I like Valentine's Day, its just one more opportunity to celebrate togetherness, love, friendship, nurturing, whatever.....but I eschew the shops. There is so much STUFF there, which will just end up unused. Also I seem to spend so much time looking for the just the right thing and feel cheated when I need to compromise.
Several of David's discarded ties, washed and ready to use in some project, and my lovely samples of woven wool from Cotswold Woollen Weavers. I had already made a couple of small cushions from these for the car, so I choose some of the same wool, a dark navy with a small pale blue fleck, and a beautiful pale blue patterned tie.
I'm only just starting to develop quilting know how, and have also become interested in Japanese Sashiko quilting. The pattern on the tie inspired the quilting design.
The silk lining of the tie was used as the bottom of three layers for the quilting, with bamboo and cotton batting as the middle layer.
Except for the machining the seams down the two sides of the quilted outer shell , all the rest is hand-stitched. I used the silk from the tie to sew up an inner pouch which slots into the quilted pouch.
Its taken me a few hours to make this glasses case up, and I have learnt a few techniques along the way. In addition, I think this is a really lovely way of using up a tie which is no longer worn. I shall be thinking of other things to turn the old ties into, and looking out for ideas and inspiration.
A few weeks ago, driving somewhere towards the south, with the low winter sun in David's eyes, I struggled to prize his sunglasses from the small nifty slot on the dashboard to no avail. Back home it took some thought and ingenuity to remove the hard case. For once David gave me a big hint that a nice soft glasses case would be just the job. I've been cogitating about this for some time, and when I decided to turn over the contents of my large cupboard, I found just the thing to use.
Several of David's discarded ties, washed and ready to use in some project, and my lovely samples of woven wool from Cotswold Woollen Weavers. I had already made a couple of small cushions from these for the car, so I choose some of the same wool, a dark navy with a small pale blue fleck, and a beautiful pale blue patterned tie.
I'm only just starting to develop quilting know how, and have also become interested in Japanese Sashiko quilting. The pattern on the tie inspired the quilting design.
The silk lining of the tie was used as the bottom of three layers for the quilting, with bamboo and cotton batting as the middle layer.Except for the machining the seams down the two sides of the quilted outer shell , all the rest is hand-stitched. I used the silk from the tie to sew up an inner pouch which slots into the quilted pouch.
Its taken me a few hours to make this glasses case up, and I have learnt a few techniques along the way. In addition, I think this is a really lovely way of using up a tie which is no longer worn. I shall be thinking of other things to turn the old ties into, and looking out for ideas and inspiration.
I had never unpicked a tie before, and was amazed at the various layers and the skills used to make it. I was careful to keep the very long and strong length of silk thread used to hand stitch along the length of the tie, and used this to stitch the binding around the opening.
I now feel that I have a lovely gift to give my Valentine, one made with a lot of thought.
Noelle, I am both impressed and inspired! Just off to search the discarded tie box.
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