I have experienced a sewing Renaissance lately and have been working on more challenging projects. So here is one of the projects that I have finished: (Special thanks to my lovely dress form Josephine for modeling!)

Only one week before an English Country Dance Ball I decided that I wanted, and needed, some period undergarments for my Regency gown. That is typical for me, to wait until the last minute to begin a complicated sewing project! I can’t even tell how many times my mom and I have finished sewing a dress the night before an event. Since I did not have the time to ship the pattern that I wanted from Sense and Sensibility patterns I downloaded the e-pattern for Regency Underthings. The pattern includes a chemise, chemisette and short stays. This was my first experience with an e-pattern and I loved it! Of course, the best part was not having to wait for the pattern to be shipped since I downloaded it within minutes of ordering. Using an e-pattern actually saved me time, because I did not have to trace my pattern; I can just print a different size if needed. I never cut into my pattern pieces in case I need a larger size later, so I usually spend a lot of time tracing them onto tissue.

The chemise was easy to sew and very comfortable. Seriously, very comfortable. All of the seams are flat felled so I am pretty sure that the chemise will withstand a lot of wear. For the short stays, I was exactly between sizes and decided to go a size down. I am glad that I did because it fits perfectly and I can either lace the stays up all the way or I can leave a small gap in front. I made sure to use 100% cotton threads and fabrics and I stitched the eyelets by hand.

Now comes the part where I admit that in regards to periodicity I cheated for the short stays. If this was an outer garment I would not have been able to live with myself, but I figured that since it was undergarments no one would see them. To be period correct I should have done all the top stitching by hand but I was running out of time so I used my sewing machine. I also had to use plastic for the boning, but figured that I can replace that later if I want to. When I get time I am also going to take the binding off and resew it by hand so that it is neater.

I am excited to announce that I was chosen to be one of the twelve Colorado artists featured in the first Colorado Craft Calendar! My needle felted dragons and seeahorses are featured in the month of April. Each month of the calendar has beautiful photographs of arts and crafts made by Colorado artists and lists the dates of craft shows and events. For more information visit www.coloradocraftcalendar.com.

Happy New Year’s Eve!

From start to finish December has been a crazy month. At work there was decorating, and I served nine holiday teas and organized a Holiday evening event. The whole month has been a blur of baking, birthday parties, serving teas, teaching classes, making and wrapping gifts, sending cards, cooking, cleaning, decorating and having company over. In the midst of the holiday chaos I spent most of the month without a car, because my glass was vandalized while I was parked at a holiday parade. Getting that fixed was a tedious ordeal, and slightly unbelievable. Right after my car glass was replaced the new glass literally exploded in my garage. It was completely obliterated, and I was once again without a car!

I really attempted to make all of my gifts this year. I thought it would be a good way to make use of some of the crafting supplies that have taken over the house. I made three Japanese Temari balls, several needle felted dragons, three tatted dragons, and a crocheted hat. I also made twelve jars of orange juice jelly.

Okay…so the Colorado State Fair ended in September, and this post is a little late, but I still thought it would be fun to show a photo of my prize winning knitted jacket/coat/sweater. It won first place for combination knitted and crocheted items. I loved the photo in the pattern book, but I must admit that while making it I had doubts about whether it would come together or even be wearable. It has large holes covered by crocheted flowers, and I wondered if it would be too cold.The moment that the blocking was complete all my doubt vanished. This sweater is amazingly soft, warm, comfy, and I wear it often!

I also won first place for my beaded tatted ornament, and for my beaded hummingbird. The hummingbird pattern is from the book “Bead and Button Critters” and I found the tatted ornament pattern online.

I spent a day at Needleworks by Holly Berry demonstrating needle lace, bobbin lace, tatting and needle felting for the annual customer appreciation event. This was a very busy demo but I still managed to finish several small projects!

Between yesterday and today I actually finished several tatting projects, and knitted a scarf. The bookmark was a gift for my brother. I love that he picked the brightest yellow thread in my collection for the color! Normally I do not use very bright shades, or yellow, but I got the thread on sale thinking that it could make pretty aspen leaves. Many of the trees have turned this exact shade of yellow right now. Working with such a bright color was refreshing.
The Sine Wave bookmark pattern was from Jeff Hamilton.

The fall weather was so beautiful today that I took my knitting to a local park and worked on this scarf after a long walk.The scarf is a drop stitch pattern, and I made it from a ribbon yarn and a mohair blend that I found in one of my yarn boxes.  The yarn colors matched the color of the rocks in the park, and the autumn leaves.

Here is my pattern for the scarf:

Ute Valley Park Scarf

Size 15 needles
1 ball Bollicine Etoile color #553 (70% kid Mohair, 30% acrylic) 50 gr.=150 meters2 balls Queensland Collection Invito color #2 (50% cotton, 50% nylon) 50 gr.=130 meters

Hold both yarns together throughout.

Cast on 14 stitches

Rows 1-4: Knit
Row 5: Knit by wrapping the yarn twice around the needle before pulling through each stitch. At the end of this row it will look like you have 28 stitches, instead of 14.
Row 6: Knit one stitch, then drop the next loop off the left needle instead of knitting it. This will cause the stitch to grow longer. At the end of this row you should have 14 stitches again.
Row 7: Knit
Row 8: Knit

Repeat rows 5 to 8 until the scarf is long enough, then knit two more rows and bind off loosely.

Thank you for visiting my website! Please check the class schedule for a list of Tatting and Needle Felting workshops that I will be teaching in Colorado Springs. The little dragons in the picture above are one of my class projects. They are sculpted out of wool roving and are only about two inches tall.