July 26, 2020

Ruby's Wardrobe: Making an embroidered Dressing Gown

July 26, 2020/ Claire (aka Ruby)

For the next item in Ruby’s wardrobe of extraordinarily pretty things, I wanted to make a dressing gown. I’m thinking sort of country house weekend …. you know, the sort of thing you could take to wear whilst staying at some rather grand house in the rolling hills of …. wherever. Well, a girl’s gotta dream! Anyhow, generally, I think a lightweight, easy to pack robe is a useful thing to have and with the PJ’s also in mind to make, I set about planning the project.

July 03, 2020

Making fabric baskets

July 03, 2020/ Claire (aka Ruby)

Being in lockdown has been an interesting experience. In some ways a chance to recalibrate and reorganise. I have spent the last few weeks reorganising my sewing space and really looking at what I have been collecting over quite a long period of time. Of course I am a fabric hoarder - but it’s no good stashing fabric if you cannot see it and don’t always remember what is there. I decided I needed a better way of sorting my fabrics and protecting them too. Making storage baskets is a great idea….a great way to use your stash and really not at all complicated.

June 11, 2020

Breakfast at Tiffany's : A new Literary Thread

June 11, 2020/ Claire (aka Ruby)

After ’Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Little Women’, I felt it was time for something a little bit more modern and Breakfast at Tiffany’s was my daughter’s suggestion. What is it with being 20 something and Holly Golightly?!!!! Of course it was an absolute pleasure to work on and I am thrilled with the result. I think it turned out to be a thoroughly contemporary design …..

May 23, 2020

Yumiko Higuchi embroidery books

May 23, 2020/ Claire (aka Ruby)

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.

May 14, 2020

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

May 14, 2020/ Claire (aka Ruby)

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.

May 08, 2020

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

May 08, 2020/ Claire (aka Ruby)

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….

May 03, 2020

Swimming Days embroidery pattern

May 03, 2020/ Claire (aka Ruby)

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.

April 16, 2020

An Ogden embroidered camisole and a bag

April 16, 2020/ Claire (aka Ruby)

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.

April 03, 2020

Little Women Embroidery Pattern - a new Literary Thread

April 03, 2020/ Claire (aka Ruby)

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.

March 05, 2020

A whole cloth Marimekko quilt

March 05, 2020/ Claire (aka Ruby)

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.

February 20, 2020

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

February 20, 2020/ Claire (aka Ruby)

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.

February 07, 2020

Making a capsule wardrobe of extraordinarily pretty things

February 07, 2020/ Claire (aka Ruby)

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.

Journal