Yumiko Higuchi embroidery books

/
Yumiko Higuchi embroidery books

I am a complete nut for japanese sewing books…I have quite a collection, can’t understand a word of them, but drool endlessly over the clean, spacious, photographs that make my heart beat faster. I suppose it’s the fascination of a different approach to things that you find in cultures other than your own, that is really the attraction, but I think it goes further than that with me. Years ago when we were on an overseas posting in Moscow, I was lucky enough to host a weekly class on Russian embroidery, taught by a real master of the art, Lydia Ivanova. This class was run by the International Women’s Club and was open to all nationalities and indeed all nationalities came. I loved the international flavour of this group, but it was always the Japanese ladies who fascinated me the most. Neat and petite, their immaculate appearance was mirrored in their approach to needlework. They always had beautifully tidy organiser boxes of threads, colour coded and labelled. Their work was perfect and delicate and almost ethereal. They were quiet and calm and measured and very studious in their approach to this new form of embroidery.

Read More

A return to Needlepoint (with a little help from Anna Maria Horner)

/
A return to Needlepoint (with a little help from Anna Maria Horner)

It is so good to revisit something in needlework that you had all but forgotten and to find that there is a whole new and modern world going on with it. Needlepoint might be a centuries old pastime but it is really a glorious thing.

Read More

Do you have heroines? Lee Miller might be one of mine.

/
Do you have heroines? Lee Miller might be one of mine.

It’s VE day today - 75 years since the end of the War and in our everyday lives, especially in the midst of a pandemic, perhaps it is a moment to reflect on what happened all those years ago and I thought I would take a moment to send a few thoughts out to cyberspace about one of those all but forgotten people who did something rather brave during WW2 and who seemed to fall into my meandering bookish sphere almost by accident a few weeks ago - Lee Miller. But first, a question. Do you have heroines? I certainly do….

Read More

Swimming Days embroidery pattern

/
Swimming Days embroidery pattern

What strange and difficult times we live in with this cover 19 lockdown. I know it is hard for so many people, but am heartened by the wave of creativity that is popping up everywhere. Perhaps some small and good things will come from this pandemic and if people find time to pick up some stitching rediscover the art of ‘making’ even if it is a small project. Creating something hand made is so special and I thank everyone who has bought my patterns and kits over these last weeks and am thrilled to have sent little parcels of Ruby’s designs to as far away as New Zealand and California.

Two of my patterns ‘Skiing Days’ and ‘Skating Days’ have been really popular so I decided it was time to switch to a more warm weather theme and the new design ‘Swimming Days’ is certainly that.

Read More

An Ogden embroidered camisole and a bag

/
An Ogden embroidered camisole and a bag

For the next item in Ruby’s capsule wardrobe of extraordinarily pretty things, I was decisive about what I wanted to make. For ages I have had a beautiful Japanese embroidery book that has the most elegant embroidered camisole I have ever seen. If ever a vintage girl wanted a cam - this was it! From time to time, I’d look at this photo and think about making one and it also seemed like it wouldn’t be too difficult for an early stages project in my dressmaking adventures. It has lots of scope for embroidery and if it worked, I knew it would be a staple garment that can be worn with almost anything.

Read More

Little Women Embroidery Pattern - a new Literary Thread

/
Little Women Embroidery Pattern - a new Literary Thread

Hi there, I do hope you are doing ok in these difficult days. For creative spirits it is not as bad as for a lot of people and I wanted to thank everyone who has ordered patterns and kits recently and I hope maybe out there are a few new converts to the lovely world of sewing. I’ve been a bit slow with my new pattern because there has been so much going on, but finally the next in my series of Literary Threads is ready to share. I may have mentioned in an earlier post, how enamoured I was with the new movie version of ‘Little Women’, so it was almost a given that I would chose it for the next bookish pattern.

Read More

A whole cloth Marimekko quilt

/
A whole cloth Marimekko quilt

Sometimes a project comes along that is rather out of the ordinary and challenges you to make something way out of your comfort zone. This piece of fabric has been sitting in the cupboard for several years and then found its way to the bottom of the ironing basket, where it has been hanging out for a couple of months. Impressed that I had actually got to the bottom of the ironing basket the other afternoon, I decided it was finally time to consider what exactly to do with such an amazing piece of textile art.

Read More

Capsule Wardrobe of extraordinarily pretty things - No. 1 : The apron

/
Capsule Wardrobe of extraordinarily pretty things - No. 1 : The apron

So as I mentioned in my previous post, the first thing on my list is going to be an apron. Not the sort that gets mucky in the kitchen, but the sort that you can wear over your day clothes almost as if it is part of them. The girls in Little Women would almost certainly have worn these on a daily basis as would any self respecting victorian young lady, so let’s see how a more modern version might look.

Read More

Making a capsule wardrobe of extraordinarily pretty things

/
Making a capsule wardrobe of extraordinarily pretty things

Recently I went to see the film ‘Little Women’ (twice). Have you seen it? It is Greta Gerwig’s new interpretation of the novel and I loved every second of it. In fact I was so enamoured of it that it plunged me into the world I used to inhabit as a teenager of Victorian style fantasy. I always desperately wished that I could wear the clothes of days gone by when women looked like women and wore what I may describe as ‘extraordinarily pretty things’. I remember when we were over the US a few years ago and we took the kids to Gettysburg. Driving away from it, I saw a shop selling civil war costumes - Scarlett O’hara style for sure. Oh how I wanted a crinoline dress. My husband laughed ‘what on earth would you do with it… wear it do the washing up???’ Of course he is right - I am neither actress or a drama queen. But after seeing ‘Little Women’, I saw lots of ideas that could easily be adapted to today’s wardrobe, which in my case, would absolutely have to include jeans.

Read More

Literary Threads No. 1 : Jane Austen embroidery pattern

/
Literary Threads No. 1 : Jane Austen embroidery pattern

One of the projects I am working on this year is a series of embroidery patterns based on famous books or authors. I am a bit of a nut for books and just love curling up with a good read and a quilt. I always loved to read as a child and a lot of my favourite books go way way back. I first read Jane Austen in my early teens and have always loved the dramatisations and films that have regularly graced the screen. Such is our thirst for her stories and insights that the latest adaptation of ‘Sandition’ was in fact an unfinished novel. The fact that Ms. Austen has finally made her way on the £10 note is testament alone to her standing in the world of literature and an acknowledgement of her well deserved place in our national conscience. Why is it that her writings still have such popular appeal today?

Read More

Review : Crimson & Clover Train Case by Sew Sweetness

/
Review : Crimson & Clover Train Case by Sew Sweetness

Hi everyone and welcome to the sewing room in 2020. New Years Resolutions….mmmm…..well, like most people, I never struggle to make them, but can I actually keep them, this is the question. This year, one of my resolutions is to use up some of my fabric stash. I sometimes wonder what on earth I am doing with so much fabric - I would have to live three lives concurrently to have any chance of using it all up and how tragic would it be not to use it - I love all of it. So I pulled down a plastic box from on top of my cupboard and inside were some remnants of home decorating fabrics. One of them was this really beautiful piece of silk taffeta fabric, which had been carefully folded and stored in tissue paper. It was one of the those lucky finds in a bucket somewhere long ago and has been periodically taken out of it’s hiding place, lovingly stroked but then put away because I wasn’t sure what to do with it. It has gorgeous floral brush strokes and pops of embroidery to highlight the flowers and has a sheen and exoticness all of its own.

Read More

New Pattern - Skating Days

/
New Pattern - Skating Days

Frosty mornings are here and all things winter are here too. My latest embroidery pattern is full of winter sparkle and icy charm. I am actually thrilled to bits with how this turned out and perhaps more especially because it was inspired by a vintage piece of Russian embroidery….a real gem, picked up at the arts and crafts market in Moscow called ‘Izmayilova’.

Read More