June so far


I have a new camera! A present from my family for my 41st birthday this past weekend (the cupcakes were a treat my husband bought at our local farmers' market). I couldn't believe how lost I felt without a camera - I dropped my good old Panasonic Lumix on its lens while I was photographing my last bra, and the lens was damaged. My new camera - a Canon Powershot - promises to take good close-up pics and to cope well with low light conditions. Thank goodness for camera reviews on the web!


Here is a Kniphofia (red-hot poker) taken on the morning of my birthday - these flowers are a pleasure to see from my kitchen window on a cold winter's day. (They also make great paper!)

I have been quite busy with sewing projects the last few weeks - I made another pair of pants for my daughter and finished my first Jalie Jeans prototype. I'll write about these as soon as I've taken photographs. I have also been playing around with hemstitching by machine.



I have been wanting to do this for a while, ever since I bought beautiful ramie/linen fabric to make special Christmas napkins last year. I could remember my mother's Bernina samples with hemstitching done with one of those needles with "wings", but couldn't find appropriate information about how to do this. The other day I followed a link from Threads magazine and discovered that Fine Machine Sewing by Carol Ahles has comprehensive instructions for hemstitching by machine. There is a searchable version here on Google Books. It looks as if we'll have those napkins next Christmas...


Another ongoing project is making two chiffon scarves. I bought half a metre of beautiful purple floral chiffon I couldn't resist a few weeks ago. I discovered another piece in my stash - I think it's been there for two years.


I thought hemming the scarves would be a quick overlocker project, but I was very disappointed with the finish of the rolled hem on an offcut. Next was a narrow hem stitched with my sewing machine, but it looked so... flat. So I looked up "rolled hem making" on Google and found this extensive tutorial at Colette Patterns. I tried it out on my ever diminishing scrap piece, and I liked how it looked. Some nice handstitching to do at times when I can't be at my sewing machine in the next few weeks. I love long flowing scarves in winter.

2 comments:

  1. K.Line said

    Happy belated birthday!


    Liana said

    belated happy birthday Tina, as mentioned last year u and I share a birthdate, I was 61 on sunday. unfortunetaly mine was not so happy. I was on my very ownsome as my hubby was in hospital and the children (from PMB) could not make it to visit. How ever my son closeby did invite me for supper with his family, which was much appreciated. It did lift the worry about hubby some. Liana


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