I’ve always wished I could peek right into the 1920s, an era whose style can be very captivating. Flappers and Prohibition and the music and dancing… Family photos and stories passed down from that time are filled with interesting nuggets too. The Roaring 20s saw very important progress for women. I suppose if I was handed a time machine and offered a visit back, I’d probably start there.

Hats were all the rage then, especially ones adorned with feathers and jewelry. So we decided, my Little One and I, to see if we could make a rather quick hat, topped with a few feathers and a lot of simple glamour. And so we did.

We used:

- some pretty blue cotton fabric

- a paper pattern

- thread, scissors

- some wool for light stuffing

- peacock feathers

- pipe cleaners (our favorites are the lead-free, stainless steel ones)

- a flexible, plastic, fabric-covered headband

First we made a paper pattern in an oblong, rounded shape, and used it to trace around on the wrong side of the fabric (fabric which had been folded over with both “good” sides facing each other so that when we cut we would be cutting out both pieces together).

It’s best to leave yourself plenty of seam allowance when you cut, and also not to cut all the way around, which will ensure that both pieces stay lined up together.

Then we sewed nearly all the way around the piece on the machine. We left one end open – as we would need that for turning it inside out, putting in the pipe cleaners and fashioning the hat.

Next we turned the blue sewn piece inside out, and got our pipe cleaners ready.

Then we twisted pipe cleaners together to create a  pipe cleaner shape that matched the oustide edge of the sewn blue hat piece. You may need to cut a pipe cleaner in half to get the right size.

Then we slid the pipe cleaners inside the hat piece, through the open end. We made a sort of sandwich, with the pipe cleaner oval tucked right at the edge of the blue hat piece, inside.

Next we secured the pipe cleaners where we wanted them – right at the edge. Using a long needle and some matching thread, we sewed carefully around the inside so that the pipe cleaners would stay put. The pipe cleaner edge allows you to shape the hat piece.

Next we finished the open edge by shaping the pipe cleaners and then tucking in the raw edges of the fabric to make a clean seam we sewed by hand. But before we did, we added some carded wool to add depth and shape to the hat.

Once we shaped the hat piece the way we wanted it, we placed it off center on a plastic, fabric-covered head band, and sewed it on from underneath.

Next we took out our peacock feathers, and chose a few to sit on the hat.

We sewed those carefully onto the hat, focussing on the hard quill sections.

And there you have it, a fabulous, feathered, vintage-inspired hat. A wonderful dress-up prop for pretend play. And for a child like mine who has a keen interest in history and historical fashion? A very quick craft they can help in! Happy hat-ting.

The rythmic, slow and steady pattern of sewing suits her well these days. That, and she can do it entirely on her own.  And she can use a sharp needle confidently. I guess rhythm + independence + sharp needle = quiet happiness these days   She’s made her own pair of late winter felted wool gloves in the last while (late winter because the temperatures in Ottawa in late winter are, sadly, what most others experience in the coldest part of winter!) We have been mapping ideas for a proper sampler, after having been (both of us) suitably impressed with the kind of sewing 6 year old girls in pioneer times were doing, something we learned about at Upper Canada Village.

She made this heart card with a folded piece of red construction paper. Then she drew out a heart, filling almost the whole front of the card.

Then she threaded some red yarn through a rather large eyed needle (which could accommodate the yarn) and began to sew lines filling in the heart, across the shape, horizontally.

It’s a great idea for a kids’ Valentine card, and especially sweet for beginner sewers.

Today’s tutorial is a guest post from my wonderful friend Colleen of  Frugal + Urban

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Everyone needs snuggly real wool mittens this winter. Everyone! But real wool mitts can be hard to find at stores. So why not make them yourself? With this super easy pattern and tutorial you’ll have cozy wool mittens in no time, ready for raking leaves and throwing snowballs–oh, and did I mention that felted wool is waterproof? And it stays warm when it is wet? Can your Thinsulate mitts do that? I don’t think so!

Sourcing your fabric

Okay, the first thing you will need is a lovely soft wool sweater, ideally one that is not wearable any more as a sweater due to stains, shrinkage or holes. I got mine at a thrift store in my home town, and have also had luck at St. Vincent de Paul where huge men’s wool sweaters were only $5.99.

Next, felt the sweater, which basically means throwing it in the washing machine on hot, with a little soap, and maybe a tennis ball or an old pair of jeans for extra agitation, and then checking it periodically to see when it’s been felted “enough”. That would mean when you can’t see the stitch definition any more, and the sweater has shrunk significantly. You can find more detailed instructions elsewhere, because I’m moving on to . . .

Making your mitten pattern

Simply lay your hand on a piece of paper, with the bottom edge of the paper being where the cuff will lie, and trace around your hand and wrist, leaving at least a half-inch around which will include space for your seam allowance and for a bit of room in your mitt.

Then round out any edges that might need tweaking, and cut out your pattern. Easy? So easy.

Cutting your pieces

First, check to make sure that you can get four pieces of your pattern to fit on your sweater. If your sweater has ribbing at the bottom edge, this makes a lovely cuff for your mittens. Don’t forget, you will need to have two pieces of fabric with your thumb facing right, and two with the thumb facing left.

Now that you’ve made sure you have enough fabric, start cutting! The beauty of felted wool is that it will not fray, so you can just cut away and never have to worry about finishing the edges.

Like I said above, cut two pieces with the thumb facing left and two with the thumb facing right. You achieve this by flipping your pattern over, keeping the cuff aligned with the bottom of the sweater’s ribbing.

Once you have your four pieces, pin them together, right sides facing, to make your two mitts.

Adding embellishments

When I was making mine, I noticed that the sweater I was using had these lovely mother-of-pearl buttons, and decided to sew them onto the backs of my mittens as an embellishment. I had already sewn my first mitt, and adding buttons to a mitt that’s already sewn up is not easy my friends. On the second mitt I added the buttons BEFORE sewing up the seams. Much easier.

In short, add your embellishments now, before sewing. You could use buttons, or needle felt a cute little forest creature, or embroider a flower . . . endless possibilities.

Sewing Up

Once your embellishments are added, or you’re happy with your simple beautiful wool, you can stitch up your mitts. I tried two different stitches on my mitts and I preferred the overcast stitch, where you are inserting the needle on the same side of the fabric each time, and bringing the thread around the edge of your seam allowance. I used a doubled length of heavy-duty thread for durability.

The nice thing about this stitch is that it allows the seam edges to turn a bit and melt into each other. This makes a smoother inside for your mitts, and it also means your stitches will become visible as you wear your mitts. So use a colour of thread that matches your fabric, or one that contrasts with it if you want to be daring.

Make sure your pieces are pinned with right sides facing (i.e. you are looking at what will be the insides of the mitt when you are sewing). Then stitch around using an overcast stitch, making sure to hide your knots an inch or so from your cuff edge so they won’t show.

Enjoy your mitts!

Once you are done sewing, turn the mitts right-side-in, using a wooden spoon or a chopstick if you need help getting the thumb turned.

And now, put them on, feel their snuggliness, and enjoy! I bet you want to wear them all the time now. Go ahead, put them on. Just be careful, or the kids will want some too!

This tutorial was written by Colleen from Frugal + Urban (http://frugalurban.wordpress.com) where she blogs about baking sourdough bread, homemaking, homeschooling, crafting, and finding sustainable ways to save money, without sacrificing quality.

“Each spice has a special day to it. For turmeric it is Sunday, when light drips fat and butter-colored into the bins to be soaked up glowing, when you pray to the nine planets for love and luck.” from Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, The Mistress of Spices

(photo, above, via Flickr)

These days, we are finding ourselves eating lots of turmeric as I prepare more Indian-inspired meals than ever before. In the hot summer, we are tending to fight the heat with spice and it feels cooling and refreshing, even for the little guy who seems to really enjoy his Indian curried lamb too.

Glowing yellow seemed just right for playsilks and shibori cotton dyeing too.

Here’s how we did it. The following is our how-to for dyeing cotton – the colors and method would probably be different for other fabrics, and particularly animal fibres.

We used a piece of cotton voile (a 20″ square to allow for a 16″ or 18″ pillow sham) that we had previously soaked in our alum-water mordant (see here for more info about that). We layed this cotton flat on our counter.

Then we folded it into thirds.

Then we started to fold it into triangles, one on top of the other.

Until we ended up with one (well-folded) triangle.

Next we used 4 elastics and 4 popsicle sticks to tie the triangle together.

You can position the popsicle sticks in many different ways, for different (geometric) effects. Once you have them placed where you want them, attach each end securely with an elastic band.

Meanwhile we prepared our turmeric dye bath – using one of our special “dye-only” pots with water and turmeric spice, at least a few teaspoons.

Then we slipped our tied-up triangle right into the dye bath, and turned the stove onto medium heat, at first, and then low heat for about an hour.

After a thorough cold water rinse in the sink, the triangle was ready to unfold.

We look forward to trying more shibori natural dyeing, especially with walnuts from our neighbor’s tree this fall, and madder root. It was a richly rewarding experience, and I can only imagine how wonderfully exciting to unfold the dyed triangle in the eyes of a five year-old.

I will be back here soon to share an iron mordant DIY and this year’s crop of hand-dyed cotton color swatches (then I’ll get to last year’s – I guess I’m trying to catch up and going backwards). Have a great Monday!

We’ve been dyeing up a storm, and now into our 2nd summer I feel comfortable sharing a little (sweet) tidbit with you, something we discovered through trial and error, and trying all sorts of plants and flowers we didn’t find information about in our books. Finding an easy, pretty pink was not the easiest thing – lots of yellows and greens and grays abound in nature, but pink (especially without mordant) was more elusive.

I have lots of photos and colors to show you in the coming days, and the pillow sham covers my little one and I made with long, thin, hand-dyed strips of cotton in so many delicate colors. And photos of our tentative forays into shibori folding, and dyeing.

By chance, last year, we discovered bee balm. One of our favorite perennial (and self-seeding) plants in the garden because it smells delightful and attracts its namesake very well. The pinkish red petals produce a beautiful pink color and here is how to prepare your dye bath.

After gathering up the petals (leaving the flower centers and seeds to dry up and sow for next year) put them in your dye pot with some water, and vinegar. We found that the acid vinegar brightens the dye bath and intensifies the pink color. Dyeing with little ones is a fantastic hands-on chemistry lesson – about what acids and bases do to dye baths. And a history lesson, about how ancient peoples (right up through pioneer days) used plants and materials from nature to color their worlds, especially their textiles. And a crafting lesson, about how to slowly produce a pillow sham cover, Waldorf playsilk or doll quilt from scratch – including the dyes.

I usually bring the pot to boil and then turn it down to a simmer. Once the petals have given all of their color (could be about an hour, but it depends on how you are cooking them down), you can strain your dye bath to remove the petals and leafy bits.

A large tea strainer works well, I’ve found.

The pink liquid is now ready to be used immediately, or stored for use later on. Below I’ve explained a little bit more about how to use the dye bath to make an eco friendly, non-toxic, naturally dyed pink playsilk, or dye cotton strips for sewing together into doll quilts, pillow sham covers or anything like that.

I generally use 30″ square playsilks, and find the beebalm produces a lovely, intense rose color on the playsilks. It’s even more saturated on the playsilks than on the cotton (see below).

To prepare our playsilks, I soak them in a bowl with hot water and vinegar (2:1 water to vinegar).

After a half an hour or so, and once my dye bath is hot in the pot once again, I unfold the pre-soaked playsilk and place it into the dye pot, where I let it sit for at least an hour, slowly soaking in the beebalm pink.

Then it’s time to rinse in cool water, and dry. A larger amount of beebalm, producing a more intense dye bath, will easily dye a few playsilks.

We also dyed some 2″ wide cotton strips, perfect for piecing together with other similarly dyed strips later on. I’ve found these work well when pre-mordanted with alum.

We found our alum at the local bulk store where it was found in the pickling section. I soaked our cotton strips in a hot water + few tbsp of alum for a few hours. You can even leave it in the pre-mordant for a day or more, until you are ready to dye with them. Then I followed exactly the same method as above, dyeing them, rinsing them and air drying them.

What sorts of plants and natural dyes have you experimented with?

She made this for her little brother. For her first multi-step sewing project she chose a piece of vintage turquoise cotton (since pink is, well, so very yesterday around here now).

She drew a simple pattern shape, cut it out and then we traced it onto the blue cotton. Then we turned over the pattern piece and traced it again.

Next she sewed the face on the front of one of the pieces – I great opportunity to teach her how to french knot.

Then we put the “good” sides face to face and pinned the doll pieces together.

Then, using an embroidery needle and embroidered thread that was doubled and knotted at the end, she sewed stitches around the pencil line. This process easily took a few different days, as she worked on one part at a time.

Next she cut around the excess fabric and made little cuts/slits around the curvy sections to help the shape of the doll be clear once she turned it inside out.

Once it was stuffed with wool, we began to sew it shut (with a regular needle and thread), closing the section that was left open with the intial sewing to allow it to be turned inside out.

And then this doll, her first doll from start to finish, was huggable, and ready for the felt flower decorations she chose (in neon, of course). For these, I helped cut out some flower shapes (she did the flower centers and felt is not too easy for little fingers to maneuvre around) and she sewed them to the doll in the centre of the flowers.

It’s been a flurry of history fair costumes (and that wonderful historical hat tutorial I promised… will definitely post next week) and family visits and 1st birthday preparations. Perhaps the sweetest prep has been in the hands of the man-cub’s big sister, who was the first to touch him as he was born, and has been in constant companion this year.

(wooden robin toy from ImaginationKids and our new family favorite – the Bear stories – from Barefoot Books)

She decided to make him a “10-reasons why I love you” card book, similar to the one she made for her dad and I blogged about here.

And to know the two of them – the two children I have been honored with being a mother to – have one another and love one another…. well, that’s the best thing in the world, isn’t it?