New shawl pins….
Yo-Yo Flower Pins
I cut the fabric for these and made one up. I’m not crazy about these. But since I cut the fabric and got everything prepared, I went ahead and finished them up. Maybe someone will like them.
They are made out of hand dyed rayon velvet and cotton batik fabric. I backed them with wool felt flowers.
Two More Pins
These are kind of on the pink/red/purple side. It seems when I dye something red/pink, I can’t get different shades or add different colors. Not sure why that is.
I think I’m getting better at using my mom’s sewing machine. Still need practice but I’m having fun using all the different stitches.
Three More Leaf Pins
Due to the hot weather and not being able to make beads in the garage, I spent the weekend making leaf pins. Here’s three that I finished:
I did do another one but messed it up right at the end. I hate when that happens. I’m still learning how to work the sewing machine so it takes me a while to do all the sewing. I am picking up some speed but I’m still really slow. I suppose failures will happen when I’m learning. Don’t have to like it though.
Blue Flower Pin
Here’s another flower pin I just finished. It’s got vintage velvet ribbon on the bottom and Japanese silk fabric on the top.
Kind of plain but looks great on prints. There is also a little loop so the flower can be strung on cording or whatever.
Two More Felt And Velvet Pins
I’m getting all excited about trying out new things with my mom’s sewing machine. While these things aren’t complex, I’m finding it fascinating that I can even sew.
I found my mom’s stash of variegated thread!! And all the solid shiny ones too!! Just that little bit of shine makes the colors pop. I’m getting better using the zigzag feature, though I still can’t make a round dot. One thing that makes sewing on the felt difficult is I can’t find anything that is erasable that marks felt. I had to do the spirals on the left piece by sight. Makes it way more stressful. I suppose I could baste the lines on but that would be too time consuming. Hope something pops into my head.
Felt And Velvet Pins
I was able to get started on making more pins. I’m still trying to learn how to operate my mom’s sewing machine. I swear it’s harder to learn than a new computer. These are hand dyed felt and hand dyed velvet with machine stitching and some hand embroidery.
I’m still using up the felt I previously dyed. I have two more to stitch up, then I’ll get to dye more felt in different colors. Yeah!!
Pink Felt And Velvet Brooch
Pin or brooch? Not sure which. I do know it’s made out of hand dyed wool felt and hand dyed rayon velvet. I made it to match a top that I bought that was too small so I cut it up and added wedges of sweater fabric into it. The top is black velour and I added striped wedges of pinks, black and gray strips of sweater fabric. I think the pin goes well with the top.
Colored Pencil On Metal Collaboration
My sister is here for the holidays and she wanted to make a colored pencil on copper pendant. She colored the copper piece and we collaborated on the design. She wanted it to be a brooch so I worked on those components while my sister struggled to saw the sterling silver piece out. I took over the sawing process and sent her off to find some #65 size drill bits. She came back from the store with a $3.99 pack of different sized drill bits. Must have had 40 bits in that package, all combined together. After sorting them out and finding the one I needed I attempted to drill with it. I couldn’t get a hole drilled all the way through which should have been easy for a brand new drill bit. I had to use one that was a bit bigger. It’s best to use the right size holes when riveting so it was a little more difficult. Here’s the finished results.
I would have liked more surface texture to the piece as I like the contrast but this is what my sister wanted. I think she did a great job on the colored piece. 
This is the back. I know I didn’t do a very good finishing job but I did get the pin back worked out. I don’t do that many pin backs and have never done one like this before.
Fiber and Textile Ideas
I’m trying to come up with some new ideas for wearable art. I tried the nuno felting and that wasn’t really my cup of tea. I love the look so I decided to explore making smaller things with felt. I first purchase some wool felt and dyed it using regular food coloring and vinegar. It’s just like using acid dyes but without the chemicals and the food coloring is permanent after steaming the felt. Here’s a the piece I did first to try out the technique:
I really didn’t want the whole thing green but I made a mistake by mixing the food coloring up too much. It still turned out a nice vibrant green.
I made this pin out of the felt. I added more color with fabric felt pens and a piece of ribbon was cut to add an accent to the piece. I haven’t sewed in forever and my mom’s sewing machine is one of those electronic ones. I had no idea what I was doing even though my mom saying it’s so easy.
This is the back. I used a piece of fabric on the back as I had threads all over the place, it was really ugly. Then I sewed the pin back on.
My experiments with dyeing felt is in the works. I did these two pieces last night:
I really like the way the piece on the left turned out. The pink one on the right turned out too much the same pink. I later found out that red/pinks need less vinegar. And when I took it out, I wasn’t careful about the way I squeezed the water out so the dye got all over the piece. Still, it’s a nice pink with purple accents and I can still use it for something.
Mewkittie Creations 