I just fell down a massive rabbit hole, which seems apt considering this post is about rabbits.
I was looking for past images of egg cosies and I got sucked into looking at my life over the past 14 years in blog and shop photos. As I write (or used to, anyway) two blogs, one for sewing and one for gardening/cooking, it was a full-on nostalgia trip of how the house and garden used to look (tidy and new! I had so much more time for them than I do these days), how cute the boys once were and loads of sewing designs I’d forgotten about.
Anyhow, sorry, back to the point.
Cosies were one of the very first things that I made and although in truth they don’t sell brilliantly consistently, the woodland linen rabbit ones (the third incarnation, after brown mice and the original trio above) have been one of the most popular magazine requests of all my work, including getting into the hallowed pages of Country Living, and every Easter, there is a flurry of sales. It’s interesting, when we were kids we were always served our dippy eggs covered in a cosy but I never think to do the same when making eggs myself.
I had started a batch some time ago using a really pretty grey/blue Liberty Tana Lawn in the Betsy print but I got obsessed by the idea of using coral pink ric-rac which I simply haven’t been able to source, not in 100% cotton anyway. Then last week, in an attempt to close up some project boxes (I keep all of my work stacked in Ikea see-through A4 boxes and there are a LOT of them at the moment), I relented and used some blue polyester ric-rac from my old stash. I don’t think anyone buying one of the cosies cares if the trim is 100% cotton or not and the blue looks really pretty, in fact probably better than pink would have.
They started off really quick and I wondered why I don’t make them more often, then I got to the ears – the bl*@dy ears!! What a nightmare they are to get even, they tend to head off at jaunty angles no matter what you do so I end up unpicking and re-sewing them a number of times. The ric-rac also doesn’t always match at the sides no matter how careful I am, but I’ve had to suck that one up and remember that they are handmade and should look so (in a professional kind of way, if you know what I mean).
I really struggle to purposefully stitch the arms to look like they’ve been ‘sketched’, which is how I want them to look, as my instinct is to stitch the second line exactly on top of the first, I have to make them a bit wobbly on purpose which kind of triggers me a bit!
They are done and a final batch of red ric-rac ones are on the way (to use up my final length of it) and then I might really retire the design and move on.
You can find them here.
No idea what’s next, it’s half term and I always find it difficult to work with the boys in the house so I hope to address some of the hand-sewing in more unfinished project boxes as one of the boys has taken over my workbench for Art homework. For now, back to old photos and admiring how my garden used to look!
I sold out of all ‘Woodland Animals’ after the Badgers were in Country Living so it seemed right to make more. It was originally an experiment in how long it takes to make them (let’s just put it this way, I am earning waaaaayyyyy below minimum wage) but I just kept going with new colour versions, as they were selling as quickly I could list them.
First, there were some pink ‘Betsy’ boys. I’m not sure why I’ve never made pink fox suits before, it seems like a winner and they flew straight out of the shop.
Then, after 
I haven’t made girls for ages and it was quite good fun. They have red ric-rac sandwiched between the hem and I used some crochet flowers I already had rather than making new ones with my Hana flower maker. One flew straight off to the Netherlands!
Next, came a batch of bright blue boys. 
All the linen is offcuts from apron making and it felt really good to finally use it up. I have a habit of keeping all of my trimmings (in this case, quite big bits of trimmings, so well worth keeping!) but I can go a bit overboard with my reluctance to throw things away. The tweed wool for the bodies was also the final length and I (forced myself to) throw the scrap bag of leftovers from this once I’d finished my last fox. They really were little bits that were too small for even fox ears so it felt quite good to finally say goodbye to the bag which has sat in my scrap drawer for years now.
There was a little badger interlude here as I’d had quite a few emails asking if I’d make more so I did one last batch of those.
One of the reasons I made new foxes over badgers or wolves is so I didn’t have to make the brooches. It isn’t that I don’t like them, in fact, I think they finish the animals’ suits off in style, it’s simply that they take a really long time to make (they take the same time as a full-sized flower brooch) and I don’t really charge much extra, so it really is a labour of love.
There was one exception. A lovely lady has bought a lot of the Woodland Animals asked if I could make a red fox in mustard. I pretty much never make to order as my life can get a little stressed and I hate the idea of letting anyone down so I decided years ago to always say no, but as I was making badgers in mustard anyway I figured I would make an exception (and I was happy to do so, I should add!)
Mr Mustard Fox got a special Liberty Betsy cravat in a colourway I imported from Japan. I only have a short length of it but it was perfect with the yellow linen. I then made a matching green auricula brooch. I have to say, I was really pleased with him….it’s a bit of a shame the weather was so crappy and dark so I couldn’t get a decent photo but he’s gone off to his new home.
It started as an idea a couple of years ago. I had bought some vintage (I’m going to use the word with abandon now) napkins when I was buying old Christmas stuff on Ebay and I couldn’t help but think they’d make great cuffs for Christmas stockings.
The plan was to combine them with some stash busting, specifically reducing my tweeds and a few Christmas cottons that I have. The problem is, as always, I tend to imagine the finished thing in my head and I then struggle to compromise on that vision.
The red tweed looked too ‘dull’ so I considered some linen, also from my stash, but that felt too similar in texture to the linen cuff. I like contrasts of texture 🙂
I ended up buying some bouclé wool in a crimson red. I also abandoned using the Christmas printed cotton for lining as the wool is a little stretchy and I wanted a matching stretchy lining so I opted for some nice, cosy, green brushed cotton.
I’m not sure if it show in the photos, but I added a little shaping to the top cuff to make it kick out slightly (I like to think it’s these details that make my work my own).
Then I embarrassed myself by buying the newly arrived Christmas stuff from the local supermarket as photo props – coins, Quality Street, a Lindt Santa and some walnuts and oranges.
But I liked the photos taken with some of my vintage decorations best.
The photos look really dark on here…it’s one of the problems when photographing red and at this time of year.
I’m very lucky that I’ve been in the magazine before (a few times, actually) but not for some time. In fact, I think it’s a lot harder to get into magazines in general these days, there is so much competition in the handmade market that it’s difficult to stand out and it’s increasingly important to keep up any marketing which is an area I really struggle to find the passion to maintain.
So, welcome, Mr Fox (in a Green Dandy Suit!).
These started with some amazing Liberty Tana Lawn that I bought and imported from Japan. Why are all the nicest Tana Lawns only available abroad? I’ve never figured this out, it seems wrong, especially as it’s such an iconic British brand. Anyway, at much expense my single meter arrived (back in 2010!!!) and it was yelling animal cravats at me, so that’s what I made.
With the addition of real leather buttons (I bought the entire remaining stock from Cath Kidston a few years ago when they went into the sale at a silly low price – one of my best buys as before that a lot of the leather buttons I used were vintage and they were getting hard to source at a sensible price).
There isn’t a lot else to add. Of all the foxes I’ve made, these are my favourite combination (but they don’t beat the wolves!), I really do adore the cravat fabric and bright green is very much my colour. They seem like a summer animal to me.
It’s likely that the remaining ‘
I’ve been making them in some form or another since 2010, but they take an enormous amount of time to make and the fabric alone is quite expensive so there is little profit.
They really are a labour of love.
There are still a few to be found in 
Christmas things are coming next!
There are a number of items on the long list and one of those is getting the website completed as I changed the layout and style a while ago but couldn’t settle on a logo and banner. I don’t have much of a clue about working in Photoshop so I do my best with the knowledge I do have and I think it works, but boy, does it take forever!
The cat idea is from ages ago but I had abandoned it as it didn’t feel right at the time. On a re-visit, I quite like it again, so I worked up the sketches and created a banner that feels good, for now.
The collar went as she looked like a vicar cat….but she might get a bow around her neck, at a later stage and annoyingly, the banner used in the Create templates can only be stupidly narrow so there is no room to use extra text.
Nibble, nibble, just keep nibbling away and it will all be OK in the end.
Forever ago (running theme here!) I was a bit obsessed with traditional vintage style Sailor Jerry tattoos, at the time I was researching tattoo swallows for aprons (still to come, when I finally photograph them) but the style, in general, is one I really like. If you don’t know who Sailor Jerry was just google him and you’ll recognise his work straight away.
I figured an oversized rose, outlined in black would look really good on a purse. The block colouring style of tattoos translates really well to applique and this vision was my starting point. I spent forever coming up with my own design, which is really difficult as there are so many copies (Sailor Jerry is iconic and therefore frequently imitated, especially the roses and swallows). I used a real rose photo and based the shaping on that, repeatedly simplified it down and then blocked the colours in. I often work on tracing paper then I use a printer to enlarge and decrease the size until I’m happy with it.
Most of the fabrics are simply what I had in stock and the main body of the purse is a deep claret cotton velvet. It’s quite difficult to capture on camera, especially as I often have to lighten photos but the above image is quite accurate.
For the lining I used some stunning fuchsia shot silk, it adds a real pop to the purses and complements the wine velvet really well.
Gluing the frames on nearly sucked all the life out of me, as it always does, but the plus is I’m getting really good at it without getting sticky fingers. I was a good girl and just got on with it and then rewarded myself with cake (which on less than 1000 steps in half a day I should NOT be doing!).
And they are done. And 
And would make a wonderful Valentines gift, I think; certainly, I’d be thrilled to get something similar!
it was obvious to me to have a go at a summer version, ideally in pretty pink and again using a vintage style deer in the applique. For those who have been reading my blog for some time, you’ll know the apron itself is an original 1958 pattern that I rather fell in love with (again, more info on the original post) but I adorned it with a deer and trees in my winter version, instead of the cowboy Santa.
I don’t think I’ve ever showed the deer I used for the apron (I showed some Decal deers which were the front runners at the time). It’s a plastic vintage one, it comes up for sale all the time in Etsy and such, I’m assuming it’s from the 1950’s and this one even has it’s bell intact! So cute, it always makes me think of Babycham.
For the new apron, the deer got a new stance, I was aiming for Bambi style bottom in the air, sniffing a butterfly style.
Looking back at the photos, I kind of wish I’d gone with the grass and fauna of the top sketch, as my final fawn does look a bit like he’s floating in the air….never mind.
Lots of cutting and snipping and ironing.
And stitching..
And endless hours and hours of sewing on bias binding!!
But finally, a nice little stack of aprons, all ready for Mothers Day. Or not. But they would make a lovely Mothers Day gift, I think. I’m keeping one for myself, anyway.
It’s definitely the down side of always making new things in small batches, each time I have to photograph, edit and list them; but then I’d be bored if I only made a few things over, day after day.
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