies are made by weaving half size triangles.
Because the smaller butterflies are woven using a variation on the technique that I developed for the book,
I have made a video showing how to weave them.
The bodies are made on the loom, using the same setup as the wings, so you can weave away without having to re-set the loom. Yay!
Here’s the link to the Video How to Tutorial:
Mirrix looms are selling a wonderful kit that includes my book: Innovative Weaving on the Frame Loom, as well as the Saffron Loom and the Sandy Stand for it. It’s a great kit! Here’s the link for it:
After I carved and wove 3 dolls that didn’t fit the doll furniture that I already had, (see Brown Paper Yarn Dolls) ,
I decided that I had to build them each a chair.
And so I built them each their own little chair with a seat woven on the Mirrix Saffron Loom, using instructions from my book: Innovative Weaving on the Frame Loom.
The Chairs are not in the book, but the weaving patterns are. See pages: 68, 50 and 45.
Here are the dimensions for the wooden parts of the chair:
The wooden pieces are all 1 cm thick and 2 cm wide.
Pieces A are 24 cm long (cut 2)
Pieces B are 20 cm long (cut 2)
Pieces C are 11 cm long (cut 2)
The Dowels are 1/4 inch in diameter:
A: Cut 2 that are 11 cm long
B: Cut 2 that are 9 cm long
C: Cut 1 that is 13 cm long
The Seat: Weave a piece of fabric that is 20 cm long by 7 cm wide and stitch through the end of the warp loops, over the top dowel of A and the front dowel of B.
The finished size of the chair is:
Height: 20 cm (8 inches)
From front to back: 18 cm (almost 7 inches)
Width: 13 cm at widest point (about 5 inches)
The dolls are very happy in their new chairs!
I have made a video, showing how to build the chairs- but please note that I forgot to show how I sew the weaving to the chair.
Oops.
I simply lifted the weaving off the loom and stitched through the warp loops with 2 strands of yarn, going over the dowel.
I hope that you will have fun making doll chairs for your dolls and teddy bears, too. ❤
One of my favorite eco friendly crafts is spinning yarn from brown paper….
This video shows how:
And, then, I love to weave the brown paper yarn into all kinds of fun things like this bunny and teddy bear.
I carved their heads from wood, and made their little shoes from scraps of garment leather that I glued to wooden soles that I carved. The navy shoes were made from a thrift shop coat that I cut and sewed into a ton of different things- bags and doll shoes and doll clothes.
I made their hands from scraps of heavy weight leather that I was given years ago.
Bunny’s face is lopsided because the scrap of firewood that I carved her from was wonky, but she forgives me for that!
I adapted this pattern from my etsy shop to weave their bodies on weaving sticks, using the brown paper yarn that I had spun: Here’s the link:
I love all the neat things that can be made with brown paper yarn. In our house, brown paper is NEVER thrown away!
It always gets upcycled into nifty new things 😀
This is my contribution to the monthly ‘Scrap Happy’ Blogging group- people who delight in making things from scraps and upcycled bits of this and that post on the 15th of each month.
Here’s the links to the rest of the group. I always enjoy seeing what each of them has done each month:
All through the Covid pandemic, I have been working on designing and fine tuning a large new Teneriffe Lace loom that is my response to the situation that we are all in.
I wanted to create a loom that would be a way of celebrating love, compassion, kindness, resiliency, hope and friendship. The image that came up for me was of hearts and flowers.
So, I have designed a large Teneriffe Lace loom that is meant to be woven on with thicker yarns or threads than ‘normal’ and to be much larger than ‘normal’.
Here’s a video introduction to the loom. NOTE: The list of the ‘how to’ videos is further down this post.
At the beginning of March 2020, a very kind lady sent me a pair of ‘Polka’ Teneriffe looms to say thank you for all the hard work that I put into writing the ‘Potholder Loom Weaving’ book.
I was delighted with them- but didn’t like the way the foundation strand was put onto them.
So, I figured out a different way of continuously chaining on the foundation chain.
I also figured out a way of warping the loom continuously, and then had to work out the logistics of weaving the heart and flower motifs, and, also, how to get the motifs off the loom in a workable way.
I wove hundreds of samples and made dozens of variations on the looms.
Lots of them became firewood 🙂
BUT eventually I arrived at the configuration that I love.
Gary McFarland is the mastermind behind the CNC machine at Dewberry Ridge Looms and he has added his finesse to the final version of the loom.
One of my most favorite things to do at Christmas time is to make ‘the ornament of the year’ to give to family and friends. I usually end up making a LOT of them and it’s totally delightful.
This year, I have been weaving up a ton of tiny Snowmen- I designed them last year and made a video so other people can make them too.
If you would like to embellish your hand woven (or knitted or crocheted) fabric with embroidery, but aren’t quite sure how to do it, then I have some suggestions for you.
I have made a video showing one of the ways that I have figured out how to embroider on hand woven fabric- this technique will work just as well on crocheted or knitted fabric. Here’s the link to the video:
Here’s how to embroider on pin loom weaving:
Here’s how to embroider on hand wovens using the tambour chain stitch crochet technique:
Here’s how to stitch lucet cord to the edges of a handwoven piece:
Here’s how to make loop embellishments with lucet cord:
Tottie Talks Crafts Blog 