My Blog

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.