Lucky me

Take a look - am I just lucky or what? A fabulous woman from our village, heard that I was looking for some old embroideries.... and she never forgot. So today I received those on the above photo.... and before that, I have received those below, from time to tome :)

I feel lucky to know her... because I am NOT good at finding these treasures myself.

So now I only have to decide on a project or two :) For a long time I have wanted a laptop bag with embroidery on the front. And I also have an old legrest/stool, that I have been thinking about recovering ... including a part of an embroidery. And finally an old square stool (puf) made out of leather I would do the same way, BUT now Nanna have claimed it to be hers... So I guess I will have to find another project !

But first my stool / legrest. And since it has to fit with the colors of my livingroom, lime green, sea blue, a dash of red and orange etc.... I really can't decide on one embroidery to use :) The one with the woman in the kitchen is way to dark a shade of green....

The two kids, waking hand in hand is pretty nice too... but that one I think will end up on a bag.... but the ships could be good for a bag too :) Hmmm what to do?

First of all, I have to take them out of the frames and give them a gentle wash... as shey really smells of gross cigars and old cellars!! But that could be tomorrows project! Together with putting up a shelf or two... and some lamps.

 NOW the vacation is over !!! ;)

What do you think ?

Now the back of the coat looks like this :) I am, right now, sewing on the lines that the feathers are attached to... I don't know what those things are called. It is very nice to sew... I am learning about sewing by hand and what the stitches are called.

But I am wondering... should I sew on some beads in a random pattern, by the birds tail, like on the photo? I know that peacocks are a little speckled there... so maybe? .....
What do you think about it? And do you have other ideas, like beads or similar?

The coat continued....

Finally I got to sew all parts on the black fabric :) And thanks to Dorthe from "Modestoffer", I finally got some orange and white fabric for the head of the bird!
Next step is to se a lot of details by hand. Both for the feathers and some xtra bling.

And after that, some pearls in the top of the birds head. And then I am closing in on sewing it all on the coat. But about that, I am in doubt. Should I iron it on with Vliesofix? Or just sew it on and then attach it to the coeat by sewing small flowers here and there. :)

Well, theres a lot of questions, when you start a project you really don't know much about doing.....

Coat and frustration

Now all the feathers is ironed on the fabric. Except for the 3 top feathers.. they'll have to wait untill the birds body is sewn on the fabric. :)
But the frustration is big... I still need a little tiny bit of orange and white fabric. So I walk around impatiently, waiting for the stores to open again monday! But how typical is that, now that you want to get done, right? :)
I have decided that the peacock will be continuing outside the shiny fabric onto the coat it self. So that a few feathers continues all the way to the front.
And I also want the motive to continue in one piece down the middle, and not let it get parted in two by the "belt" on the coat.

So now I also need a few fabric buttons to be made, and then a lot of detailing sewn by hand. Some of it before the fabric goes on the coat, and some after that. So there's still a long way for this project to finish. So I really hope for a good result :)

The coat continued...

I have been working like crazy here :) I have now finished alle the feathers. I still need a tiny bit of white and orange fabric, for the project to finish.
But on the photo above, I have placed all the parts temporarily on the part of fabric that will be on the back of the coat. How does it look? Is it how it should be?
To show how much space I have for the bird, I have postet a photo below. The part inside the pencils is the space I have. That is the part on the middle of the back.

This show that there isn't that much space to work with. You can also see it on this drawing!
But all in all the project is in progress and is turning out better than I thought in the first place. But now I have a few questions. Should I iron on all the parts now and then sew them on? Or should I iron and sew them one at a time? Well maybe the body first and then all the feathers?

And then I am looking for some shiny yarn in bright green and blue. I bought some the other day, but it is waaay to thin. I have to use at least 5 threads together, to make it show. Any ideas? Maybe crochet yarn?

If you click the photo above, to see it in it's full size, you can see that I have placed a small bead on each feather. I am thinking about sewing one on each feather...  But that is just one of several things I am still thinking about.. There will be a lot of finishing touches to do after this.

Exciting exciting... I have a hard time leaving it on the sewing table.. :)

I started on the coat

So now the coat is in the process :) And I even let you guys see the first feather... it became a little ugly, but okay for a first try. Practise makes better, I have heard. So I continue to pracise!

I started by making some squares of fabric with vliesofix on it. After that I drew the feathers on it. The pattern I made by laminating a drawing, and then cut it out. That way they will last longer. It was a great idea that my dear librarian Lisbeth told me. And she is awesome at doing this.

Right now I have cut out 16 feathers, ready to be sewn together. That is about half of the feathers on the finished bird. The next batch will be a little smaller. And it kind of scares me a bit... since this size is already tough enough to make. Especially the black part in the middle.
So if any of you readers is sitting out there with great tricks and ideas on how to make this easier, please let me know :)

In this post I have used mobile photos only. Not very great photos, but much more handy now that I am sitting and working by the sewing maschine :)

Fabric hunting is over

I have been out shopping today :) Now I have found some fabric for my peacock. Yet I still need some black fabric, they were out of that. And then I need a little bit of orange/yellow and some white.

I also got 6 rolls of thread. Both some to sew with and some for decoration. And then I needed 5-6 small beads for the peacocks top, but aparently they sell only bags with loooot's of beads.

But now I am getting ready! So now I will test sew a few feathers, to find out how to do this. :)

Project Coat

will it work?

I have been playing with "project-coat"! I have been dreaming about owning an original Desigual coat, but since I can't afford it, I started to play with other ideas like a "Poulsen-coat"!

Peacocks are so beautiful and I really love them and their colors. Sooo right now I play with the thought of putting one on the back of my coat.

From the beginning I wanted to make an embroidy. But I have found out that it's pretty expensive, as I need a company to do it, because of the size.
So instead I am thinking about applicating it on the coat. And the fabric will be different kinds of shiny fabrics, in the colors blue and green.
The part down the middle of the coat, where the bird will be, will be coated with black satin-like fabric, with subtle print of flowers in it... black in black. So that both the coat and the background behind the bird, will be black.

On the straps on the back, with the buttons and the pockets in front, I will sew satin in the same colors as the peacock. And on single button in front, will be coated with fabric too.

I wonder if this will work?! I tend to aim too high sometimes. I have NEVER tried to applicate anything before! ;)

For those who cannot picture it :) my sketch: