Category Archives: Fabric

Slow Stitching and The 100 Day Project

I have been slow stitching my way into 2020 nursing a January cold and general ennui! But the snowdrops are beginning to appear, February is here, and the evenings are noticeably lighter. It’s time to shake off the slough of despond created by politicians, trolls and the media and focus on our own mental health, the wellbeing of our nearest and dearest and those in the wider world in need of support.

I have struggled to get myself into gear after Christmas, but thought one way was to join in with the 100 Day Project. Giving myself a daily challenge to do something, however small, to engage myself with creativity. And so enters the favourite shirt!

2011 – now the two little lads at the front are taller than me!

I have had this shirt a long long time!

It’s spent some time languishing in a cupboard because I ‘grew’ out of it, but Slimming World has helped out with that aspect and I’ve been wearing again over the last few months. It’s soft worn linen and cotton, it’s blue and white stripes. I love blue and white stripes! You’ll find any number of permutations in my wardrobe, including all my pyjamas.

But there were a few places where the enthusiastic serving of bolognese sauce has left small stains, where catching the door handle on passing has created a little tear, a lost button, a worn out elbow. In this day of recycling the obvious answer was a patch or two, a darn.

And so my slow stitch 100 Day Project was born. I signed up and pledged to do my thing: every day for 100 days I will stitch my shirt. I will embroider a bit, applique a bit, find loved scraps to stitch into place, and see just how far I can take my soft striped shirt into another existence. It will be an incentive to carry on losing weight as all those stitches are going to slightly shrink it in the process, but that can only be a good thing.

A while ago I spent a day with the lovely Hiroko Aeno-Billson learning about the Japanese art of Boro mending, visible mending of treasured clothes and textiles. This, and a borrowed book Slow Stitch by Claire Wellesley-Smith are keeping me inspired. The project started on 22nd January so I’m a bit late sharing this but I have to keep going until 30th April…phew!

I shall be sharing this journey on Instagram as much as possible as well as on the blog so if you interested come and find me there. I’d love to know if you are joining in with your own project, or if you are slowly stitching and mending too.

Have a lovely week, I’ll be back soon…x

Finding the pattern…

Planet Penny has been about pattern making for a while, what with mice, and bunting and other colourful things. However I have long hankered after learning a different sort of pattern making, surface pattern design.

I’ve always been fascinated by fabrics and wallpapers. I used to lie in bed as a very small child finding faces in the flowers in the curtains, and trying to spot identical areas and wondering how on earth it could go on and on repeating.

So that’s why, some time ago I signed up to Pattern Camp, run by Jessica Swift, the painter, surface pattern designer and author. This has meant a lot of time sitting in front of the computer, waaay out of my comfort zone, learning how to use Adobe Illustrator. And although I’ve been using Photoshop for years, I’ve had to discover an awful lot of stuff I didn’t know!

Because I haven’t had my brain in gear for a lot of this year I ground to a halt a couple of months ago and with the course over I hit a brick wall of frustration. But a couple of weeks ago the lovely Jessica announced two free weeks of access for previous campers, exactly what I needed to get me going again.

This time, it all started to click into place, and I’ve had so much fun, especially now I can not only tile a pattern, but make half drop repeats too! (I’m even learning the lingo!)

So, here are my very first attempts… Pink and Gold pattern by Penny GJ Painted flowers pattern by Penny GJ Autumn Colours Bold Flower Pattern - Penny GJ Purple flowers pattern - PennyGJ I only ever wanted to try this out of curiosity, but I love it!

These designs are all about the process, a learning curve, but I really want to push it further. I keep thinking about what I could sew…and wrapping paper! It’s very exciting.

And, in case you are wondering, I haven’t given up on knitting or crochet. There are a couple of posts in the pipeline guaranteed to hit the spot, a different sort of pattern altogether!

See you soon…x

Writing and Testing a Crochet Pattern

One of the aspects of writing a crochet pattern is the constant niggle in the background of accuracy.

I don’t know about you, but I rely heavily on my spell checker when I’m using a keyboard, my spelling is much worse when I’m typing (and it can be a bit erratic when I’m using a pen, I must confess!) However, that’s no help at all for typing crochet abbreviations so it’s quite a slow process. And that’s after dreaming up the idea to begin with and then making it a second time so the pattern can be recorded.

By the time you get to the point where you make the item again from what you have written down it’s hard to judge whether you have explained yourself properly. By then you know the pattern inside out!

My latest make is a granny square cushion cover using the Planet Penny Cotton Colours with Snowdrop yarn which I backed with one of the PP fat quarters – jolly red and white spottiness.

I’m very happy with it, but now there is the question of the crochet pattern, and the making up instructions, and making sure it all makes sense.

What I need are some testers, and I’m trying to work out the best way to make it work.

So…

…if you are a Planet Penny customer with a Rainbow pack of yarn who would like to make a cushion, I’ll provide the pattern, the fat quarter and a ball of Snowdrop yarn in return for trying out the pattern, giving constructive criticism, and sending photos of the finished article. How does that sound?

If you could help test the Granny Square Cushion crochet pattern I’d love to hear from you. You would need to have some crochet experience, be used to working from a pattern, have basic sewing machine skills, and be able to produce a clear photo of the finished article.

You can leave a comment, or get in touch via the contacts form with some details which will help me choose. I need 2 or 3 people to get a good cross section.

I’m really looking forward to hearing from you and hearing about your crochet pattern skills!