Birthday bunting, a year on

Last summer we celebrated my dad’s 90th birthday and to mark the occasion I made some bunting. I’d printed the individual flags much earlier in the year at the Indian Block Printing course at our local library. Even then I was clear that a traditional ‘happy birthday’ banner was a lot of work - and would need a fair amount of space to hang, and I wanted something smaller.

In the end I settled on five flags, spelling I am 90 - and both the embroidery and assembly were finished way ahead of our family celebration, which was a relief - and almost felt like it was planned.

Which of course it was, but isn’t it great when a plan comes together?

Earlier this summer dad had another birthday, and so I thought I better provide an update, but without access to the same Indian blocks it would have to be different, so I decided to make it very different.

I’d picked up a large bag of buttons at my Sewing Group’s stash sale (along with the Vogue pictures, which are currently being framed) and more amazingly was able to remember where I put them and so lay my hands on them easily.

I’d drawn a 1 on a plain piece of fabric, and marked out the edges of the triangle which would form the bunting, and then played around with how the buttons would fit into the figure.

And once I was happy with that, I took a picture to remind myself of what I’d settled on, and set about sewing them on pretty much in the same position. It wasn’t exactly the same, but it was very close.

The last button - the tiny white one at the bottom right - didn’t seem to fit where I’d had it, as no doubt other buttons had moved slightly, and I toyed with the idea of leaving it off altogether. But in the end I added it close to where it should have been in my plan.

To hem and finish off the bunting I used a navy thread with a fancy stitch on my sewing machine - they look like Christmas lights to me, or ice creams in cones if you look at them the other way up.

Anyway, job done.

And that odd little button, well - it seems it was supposed to be there. Dad, who was half expecting an update to his birthday banner asked if I’d included that number of buttons on purpose. I hadn’t, but it turns out the number of buttons I’d used was the same number as dad’s birth date. I almost wish I’d thought of doing that myself, but seems that fate managed that all by itself.

How fortuitously weird, huh?

An embroidered heart

There was only one pouch in my pouch love series to share on Valentines Day wasn’t there? And from a simple printed heart it’s blossomed into a large and very beautiful pouch.

It’s hard to believe that this is how it started - a test print for some bunting I made to celebrate my dad’s 90th birthday last year. The bunting was simply embroidered but I wanted to explore the interlocking circles this time round.

Unusually I don’t have any photos of it ‘in progress’ and I’m not really sure why - it definitely came with me on our trip to Glasgow last September and has been on the train to London too. After outlining the heart and before exploring the inner circles, I added several coloured stripes across the fabric, which reminded me of a 1970s/80s tracksuit.

And then I braved the circles trying not to have two of the same colours next to each other, which just about works. Embroidering the circles with my beloved chain stitch was incredibly mindful and relaxing. Once the main emblem and its stripes were complete, I still felt that it needed more, and at the back of my mind I remembered a cream/beige embellished fabric which I picked up at a WI stash sale, which might work with this.

I knew I wanted to make this one into a pouch, and so finding the fabric to go alongside this in my stash was a complete win. That fabric I had in mind absolutely worked, and also encouraged me to add several rows of cream chain stitch stripes above and below the heart to tie it all together.

And this is how it ended:

What’s even better is the lining was also in my stash - and while dark orange skulls on an orange background might not have been the natural choice on paper, once I saw the colours together there was no other choice for me. To finish it off, of course I needed poppers, and as the fold over flap was relatively large, it needed more than one - and so unable to choose between pink, orange and red, I had one of each!

If my embroidered heart pouch reminded you of one I’d already made - you’re not wrong, it’s a much larger version of the baroque lady version which was the first one I made at the bag making sewing course.

I’m loving them both, and I’m pretty sure there’s plenty more pouches to come!

A mandala pouch for my poppers

Since I shared the stack of vinyl pouches with you, pouches seem to have overtaken my life, which is a little dramatic I know. But I seriously have a bad case of Pouch Love!

This isn’t new to me, I’ve known I’ve had it for a long time - but what is new is that now I’m creating my own, and my answer really is ‘oh I need a pouch for that’ whatever the question. I’ve a few ready to share with you so will start to do that over the next few weeks, and don’t say I didn’t warn you.

This one though is both practical - it’s already in use - and had made use of two of the Adult Learning courses I did last year. This combines a print from the Indian Block Printing & Stitch course, along with the skills I picked up in the Bag Making course - most notably zips.

Though for all of the pouches I’ve made so far, I’ve still not switched to a zipper foot, so I think I probably should add that to my ‘to conquer’ list for this year, but back to this pouch.

It started off as a neon pink printed mandala on the cut up frill of an old valance sheet. Seriously.

Quite humble beginnings. At this point not even the edges had been finished on my overlocker - I guess I was keen to carry on printing during the class, and had underestimated just how many squares I’d need so printed and cut as I went!

As for many of the prints that I did in the class I had no real plans for what I’d do with the outputs, I was just enjoying the creative process and exploring the patterns and colours available. After the class finished I made more of a plan as to how I would embellish the prints, or at least chose a colour scheme.

The colour scheme chose me

This was was always going to have an element of teal, and I don’t know why. It’s not a colour I usually go for, though I have since bought clothes that are a similar colour, and I think it goes well with the pink. I was also keen for some of the printing to remain on show, and not to cover it all with embroidery, other than that I had no real plans when I started out.

After embellishing some of the printed area I knew I wanted more teal, and so it seemed natural to enclose it with a circle. And I thought I might turn it into an eye, but as I continued to embroider I decided against that. I didn’t do the outer circles - or at least two of them - freehand, I used a glass vase and then a plate to draw around to stop it all going skewif.

Nor did I use an embroidery hoop, and on reflection I probably should have for this one, as I ended up with more material than necessary in the centre. Thankfully though I came up with a plan for dealing with that - to use wadding to fill the hole, and so creating an almost raised central area. This in turn reminded me of the poppers I’d used on the first pouches I’d made, which the all important tools for were functionally, but not prettily stored in the metallic plastic bag it arrived in.

Now I really had a plan

With that I realised the answer was ‘I needed a pouch for that’ and what better than one with a big circle on the front. It was meant to be! But did I have any material that would match my teal scheme, probably - and as it turns out I did.

I’d bought the Liberty silk remnant during lockdown, along with some other prints which I’d used for some fancy masks, but I hadn’t used this one at all. Now was its time - I even found a complementary zip from the large stash I bought from eBay. The lining is the pale pink t-shirt remnant which I’d saved from a recently retired camisole top. Perfect.

I used the same approach as for the vinyl fronted pouches, but obviously without the vinyl part - and a whole lot bigger. Having made that stack of pouches really helped me out, as knowing how they were assembled meant I could made the adaptations I needed.

And it turned our really well.

Not only does it hold the tools for attaching the poppers - and the spare bits that came with it, it also holds the plastic container full of poppers.

So now when I want to add a popper I just need to go to my mandala pouch for my poppers - which may not always be easy to say, but it sure is easy to find!